Whither India? Part-3
Dr. Yerneni Venkateswara Rao
Retired Principal
Akkineni Nageswara Rao College
Gudivada-A.P
However in so doing, these two
institutions, especially the judiciary, are sometimes perceived to be
transgressing into the legislative and the executive domains by overstepping
the limits of its jurisdiction leading thereby to a kind of paralysis of these
two branches by some well meaning intelligentsia –some legislators and others
have even gone to the extent of decrying the recent phase of judicial self
assertion as ‘judicial hegemony’, ‘ government by judiciary’ or ‘dictatorship
of the judges and that of the EC’ in equally vitriolic terms but such
incursions, where true, are purely supplemental rather than of substitutional
nature and hence need not cause undue alarm particularly when one bears in mind
that the present situation is an abnormal one demanding abnormal responses and
once normality returns, the even-keel balance among the three branches of the
constitution too returns without much difficulty. Further, the judiciary
controlled as it is by none other than its conscience, anyday, can be relied
upon to check its own excesses as effectively as those of others through its
self regulatory mechanism and prevent erosion of public confidence in its
functioning. For, of the three wings, none knows better than the judiciary that
‘no democratic institution, including the judiciary, can be above the rule of
accountability without developing the disease
of absolutism as averred by former justice
Krishna Iyer, himself an ardent believer in the necessity of judicial
independence. That a natural healthy and wholesome equilibrium among these
three constitutional wings is a sine qua non for a vibrant, resilient and
forward-looking democracy needs hardly be emphasized.
Almost contemporaneously with these, a
couple of other equally commendable developments that helped clear the dense
fog of despondency further have taken place .
Thanks largely to the vigilant press, which
is as bold and fearless as its counterpart anywhere in the world, performing
its watchdog role effectively and the electronic media with its vast reach and
enormous influence, people are not only becoming well informed about the
omissions and commissions of the government but also about all matters on which
they have to take decisions as responsible citizens in a democracy.
Finally, to be fair, it must be admitted
that atleast some of the leaders of today- a few having at last dared to free
themselves from the prison of the system because of their basic integrity and
innate decency and a few others having perhaps learnt their lessons from the
recent murky goings-on in high places and the revulsion and the repugnance they
have engendered in the country at large- seem to be veering round to the view
that the value based politics and statesman like vision are th need of the hour
and have even been trying to attend to the unfinished task of ushering in an
egalitarian social order by giving a new orientation to the country’s growth
and developmental strategies and taking such other steps-to preserve,
strengthen, revive and rehabilitate the democratic institutions of the
country-as would dispel the gloom and despair in the country and put in back on
the rails. As a natural corollary to this refreshing change in their attitude
they have started viewing public office as a valuable opportunity to serve the
people and contribute to the enlargement of national wealth and widespread
wellbeing and not as a means to exercise power and promote personal
aggrandisement by indulging in populist grandstanding in utter disregard of/for
fiscal prudence and the country’s future.
In the same vein, it could be said without
fear of being contradicted that they were times not too long ago when honest
and incorruptible bureaucrats used to be the rule rather than an exception as
now but their numbers unfortunately have been steadily dwindling under the
onslaught of the depredations of the political bosses and in step with society’
slide from its initial state of shock through stupor to total reconciliation
with the horrors of corruption and extortion. Institutional safeguards together
with statutory provisions for independence in decision-making and action within
the administrative framework with commitment to transparency and propriety and
accountability to the people reinforced by public approbation for the honest
and opprobrium for the corrupt will certainly help swell their ranks and
provide the much needed relief to the society. And this is well within the
realm of possibility, nay, realization.
Emboldened, on the one hand, by the
assertiveness of the judiciary and independence of the Election Commission and
encouraged, on the other, by the hopeful signs of the new class of
conscientious political leaders and their inchoate attempts at good
house-keeping by tempering policies in the crucible of administrative analysis
and economic logic/rationality and the newly sprouting awakening on the part of
the people at large, concerned citizens
everywhere are fervently hoping and ardently yearning for an open, responsive,
sensitive, transparent and accountable government and a peace-loving and
harmonious polity based on Buddhistic ideals and Gandhian values and Nehruvian
humanism.
If these and other such organs of our
Constitution as well as the fourth estate and the principled politicians and
upright civil servants are strengthened by public support in general and that
of the intellectuals and academics of progressive persuasions in particular,
will they not be able to persevere in their laudable efforts at cleaning up the
accumulated muck more vigorously, and succeed in hastening the dawn of that new
era when our nation’s tryst with destiny will be redeemed? Yes, they will, most
certainly, provided also we all realize that an independent nation is a nation peopled not by mere spectators,
subjects or supplicants but by free citizens who enjoy their rights and
privileges with as much fervour and zeal as the dedication and commitment with
which they discharge their duties and responsibilities and, most of all, people
who think for themselves, conscious of their innate freedom and independence to
think and act want to be left alone by the government to the greatest extent
possible.
