Rebooting India

Its India's 69th Independence day, I  just got  back from a flag hoisting ceremony where fiery patriotism was unfurled by school children.  On my way , I encountered young men on bikes speeding, hooting , making cat calls and waving our national flag. Excited teens riding without helmets ! I rang up my daughter and told her to stay indoors. So is patriotism a licence to hooliganism or is it like everything else just a mockery of being free and independent!

This is  the sad reality that we face today. Women who form 50% of the population of our country don't feel they are equal citizens. We have to tell our daughters to be safe rather than hope for a change in the patriarchal mindset.

 Last week courting couples in Allahabad were subjected to humiliation by the moral brigade and cops in Mumbai dragged out romantic pairs from hotels on grounds of causing" public indecency" . The  Indian State doesn't think its citizens are mature enough to decide  for themselves about whether they should  watch porn, whom they should  love and how they ought to display their love. We are told to stop eating certain food, our movies are censored and our children are told how they should lead  their lives. There was more freedom of thought in the past then there is now! Is this an example of progress? We are tired of hearing empty rhetoric  announced every year on this day from the Red Fort. Shouldn't the government be doing better things to bring in a change? What about tackling  some real issues like Administrative, Police and Judicial reforms.

The monsoon session of parliament has just got adjourned sine die. Crores have been spend with barely any legislative gain. TV audiences were  fed chaotic scenes from  the parliament. Abuses along with mikes, chairs, papers and  files were hurled at each other. It's always games of hate politics that are played. The legislators  are always a reflection of the aam admi who voted for them. The present government in spite of their lofty promises of "Acche Din" is yet to deliver.

In spite of all this hulla about India becoming an economic super power, our per capita income continues to remain the lowest even among  the BRICS countries. I  buy my veggies like they were priced in gold while  the farmers  producing them continue to commit suicide. There has to be something seriously wrong with the system!

The heaps of garbage in every street corner is like a slap across the face of the concept of" Smart City "being proposed by the authorities.70% of sewage in our country goes untreated. Streets get flooded after every rain. Citizens lack basic civic sense and are insensitive to breaking traffic laws. We are  just apathetic spectators of this great Tamasha land listening to desh bhakti geet and forwarding WhatsApp patriotism.

Will things change? Are we waiting for a complete shutdown before we reboot ?My bitterness is compounded today  when I see the predicament this nation faces on its 69th Independence day.

This post has being inspired by #Edition 78 of Indispire: We have completed 68 years of Independence! Rapes,Women Security,Terrorist Attacks,Poverty,Scams,Corruption,Reservation,LGBT Community Rights,Transparency.. They still are a Big Question on Us! SO Are we REALLY independent??