By Don Aguiar.
Mumbai, Jan 7, 2020: This government was elected on their promise that they would enact better schemes for the economic growth of the country in comparison to the previous government but we have experienced till date that this government is expert in fooling us:
They told demonetization is for the benefit of poor — Poor people were the most affected
They told GST (Goods and Services Tax) will reduce process — Prices of all commodities skyrocketed.
They promised LPG (Liquefied petroleum gas) for 350 rupees — The price shot up to 900 rupees
They boasted of Digital India — Now shutting down Internet for months fearing questions
They promised to bring back Black Money — They amassed maximum black money for their party and leaders
They promised to bring Public Sector Companies into profit — Now selling off Profitable ones for throwaway process.
They promised 1.5 million rupees for each Indian – Now banks are imposing fine for each withdrawal and minimum balance
They promised 100 million jobs – 200 million become jobless
They promised petrol for 50 rupees per liter – But the price went up to 90 rupees a litter.
Now they say that CAA will not affect Indians — You are anti-national if you don’t trust them
The extent and manner in which they are craftily encroaching and undermining the independence of the judiciary is a matter of great concern.
If the Judiciary is reduced to a mouth piece of the government, the Courts will lose all relevance and end up as dens of chicanery and jugglery. The Judiciary should never be manned by persons who are tilted or aligned to any political party. Judges should have the spine to crack on illegalities done by all politicians, regardless of how high positions they hold.
It has to be ensured that judicial accountability is maintained at all times with all judges conforming to the highest standards of uprightness and integrity. If Judges cannot independently balance the scales of Justice, the temples of Justice become pointless.
Caroline Kennedy had very rightly said “The bedrock of our democracy is the rule of law and that means we have to have an independent judiciary, judges who can make decisions independent of the political winds that are blowing”
Keeping in mind their agenda of a Hindu nation the government introduced CAA/NRC based on religion which runs counter to our secular Constitution. Religion should never be the criterion for citizenship of a country. Nor is violence by government forces or the citizens a solution when there is a difference of opinion.
The ongoing controversy and demonstrations and counter-demonstrations concerning the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) is a cause of great anxiety for all citizens and could harm the country.
By introducing this Act the government has succeeded in getting the citizens busy demonstrating against CAA/NRC and embarrassing questions and protests of their blunders resulting in the economic slowdown, non-independent judiciary, rising prices and much more are kept on hold.
Our fight against Hindutva extremism should give no comfort to Islamists extremism either. We are raising our voices in the CAA /NRC protests to defend an inclusive India. We will not allow pluralism and diversity to be supplanted by any kind of religious fundamentalism. There is a danger, that there could be a polarization of our people along religious lines, which is very harmful for the country.
Rabindranath Nath Tagore poem on the controversy of CAA/NRC gives the demonstrations a purpose –
“Let my country awake”
Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
And the world cannot be broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by thee into every widening thought and action;
Into that heaven of freedom my father, let my country awake.
The government should dialogue with those opposing the Act, and come to an agreement about the way forward with justice, equity and fairness. There is no harm in backtracking, changing course if this is necessary for the good of the country and our people.
I feel good to share the fable of the porcupines to highlight the importance of staying together despite our differences in any way in order to ensure an inclusive India.
Fable of Porcupines
It was the coldest winter ever. Many animals died because of the cold. The porcupines, realizing the situation, decided to group together to keep warm. This way they covered and protected themselves; but the quills of each one wounded their closest companions. . After a while, they decided to distance themselves one from the other and they began to die, alone and frozen.
So they had to make a choice — Either accept the quills of their companions or disappear from the Earth. Wisely, they decided to go back to being together. They learned to live with the little wounds and pains caused by the close relationship with their companions in order to receive the warmth and heat that came from the others. This way they were able to survive.
The moral here is that the best group is not the one that is made up of perfect friends, brothers, sisters and relatives, but by each individual member learning to live with the imperfections of others and yet admire the other person’s good qualities. This is similar to the thinking of those who drafted our Secular Constitution of India and in keeping in mind the peoples of various faith.
May we find it better to be surrounded by warm pokes of communal harmony than be frozen in solitude by communalism. May the love that brought us together bind us together and keep us healthy and strong enough to stand the storms, the heat and all the changing weathers and seasons of the hard core communally minded right-wingers, as God grants us the grace to share in this journey of life with different religious groups living together.
Capture the moment, live your life to the fullest and choose happiness in all.