The Hindu Business Line : Hope and despair

Life is a kaleidoscope sustaining hope among human beings. Without it, human expectation would be reduced to zero which would, in a way, make life less worth living because of the absence of hope. At least this is what this writer feels when he looks at the various images of life he is confronted with on a daily basis and the lessons he tries to learn from them.

Take, for example, the news item on Tuesday morning which told the world how a former Prime Minister could get the address of his new house, after laying down office following the last Lok Sabha elections, changed. Of course, there can be nothing awfully “wrong” about such a trifling development given the volume of “corruption” and crime in our society today. After all, no one is getting a suitcase full of “contraband” stuff; neither is anyone shielding a law-breaker from being investigated or apprehended. So what’s the hullabaloo all about?

This is precisely the issue. The snag is that a Prime Minister (and his predecessors) are entitled to cast in elections held in our republic no more than one vote. Which means that he is no better off on this count than, say, a poor farmer toiling in the fields. In other words, under the Constitution, he is entitled to the same treatment by the State as any other citizen. But is he, in reality? Will any other citizen’s plea for a change in address be accorded the same treatment by the Prime Minister’s Office and the Government as has been the case with the former Prime Minister in question?

Contrary trends

Let us be honest with ourselves — that is, if we are still in a position to stand up and be counted. The plain fact is that the treatment meted out to the former Prime Minister’s request on the change-of-address issue will simply not be extended to any “Tom, Dick or Harry”, even though the Constitutional has willed equality of status for all citizens of the republic.

This is what is wrong with our political system. The contrary trends are nothing less than a cancer growing imperceptibly under the surface of everyday life, which holds up to the description of Indian society being a “functioning chaos”. Another manifestation of the same ailment was the recent case of a policeman slapping a charge of “sedition” (or inciting rebellion against the State) on a newspaper for having run investigative stories on his alleged links with people who have found themselves on the wrong side of the law!

Battle between hope and despair

The question arises, where do we go from here? The kaleidoscope of life, however, throws up another image at this point which fills one with hope about the future of our country. This image, among a host of others, is one of schoolchildren going around the city pulling out signboards and posters (including one on saving the environment!) nailed into trees. There is another of a harried policeman flagging down the car of a “VIP” who has violated traffic rules.

The stark reality is that a great battle is being fought between hope and despair the inference being that the republic’s future is not yet inexorably doomed. The need of the hour is to strengthen the fight against the cancer referred to above and, in the process, help to fulfil the dream of the Founding Fathers of our Constitution who, in their noble innocence, had thought that January 26, 1950 would, conclusively, put an end to the age of the “red beacon”.

RANABIR RAY CHOUDHURY

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