Coming back to blogs in regular interval is a challenge these days. Professional job and personal life takes all productive time leaving a narrow room for creative activities. Well! Blogging is more of a way to voice my opinion for me than creative activity....this time it got triggered by two small issues one being an advertisement by NDTV requesting viewers to contribute to their movie on independence day and the other was watching the famous Anil Kapur starrer NAYAK.
When NDTV wanted to know what 15th August means to common Indians, NAYAK featured many socio-political reason for poor being kept poor. I am just trying to put my point of view on both....
Independent India was a dream for the half billion Indians (who were not even citizen of one federal nation). Freedom from the British was achieved after a 200 year old struggle but for most of Indians, its just a transfer of power from the British to the rich, corrupt and powerful Indians whom I can call the ‘domestic firangis’.
We all feel extremely proud on 15th August remembering our past and watching the Tricolour fly high with the blowing wind but unfortunately for half of the Indians, it matters nothing! Their worry is how to survive, how to keep their kitchen warm 2 times a day and how to ensure a good education for their kids!
What I derive from the scene of the PDS shop from the movie NAYAK is; the poor always pays more and gets less. Poor gets cheated as he lacks bargaining power. What the reality today is; the urban poor pays Rs.35-45 for 1 litre of kerosene which he was suppose to get at Rs.9 from PDS. The challenge for him is to get basic amenities and identity.....for our Govt. the slum dwellers do not exist! The question is why do slums exist in this country? If we can focus on economic development of our villages, then slums ll not grow as fast as it is.... then accepting the truth of slums and not just avoiding them may solve the problem to some extent.
If you look at our consumer market, how much a poor pays for a shampoo sachet? Vs a rich buying a 200 ml bottle? The 200 ml. Bottle is comparatively much cheaper than the 20 ml sachet! The poor pays 24% to 36% interest on a loan in the name of microfinance along with processing fee and huge fine on default! Where a rich guy ends up paying 8% interest on a home loan from a nationalised bank. There are many such examples.... who pays more gets more bargaining power and unfortunately half of the population of this country do not have that power!
Its not only consumer goods, Its also the health care and judiciary which has become too expensive for the poor! Judicial system demands a good lawyer which comes with an extremely unaffordable price tag. Ultimately justice goes to those (except some rare incidents) who have money! The poor pays more to a fake doctor in the village which in most cases are the only option for them where the rich gets cashless treatment in high-tech hospitals in our cities!
If independence has no value for half of Indians, then how can just celebrating 15th August have any significance in India?
I personally get very emotional watching the tricolour fly high with ‘Jana Gana Mana’ in background. It reminds me of the basic responsibilities I have towards this nation as a citizen. My last independence day celebration was in a African country Ghana.... my Indian friends and I were mad looking for a tricolour in the posh market of Accra for one week without success.... We went to the Indian embassy at Accra to mark the flag hoisting ceremony early morning and you wont believe, for the handful of Indians there, it was a real proud moment! But just feeling proud is not the need of the time....need of the time is to stand up to the need of our fellow citizens. Stand up to the fight against corruption and political dirty games.... We don’t necessarily need to go on the street banging buses and burning taxis.... being honest to the nation when doing our job should make a huge contribution itself. If each of the educated Indian can take responsibility of spreading the message of ‘Being Indian’ we can make the whole country aware about it’s need! Just making money for ourselves can not make us proud Indians.... Achievement in science and technology can not make us global power if millions of kids still work as child labours. Establishing T3 at Delhi airport does not make sense when our women are not safe in the city and migrants to the city still live in the worst possible living conditions! Making SMS cheaper do not fill empty stomach of our poor farmers neither introducing a new Rupee symbol makes any difference to the farmers who are going to commit suicide due to debt!
The day this country takes genuine care of its poor and underserved, it will be the most powerful in the world! We will be genuinely proud of being Indians......
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