“ Time has come” the Walrus said:”to talk of many things,

Cabbages and Kings………………………………….”



Time is absolutely right to talk of many things, at the present juncture in our country, which is going through one of the most depressing times for any thinking person, who has the good of the common man at heart. Walrus’s lamentations on the things that were to be discussed at that time are as relevant now in India that the Kings and the cabbages have become synonymous and interchangeable. I am reminded of an old saying when I look at the monkey-tricks of our politicians in the daily newspapers, especially the one piece I read this morning about the misfiring of a missile against the Agni being test fired by one of the petty politicians of India. Indian politicians, nay politicians all over, deserve the hidden meaning of the word politician. ( poly in Latin denotes many, and ticks are blood sucking small small creatures.) This is the right name for them. They are blood sucking definitely, and they have small minds.(small creatures) :



“ Great minds think and talk about issues and policies,

Big minds think and talk about events,

Small minds think and talk about personalities and individuals.”



What a shame that our petty politicians could not do anything good or great, but talk about individuals. The latter do not matter at all in the larger plan of things in this Universe. Man, howsoever big he thinks he is, does not count even as much as a dust particle in this world. Man could be compared to a hand inside a bucket of water; while it is there it could agitate the water very much, but when pulled out of the water there would be no sign that the hand was there at all. Lives of great men are made sublime by the footprints that they leave behind on the sands of time, for the future generation to get inspired. Those are the qualities of head and heart of a leader. I am sorry that we are still searching for one to qualify for that stature in the present juncture.



Lost in the numbers game to get to power, small minds are groping in the dark about the future of this great country, which at one time lead the rest of the world. Time was when India gave leadership to the world in commerce before the twelfth century, when Europe existed mainly on trade with India. In fact, it was during the search for an alternative trade route to India that Columbus discovered the New World accidentally. The Queens and the Kings of Europe sent Columbus on this mission after the Islamic Republic in Turkey closed the land routes to India around that time.



What are the issues that plague our body politic at this juncture?

They could be discussed under the following heads: poverty, ignorance, secularism (hatred for one another in the same country in the name of religion), and above all the lack of national character, our greatest asset.



Poverty: -

India can boast of the best and the worst in the same country. While the infant mortality rate, a good measure of the poverty and ignorance in the populace, is as low as in Europe in Kerala and the coastal districts of Karnataka, it is one of the highest in the world, at 137 per thousand, in Bihar and some parts of Uttara Pradesh. The per capita income is so low that it would be a shame to put it on paper, lest the western readers might get a shock as to how the majority of Indians survive. His so-called ardent devotees, who after getting power forgot Gandhi for good, gave up Gandhi’s dream of village development.



Even today the bulk of India lives in its 5,75,000 villages. More than 80% of the population in the villages lives without coming in contact with the hi-tech that our urban elite is talking about. Drinking water, waste disposal, smokeless houses for the young kids to develop, and minimum calories and balanced nutrition to the villagers are still a far cry in the wilderness. The powers-that-be would forget their own village as soon as they get lost in the wishy-washy life in Delhi. Whereas the majority live in squalor in the villages the lion’s share of the booty is pocketed by a few in the metropolitan cities. The gap between the haves and the have-nots is enlarging daily making the dream of the poor still a mirage! We have the true inverse care law operating here; those who do not need anything get everything whereas those who need things very badly gets nothing. Is it the Mathew’ law working here, he who hath shall be given. Poverty is now scientifically documented to be the basic cause of all illnesses. Illness is a double-edged weapon. While it prevents a poor man his daily lively hood it also makes him cough up what little he has for treatment. This catch twenty-two situation will only improve if we could think of economic empowerment of our masses. This could never be achieved by doling out money as loans, but could only be achieved by providing right opportunities to the poor to feel proud to earn their living. Cottage industries and revival of the old crafts in the villages are the only answer.



Ignorance:-



Ignorance is bliss is the slogan on which our politicians thrive. The very idea of adult franchise after independence was that. The crafty politicians at that time were right in thinking that the ignorant masses could be easily swayed by charisma and rhetoric to catch votes when the time comes. We live on rhetoric from day to day, followed by inaction rigorously. Poverty and ignorance are indirectly patronized by these elements to get votes each time on better rhetoric. Education and literacy could upset this very much. The example of Kerala is enough for any one to see the writing on the wall. That is the one state where the politician finds it hard to take the voter for a ride, the main reason being that every voter knows the tricks of the political trade in that small state! Education is not synonymous with literacy. A recent survey in Britain, published in the London papers last week showed that 62% of the common man in that country is uneducated, he is able to count only to a small extent and can only understand and interpret large tabloid headlines, but finds it difficult to comprehend small print. Prince Charles was harping on this for a long time, but people did not take him seriously, but the present report has made them sit up and think. It is a good lesson for our politicians, who equate literacy with education. They think that if one is able to sign his name, he is educated. In fact, many of our villagers are better educated than our degree holders. Education is that process that prepares a man to act “justly, skillfully, and magnanimously at all times of peace and war.”



How many of our politicians qualify to be called educated by this definition? Let us therefore educate our masses in our problems and also let them have the solutions. They would certainly respond to the call of reason!



Secularism:-



The most misunderstood and maligned word in our country. The dictionary meaning of the word (middle English: sceuler, Old French and Latin: saeculum) simply means worldly; pertaining to temporal rather than to spiritual matters; lasting for a generation or a particular age, with particular reference to the Church and State disputes of those days. In the Indian context it simply means that the government may not be theocratic but shall let the citizens live the way they want to live as far as their personal lives and beliefs are concerned, respecting, at the same time, the right of the other person to live his life as he/she wishes. In short, it is a short slogan- live and let live.



