Should We Celebrate?

Last Tuesday Odisha celebrated its Foundation Day, commonly known as Utkal Divas. A function was organised by the administration in the township club. A renowned dance group was hired to perform at the function; one performance was an Odissi and the other was “Chhau” (I didn’t attend, had read the programme schedule). Snacks were distributed. People enjoyed the performance and went happily home. Same evening, some 200 kilometres to the west in Dhenkanal (a district of Odisha), a family of four committed mass suicide, due to poverty.

Next day in Office, one of my friends was inquiring two of us about our absence from the function last evening to celebrate Utkal Divas. One of us quoted the news from the morning newspaper about the mass suicide and in turn asked our 1st friend, “What have we achieved to celebrate Utkal Divas?” He had no answer.

In a broader sense, the question can be extended to any celebration of national importance. Should we really celebrate Republic Day, Independence Day or Gandhi Jayanti?

The first ever general elections in India were held in 1951. At that time, the major issues the political parties promised to solve were poverty, casteism, education. People were divided along the lines of caste and community, so were the political parties and their leaders. Congress considered Muslims population as a mere vote bank. Bharatiya Jan Sangh (founded by Shri Shyama Prasad Mukherjee), a nascent version of the present day BJP, sought support from the pro-Hindu population.

Elections will again be held in a few days’ time. But after being free for more than half a century the problems our nation face are the same. Muslims are still considered a vote bank, not only by the Congress Party but a bunch of other political parties also. BJP, though still pro-Hindu, has somehow moderated its stand towards Muslims. Caste based politics is still rife in parts of the country, mostly in UP and Bihar. Primary health care and Educations have been perpetually neglected. We do not have roads connection to village. Last Sunday, a student in the physics class mentioned, she had to cycle 3 kilometres, cross a river on a boat and ride another 2 kilometres to reach her degree college. In rainy seasons, she doesn’t go to college. We don’t find doctors in primary health care centres. People in KBK Districts (Koraput-Balangir-Kalahandi) migrate to the neighbouring states in search of work and if they do not, they die of hunger. Womens are raped at a frequency more than ever. Patel (with the aid of his secretary Mr. V.P. Menon) had painstakingly integrated more than 500 provinces in a span of few years to integrate the present day India and now it is being divided just to get few more votes in the next election.

India has made progress in the economic front (thanks to the ingenuity of Mr Manmohan Singh and the confidence Mr. PV Narsimha Rao had in him, else we would still have been rotting in Nehruvian policies) but the growth has not percolated to the poorest layer of the society.

Surely, present day India is not what Gandhi, Nehru and Patel had dreamt. If after more than 60 years as a free country we are yet to solve problems have we not failed? And if we have failed, should we celebrate?

Not directly related to the topic but important to mention. The following is an excerpt from a Nehru’s speech in 1951 at a UNESCO conference in Delhi:

“The quality of men who are selected by these modern democratic methods of adult franchise gradually deteriorates because of lack of thinking and noise of propaganda…..The voter reacts to sound and to the din, he reacts to repetition and he produces either a dictator or a dumb politician who is insensitive. Such a politician can stand all the din in the world and still remain standing on his two feet and therefore, he gets selected in the end because the others have collapsed because of the din”

I wonder how prophetic Nehru was.