Politics is polluting religion today even as religion pervades politics. Is this a secular democracy after all and is this the face of religion? Are these the leaders of the polity who know neither religion nor politics save that which pertains to self-interest, possession and power? Whither sacrifice for the nation in their blood and in their being? Whither enlightenment that ought to be the qualifying precondition to becoming a Minister who, by definition, is supposed to minister to the people's needs and administer in accordance to that which conduces to their best welfare? And who will lead these Ministers? The Chief Minister? The Prime Minister? The Minister-in-charge of a monastery? Who? Where are the men of character who will don these roles responsibly that are now in the hands of incompetent instruments of popular mandate and men devoid of the moral fibre to run monasteries without compromising on truth and the ideals the spiritual movements that they lead represent?
It is an enlightened citizenry that we want and it is education of an enlightened and an enlightening kind that will over the decades build up the civic consciousness till the people feel empowered to assume the responsibility of the nation and lead the country with a sense of mature direction and vision.
Governmental portfolios have fallen into malefic hands and the nation needs a salvaging of the situation. But the path to progress is littered with the feudal remnants of the past and their democratic derivatives are ruling the roost using the people's mandate to selfish advantage and ruining the lives of a billion beggared individuals in the process.
Shall the polity be tolerating indefinitely this national betrayal by the powers that be? No, such a fate cannot be for a country with an abiding spiritual intelligence and a heritage that ever tends to lift mass consciousness upwards despite the surface degradation of the times. India has but partially awakened in the first seven decades of freedom but she shall awake more fully in the decades to follow. Within the next two generations a new polity will surface that will sweep aside the present perfidies and firmly navigate national affairs along the direction long set forth by our seers of yore and by the prophets of patriotism whose blood and toil won us our freedom, albeit, a truncated one at that.
But what of it? We are a free nation and we shall build on the foundations of what has been best bequeathed to us in recent times and from our hoary heritage which we must preserve and draw inspiration from as we advance into the future of uncharted terrain. Jai Hind!
Written by Sugata Bose
No comments:
Post a Comment