We are a day away from the “Republic Day” rigmarole of
flag hoisting, hunt for the tri-colour accessories and the elusive “white kurta”
and logging into the “biggest sale” of them all…in the order of priority of
course.
But is this the Republic that our
forefathers envisaged and fought for us? Our blood boils for the “I” of a
Padmavat but we grow distant when a human is lynched for reasons best known to
the murderer. Our over-sensitive sentiments get hurt when one part of a line of
a song is broadcasted but our souls are not touched when an infant is molested
for simply being born with a vagina. We
can easily overlook the poison in our food and the pot holes in our roads but
cannot forgive a “slip of a tongue” or an incorrect tweet. We care for the “historic
bordering on imaginary world” spun in our minds but cannot care less for humanity
that starves and shivers to death in our country.
The rights and justice lie in the
deep-pockets of money and power and if you are not blessed with either of them,
you had better learn to wait and die for your turn in the long-winding red tape
of justice and bureaucracy. While “amazon prime” can deliver your order in an
hour, justice needs to take its time.
The blood that should unite us divides
us into segments of inhumanity that nods and beheads at the skip of a hearbeat..it
takes only a venomous speech to transform an embrace into a choke ..it takes
only a suspicious intent to kill your neighbor..killing never looked easier and
flimsier than it looks today!
We oscillate between fiction and
facts with a unique skill that is so Indian…on one side we are screaming
disruption and artificial intelligence and on the other hand, we are “knee-jerking”
when our individual interpretation of
morality is even remotely threatened.
Perhaps this Republic day instead
of worrying over the “fancy dress” that you need put up for a function, let us truly
make an effort - to understand what the
constitution lays out for us, to appreciate the history and blood that flowed
to form the Republic of India, to shed the hide of insincere & external patriotism
and drive closer to the soul of our country. “Secularism” and “Democracy” cannot
rust and erode over the years and as the flag unfurls and the parade ground
comes alive this Republic Day, let us live our Constitution each day rather
than kill for it!
