The Idea(s) of India

                                                                            The Idea(s) of India

The Idea of India is a handy phrase that has found currency in India’s pol(l) itical battle and is bandied by all and sundry who have  no idea about the original author of this phrase or any knowledge about the contents of the book with that phrase title. It is a catchy phrase overarching India of the past, the present and the future. It comes handy for politicians of all hues to bandy about issues facing the nation today by tagging them all to the ‘idea of India’. Those who freely use this stock phrase as a part of their election drumbeat and those who mistakenly equate it as their political Weltenschauung, fail to answer a simple question as to whether their idea of India is an endorsement of the past or a deviation from it and whether it will serve as  a roadmap for the future.  The simple reason for their inability to answer is they have no idea what the Idea of India stands for.

Idea as a political term is about opinion or principle that potentially exists, waiting for its transformation into actuality. As a philosophical term it is a transcendent concept of reason, of which reality is but an imperfect replica.  The two meanings contradict each other as the philosophical concept of idea seems an abstraction and its transformation would only result in an imperfect actuality. Bertrand Russell defines idea as an image and therefore the term ‘the Idea of India’ is nothing but a mental concept that is either undeliverable or imperfectly actualized. Idea therefore varies from person to person. All human conflicts can be traced to differing ideas that are neither implementable nor can they  be easily reconciled.

Hence the phrase is useful for all political leaders as they know that these ideas shall ever remain dormant as they are incapable of being activated. For example, it is easy to say that my idea of India is Ramrajya knowing well that Ramrajya can never be actualized as we are not in the Treta Yug of SriRama but in the Kal Yug,  the ‘Age of Downfall’. Even in the Western reckoning according to Giambattista Vico, the 18^th century Italian political philosopher, the world civilization follows a cycle of four ages. It  develops in a recurring cycle of three Ages- the divine, the heroic and the human. These three ages correspond to the Theocratic, the Aristocratic and the Democratic phases of civilization. The last mentioned- the Democratic age -according to Vico will morph into a fourth age of Chaos as a result of the anarchic tyranny of individual freedom and liberty-the two founding pillars that hoist democracy. So it is easy to speak about Ramrajya as the Idea of India only as a notional concept as that cannot be realized. So to indulge in rhetoric that pretends to significance but bereft of all meaning is the art of politicians who promise the perennial flow of honey and manna if they are voted to power.

Does this mean we do not indulge in ideas?  No, we need ideas, though it is a regrettable fact that we are actually living in an idea-less age where computer technology continually gives us an overload of information leaving us with little time to sift and analyze and form new ideas. Generation of ideas is the key to the progress and development of human beings and the world they inhabit. H.G.Wells says that ‘Human history is in essence a history of ideas’. Wells uses idea in the plural as he is aware that nothing is as dangerous as having just one idea. It is in the blending of different ideas that human civilization marches on. This is the reason why it has become imperative to replace ‘the Idea of India’ with ‘the Ideas of India’ , with their inbuilt flexibility that can be coalesced to give a direction that would sustain the present needs of the nation without diminishing the prospects of the future.

The first and foremost Idea of India is a corruption-free India. Corruption cannot be rooted out in absolute terms and it is not a phenomenon that ails only our country. It is a worldwide phenomenon. The effort should be to promote an economically developed nation that would enable the greatest number in the country to have a share in its development. This may sound naïve and utopian, but it is not an impossible try as it attempts to maximize all round development that will reach a very large number of beneficiaries. Corruption arises from deprivation and greed disproportionate to one’s requirement and ability. It is worthwhile to understand and adopt Amartya Sen’s Capability Theory that enables every individual in the society to seek a platform to realize his true potential. The Idea of India is an India that provides equal opportunities for the growth and realization of potential inherent in every individual.

