Facts, Lies and assessments: A Roadmap for the Future.

                         Facts, Lies and assessments: A Roadmap for the Future.

I was seven when India got her independence. Incidentally my birth month is also August and the date is the 13^th, just one night before Pandit Nehru made his  famous Tryst with Destiny speech soon after unfurling the triumphant Indian flag of freedom. Today I am racing towards my Platinum jubilee which means I have been in free India as a free citizen for the last sixty-seven years.  What was it like in 1947 when we became Independent and what is it now nearly seven decades later? Has anything changed in respect of my freedom, my independence, my right to speak, my right to act, my right to follow my religion and belief, my right to vote? None at all. I still enjoy all the freedom that was given to me and to the billions of Indians on the midnight of August 14,1947 that cruised into a bright and tender dawn .

It was euphoria for everyone in 1947- even to a seven year old like me watching tears roll down the cheeks of my great grandfather with whom I was staying then. The sound of music full of patriotic songs rent the air as the women in the family prepared kheer and offered it to all the innumerable gods and goddesses adoring every square inch of the walls with the picture of BharatMata given the centrestage on that special day.  Years later, I recalled the joyous experience of that day with Wordsworth’s memorable lines:

                                                     Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive,

                                                     But to be young was very heaven!-

The single focus of everyone then -from the top leaders and freedom fighters to every single man and woman in the street -was to build India and renew the pledge our forefathers had made to bring to everyone in the country  the restitution of his/her equal rights as citizen of India. Sixty-seven years later, contrary to all cynical and scornful exaggerations made by self seeking politicians that India has not achieved anything, we are still holding to our rights as free citizens of India and  to exercise our democratic right to vote. The promised freedom of 1947 continues to be strong and sound. If this has not been the achievement of successive governments over the last six decades- especially seen in the light of turmoil, dictatorship, political instability and violence in many parts of the South Asian neighbourhood, - one wonders what else is there to be elated and proud about?

Again, people like me who have seen India all these years will recognize the phenomenal changes that had taken place. I come from an average middle class- that never went to bed in hunger, but never had the luxury of added sufficiency over and above our daily needs. For example, milk was never available in abundance and very often my great grandmother would add water to the milk jar to keep it full so that everyone got half a glass of that diluted milk. There were many years when drought resulted in less milk yield from the cows and young children were given ragi gruel as a substitute. Today there is no dearth of milk and the White revolution has brought the fulfillment of this dietary requirement to our doors. So were the green revolution, the seeds revolution, the hydro-electric projects for power and irrigation, the building of new townships, roads, transport facilities etc., of the last six decades that have raised the bar albeit marginally of our living standards. The development might not have been as spectacular as one would have wished it to be, but to say no development has taken place in India is not just a political exaggeration, but a complete falsehood in the face of facts and reality.

Our health and education sectors have also grown though not on a flattering and competitive order when compared to other nations. Our indigenous research and defence productions, computer software industry, transport machinery, automobile industry, mobile outreach etc again have shown our potential to be among the world’s top industrialized nation, though we fall short by a long margin to make that potential a greater reality. Building on the Civil services left behind as a British legacy, the steel framework of the government had been functioning though we do see the steel getting rusted now and then and blunted in many places. The IITs, IIMs, the medical Institutions, the Science and Technology centres, a few quality universities and colleges do give a lie to the shrill cry of the political parties who see nothing but stasis in governance. The reach of Radio and Television to every nook and corner of the nation, the better living conditions of some of our tribal states, the self sufficiency in rice, wheat and cereals are an index of the country’s march towards freedom from hunger and starvation.

Let us ask ourselves a few honest questions and the answers may give a clue to what holds for us in the future:

1. Has Indian democracy sustained you as a free citizen of India?

2. Has lifestyle changed for the better(or for the worse)?

3. Makan, Bijli, Pani, Sadak, Kapda(House, Power, Water, Transport and Cloth )- are you better off today than before with regard to these essentials?

4.Do you get the right to send your children to school?

5. Do you enjoy better housing facilities than before? Are you better protected against communicable diseases such as smallpox, polio, measles, TB etc?

6. Do you go hungry or do you get adequate meals at least once a day?

7. Has the government ensured decent level of security for you from outside threat forces?

8. Has the internal security been adequate? Do you feel safe moving about in the country?

9. Which is the most corrupt group you encounter in your daily life- petty Babus, higher officials, ministers, police, law courts, hospitals etc?

