India : Democracy or Banana Republic ?

Today a newspaper carried a very small news on the latest money spending of Ms. Mayawati on account of an advertisement more so to advertise her own party than anything else. To project the growth of the state UP (At the bottom on the growth ladder. Worse than Manipur & Mizoram), a full page advertisement was published in almost all dailies with her highness's photo at the top with an oxymoron just below her photograph: 'BSP: An Significant Step Towards Growth'. It took around 20 hours for the PR department of the government to distinguish between a vowel and a consonant and realized their mistake of putting 'an' instead of 'a' before the word 'significant'. Hence the whole advertisement was again published on all the newspapers with the correct grammar the next day. Let me not talk about the 5 crores extra that the UP government spend on this correction again, when the initial spend of an equal amount is questionable to begin with.

This unreasonable spending of public money on personal gains and the gross absence of accountability is what driving our country towards a banana republic on fast pace. Along with creatures like Mayawati, there are millions others in society who contribute handsomely on this path to glory. There is this Panchayat called Khaf panchayat, governed and run by the typical under or null educated loonies of Hariyana, who think themselves to be a notch higher than our supreme court or our constitution even. They believe the fundamental rites assigned by our constitution to individuals is a thing not be taken too seriously. They have their own set of rules to punish whom they consider are culprits. The poor couple who were sentenced to death by one such colony of buffoons, for getting married in the same gotra, learned this the hard way or the noose way. When Hariyana high court finally send few of these scoundrels to gallows for their mischievous act, the other clowns of the panchayat had the audacity to stage a massive rally against this decision and openly challenging the court's decision in the process making a mockery of our constitution. The Huda government in Hariyan is less than bothered for this reaction looking at the prospective vote bank these loonies and their community carry.

When it comes to cast based discrimination, no body can even imagine beating UP, much less beating them. Even the dogs around that state are categorised as Dalit or higher class. In one such occasion when a dalit dog kept on barking for sometime in night it ended up disturbing the sleep of few higher class dogs, oops individuals. As the canine was far from their reach to be punished the whole anger was zeroed in on the dalit owner of the dalit dog. Hence a bunch of these higher class thugs gheraoed the dalit hut and set it on fire, to show: a dalit dog should behave like one. The poor girl and her father were burned alive along with the hut leaving their dalit dog all alone to face the trauma.

Aren't these signs of a banana republic? Everyday the rites of a common citizen being crushed by someone or other at the position of power without thinking about the repercussions, as it is evident that there won't be any repercussion. Daughter of a minister do have the authority to pull out a fully booked plain from service and employ it in her own wish. What all the helpless ticket holders might have done, doesn't require any explanation. IPL seems larger than individual citizen's interest. Breaking the traffic rules is one thing but boasting upon your identity after that to the traffic cop with sentences like "Jaan ta hai main kaun hun, mera baap kaun hai?" is another height. Couldn't someone inform them that we are least interested to known them or their father or care least even if they themselves or their fathers play golf with the president of India over the weekends, as long as they are within the rules of the land. From minister's daughter to the local corporater's biker son all think the nation is their respective father's property. I am sorry to say it is actually not.

As V.S.Naipaul said once: These are the signs of a decaying society. I couldn't agree more on his definition of we as a society. We are decaying and decaying at an alarming speed. Guys who would struggle to define themselves alone are seen roaming around thumping their authorities which their fathers are bestowed with. Manu Sharma with the power of his money did managed to almost got away with his heinous crime by bribing the witnesses to turn hostile. Thanks to all those media coverage and those candle light vigils that prompted the case to be reopened and Manu Sharma sent to the place where he belongs by the supreme court. In the mid of all this his parole was alleged to be taken on priority as if he is a freedom fighter and only has to scrapped when he was found boozing in a pub somewhere in Delhi during his parole period. Ask the authorities about their generosity and promptness towards Manuji, you would get nothing as an answer.

Raj Thackrey is another classic case of social causality. His definition of a country and it's rules are vastly different from what the constitution has made us to believe over the years. While others just misused their power, this spoiled brat though to go a step further by going physical. Just like a road side goon his beliefs doesn't go beyond all those Maar-Peet. Surprisingly he calls himself a leader and face of the masses. At least three dozen cases pending against him in various courts and police stations, but this chap is ever defiant as he is always, just because he has got immense faith on our judiciary that no justice would be delivered.

Writing all our abilities to make ourselves a banana republic would need few tons of paper and might be needing more at the end of it. You search for one, you would come across millions of examples. Starting from the big fish in some ministry to the Sarpanch, all are corrupt to the core. Last thing expected from these jokers is some sense of national feeling. All they are interested is how to make some quick black money on any opportunity the all mighty provides. Doesn't matter if it is as small as building few tube wells for the generation thirsty populace or settling the thousands affected from Tsunami. Only the hope in our holy books and faith on the 'Yada Yada Hi Dharmasya' thing that gives us a feeling that it is about time lord Krishna incarnated in some avatar will get down and set the equation straight or else none can save us from becoming the world's largest banana republic very soon. God save our grand children.