Complementing this idea of a corruption- free nation is education for all. Education, as it is given today lays emphasis only on attaining minimum levels of reading, writing and arithmetic. The Idea of India is to implement in full measure the Right to education that should include moral or value education. Values cannot be taught but can only be imbibed.  Education should expose the young minds to the Wisdom of the Ages that have come to us from distinctive thinkers belonging to different religions of the world. The essence of religious co-existence hinges upon the education offered to the young students at different periods of their stay in schools. No religion preaches hatred, enmity, revenge and intolerance. What India needs is inclusive education, where learning the conventional or received wisdom is as significant and effective as analyzing and revising it as per the demands of the new world order. The idea of India is an India that brings forth an intellectually sound and morally honest, truthful and righteous generation of young men and women whose preference will be for building societies which share with them an abiding respect for individual human rights.

 The next Idea of India is a clean and healthy India. Charles Dickens wrote ‘Cleanliness  is next to Godliness’ where  ‘Godliness ‘ is a consolidation of humility, faith, respect, discipline ,obedience and kindness or generosity.  It is again a sad fact that India lives in dirt and filth partly brought on by lack of civic sense, partly contributed by lack of sanitation designed to protect and preserve public health. Children have to be trained in personal hygiene and sensitized to the filth and dirt created by our own acts of negligence and indiscipline. Schools have to compulsorily make young students in charge of cleanliness in all areas of the school so that they take back with them the idea of a clean home and a clean environment where they live. The illness and diseases that periodically spread with the change of seasons can be minimized by a scrupulous adherence to cleanliness both inside and outside of home.

The Idea of India is a cultured and civilized India that nurtures its own culture and assimilates other cultures to vitalize and expand its own attributes and features. In contemporary times, culture has acquired a new and a dangerous significance as the aristocratism of the masses. With a suddenly discovered craving for cultural identity, humans all over the world are arrogating to themselves the right to a culture that is superior to other cultures and this regression into cultural atavism is making us not only inhuman but also justifies our right to be  inhuman. The Idea of India should be Gandhi’s idea of India about which he said: ‘I do not want my house to be walled in on all sides and my windows to be stuffed. I want the cultures of all the lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible. But I refuse to be blown off my feet by any.’

 

The Idea of India is to affirm the rights of women alongside the rights of the opposite gender in consonance with human rights. We are fortunate to have two Indian classical epics - The Ramayana and the Mahabharata that highlight the dignity, nobility, courage and moral strength of women exemplified in Sita and Draupati. The two heroines are presented in contrasting situations. The former was denied her place as a Queen because of Raj Dharma that Rama embodied, while Draupati’s status as a queen was wrenched by the vile conspiracy of Duryodhan and his clan. While Sita accepted Rama’s decree with stoicism and fortitude with no rancorand brought up her twin sons worthy of Rama, Draupadi born of fire seeks revenge on the Kauravas for their attempt to disrobe her. Lord Krishna counsels her that she should nurse anger not for the pain caused to her, but on behalf of all the women who in varied ways experience humiliation and pain in the hands of men. The Idea of India should be an  India of Sitas and Draupadis who exemplify dharma that signifies conduct and courage, that support and sustain woman’s  rights and includes duties, rights, laws, conduct, virtues and  nobility in accordance with the right way of living.  

 

Lastly the Idea of India is an India where every man and every woman feels as a part of India  and embodies the spirit of humanity in all his/her  acts and words and promotes kindness, compassion, understanding, sympathy, tenderness and benevolence towards fellow  inhabitants of this planet- in short,  an India that cultivates Humanity.

Indian Nob(e)lity

                                                               Indian Nob(e)lity

Almost all Sunday newspapers carried the proud news of a Kolkatta teen Arunavha Chanda receiving admission offers from seven American Universities- mostly IVY league after acing a perfect score in SAT. An exceptionally bright student, he has been a topper from class II to class XII. With all the  newspapers currently poll vaulting to abysmal depths through publishing  sensational news about acrimonious, boorish and coarse  exchange of words between different political leaders, this success story of Arunavha’s tryst with excellence was really a shot in the arm for the sagging  Indian morale. I was delighted to read about the achievement of the nineteen year old youngster – a delight I shared with millions of Indians who would have accessed this news from the newspapers.