10. Will you like the present system of democratic governance thrown out as to bring an Indian version of Tahir Square ?

11. Is it preferable to be with the system and work towards reform rather than rock the boat?

12. If you prefer to rock the boat, what is your alternative?

If these questions are objectively and honestly answered by every citizen we may get an idea of where we are going. There is a thin line that divides mobocracy and democracy. If that line is crossed, we will be at Tahir square. If we are sensible to stay within the line, we may perhaps save democracy with all its plusses and minuses. Let us not give unto the shrill falsehoods that we are worse than before. This is to degrade ourselves and indulge in self- flagellation.

Let us keep the democracy boat afloat without letting it sink in an ocean of falsehoods. Let not ambitious, self-centred people claim for themselves all honesty and throw dirt and muck of dishonesty on all others. Let us not become mindless people to vote to power those who claim they alone are honest and all others are dishonest. Let us not indulge in fantasizing that all aam admis are honest and they are the ones who have an understanding of Nation’s interests. Democracy functions through elected representatives. If self seeking politicians pull wool on aam admi by giving them the right to rule as per his/her individual whims and fancies, the resulting chaos will rend the unity and integrity of the country. There will be greater degree of corruption , nepotism and misgovernance. Violence, clashes, fights between different communities will be the order of the day and then the question will arise: where is the independent nation called India?  Unless every aam admi is well educated and learns to think and analyze issues that affect every other aam admi, it will be foolish to hand over the power of governance to the masses. This is to encourage demagoguery by savagely attacking all norms of governance as inherently flawed. If corruption is to be tackled, let us be honest to function without offering bribes and without receiving bribes. Education is the key to a corruptionless governance. If we keep our personal lives in order, we can restore the country to what had been pre-designed by our nation’s founding fathers. If we allow our personal nefarious designs to influence gullible, uneducated and ill informed masses, the roadmap is clear- a perfect route to anarchy.

The Story of The Four Brothers

This is a longish story. If you have the patience , kindly read through.

