Also published in the news daily, "Central Chronicle" (Raipur edn.) on 27.10.2012 (Editorial page)
Lately
we have witnessed a lot of turbulence in Indian politics. Invariably, the
turbulences are unusual departure from various prevailing perspectives of the
idea of socialism, nationalism and constitutionalism.
No
one among us would deny that the country is not only frustrated with the
current state of affairs in polity but is also, to a large extent is confused. My
major area of concern in present socio-political scenario is the impact of
current anti corruption movements in the country, majorly affected by the
emergence of the concept of civil society which is yet to gain its
organizational structure. With the growing uproar of social networking websites
and by the result of technological developments, every other person has become
an activist today. Every day the social feeds on facebook, twitter and likes,
comes up with a platter of revolutionary write ups concerning different aspects
of existing political and social turbulences. In fact what can one think of,
where the headline of every day’s news paper begins with the exposure of a
corruption by our representatives. Increasing number of corruption has become
such that even our brain gives up at a point of time when we dictate it to keep
a track of them. But this unorganisational emergence of the society of
activists and the easy access to expression of our thoughts on social
networking websites is slowly becoming a big threat to the spirit of Indian
constitution, as, while expressing ourselves, most of the time we forget the
responsibility attached to that and sometime we go beyond the boundaries of
constitutional parameters and often ignore values like fundamental duties.
As
it has been stated in the beginning, turbulences are unusual departures from
various prevailing perspectives. One of the main reasons for which this
statement is made is that to my understanding of the history of Indian polity,
this is the first time when we have started challenging the very basis of the
structural setup of democracy. Nowadays, on social media, though not highlighted
much, but we often hear from many of us that the democratic setup of the
country has failed completely. I must mention here that the Indian democracy is
the largest democracy of the world. The beauty of this democratic setup lies in
the spirit of the people. The governmental setup somehow reflects the will of
the people of the country. I am not at all supporting the corrupt practices
reflected in the actions of the people’s representatives and I also feel
disgusted and cheated when the headlines of the news papers start with
exponentially increasing scams and corruption. But somewhere down the line, it
is evident that the prevailing corrupt practices has not occurred overnight and
while introspecting, within the bottom of the democratic setup, I find that the
current governmental setup is reflection of the down fall of the social strata.
May be it is harsh to accept but now we should not deny this reality that all
of us are corrupt at one or the other point of time. If we do not get a confirmed
berth in a train, we do not hesitate on offering money to the TTE and always
take this plea that we are helpless, we also do not hesitate in offering money
to the court staffs to avoid the procedural difficulties and we take this
safeguard that since they are corrupt so we are left with no other option. We
always look for an easy way to take a course to satisfy our instant need. One
thing we need to understand here is that we would always get a political setup
which is the epitome of the existing public morality. It is not being stated
here that the protests and the feelings attached thereto are bad or innocent or
are with any malice. But only point which is being made here is that more than
anything else we need an introspection of ourselves followed by much more
responsible actions. We often forget that fighting against anything requires a
lot of sacrifices attached to it. In order to fight against corruption and in
order to dream for a shining future of our great nation, the most important
sacrifice according to me is to suffer the consequences of not offering bribes.
It may sound stupid to many of us but think about it once.
Indian
constitution is a wonderful compilation of beautiful set of ideas. In a country
where the diversities vastly vary from language, color, caste and religion, our
constitution has managed to balance all the conflicting interests of the country.
This is one of the many reasons due to which in spite of numerous diversities
existing in Indian society, the constitution has managed to find its humble
place for its survival. Once, while having a discussion with one of my learned
friend on the existing state of affairs, he made a point that the time is not
far when we should start thinking in the lines of burning the constitution. I
often see posts on facebook and twitter challenging the idea behind the present
democratic setup. When I see such Ideas being expressed vehemently, I do not
only feel disgusted but also feel appalled by such reactions which are the
outcome of losing faith from the largest democracy of the world. This is why I
mentioned above that the country is in a great state of confusion. We are
confused as we do not find a proper channel or structure to base our faith on.
In such a scenario, it is strongly advocated for limiting our actions within
the parameters of the constitutional ideas.