Somewhere along with that delight came a thought of grief as I muttered inaudibly that Ameica’s gain is India’s loss. India’s generosity is legendary and here is one more instance of her gifting to US another Hargobind Khorana, another SubrahmanyanChandrasekhar, another Venkatraman Ramakrishnan to add to the glorious American list of Indian born American desi Nobel Laureates. There has been no Indian born Indian desi after C.V.Raman to get the coveted Nobel prize for Science. The only one who comes closest to him is Pachauri who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 on behalf of the Intergovernmental Panel of scientists on Climate Change (IPCC) that he headed, an award he shared with the then American Vice President Al Gore.

In the past, young bright Indians used to take wings after their first degree in Engineering or Medicine and very rarely in Arts and Commerce, but today they all fly just after finishing school. Ten years back as a university teacher, I used to write testimonials for my students who wished to go abroad (with or without financial assistance) and encourage them to experience the Western world of academics with its stress on self learning in contrast to the spoon feeding that we do in our colleges and universities. I wanted them to have an exposure to a different culture and a different way of living that allowed the younger generation to cultivate freedom of the mind, freedom of expression and freedom of action. I wanted them to appreciate and value hard work that is inhered in the concept ‘Earn as you Learn’ and pay their way to university studies. I wanted them to understand the spirit of independence that western education instilled in the youngsters. I was then in my early 30s and therefore I cherished  naïve hopes of these young men and women returning home academically, professionally and personally well trained and educated to serve their motherland as scientists, engineers, doctors and administrators. Those hopes never fructified as none of these bright students came back home. Today the student exodus is not limited to the brightest bunch; the foreign bug has infected even ordinary students because they have no hope of securing admission in the hallowed portals of IITs and IIMs, Medical Colleges and Law Institutes. It is much easy to get bank loans (with parents standing surety and taking responsibility) and go abroad for a MBA or MS and then get slowly absorbed (after a considerable wait) as US citizens. This is because back home it is a battle first to get admission  in colleges, and still worse later to get decent employment after completing the studies. A Commerce student finds it difficult to get into MBA or complete CA (Chartered Accountancy) and prefers the easier route of going abroad even to a second grade university to get the three letters tagged to his name. The few  years of study in US toughens him and he easily saunters into US society ready to do any job that he would have abhorred back home. After all a  dollar is a dollar worth 60 rupees (at today’s rate of exchange) and the freedom to spend it gives him greater joy than a return to a life loaded with responsibility, where to live as you like is either a luxury or deemed preposterous.

As for the talented bright minds, America is the acme of academic excellence. The harsh truth is even the best of Indian universities (that include IITs and IIMs) cannot hold a candle before a Harvard or a Yale or anyone of the IVY League universities in US. It is unfortunate that Indian universities do not have the academic ambience that some of the top world universities have. We have mistakenly equated academic excellence with elitism, a term that is incongruent with the idea of democracy. We are warped in an archaic mindset that refuses to allow the blossoming of merit since it interferes with the democratic right of equity, equality and impartiality.  It is essential that everyone gets the right to education but that should not conflict with the right of the intellectually gifted to special endowments that are needed to pursue quality research and scholarly investigation.  Superior gifts merit superior education, position and esteem even if it conflicts with the egalitarian principles of democracy. One has to recall John Rawls endorsement of elitism- specially intellectual and academic elitism- as it ‘permits people to possess and cultivate superior talents… to benefit the most disadvantaged part of society.’ America provides the right atmosphere to pursue research of high quality that could be transferred to the progress of mankind. No wonder, the best of brains from all over the world are drawn to US and the US, in turn welcomes them with open arms and drafts them into its academic community as elitist American citizens.

Arunavha will be the new member to become a part of this exclusivity – a tempting and well meaning offer to young man from a society that mistakenly prides itself of being non--exclusionist and non-elitist. This is at its worst nothing but egalitarian charlatanism, what Allan Bloom terms as ‘as egalitarian Tartufferie’ (from Moliere’s comedy Tartuffe or the Impostor).