The Story of The Four Brothers (modeled on The Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, 1823) 1823 A leader had four sons and a daughter. He had toiled hard with a lot of his fellowmen to bring freedom to his country from marauding foreign forces. When his sons had grown up, he thought that it would be best if they could go out in the world  and look around to learn how best they can look after the nation that he would leave for them and also  take care of his lovely daughter who  represented the core essence of the nation’s  Dharmic legacy- endowed as she was with a composite of compassion, altruism, self-sacrifice, benevolence, maître (friendship) and moral integrity So he sent his four sons far away to a great forest to learn according to their innate talent. In the forest there stood a little cottage, in which there lived an old man. He called them in and asked them to serve him for a good number of years and in return he would teach them according to their ability. They stayed with him for more than sixty-seven years. He taught the eldest son carpentry, so that he became a decent carpenter in the land. He taught him how to make lovely furniture out of the forest wood that was in abundance. The disciple was good at learning carpentry. He needed wood and therefore decided to seek the help of the poor people in the forest to cut trees and provide wood for him. In turn he said he would pay them the wages needed for their daily living. But even though he knew that good carpentry was God’s will, his execution was far from perfect. Every time he rolled up his sleeves and picked up the axe to cut and shape the wood, he failed to execute it to perfection. Even though he gave wages to the poor people for the wood they provided, many did not receive it in time, many others failed to receive it and those who got it felt that that was barely adequate to keep them off hunger. So his efforts, though well intentioned did not satisfy the vast majority of poor people in his land. He was roundly criticized by the other three brothers for learning the tricks of a trade that was of very little value. He also failed miserably when he tried to thrust and parry with his critics and fault finders. The second son took to rifle shooting and became such a skilled rifleman that no one could compare with him in shooting. He used his rifle not only to protect his family but to destroy all those whom he thought were inimical to him. Rifle skill gave him such enormous power that he almost came to believe that he was a born leader of his people. He moved and roared like a lion and riled at all his three brothers for what he thought was their incompetence, falsity and Machiavellian expediency.  He was a harsh critic and used the most offensive barbs against all his brothers and their supporters. He strode like a colossus and talked in an undulating voice that resonated well with gullible audience. He had anointed himself even before his father had taken a decision on who should be the leader. The third became a soothsayer, so that he could say whatever had happened and whatever was happening in faraway places. He did not learn crystal gazing to see into the future, but he made a perfect art of looking at the past and seeing only crookedness and corruption everywhere–especially in all his brothers and their men and women. He warned everyone to beware of such evil people. He accused his three brothers for their misdeeds of corruption and cheating people with bad carpentry, for claiming self anointed leadership and for rank bad opportunism-the last mentioned dart was aimed at the fourth brother for his clever manipulation to trick the other three and buy all their supporters. This last son had no specific learning to redeem himself but he had learnt to play both ends against the middle that is, to set the three opposing brothers and their clans against each other to his personal advantage. He was adept in stealing supporters from all the three brothers to outwit them. The only problem for him was he had to contend with a lot of competition within his own clan. Thus they approached their father and each one of them believed that he had mastered the required art and skill to serve his land. They told him of all that they had learned but the father did not believe what they said, until they had been tested. So he asked them to go into the woods and fell trees. When they had felled a large tree, the father said, "How are we going to get it home now?" But the eldest son knew how, for as soon as he had struck the tree with his axe, he could shape a nice wagon in which all the people in the forest can move, transport their goods and products, market them in the city and return to their forest habitat to live a good life. This was too utopian an ideal that could never be approximated to real life. But when the father asked whether the people had sufficient goods and products to transport for sale and whether they needed a wagon at all, the son could not answer. He questioned him further: “What is the use in giving them a wagon that would result in the atrophy of their limbs? Your skill in carpentry cannot provide better living for the poor, but only stifle their aspirations by making them content with meager earnings through tree cutting for the rest of their lives.” Then the father turned to the soothsayer: "Can you tell me how many eggs there are in that crow's nest up in yonder tree?" "One!" he answered, which the father knew was wrong as he had seen four  when he had looked earlier. The son told him that three were rotten eggs and therefore he could find only one in the nest. Then he turned to the fourth son: "If you can take all the eggs out of the nest without the bird's noticing it, then I will consider you to be the foremost leader!" With that the son crept up, and took away the eggs so deftly that the bird did not notice it. He said that all the four belonged to him as he had taken away the share of all the others as well. And at that moment when he held the eggs between two fingers, the rifleman shot it from his hand, so that the eggs fell and broke to pieces. The father was convinced that all four had learnt their trade skills though he could not think of trusting any of them with the nation and his daughter with her spiritual legacy. He thought of a plan to discover who among the four can be the leader to guide and govern all the different sects of people who were growing restless and dispirited in the absence of good governance. He was aware that the vast nation had a huge population of diverse beliefs and culture. There were people with different capabilities, speaking different languages, following different traditions and culture and having different outlook and behaviour. Since there was internecine quarrel among all these people in order to get the largest chunk of the nation’s resources, he had to choose a capable, non-partisan, compassionate, wise and incorruptible person from among the four sons who could lead the nation and preserve the spiritual legacy that rested with the daughter. He hit upon a plan that he kept to himself. One fine day he announced that his dharmic daughter had disappeared. No one knew where she was, and the whole nation sorrowed over this. The old man promised to make him the leader who could bring her back again. The four brothers went out to find the daughter, the quintessence of Dharma. The soothsayer became aware of her being far away where an evil and corrupt dragon held her prisoner in a magnificent castle, which was guarded by ferocious beasts. He claimed that he was the only incorruptible person who could bring her back as all the others had in some way compromised with the corrupt dragon. Nevertheless all four kept up their search for many days. They came at last to a castle in the midst of a lake. But there was neither ship nor boat to be had, and they didn't know what to do. The carpenter asked the people to fetch him wood and as soon as he had it he shaped it into the finest bridge anyone could wish to see. The soothsayer then gave the master stealer the advice about how to steal the princess from the evil dragon's power, and accordingly the last son set out alone over the bridge, while his brothers remained behind. After a time he came to the castle gate. Before it there stood four ferocious lions, but since he knew the art of making people fight, he threw a lamb between the lions. They all rushed forward to seize it, and since they all wanted it, they fell into a brawl over it and killed each other. Next he went into the courtyard, but before the castle door there stood four huge bears. Once again he threw the lamb between them, and since all four wanted it, they fell into a brawl, and killed each other, and he entered the castle. He went through many beautiful rooms, but before the door of the room where the daughter was imprisoned, stood four dragon whelps. He took out a violin and played a song, and the more he played, the sleepier the dragon-whelps became, so that at last they fell asleep. When he strode into her room, she was sitting and untangling the hair of the old dragon with a golden comb. He had laid his head in her lap, and had fallen asleep because of the music. The master thief quickly took her by the hand and led her out, so that at last they reached his three brothers, who were standing out there. They hurried away, and after a while were far away from the troll's castle. But as they were traveling along, they quarreled with each other as to who should be given credit for the retrieval of the daughter. The carpenter son said that without the bridge he had erected, the others could not have gone into the castle. The rifleman contemptuously dismissed his claims saying it was his rifle that was pointed at the dragon which helped them to escape. The soothsayer said he was the first one to identify the corrupt dragon and hence he had the superior claim over the other three brothers. The fourth one said he had the best claim as he had gone in, tricked the lions, the whelps and the dragon and got the girl out. As they were quarrelling, they failed to notice the Dragon flying after them.   They realized that squabbling with each other cannot save them. The carpenter sawed the bridge and it collapsed. The soothsayer realized the inanity of calling all his talented brothers corrupt and priding himself on incorruptibility; he knew not how to ward off the dragon. All of them decided to join hands, throw a protective ring round the daughter from falling into the dragon’s hands. The rifleman shot the dragon dead. They returned with the girl who even in captivity had held firm to the legacy bestowed on her. The old father looked at all five of them and said that none of them singly could have saved the girl from the dragon but working in unison, they were able to restore her. “It is a five finger exercise” he said and concluded that “the middle finger –the epitome of freedom has to be fended by the exercise of all the other four fingers. Each of the fingers has a special ability and harnessing all of them is essential to safeguard our nation’s legacy. Days prior to our getting independence, we failed to exercise our fingers in unison. If the nation has to survive and its spiritual heritage to be preserved and honoured, there has to be freedom for the four fingers to act singly and together. I bestow the legacy of the nation and its dharma on all four of you. The greatness of freedom lies in the freedom given to everyone of you to realize his/her capability potential and in the freedom to work together in unison for preserving the glory that is our nation. Otherwise we will end up once again as a slave nation  very much like the story of Everybody, Anybody, Somebody and Nobody .He narrated the story: This is a little story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody. There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that because it was Everybody’s job. Everybody thought that Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn’t do it. It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done. Is this a utopian ideal for India today or is this the principle of democracy that cannot be realized by our squabbling countrymen and women?  Time will tell.