April
1997.
B1-57
Violence stalked the corridors of history,
naked and unashamed, like a colossus leaving a trail of murder, mayhem and
bloodshed as also destruction, devastation and desolation in its wake. Yet,
strangely, man oblivious of it all continues to speak the language of hatred
and conflict and routinely and unthinkingly resorts to/descends into unbridled
orgies of gratuitous and mindless blood-letting time and again in an endless
series of follies, pushing the ceiling of violence ever/even higher.
How long will this cycle of violence go on
when will man realise the utter futility of violence and when will the curtain
be rung down on this danse macabre. Once
and for all?, bemoans the bewildered sanity. Why history prefers to paint
itself with blood and gore instead of weaving its web with innocent hands and
cover itself with glory is a mystifying riddle that will remain one, perhaps
for a long long time to come unless man learns appropriate lessons from
experience and become wiser sooner. If only history’s lessons are remembered
and retaught- a relatively easy task- what a world of difference will it make
to the future course of human progress and evolution on this planet and how
refreshingly different will human history/destiny be?
May that day when violence bows before
peace and harmony and makes its exit once for all from the stage of life dawn soon/early.
B1-58
Paradoxically, the only thing worse than abject poverty is
abundance of riches. If the former has the potential for stifling and
strangling life through denial of opportunities to grow and attain one’s full
stature as a human being as nature has intended, the latter tends to drain life
of its sap and savour by throwing open countless avenues of decadence and
dejection through overindulgence in self destructive activities and atrophy of
initiative and innate abilities, both thus ending up in effectively eliminating
any scope for meaning and significance in life thereby rendering life less than
worth living. However, in exceptional cases in which individuals transcend
circumstances by drawing upon their inner resources by delving deep into the
hidden recesses of their very being, either of these conditions will lose its
sting/grip and become powerless in the face of a relentless pursuit of some
noble enterprise such towering individuals are called upon to undertake and are
engaged in for the greater glory of humanity. Alas, as a rule, the
devastation and degradation and the
resultant depravity in society that these can bring about is truly awesome; the
living corpses-the living dead - with hope writ large on their faces and the
lifeless (wo)men-the dead living- endlessly chasing mirages, we see around us
daily vouch for the tyrannical powers of these two extreme but ubiquitous
conditions/situations.
B1-59
Violence, like fire, feeds on itself as
well as anyone falling prey to it in the mistaken belief that he is using it.
History is replete with instances showing that one who lives by violence dies
by violence-an inviolable law of life. Not surprisingly, practically every
religion ranks non-violence as one of the highest, if not the highest values as
for instance, declared unanimously by Jainism, Buddhism and Hinduism in the
words ahimsa paramo dharmaha.
B1-60(B-5,I4)
Violence knows no masters; however deftly
used it devours its perpetrators with the same relish with which it does its
victims/targets and everything in between. The face of history is scarred badly
and each scar is an eloquent testimony to its devastating capabilities and
ruthless efficiency.
B1-61(B3-41)
Violence bears a deceptively close
resemblance to fire. Handled correctly, fire is a friend whereas violence,
handled anyway, is an implacable enemy; it devours both its inflictor and
victim with the same gusto. So eschew/abjure violence like poison just as the
great Rig veda ordained us in these words at the dawn of civilization: maa
higmseeh sarva bhutani.
B1-62
Sex is nature’s instrument to renew,
sustain and perpetuate itself and is given to us gift wrapped in order to
entice us as pawns in the service of its purposes. So powerful is its spell and
so strong/total its hold on youth that few can resist it. However, regulated,
it is the source of heavenly joy, otherwise the gateway to the very hell on
earth. Contemplate the conjugal bliss and contrast it with the humiliation of
debauchery and worse, the trauma of rape and you know what I mean.
B1-63
Sex with religious sanction and social
approval nourishes and sustains a well-balanced relationship of bliss between
man and woman by broadening its base for greater stability and deepening its
reach for firmer foundation, but without them, it withers and shrivels the
relationship.
As often misunderstood and misconstrued,
sex is not what two young bodies with an upsurge in heart beats and with
rampant hormones rushing through the blood streams do on the spur of the
moment. It is what two loving hearts beating in unison do- a sublime act and an
enriching and elevating experience. Sharing bodies only debases and demeans
sex, it being no more than a physically titillating sexual encounter. Hence,
the shame and remorse that follow each such indulgence for having turned what
is essentially beautiful and uplifting into something ugly and sordid.
