WISHING & WAITING FOR A NEW DAWN
That is what many of us have been
doing ever since independence, especially since the turbulent sixties. This new
dawn symbolism could be interpreted in two ways. One would be to see the entire
decades since the ‘transfer of power’ as a long dark night belying the aims and
aspirations of innumerable martyrs of our freedom struggle and leaving but travails
and tears for the people – still waiting for a new dawn that could bring in the
much needed libertarian, welfarist sunlight. Another way of looking at could be
that several dawns have come and gone by ever since but that we fondly dreamt of
has eluded us so far. One set of rulers has come and gone, giving way to another, which meant not much
in practical terms. Mannerisms and wordings may have changed, even radical
democratic ethos oriented ideologies, laws and schemes might have come up, but
yet real progress has not been made. A simple illustration would be of the so-called
‘radical and innovative’ Right to Information Act. Some good might have come
about due to it in some places and times, but also many loopholes there for the
authorities to avoid giving the needed information and make the process more
costly and cumbersome for the people. Perhaps the good old method of petitioning
to the public authorities, if buttressed by strong and quick judicial monitoring,
could be more handy, inexpensive and beneficial to the people at large. Also we
see the power and aura of mammon overwhelming almost all sections of society
like a Macbethian tormenting spirit. The present get-rich-quick-by-any-means trend
is spelling doom to all the grand dreams of a glorious egalitarian society
based on the mutual aid of a basically good-natured, well meaning citizenry. We
see the basic needs of common people starkly neglected and the remedial
mechanisms including courts reduced to more and more sloth and inefficiency. The
new surge of free market economy generating an atmosphere of extreme alienation
and misery among the people is ruining all chances of humane social progress. The
only remedy is for the executive and judiciary, with the motto – small is
beautiful and simple is workable – to feel and act as real public servants and
not like lords divine/secular. Only when they begin to use public transport,
live in duly alloted quarters and conduct on-the-spot enquiries often instead
of closing their eyes and ears to the pleas of the common man, in a word return to the practice of ‘high
thinking and plain living’, can they even think of rooting out the societal ills
and it is the duty and task of we the people to make for such an eventuality by
our concerted efforts and agitations, and usher in the fresh sunrise. §§§
No comments:
Post a Comment