 I am happy for Arunavha and wish him the very best of opportunities to realize his academic and intellectual potential. I wish he returns home at some point of time to make his rich learning and research available to the Indian universities that need to be lifted out of their current singular approach towards practical equality to an inclusive approach to accommodate the right of meritocracy that provides intellectual exhilaration to university education. The return of Arunavhas will signal the end of the famed Indian nob(e)lity and provide   a glimmer of hope for the renaissance of Indian University education whose horizon has become too  narrow and dark to resemble a cave. This article has been necessitated to serve as a timely utterance to give relief to my thought of grief that set in after the initial euphoric joy of hearing Arunahva’s success.

Why do I write

                                                                           Why Do I Write

I had been writing almost non-stop for the last eight years in my post retirement period. While I was in service, in keeping with the requirements of my academic profession my writings were limited to books, essays and lectures on literature.  The productive post retirement phase has given  me plenty of time to read and write  books on subjects other than literature such as Higher Education,  Inter-Religious Harmony and even my life story. The last mentioned is an attempt to live through my long years -75 to be precise and it is not to be mistaken as the memoirs of a celebrity meant to be inspirational and motivational. It is simply a recount of a life lived long in time and short in succulence. Not a day passes without my fingers thumping on the laptop since I have developed a new interest in blogging. My blogs span politics, current affairs and personal observations on life around us.  

But after eight years, a kind of weariness has come over me. The title of this piece expresses the constant echo within me as to why I write. In fact no one reads these days and among those who read, majority prefers pulp fiction or sensational exposure of celebrities in glossy magazines but not any serious stuff. When I sent complimentary copies of my book on Higher Education to my friends and close relatives, apart from the usual response –‘Great’, ‘Well done’ or ‘Indeed a much needed book for our times’ etc,   everyone including academics and Vice- Chancellors (for whom, I thought the book will be of great value) did not thumb beyond the Foreword page and that too because the Foreword was written by a well known academician and Professor of history. The few books that the publisher gave me as complimentary remain in my bookshelf, slowly turning yellowish-brown with the fine dust that Delhi imports from the Rajasthan desert. The winter publication of this book has turned into a summer of discontent for me. I dread the fate of my next couple of books on Religious Harmony and Literary Essays as their audience will be limited to a small number of research scholars in Phiosophy and Literature.. My life story –Creative Truth-as I have titled it is meant for posterity and so currently it is so to say in a vault, kept concealed from inquisitive eyes.

I have no tangible evidence of anyone reading the stuff I dispense freely on my blog except what the statistics show as the number of page views of these blogs.  A slender part of these statistics is flattering but more often than not, the articles that I felt (in all modesty and humility) as my intellectual tour de force have scarcely received any hits. Maybe my writings often interspersed with literary quotations are not light reading stuff. Some of the blogs are long and may not interest the insta-blog readers.  Maybe the contents of the blogs particularly about WE, the people of India and about the steep decline of our political discourse make the readers uncomfortable and they would like the proverbial cat close their eyes to remain in the dark. How I wish I had received at least negative rejoinders than been humiliated and ignored for my pretentious claims to cerebral status! Disappointed over nil blog responses, I e-mailed a few select articles to some of my friends who have a passion for reading anything that comes their way in the hope of receiving their comments. But much to my distress, I did not receive even an acknowledgement of my mail giving rise to the fundamental question as to whom I write for. The second question ‘for whom do I write’ hurts while the first ‘Why do I write’ is baffling.

Let me try to find honest answers to the two questions- as to why and for whom do I write? Am I unique in subjecting myself to self inquisition? Or is this kind of self interrogation common to all writers like me who fail to make the writers’ grade? I cannot vouch for others, but I will be honest to admit being often racked with such questions that obliquely reflect the futility of my endeavour as a wordsmith. The incessant questioning as to why I write makes me skeptical about the worthwhileness of articulating my thoughts on paper. Do I write for others or do I write for my own pride and pleasure of creating something out of myself like a mother delivering her child? The labour pain of my writer’s cramp has been a waste in the absence of an appreciative audience; otherwise it should have given me the joy of creating a beautiful and interesting architecture of words.