B1-64
Aggression and violence, close cousins of
anger, spring from fear which is rooted in the primordial incomprehension of
the essential unity of life; those that rise above the primeval ignorance free
themselves from the prison of fear a as also the fetters of anger, aggression
and violence and usher themselves into the kingdom of peace, harmony and
happiness in which there is no room for the vicious display of violence and
aggression.
B1-65
Vice, no doubt, has its fair share of
victories, which it celebrates with great glee making a spectacle of itself in
the process in a vain bid for respectability while being watched all the while
by virtue with a glimmer of amusement and a trace of concern in its eyes.
B1-66(B4-14,18)
It may be permissible for one to dye one’s
hair or tint one’s grey streaks when one doesn’t know how to grow old
gracefully and gratefully and grow up wisely. But what is not permissible is to
colour one’s attitude to life for that distorts and stifles one’s life itself
and render any meaningful growth impossible. In as much as grey temples not
only glow with wisdom but also enhance one’s persuasiveness besides bringing
greater respectability, it would be folly to die one’s hair to cover up greying
temples.
Aging, after all, is a marker of life’s
progress along the highway of growth and maturity and certainly not anything to
be afraid or ashamed of. It actually enhances one’s stature and commands regard
and respect from all sensible souls. So one need not empty buckets of tears or
even one or two over a little or lot of silver on one’s head.
But the faint-hearted and the frivolous
think otherwise and do things that land them in a lot of avoidable trouble at
times. Among several such vainglorious characters late Dr Chennareddy , the
most mischievous and mercurial politicker of Telangana used to famously dye his
hair without attracting any adverse comment.
But not so lucky is the German chancellor, Gerhard Schrodder, who finds
himself these days in the eye of a national storm over the question/issue ,
whether he tints his greying temples or not. He has, of course, pleaded not
guilty and is awaiting a ruling by a Hamburg judge which may make or break his
credibility and with it, his career as a politician. “A man who colours his
hair is certainly capable of trimming statistics”, point out German cynics/his
critics, for statistics about unemployment, inflation, economic growth and GDP
figures are highly regarded by Germans who decide the fate of governments.(The
Hindu April 16, 2002)
Image consciousness, up to a point, is good
and desirable but it should never be allowed to become an obsession. There is
no reason why one should not take care to look one’s best but any excesses
indulged in by people to achieve that objective will only result in their
becoming objects/butt ends of ridicule
or centres of controversies or both, defeating the very purpose of their
endeavours.
B1-67
The irony in the pot calling the kettle
black is obvious even to the meanest intelligence. But what is surprisingly not
so obvious is the absurdity of a religious zealot chiding a nationalist for not
being broadminded or universal enough to be a world citizen while he himself is
being branded as a narrow communalist by a caste protagonist, who in turn is
dubbed as a crass casteist by a patriarch (patre
familias) entangled so inextricably in the familial bonds that he is
totally oblivious to anything existing outside his constricted family circle,
including even the self-centred egoist who derisively points his finger of
objection at him for being so narrow minded.
Looks like there is a catch in this but the
question is where? Perhaps in our inability to simultaneously focus our
attention on the critic and his target and view their respective stand points
and judge their relative merits and demerits as clearly as we visualise the
contrasting conditions of the pot and the kettle. This inability stems
from/owes its origin to the natural human tendency to concentrate so totally on
the point being presented at the moment as to become engrossed in seeing what
is being shown presently to the exclusion of everything else whereas
visualization of things familiar, like the pot and the kettle suffers from no
such infirmity/impairment for it merely involves recalling to mind what is
already there in the memory.
Couldn’t this catch be the secret behind
the dubious success of almost all demagoguery, the sure weapon in the hands of
advocates of non-issues and protagonists and propagators of utopian theories
and bizarrisms and ideologies as also the root cause of much misunderstanding
and consequent conflict and misery in the society? There is no wonder that
specious arguments appear to be not only convincing but also attractive
enticing people to tread wrong paths and making them pay through their noses
for their folly.
B1-68
Whoever keeps the child in him alive and is
ever aware of its presence in him stands a greater chance of coming out of life’s
rigours unscathed and with his humanity intact. It may at times be at a price,
a stiff price indeed. But compared to the value addition to one’s life, in the
form of ‘immaculate peace beyond the rough handling of destiny, an immortal
wealth’, it pales into insignificance.
Recalling one’s childhood at will may be
genius as averred by Boris Pasternak but won’t it be closer to truth to say
that it is nothing less than a divine feat possible only to the gifted few?
B1-69
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