Beating Retreat

                                                                Beating Retreat

                                                                            I

After witnessing on Doordarshan HD channel the grand spectacle of Beating Retreat presented by the massed bands of the Army, Navy and Air Force, I was desperate to share my excitement with my friends and relatives, my next door neighbours and colony residents. I called quite a few on their mobiles and landlines, I peered through the doors of my neighbor to see if their TV was on and went to the colony park which usually is the meeting ground for gossip among all the colony residents. To my disappointment, not one whom I spoke to had watched the closing ceremony. The government offices had closed for half a day to enable people to watch this spectacular march of the armed forces to the lilting tune of high class music, dressed in colourful army costumes. It was as much a feast for the eyes as it was for the ears. The flautist’s soulful rendition of Ragupati Raghav complemented by the patriotic number Saare Jahan se Accha and the moving Christian hymn Abide with Me were the piece de resistance of the evening while the tunes of the opening number Jahaan daal daal par and the peppy jazz segments in the middle were truly a delight to the listeners.  One does not need to be a connoisseur of music to enjoy this ceremonial euphony. But what was the most striking aspect of the music feast was the precision with which the men in their uniform marched to and fro the Rajpath swaying in sync with the tunes they played. Vijay Chowk flanked by the north and south blocks and the Rashtrapati Bhavan on one side and India Gate on the other resounded to the music of the buglers and bagpipers, drummers and trumpeteers.

Even the new CM of Delhi was present though he was lost in writing on a small pocket note book. Despite his trademark muffler, he could not have been deaf to the music though he never raised his eyes to watch the spectacle in front of him. Probably he felt that it was only for Khas admi and their corrupt tribes. But I was grateful for the visual and aural delight it gave me and  the feelings of tenderness, joy and patriotism that it aroused in me. To me the sound of the march and the sweetness of the music gave thoughts that often lie too deep for tears.

The perfection and precision that we see in this ceremony is an index of the discipline of the armed forces. There is a rare beauty in discipline and order. The bandmaster’s signal with the stick was the ultimate law for the players who had to render the musical notations in sync with their march. Every player and every drummer knew the precise timing of when to begin, when to stop, and what notes to play. Such coordination is not possible without a strict adherence to the roles assigned to each one of them. This is team work where there is no question of one-upmanship on display. The arrival of the president in the horse drawn buggy was the signal to start the evening ceremonies. As all the eyes turned to the President at the saluting base, faint strains of music emanated from the Raisina Hill from the massed bands. The unfurling of the flag, the National Anthem and the march of the armed forces followed in succession and there was no break in the presentation of the spectacle even by half a second.