I confess I have no audience. Someone to whom I confided my hurt pride was kind enough to suggest that I send them to the newspapers/newsmagazines for wider circulation. I tried quite a few times and the silence of the media was more devastating to my pride than the silence of the blog readers. In a polite manner by maintaining discreet silence, the media editors made me recognize the folly of approaching them with writings which in their view were substandard that cannot be seen in black and white in their newspapers/magazines.  Gone are the days when I used to get back my typed article with a polite letter of regret. But in this instamatic age, when e- mail has displaced the snail mail, I have to wait for a few days to understand that my article has been deleted from the editor’s mail-box. The silence of media today is so powerful as never to say anything that doesn't improve on silence. Since my self esteem would not allow me to accept my writings were sub standard, I often comfort myself by attributing  the rejection of my articles to my aam admi status that does not have the celebrity tag to ascend up the hallowed portals of the media.  

So the second question- for whom I write remains a question without an answer as no one really needs me to write for him/her. I am not a blue blooded writer and therefore I remain an orphan writer in search of adoption. And so to the question, why do I write? Though I am no Samuel Beckett, the Nobel laureate, his words ring true even for writers like me with no exceptional ability. Beckett , when asked about the nature of contemporary art  said: ‘…there is nothing to express, nothing with which to express, nothing from which to express, no power to express, no desire to express, together with the obligation to express.’ Writing is a compulsive act almost genetic for those who want to express even if there is nothing to express, who have a feel for the language even when there is nothing with which to express.  On the days I do not write, I feel emptiness within and a sense of one more wasted day especially when my days can be counted. The obligation to express is an obligation to myself, to weave a garland of words that would satisfy my artistic ego, to express as Wordsworth says ‘ the splendour in the grass and glory in the flower’ ,to lighten the burden of thoughts that weigh heavily on our hearts , to  let out the weight of emotions that lie too deep for tears and though last, but not the least, to experience  the pleasure of finding something ordinary in the extraordinary and something extraordinary in the ordinary. When one retires from active life, when one’s physique and athleticism are in the decline, the vitality of the mind becomes paradoxically intense as it has been fortified by  age-long life experiences.  I no longer  have the youthful subjectivity that gives rise to intensity and passion; instead age has brought with it  dispassionate objectivity that helps me to see into the life of things.  At this advanced period of my life I have no need for crystal gazing as the future is slowly regressing towards extinction. But the lens of the ageing mind has retained  a sharp focus  to see life with  crystal clarity. The essence of ageing is the experience of life in all its greatness and smallness.  It may sound incomprehensible and confounding that the springtime of the soul occurs in our wintry years when we begin to understand what freedom means-particularly the freedom of the mind. This is a blissful time when one is not subjected to personal and professional constraints that stifle the freedom of the mind. There is need to rein in the expression of ideas and thoughts distilled from life experiences  as there is no vested interest to be served. They are a partial record of a life in search of self understanding. The path to self knowledge- to know one self is through interpretation of life in all its myriad facets and through articulation of that discovery. I write for myself. If in the bargain my writings promote shared awareness and intellectual nourishment to the odd reader , I may  get a reprieve from charges of egotism and self indulgence.

Ruminations post polling

                                            Ruminations  post  polling

Yesterday was the voting day for us in Delhi.  The timing had been scheduled from 7 in the morning till 6 in the evening. Last time when the Delhi Assembly elections were held, we three-my husband, my daughter and I-  went around 2pm thinking that for Delhi-ites, it would be the siesta hour and therefore casting our votes  will be a quick and quiet job . To our surprise we found the queue was a mile long and we had to wait for two hours for our turn to ping the button. I had decided that this time we will be there at 7 am even though I knew as early birds we were unlikely to get any special worm.  I could not get to sleep the previous night lest I should fail to keep my 7am tryst at the voting booth. I woke up even before the darkness lifted and the twilight of the morning was visible. Knowing the reluctance of the other two to give up on their early morning sIeep I opened the windows- especially the ones that always opened with a thumping sound as though bullets were thudding them. By the time we got ready the sun had risen and there was nothing unusual about its rise. I recalled Samuel Beckett’s famous line: “The sun shone, having no alternative, on the nothing new.”

