Couple of days ago, I was watching the movie Krantiveer. For those who
may not have seen it, allow me to give you a brief update. Nana
Patekar, plays a man called Pratap, who has no aim or ambition in life.
However, he is a good man at heart, and his observations, are acerbic,
honest, and brutally truthful. The movie details incidents, which make
Pratap from a man of no vision to a man with a mission and vision
statement (if I may use that term). The movie isn't a master piece, but
Nana Patekar's fiery acting, is just breathtaking. The observances he
makes, are stark and without any sugarcoating. Of particular note is
the outburst when a woman is screaming for male help as two male thugs
try forcing her into prostitution. The other, and IMO by far a more
powerful speech is at the end, delivered at Kranti Maidan, when he
rightly points out our inherent deficiences. Although some parts of the
monologue are heavily jignositic, it must not take away from the more
poignant moments of the scene. It is simply brilliant.



Anyway, after watching Krantiveer, I sat back and I thought to myself,
we as Indians haven't changed a bit. We boast about our culture, our
family values, our "morality", our this and that, yet we are second in
the world with AIDS, have largest amount of illiterates in the world,
is home to a conflict that has taken over 60 years, yet shows no sign
of resolution and much more. We are world leaders in many areas, but
not all of them are ones to be proud of. For every Narayana Murthy, we
have a Phoolan Devi, for every Ambani, Tata, Birla, we have a Laloo
Prasad Yadav, Jagdish Tytler, Shibu Soren. Is this something I look at
and say, I am proud to be Indian??



60 years ago, on August 15th
1947, Shri Jawaharlal Nehru said those immortal words in the
Constituent Assembly "Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and
now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in
full measure, but very substantially ... The achievement we celebrate
today is but a step, an opening of opportunity, to the greater triumphs
and achievements that await us. Are we brave enough and wise enough to
grasp this opportunity and accept the challenge of the future". Our
freedom, as Amit Varma so often notices, can sometimes be very
superficial. See this for more details. It is sad to note that while India's Constitution in
Article 19(1) provides Fundamental Rights, it applies various
restrictions in 19(2), with vague sounding definitions as "morality",
"decency" etc. Contrast this to the American Bill of Rights, namely the
First Amendment, stating "Congress shall make no law respecting an
establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or
abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the
people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a
redress of grievances". Thats it. Nothing about morality, decency,
public good, no Kantian ideals there. Just a simple rule. Is it any
wonder why the call America the free country?



However, let us
not rush into blame the Constitution for everything bad that has
happened to India, neither should we blame the politicians. The
Preamble of the Indian Constitution reads "We the People of the
Sovreign ... Republic of India". Then why, when some scandal breaks,
when we see riots, when violence breaks out, when India loses the
cricket, why oh why do we friggin blame other people. Sure, those in
power abuse their responsibility more often then not, so why the hell
do we not say, "ENOUGH!!" We keep on voting the same or similar jackass
to power, and then sit back and say "Politics has ruined our nation". I
ask you this, has politics ruined USA? Australia? UK? New Zealand? If
these countries are "untainted" by politics, on what basis of evidence
can we say politics has ruined India. We are a nation of one billion
people. Yes it is hard to represent them, as the demographics of US,
Australia etc, are vastly different from the demographics of India.
However, we Indians are used to slavery. As Pratap says in Krantiveer,
we enjoyed firstly being enslaved by Kings, then the British, and now
we love being enslaved by politicians. We revel in our ability to bend
and evade rules, we bask in the glory of being able to pay off a cop,
although we may have committed a serious traffic offence. Heck, if
middle class and upper-middle class elitists like us, don't give a
royal damn about the country, why on God's green earth should those,
who don't even know if they are going to get two square meals a day do
so? We blame poverty for all our ills, but what have we done to uproot
the causes? The best way of eradicating poverty is by redistribution of
wealth, and embrace of market reforms. However, we are lazy to
implement that, but are active at crying ourselves hoarse.



One
may argue, that all countries fight have their own fair share of
problems. I concur. However, I am yet to see a country, so laid-back
about its problems, that rather than facing them head on, we'd rather
go to another country, and settle there for a "better future". All I
say is, well with that attitude, we might as well invite a foreign
ruler back. Or rather, should we get the UNSC to rule over us, with each member of the P5 taking turns over 2 years??

Tags: India Krantiveer Nana Patekar Pratap Sugarcoating