IDEAL INDIA - Apeksha Jain “Imagine theres no countries It isnt hard to do Nothing to kill or die for And no religion too Imagine all the people Living life in peace You may say that Im a dreamer But Im not the only one I hope someday youll join us And the world will be as one” ― John Lennon, Imagine What John Lennon envisions for the world, I envision almost the same for India. India is the biggest democracy in the world. True. But is it the best democracy? Obviously the answer is no, not at all. In fact, it is not even close to perfect. Democracy is the ‘Rule of the People, By the People and For the People.’ But in India, the case is the exact opposite. In India, it is the rule of the MLAs and the MPs. These MLAs and MPs are elected so that they can cater to the needs of the common man. The funny part is that the enthusiasm of these politicians to fulfill each and every demand of the common man is limited only till the time elections get over. Once they come into power, this enthusiasm rapidly gets transformed into greed; greed to uplift their own financial condition at the cost of the welfare of all those to whom they had promised a better and improved lifestyle. And what is even funnier is that we, who have been deceived, quietly witness everything without protesting. This is the first and the biggest obstacle in the path of development of India. In my notion of an Ideal India, people are bold, fearless and confident enough to stand up against all the injustices done to them. Indians are self reliant. They have the courage to fight even against the government, if required, for their rights. In my Ideal India, Indians are demanding; they demand justice and transparency. They are aware of their rights and duties. They are aware that voting is not the sole duty that they have to fulfill; rather the actual responsibility is to keep a check on the government and see to it that they fulfill all their demands and work for the betterment of the whole country. To achieve this goal, the simplest method is to spread awareness amongst the people. More than a quarter of our population is unaware of the rights that they have such as the Right to Information Act. Due to this unawareness, people have become gullible and are easily deceived by the government. They are unaware of even the fundamental rights that they possess. The heritage and the culture are the most treasured jewel of any country. No country can afford to lose them. Unfortunately, the youth today is losing onto the traditions and culture of India while copying the West. India cannot afford this. They have to understand that no tree can grow, let alone grow stronger, without its roots. The picture of Ideal India that I have in my mind includes people modernizing and competing with the world while sticking onto their own culture and the best way to achieve this is to start inculcating the culture and the traditions of India from the time that a child in India starts his education. “So India’s problem turns out to be the world’s problem. What happened in India has happened in God’s name. The problem’s name is God.” Salman Rushdie India is known for its unity in diversity. It is known for its harmony amongst the people of all religion. Yet even today we have Hindu-Muslim riots and clashes between people of different religions. My perception of an Ideal India is a country where religion becomes the reason for unity amongst Indians and not the cause for riots and brawls. People have to understand that principles and the basic ideologies of no two religions are different. All they have to understand is that all of us share one common identity, and that identity is that we are all Indians. Do you know what the saddest part of the people of India is? It is that when we are asked about our identity, the first thing that comes to our mind is religion. You might come across various answers to the question “who are you?” like “I am a Sikh”, “I belong to the community of Gujaratis”,“I am a Muslim” but rarely do you meet someone who proudly says that “I am an Indian.” Believing in God is good, but fighting with people with the justification that we are fighting for our religion is absurd because no religion promotes violence. “Nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced” - Albert Einstein For any country to function effectively and smoothly, its law and law enforcement techniques should be proper. Just like Albert Einstein said passing laws without a proper set up in order to enforce the law is of no use. India faces the biggest challenge in this aspect. The law of our country is so slow that nowadays people don’t want to demand justice because they know that in the process, a lot of their money, energy and time will be wasted. Huge piles of files of pending cases can be seen in every court. For a person to gain justice, it takes a long time perhaps even 15-20 years. In many of the cases, the judge is very well aware of who the main culprit is, but due to lack of evidence and witnesses, the culprit is set free to commit more crimes. The judiciary who is expected to provide justice to the people, nowadays under the influence of power and politicians, has started supporting the culprit. No country can prosper without the cooperation of its citizens. If the citizens are not ready to abide by the rules that have been formulated by the government, no matter how strong the law enforcement is, crimes will never decrease. So, the blame of increase in the crime rates cannot be solely taken up by the government, but people are also responsible for it. There is neither fear nor respect in the minds of people regarding the law. This can definitely not be the scenario in an ideal country. In any ideal country the law enforcement plans and techniques should be so strong that victim gets justice within the least possible time. The judgment of the law should always be in the favor of the truth. There should be no influence, what-so-ever of politics and political leaders on the judgment of the court. All the law enforcing bodies and Indians should stick to the motto “Satyamev Jayate”. When the law becomes stronger, crimes such as corruption, rapes and theft reduces and so do criminals. “Education is not a preparation for life; education is life itself.” -John Dewey Education enlightens a person. It provides a person with rational thinking and helps him to differentiate right from wrong. In my image of an Ideal India, each and every single Indian is educated. The dream goal of “Education for all” is achieved. Reservation might be a boon for the backward class people, but according to me it is a poison which is killing their capability. When a student is getting admission into the IIT’s and GMC’s with a score of 35%, why would they work hard and give their 100%? In my opinion, if the government wants to give a head start or a boost to people who have been denied opportunities in the past, free education along with free coaching and all the study material is a better option as compared to reservation, but giving them seats instead of those who actually deserve it, is denying the opportunities to the people in general category. An ideal country is simply where people live in peace and harmony, walk with dignity, where truth and justice exists and people are willing to stand up for themselves, where everybody gets an opportunity to get educated and everybody strives harder to achieve their aims and perfection. To sum up, my picture of ideal India is quite similar to that of Rabindranath Tagore. “Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high Where knowledge is free Where the world has not been broken up into fragments By narrow domestic walls Where words come out from the depth of truth Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit Where the mind is led forward by thee Into ever-widening thought and action Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.”
Posted on: Sun, 27 Oct 2013 10:01:51 +0000
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