There was quietness in the neighbouring school where the booth was located for our colony. We were the first ones to arrive even as the policemen were yawning. It took us less than five minutes to come out properly inked on the left forefinger.  We have to wait for another five weeks to know if our votes had been for the winner or the loser. The cynic in me chortled for I knew and as all others knew that whosoever be the winner, it would make no difference to the voters. Life will proceed just the same way as before once the election frenzy gets muted till such time when the next elections will take place- five years or even less than that.

We are residents of south Delhi  whose voters  comprise  the affluent and the upper middle classes in posh colonies, the lower  middle class in government colonies, the average middle classes in Delhi Development Authority’s housing apartments along with a large number of Muslims in the old poorly developed localities dotting the borders of the well heeled communities and the adjacent lower class colonies consisting of  one and two room tenements . The canvassing this time was on a low key and unlike the December Delhi elections, even the text messages on the mobiles were few and far between.  I learnt later that there were no long queues at any point of time- again a contrast with what we had seen in December ( though the media report is to the contrary)

It is difficult to discern any voting pattern in these assorted groups except for what one reads in the newspapers and views on the TV channels besides what the bookies offer. It is foolish and naïve to think that the parties in the election fray have a magic wand to dispel gloom and despondency that had gripped the minds of most people and that it will all be hunky-dory after a new party takes over. India is too vast a country to be governed both in terms of space and numbers. Governance is as difficult to understand as rocket science needing both remarkable intelligence and ability. There has been a steady decline in governance and administration after the first few years of the Nehruvian era and it has hit the lowest depths in the last two decades. Three different parties battling on the electoral ground have pitched high their strength and their resolve to give good governance in their manifestoes. The fledgling AAP promises to rid the country of corruption, the BJP promises spring in the air with decisive leadership and the oldest GOP promises to fulfill people’s fundamental rights to health and pension and empowerment of the weaker sections. But none of the three have provided a hint of how they will realize their promises as they know that fulfilling them is like catching a leviathan in a fly net.  Corruption today has become a part of our DNA, democracy cannot accept unilateral leadership and inclusive development is more of a mirage than reality.

What ails our nation? What ails our much vaunted democracy? The simple and straightforward answer is We, the people of India. Corruption as alleged by AAP and by BJP whenever the latter wanted to train its guns on the party in power is not the monopoly of the politicians. The AAP’s tarring of politicians of all stripes sparing their own party has given greater license to the rest of the people of India to indulge in sly and covert underhand dealings because they are not the target of attack of those who are in power and who bid for power. Corruption has to be viewed as a double headed hydra as both the bribe giver and the bribe taker contribute to our present venal society. To avoid paying a few extra rupees on sales tax, we tell the shopkeeper not to make the bill which suits him equally. The trader-customer dishonesty is a daily and ubiquitous happening. We go to any length to conceal our income to avoid paying income tax. We , the clerks and babus in government offices make short shrift of the innumerable requests of fellow Indians for gas and power connections, for making alterations in their homes, for water supply, for delivery of essential municipal services including health and education, for resolving public grievances  etc unless we swell their purses. It is a standard joke that we need to grease the wheels of our applications to make them move from one desk to another and to be satisfactorily resolved at the highest desk in the municipal offices. We, the fruit and vegetable vendors sell poor quality to our fellow citizens at astronomical price even as we make money by exporting choice agricultural products to the rich class and to NRIs abroad. We, the teachers are either absent from the class or when present provide sub standard lessons to students expecting them to come home for tuition to pass the examinations. We, the doctors prescribe unnecessary multiple diagnostic tests and scans at clinics and laboratories from where we  would  in turn receive a part  of the  exorbitant fees to be paid for such investigations in those diagnostic centres.  We, the engineers in cahoots with contractors and building material suppliers do not mind risking the safety of fellow beings by using inferior material in constructing their houses. We, the Administrators go for larger sums for awarding contract and for effecting land deals from the poor farmers and villagers. We, the ‘jugad’ experts make huge profit by producing spurious medicines, illicit alcohol, deadly drugs and crude bombs with no concern for the lives of our fellow citizens. We, the police refuse to file a FIR or act for the security of the citizens unless our palms are oiled. The list is endless and so the AAP’s target of the politicians to win the hearts of the other bribers is naïve if not trickery. Karl Kraus said: “ Corruption is worse than prostitution. The latter might endanger the morals of an individual; the former invariably endangers the morals of the entire country.”
 