This does not, by any stretch of imagination, let anyone degrade or deride another’s religious beliefs. All religions are but one in search of truth, justice and love-called by different names as Godhead. If one has understood the old Indian wisdom, the sanatana dharma, one reads the line:



Ekam sad vipraaha bhahudaa vadanti.

Rg Veda (1.164.46)

(God is one but the wise call Him by many names!). Time was when we used to live and love one another as Hindus, Muslims, and Christians. Hope that day would dawn again, with wise counsel prevailing in our ruling classes. What we practise today could be rightly called SECULARISM (dictionary meaning-Religious skepticism or indifference- that religious considerations should be excluded from civil affairs or public education).



If one cares to understand the true meaning of secularism in the Indian context, one has only to look into the following stanza in the Atharvaveda:









Janam bibhrati bahudha vivachasam naanaadharmaanaam prithvi yathaukasam,

Sahasram dhara dravinasya me duham dhruvevu dhenuranapashuranti.



[The Universe, bearing people of various tongues, different laws of development, dharmanam, appropriate to their origins, give me (duh) me a thousand streams of prosperity, like a steady (dhruva) milch-cow.]











Sanatana Dharma is a Universal law of living and letting others live. It should not be equated with the narrow religious concepts. There is no contradiction at all in our ancient culture that either excludes or decries multi-racial, multi-religious, or multi-ethnic societies; on the contrary, it envisages such a possibility as the normal order of society. Man, left to himself, naturally loves another man and also other living creatures.



Unfortunately with our present competitive monetary economy, man with his proclivity for comfort and his greed has embarked on a venture to destroy all God given resources in this world. Unfortunately, this is turning out to be self-destructive. The British compounded our problems, for their own survival here, tried to crate a rift between the various religious groups here. They are the ones who gave Sanatana Dharma the narrow religious meaning and called the same the Hindu religion. Even then the theology of all religions is the same. While Universal love is the hallmark of the Sanatana Dharma, brotherly love is the motto of Islam and sharity is the quintessence of Christianity. Where, then, is there any place for conflict?



Ritualistic religion has to be, per force, different. That is only a way of life. Sanatana Dharma did not even despise the Charvakas who were agnostics. There is no sin concept in Sanatana Dharma at all. All are the children of God, nay God head itself, there is no sin involved in human affairs. Forgiveness is the essence of good living and healthy living at that. Today the politicians are using the same political tactics of the British and trying to divide us for their narrow selfish motive of harnessing the votes of different denominations of people, in the name of religion caste creed and what have you. Some of them, pretending to be intellectuals, are the biggest criminals to have injected the poison of hatred in society, resulting in death and blood bath- all for the sake of getting elected.



The election process has been totally corrupted with money and muscle power. The people’s court, where the worst political criminals take refuge for all their heinous crimes, is in effect the greatest fraud of the present era. No sane person would today accept the so-called people verdict as genuine! We can never stop this criminalization of politics by enactment of new stringent laws or policing. It has to come from within by change of heart in society. Right thinking honest people, for whom there is no dearth, should wake up to their responsibilities. It is the honest man in society, who by shunning these elections, helps to get the criminals elected. It is time for an honest group of people to tell the common man on the street the truth, and the whole truth, of this political game being played by a minority of criminals, in the garb of politicians, to usher in a new bloodless revolution and political sanity in the country to save us from total destruction.



National Character:-



Finally our greatest curse has been the lack of our ancient character which was assailed to be the most important asset of a civilized man in ancient India. Of course , there were crooks at all times. Was not William Shakespeare right when he lamented:

Man, whether in a cottage or a castle, palace or a pad,

Is governed by the same passions and emotions!

But their numerical strength was so small that they did pale into insignificance in the midst of the mass of good people with character. The reverse almost holds good today.

Most of them in politics, unfortunately they hold the key to our progress or otherwise, belong to the uncultured variety. The real meaning of education is totally lost sight of and merit seems to be the first casualty in our present system of governance. The powers-that-be seem to harbour a subconscious sense of insecurity in the presence of good people and meritorious ones. Consequently they try and avoid them in all key positions. Even the officialdom, by and large, pays blind obeisance to their political masters in the fond hope of getting some bread crums being thrown at them at the fag end of their career.



Present society has certain built-in safety valves , like the free press and the judiciary. The press is rarely free in the true sense and even when it is, sychophency gets the better of it. Less said about the judiciary the better, what with the adversarial system that we inherited from the British. It is the cleverness of the lawyer that holds the key to the final outcome, the presiding officer being only an umpire!



Remedy:-



All is not lost. There is no room for total dejection and cynicism. We could still retrieve the system from the deep bottomless pit into which it has sunk. There are many good people. They have all taken a back seat and resigned themselves to this unfortunate sceario. There are a lot of non-governmental organisations still doing good work. There are indicators that in the new millennium the day to day life of the common citizen is more governed by these NGOs rather than the government. The latter, at best, could be in charge of foreign affairs and defense and the rest of the departments will become irrelevant. There is stills cope for changing our political system for the better with good people of character taking up the responsibility of running the show in place of the corrupt, incompetent, criminal politicians of today. The present lot can not be converted but the non-convert new entrants could have better motivation and commitment to the cause of the less fortunate in society. Sanathana Dharma says that it is our bounden duty to do good to others. To keep oneself happy and healthy one has to perforce help others and not hate them. Hostility has been found by modern science to be the greatest risk factor for most of the ills of man, led by cancer and heart attack deaths! Hope the good samaritans would wake up from their deep slumber to awaken this giant that is India and bring back its lost glory. Let people of all colours, race, caste, creed and religion live like brothers and sisters.

Sarve janaha sukhino bhavanthu!