                                                                            II

I could see the difference between what I saw of Beating Retreat (on the TV screen)  and what I saw last week near Rail Bhavan where an unruly crowd broke all barricades to join their Chief Minister who was sitting on dharna. Despite the CM’s claim that his protest was only with his cabinet ministers to pressurize the Central government to suspend two police constables for disobeying his minister’s orders and sticking to their police manual, the aam admi crowd surged ahead because they had been told that the entire police is bad and they cannot act as  law enforcers. Can the right to express one’s imagined or real grievance supercede citizens’ duty to abide by law and order?  Can the police en masse be called corrupt, inefficient, brutal, high-handed, depraved etc because they are under the Home Ministry of the Central Government? Will the same venal force(as the police is made out by the Delhi Chief Minister) become efficient, gentle, polite, ethical and virtuous if they come under the state government?

Such crass and wilful disobedience on the part of a surging crowd near Rail Bhavan under the protégé of Angry Activist Party has put paid to any semblance of order in society. We see citizens’ behaviour on the Indian roads every day.  The moneyed rich in their Mercedes and Audis, Sonatas and  Skodas, while waiting for the signal to change roll down their glasses to throw away a chocobar wrapper or a wafers packet before honking their way through cars with lesser status symbol. As a free citizen, we exercise our right to litter the streets, pathways, walkways because we are the lords and masters of every millimeter of our motherland. We feel it infra dig to stand in queues as jumping the queues is a sign of our famed masculinity and privileged superiority. We spit on the roads as though we wish to lay a red carpet to all other users of the road. This is our understanding of democracy that valorizes freedom of action and expression, unmindful of our actions and language that are used. We indulge in ruffianism and goondaism mainly to seek media attention and the spotlight. The Shiv Sainiks have taken law into their hands and broken the toll booths because they felt they had the right not to pay toll tax. In bringing down Babri Masjid  and  burning libraries because of resentment against a writer with a different ideology, we often pride being a law unto ourselves.  We uphold the right to the law of jungle under the sprawling umbrella of the right to freedom. The politicians have vitiated the social sphere further by calling their opponents as swindlers and rapists of the Indian treasury much to the delight of the media. The media  is happy to  have sound bytes that vilify every other person except itself.T he new entrant to the political arena, AAP prides itself on being anarchist and therefore has a right to flout law and order in the name of unconventional politics.  AAP will not allow any point of view other than what it holds and if anyone opposes, it feels it has the right  to let loose anarchy. The recent racist taunts at Ugandan women by an AAP minister has resulted in people taking law in to their hands to kill a young man from Arunachal Pradesh as belonging to another race. Prof Deepankar Gupta writes that  “ it is violence, both physical and verbal, that invites anarchy more than anything else, whether or not such acts happen in the killing fields or in parliaments. Remember also, some of the most ruthless leaders in modern times were elected to power. This is why liberal democracy is not just about votes, but more about non-violence. If there is a striking family resemblance between anarchists and dictators it is because violence was mother’s milk for both of them.” It is time for all educated , thinking and well meaning Indians to take a leaf from the Velvet revolution of East Europe, where serious men and women who knew what freedom means –particularly freedom of the mind -used their minds to recover their lost freedom and sought a decent communicative language adequate to their aspirations for justice. They used their knowledge to talk sense, to talk freely and to bring about a brighter future. They were educated, cultured, civilized and disciplined and they inspired fellow citizens not by rabble rousing speeches, not by painting everyone black, not by promising the manna that is nowhere in the horizon but by their personal discipline in their words and actions.

Watching the army’s spectacular march and music, I could not help comparing the civilian disorder with the military discipline. If there was beauty, it was there in the ceremonial Beating Retreat. If there was a fusion of order and creativity, it was there in the armed forces’ march and music. If there was patriotism, it was there that stirred the national pride in us. The mass bands showed why our armed forces live up to the ideal of being Saare Jahan se accha .What a pity that for the many innumerable millions of Indians  for whom the national broadcaster had  televised this show on its HD channel,  all the above-order, beauty, creativity, patriotism and discipline –do not exist.

 It is time for reflection. The unruly chaos we see around us has to be reined in. We should understand the difference between Beating Retreat and beating the retreat. The former is a ceremonial march of the armed forces to the barracks after a spectacular display of their discipline, order and might. The latter means retreating in shame and cowardice after being defeated.

Let us resolve to beat the retreat from chaos and unruliness that stems from a cacophony of cries shouting for our rights.  Let every citizen make it a duty to watch Beating Retreat and be inspired by its discipline and order and love for the nation. If Patriotism is the food of Beating Retreat, let the Music play on.