 Democracy for India has been good as it had stopped fuelling dictatorship that had been the case with our western neighbor. It has stayed its course for the last 66 years except for a brief 21 month period in the mid-‘70s. Indira Gandhi had to revoke emergency as democratic India refused to yield to her authoritarian rule by decree, allowing elections to be suspended and civil liberties to be curbed. From that experience, it is clear that We, the people of India will be hard put to accept a strong leader who has not displayed the gentler and democratic aspect of his personality during the last 16 years of his tenure as Chief Minister of Gujarat. Thomas Jefferson had once warned the Americans that “Consolidation of power in one individual is a threat to democracy and will lead to corruption, its necessary consequence.

But in our love for democracy that confers on us freedom of speech and action, freedom to enjoy the fundamental rights provided in the Constitution, we have forgotten that duties come before rights. To the above list of our acts of corruption, we the people of India have added corruption of the mind and spirit. Indiscipline is endemic among us and is seen in every walk of life. We, the early morning walkers , walk three abreast on a narrow garden  path that is wide enough to accommodate just one person. We push aside the lone aged walker and stride past him/her without so much as a ‘sorry, please’. We spit on the road, we throw garbage on the road, we pride in jumping the lights at crossings, we hoot and drive roughshod over others, we scream “No queues for us ;we are Indians” and refuse to line up- in short, we are woefully negligent with regard to minimal courtesy and duty by fellow citizens.  Duty is a social force that binds us to the course of actions demanded by that force. Both our  demanding our rights and the political parties wooing the voters with concession to those demands are maladroit acts . As a democratic nation we have failed to understand  Rockefeller’s statement that “Every right implies a responsibility; every opportunity, an obligation; every possession, a duty"

 In a thought provoking article on  Nadella as Microsoft CEO: A Slap in the Face for Indian System,  the writer Jagannathan points out how our democratic system encourages talkers than doers and how our argumentative and democratic nature stops with running down people and not solving any problems. AAP’s approach has been clearly on these lines. The rise of one individual as a leader like Jayalalitha in Chennai, Mamta in WestBengal, Patnaik in Odisha and Narendra Modi in Gujarat reveal the bankruptcy of our democratic spirit.  Earlier it was Indira Gandhi. The  personality cult around which the power is now built bodes ill for a vibrant democracy. Jagannathan recognizes that the innate flaw of democracy in India lies in  its inability to tolerate success. This  has been the bane of our system:  “Our system kills initiative rather than engender it. We want pliable yes-men and non-achievers around us, not non-conformists and people with ideas of their own.”

We have cast our votes as democratic citizens of India. The media has gone bonkers with their mindless coverage of speeches of leaders that are empty of ideas and full of venom and hatred. It has covertly campaigned in favour of authoritarian leadership on the one hand and cleansing of the augean task of reforming politics and democracy in the country. What has been set in motion is chaos and confusion with grandstanding about empowerment and change.

I voted for the first time nearly half a decade ago in 1962. Jawaharlal Nehru was then voted back to power for a third time. Those elections had still the remnants of Indian nationalism and Gandhian idealism . As we now approach the 16^th Lok Sabha, we cannot ignore the depths to which we as a nation have fallen. I wish the new Lok Sabha elects people of reputation, of spotless integrity and selfless dedication to steer the country out of the moral morass that we have created for ourselves. As I returned home from the polling booth, these lines from Shakespeare’s Richard II echoed through my mind as though by its repetition I could still hope that we the people of India  have discharged our duty and responsibility for a positive mandate.

                                                         My dear, dear Lord,
                                                   The purest treasure mortal times afford
                                                    is spotless reputation; that away
                                                    Men are but gilded loan or painted clay...
                                                    Mine honor is my life; both grow in one;
                                                   Take honor from me, and my life is done.”