Dalip Singh Wassan

On every Independance and the Republic Day people in power never fail to tell us that our problems will get solved, and inspite of all these promises the problems that the nation faces continue to exist. In fact the ruling classes, also known as public servants, have turned rich and powerful while poverty, illiteracy and unemployment plague the masses. This is where we stand as a country after 58 years of independence. Looking back to the promises made by Mahatma Gandhi, India failed to turn into ‘Ram Rajya’; rather it is worse than ‘Ravan Rajya’. Let us introspect why.

Having been enslaved for centuries during the independence movement Mahatma Gandhi promised that India’s independence would establish a ‘Ram Rajya’. However, he never defined the term and, out of respect for Rama, Indians started believing that independence would lead to something good. In retrospect it appears that 1947 was a simple change of rule, a handing over ceremony on the night of August 14, and people who took charge from the British used the same laws and methods of governance that they inherited from them. Despite the fact that we have a Constitution in which all elected and appointed people have been declared as ‘public servants’ with the real power given to the masses, it took only a short while for the “servants of the people” to turn rich and the common man, supposedly the “lord of the country”, to become poor.

Since local rulers were stronger than the foreign rulers, they invented new methods of looting the people as is evidenced in the numerous scams, scandals, muddles, sale of jobs, sale of party tickets, sale of licenses, sale of quotas, sale of promotions, and the sundry. Both the bureaucracy and the people in politics are conniving together and denying people their due share. Although people create wealth, it is snatched away by those who are in power.

India is a rich country, but its people are poor. We have got mountains, rivers, minerals, coal, iron, gases, petroleum, fertile land, hardworking people, different seasons and rains. With all our blessings and natural resources we could have witnessed unstinted growth, but it is not possible unless there is good leadership. We live in a democracy with a powerful bureaucracy where most work cannot get done without the signature of politicians. It is misnomer to call this way of administration a democracy, and this should be corrected. The power, it appears, shall remain with the bureaucracy until competent people get involved with politics.

It is sad that we could not become a nation and are still divided on the basis of religion, caste, color and creed living under a fear of terrorism and, since 1947, a threat of communal riots that have resulted in the killings of our own citizens and the destruction of public property. We have created many jobs but only for politicians. What was the need to create state level legislative assemblies? There is a parliament and all areas being represented in it, it could function without the presence of state legislative assemblies. Individual states should have been administrative units only.

By starting to introspect we can identify the causes behind our sad state of affairs, which is a prerequisite for any corrective measure. This process must start now because we have wasted almost six decades celebrating Independence and the Republic Day festivities without any meaningful introspection. People get the government they deserve, and if we are not getting the right type of governance the blame lies squarely on our shoulders. As a start let the country have a ‘Shadow Cabinet System’, which will ensure that political parties nominate the right kind of people for each job so that a life in politics will not guarantee the right to loot people.


Copyright©2005 Dalip Singh Wassan. About the author