Gana Sangha up in smoke

WE, THE PEOPLE OF INDIA, having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a SOVEREIGN SOCIALIST SECULAR DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC and to secure to all its citizens:

JUSTICE, social, economic and political;

LIBERTY of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship;

EQUALITY of status and of opportunity;

and to promote among them all

FRATERNITY assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity and integrity of the Nation;

IN OUR CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY this twenty-sixth day of November, 1949, DO HERE BY ADOPT, ENACT AND GIVE TO OURSELVES THIS CONSTITUTION.

So I woke up this morning and my head was splitting like there was a iron wedge sandwiched between the two hemispheres of my brain. My back was stiff and I was in dire need of water. I was hung-over from the pounding beats and glasses that emptied themselves effortlessly into my belly. I was glad to be born in a country with conservative ideology on the face and grimy, rebellious and wide open aspirations on the inside.

I thought of taking a walk after my lunch break, so I went to see a friend in sector-18, right opposite my place of work. It was a brilliant afternoon, the Sun was out and there still was a tad bit of winter in the air. I sat in one of the gardens in the sector, to smoke and wait for my friend to come meet me. Two boys Gana and Sangha were on the swings looked five year olds to me and of course they frowned at my smoking but I didn’t seem to care. Sangha, the taller one said with a start as he took a deep sweep swinging himself into the sky, “So dude, tomorrow is the Republic Day right, how cool is that! It’s gonna be awesome watching the parade with my dad.” Gana looking straight into nothing in particular replied, “Phew, dude is the parade all that matters? You know I haven’t once woken up to see that happen, it’s the same thing over and over again, each year. I just love to see our President do some real physical exercise once in a year on the news. Also it’s not like we are celebrating our Independence or anything. All we’re doing is commemorating the day our constitution was implemented back in ‘50 after the central elections. 26th Jan was the chosen date because it was always believed to be the day of our independence by the Congress, much prior to our actually being and Independent nation. Before the constitution came into play our country was governed by the Govt. of India Act, 1935. So even though we became independent in ‘47 we still continued to be a British Dominion or a commonwealth nation, per se. So Republic Day is all about celebrating the Indian Constitution, which till date continues to conform and morph itself into something, which is well accepted by all our politicians and bureaucrats.”

That’s when I get a text from my friend that he’s gonna take a while to get to the park as his, folks were talking to him about his drug problem even though they used to do in back in the day but stopped because it suddenly became a very bad thing. I figured it was alright and that I’d stick around anyways, it’s not everyday one finds five year olds talk about the country in a playground. Quite uncanny to be honest. Sangha interjected with an irritable tone, “What’s with my swing, it’s squeaks all the time. One of these days it’s gonna break with all this rust. Why can’t the government do anything about it, I don’t want to be as old as that smoker dude (he shifted his head towards me) to be able to swing properly. Anyway it’s probably not in the constitution. You right though, this whole business of being a Democratic Republic, kinda gets confusing doesn’t it? I mean if we are a democracy, then doesn’t that inherently make us a Republic as well. You know I heard that there were republic states in India dating back to the 6th century BC. It was quite like our names; and was all about community governance and people power. It’s great though we’ve sustained 62 whole years all on the laws drafted by ourselves. We are on the global map, and one of the fastest rising economies of the world. We have been going through a consistent phase of economic and trade liberalization and enlist in the G20 group of economies. President Obama is baking our permanent seat in the security council of the UN, our IT sector has boomed, we also house one of the biggest media industries, attract more and more tourists every year, our military forces are adopting newer technology and also nuclear capable. I think it is great to have a constitution such as ours.”

Things were getting interesting now so I thought I could be an active participant of the conversation. I said, “But what about the scams, the inflation and the corrupt politics?” This is when Gana jumped of his swing, sipped some water from the garden hose nearby and went to the see-saw. He looked straight at me with much scorn and said, “You come here and smoke in front of us kids, you don’t even belong to a children’s park and then you ask these mundane questions. Just STFU and listen if you care or else leave.” I sat quietly as though someone had just thrown a bucket of water on me. “This is the problem, we like to make the laws because we can. Because our constitution is imperfect and has to change with time, so we make amends or call it amendments, blah. We banned smoking in public places because it offended some people and yet it’s so rampant. We never stopped selling tobacco products because it forms a major part of the economy, it gives people jobs and also because a lot of the rule making people love to smoke as much as the common man. We make stupid rules and then we feel proud about it all because of the Article 368, opening as, “Notwithstanding anything in this Constitution, Parliament may in exercise of its constituent power amend by way of addition, variation or repeal any provision of this Constitution in accordance with the procedure laid down in this article.” I quote “We can therefore safely say that the Indian federation will not suffer from the faults of rigidity or legalism. Its distinguished feature is that it is a flexible federation,” as said by Bhimarao Ramji Ambedkar after drafting the constitution. We’ve had 94 amendments ever since and a ton more of scams. That’s what we did in the past 62 years. Also, after having realized that we are a nation with the largest number of religions and a myriad of cast differences and in dire need of an economic boost, in ’76 we went ahead and made the 42nd amendment, making us a secular and socialist nation as well. Ever since then we’ve made reservations for minorities and created more caste differences than the starts in the winter sky. We are in the G20 and 2G is spectrum is spread wide across our innocent faces. Our GDP in USD is 1,430,020 against a population of 1,180,251,000, while China has four times the GDP and the same population. We are making great gains in terms of foreign exchange and free markets, our entrepreneurs are being lauded world over for their excellence and superior economic revelations although we can’t afford to buy onions. It is common parlance to say that in India one can get necessity, luxury and pleasure for the same amount; onions, petrol and beer all for Rs 65. Our military has been waging war in the North with our neighbours and also being despised by those whom they protect. We are adopting newer military technology and sending the worst trained forces, the CRPF to the Naxal infested jungles.” Sangha now joined Gana on the see-saw. Now the see-saw made the squeaky noise adding to the rhythm and flow of their conversation. Gana continued, “The laws of the constitution were made for them as well and we cannot send in the armed forces for it will be genocide against your own. Chidambaram, has repeatedly talked about dealing with the situation with maturity and peace, when internal communal attacks have brought down the system to a standstill among many states. We now stand guilty to have failed to provide justice to the oppressed Naxals and Maoists. We are a nation where we have one law for all and yet every state has it’s own separatist group trying to prove a point and showing us the flaws. Obama will not rid us of the differences that cripple us from within. If tomorrow America has a tiff with another country they would still go ahead and pound it with bombs like they did with Afghanistan and Iraq.” Now I really felt like lighting another smoke but refrained, as I thought this kid might just burn me with my own lighter.

