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Don’t Touch My India! The practitioners of power politics and the ideological demagogues notwithstanding the common people of India have marched on. In the process they have brought self sufficiency and confidence that is helping the country towards a proud place among the comity of nations. Importantly, they have also demonstrated that they have no patience for those who betray their mandate. Yoginder Bali Politicians easily forget the past; people do not. That is the basic strength of a free and democratic country. I have seen politics from inside and from close vantage points from outside during the last 60 years. And today I feel that though faces, flags and voices have changed, attitudes and follies persist. However, the people of India have survived all power worshippers and self proclaimed intellectuals, religious moralists, political internationalists and protagonists of a new and vicious political casteism. Nations have learnt during these years that ideologies which miserably failed at one place may not rise like the proverbial phoenix, from their ashes elsewhere. So, the concern and issue which is uppermost in my mind, as a common and ordinary Indian, is “How, we, the people of India will benefit or suffer from the political word storms unleashed by unscrupulous power and status mongers of Indian politics.” I also want to make it clear that I am proud and not ashamed of the country’s march during the sixty years of independence. India is an economic power, on its own strength and enterprise and strong and good economic policies whose makers had always faced the wrath of the paper-economists, internationalism mongers, moral policemen and pseudo socialists of all kinds, including betrayers from their own fold. Verbal terrorism and public platform arrogance of the few by the few and for the few, did not daunt those brave policy-makers, some of them now consigned to pages of dusty history and oblivion. We are today enjoying the benefits of their brave policies, long after they are gone. Should we forget them? And what have we achieved? Looking back I recall that when India embarked on its tryst with destiny on the midnight of August 15, 1947, we were a nation scarred by the wounds of partition, pangs of hunger, scourge of unemployment and fears of instability and attacks from forces of violence, disruption and poverty. It was an India with clouds of instability hovering all over its skies that we inherited from the British. We also inherited political groups and a bureaucratic class, who were trained on British and counter British thinking imported from the European bookstalls, always hoping that India would now be ruled by Brown sahibs instead of white sahib because poor and uneducated Indians were not fit to govern themselves. I am happy that we, the people of India, have proved them wrong. Despite them we achieved freedom from hunger, not on the strength of US, Australian and Russian wheat but on the food grain grown by the Indian farmer on Indian soil. Led by Indian scientists like Dr. M.S. Swaminathan, the lab to farm programme created a “Green Revolution” in which few of the critics of agricultural policies and foreign intervention in the agricultural area had any contribution despite their complicated theories and campaigns for the “farmers and mill workers.” It was an astonishing fact of recent history that the greatest agricultural leap forward from hunger to self-sufficiency and to surplus production was made in the unorganized sector where farmers were led by their own sickle and spade and not by flag bearing “hartal heroes.” Was the “White Revolution” symbolized in the butter, milk and cheese abundance brought out through the milk cooperatives under the leadership of a pioneer like Dr. Kurien, spearheaded by the drum beaters of dharma or international dogma? The pioneers and achievers in these fields, not political bullfighters were responsible for such giant leaps forward. Integrating India emotionally, culturally and economically from the days of imperial India and over 500 feudal states was brought about by men of vision and guts like Sardar Patel and VP Menon, not by agitators and revolutionaries although the All India States People’s Conference, shoulder to shoulder with the freedom movement in British India, played a vital role in standing up for the masses of the princely states. Among them were people of all hues and political colour and texture with stalwarts like Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah playing their historic role? Can one forget the role of simple, not so well educated and ordinary people, in all parts of the country in a chain of revolts before, during the after the 1857 upsurge, when some of the political parties of today were not even born, in keeping the flag of freedom struggle aloft? Can we forget the great “kuka” revolution led by Satguru Ram Singh and his Namdhari Sikh warriors who earned a place in history as “Shouters” or the “Kukas”? Did they belong to any of the political parties whose flags are often seen fluttering in their constituencies and areas of influence but not all over the country? They are parties no doubt. Some times in power and sometimes out of it, they come and go as the people get wise to their hypocrisies and failures to discharge their mandate. I am proud of it. This process shows that WE, the people of India have understood in these years the importance of power of democracy and those who talk and behave like “Kings and Princess of Politics” beware. In fact India, during the past 60 years has turned into an oasis of democracy in a region infected by generals, autocracies, extremism and violent mob-rulers. It is the duty of ordinary Indian to find out, know and understand what makes India a multi-splendor plurality, sovereign, democratic and on the march. Let us go beyond the ruling party and opposition, insider and supporters from outside in the ever bullied and blackmailed coalitions of all kinds. We should not and we shall not, let them destroy India, which is not indebted to their slogan mongering and theoretic harangues for what it is today. “Don’t’ touch my India”. That should be our resolve during the 61st year of our Independence. | |