I felt distant from all this talk for a while my thoughts were drifting on to a different aspects altogether. “… but the government is cleaning up isn’t it. I mean they sacked two ministers, Kalmadi and Raja. They are demolishing the Adarsh building, they’ve punished the Sukna Lt Gen Rath.” I realised Sangha was talking now. “So it’s not all that bad. You and I have a right to education now, so imagine in case we were born in families which could not afford much, we could still get some education and not resort to child labour. Even though I’d have to agree that some of our leaders need a lot more learning than us, what’s with Kalamadi welcoming Princes Diana to the Commonwealth games, man was that hilarious! Yet see our agencies have got it all in position. The Radia tapes, the Swiss bank-IAS money hold up, so I mean yeah scams are happening all the time, but then it’s not like we’re not doing anything about them right? I mean how often do we see the media talking about how bad it, itself is. What is TRP based news and how it targets people first and then makes agencies dig deeper to see if there is actually something wrong or not. The best is when films show how corrupt the media is and what goes on behind the scenes, how a story is sensationalised and they serve I out on a silver platter (screen?) for the public to chew, knowing that they will not once sit back and think that film and movies are also an integral part of the media industry. How often do you see Barkha Dutt, the same woman whose footage of reporting in the Kargil war we saw years ago to have been uncovered as a middleman in 2G scam? I mean the Radia tapes, what a bust it was. 300 days of tapped phone line and so much critical information, Ratan Tata, Mukesh Ambani. Even the self proclaimed food critique Vir Sanghvi, how I wait for him to write a book called ‘Time for some transparency’. But then see how they all end up paying consciences for thinking that the constitution is a joke and will never be implemented to the extent of their being caught. Subversion of will happens all the time and cannot be avoided. Bleh.. it’s a good afternoon and I think I’m going to get myself an icecream.”

I could not believe that people were in so much distress and discontent about the goings on with the Republic that we are today, so I had to blurt out what I felt about the Republic Day and said, “Alright you guys are right about most of the things and I am surprised to see that you are more aware of the meaning of being a republic and how not to confuse it with being Independent or a Democracy. Even the youth, such as I, which our current leaders claim to be the future are clueless about it and do not feel responsible to be aware. Yet what I don’t understand is why are you guy so negative about how the nation is functioning? It all still figures out just fine. The onion and fuel prices are not in the hands of the government and of course whatever control they have they are exercising it to the greatest possible extent. We are facing a lot of problems on the inside and yet if weren’t any good I’m sure we couldn’t have been recognized as one of the fastest growing nations globally. It is the urban dystopia in which each one of us finds our own utopia. We do not have to look any further or into what the other nations are upto. Our matters are our own and we shall solve them all, one by one as and when possible. I think, for a change we should stop caring about what’s going wrong and concentrate on what we can do right without the larger repercussions.”

Gana and Sangha ignored my comment as though I never existed and started walking towards the Verka booth to get and ice-cream. Just then my friend came dragging his feet on the ground and squinting his eyes from the sun. He said, “Hey man you know who’s coming for the parade as chief guest this time? It’s Susilo Bambbang Yudhoyono, the Indonesian President. It’s gonna be pretty explosive eh? Get it?” I looked all puzzled “Man you don’t get American humour, your lame as shit. And why are you smoking in front of my house, I just got a lecture from my mom, we gotta get out of here.” We got into my car and rolled out onto the open streets of Chandigarh. Our streets with no one to bother us or stop us from anything. If we broke a law, we probably just might end up paying some fine and that’s that. There is no constitution in my world. Laws are enforced on the whims of a few and dropped on the whims of others. This Republic Day I will be thanking the Government for the Holiday, sit at home and relax. Jai Hind (sorry to be religiously biased but it’s still a lot better than Jai ho!)

Gaurav Sharma