V. Ramani's web I AM, THEREFORE I THINK

As we enter the 26th year of the 21st century, let me wish all my readers and blog subscribers a very happy and fulfilling New Year. I wish, like the Phoenix, to give new life to my blog page. My effort in the new year will be to sustain my writing of the past thirteen years and more. I started blogging in 2011 when I realised that my attempts to induce newspaper editors to carry my pieces were cutting no ice. Digital communication was then still in its teething phase. But I realised that I had to self-publish if I wanted my views on the world to reach a larger audience. The bug finally caught me in early 2014, when I started to publish my blogs on a more or less regular fortnightly basis. Not only was I able to tap readership on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, my blogs were also published regularly in the Financial Express between 2015 and 2017, thanks to its editor, the late Sunil Jain. Since 2020, the frequency of my blogs has fluctuated widely, whether you put it down to other preoccupations, writer’s block or sheer laziness. There are also times when a blogger wonders whether her/his views really matter at all to the world at large. This feeling is enhanced when I observe that the advice of sage commentators on social, economic and political matters are either derided or just ignored by those at the top echelons of power and influence. But, ultimately, a blogger perseveres out of sheer love for creating the written word and for stating clearly what s/he stands for.

The advent of the New Year is the time for making resolutions to improve one’s life and contributing to society. These serve as an impetus to make us introspect on our past thoughts, words and actions and how we can make our country and the world a better, more harmonious, happy place to live in. So here I go with my three bits.

Firstly, all discourse must be civilised. What came to my mind as we ushered out 2024 are the acrimonious exchanges in the hallowed precincts of our Parliament, with distressing scenes of confrontation, verging on the physical, in the recently concluded winter session. What used to be seen in some state legislatures has now reared its ugly head in the highest legislative body of the country. As it is, the level of public (and parliamentary) discourse has witnessed a steep drop over the years, leaving those in the post-60 age group with wistful memories of the gentle cut and thrust skills of stalwarts like Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Indrajit Gupta, Nath Pai and Madhu Limaye. The passing of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seems to signify the end of an era of decency, humility and civility. The rapid spread of social media has spawned an era of vitriolic aggression, with the use of new technology tools to purvey even falsehoods as genuine facts. Add to this the verbal public attacks on individuals and groups, as well as political opponents, with ineffectual and inadequate restraint by constitutional bodies, and the distressing scenario is complete. The guardians of law pick and choose what writing or utterance needs to be criminally proceeded against: repeated offenders get away lightly while innocent comments land those voicing them in interminable criminal suits.

Letting go of the past is the second essential condition for a harmonious society. We humans are generally fixated on the perceived injustices perpetrated against us in our individual lives. This has now been magnified to the social sphere, a phenomenon increasingly evident in India as well as in the world. Historical grievances, real or imagined, of hundred year or thousand year vintage, dominate present day discussions. There is the wistful harkening back to an imaginary golden age, when the land was awash with prosperity and glory, leading to the refashioning of history. Governments also get obsessed with magnifying their current achievements in comparison with the apparently dismal record of predecessor regimes. This creates an acrid environment where all the ills of the present day are sought to be visited on the heads of a different religious/ethnic community or long-deceased persons. We forget that turning backwards to gaze at the past prevents us from pursuing the path to a better future.

As citizens of a vast, diverse land, our effort at all times must be to uphold the values enshrined in that peerless document, the Constitution of India. The principles of justice, equality, liberty and fraternity are the beacons that must guide all our actions. I really wish the Constitutional values were embedded deep in all our hearts. How many citizens have reflected on the wisdom in the words of the Preamble and on the inalienable fundamental rights guaranteed to them by the Constitution? Trying to pin the blame on each other for subverting the Constitution, as our political parties have sought to do in recent days, is a meaningless exercise. Each of us must introspect on our daily thoughts, words and actions and assess how closely we have structured our interactions in line with the principles enunciated in the Constitution. This applies particularly to those who have taken an oath at the beginning of their executive (political or administrative) careers to preserve and protect the Constitution. Yet, what do we see today? Bail applications are not heard for months on end, negating the individual’s right to liberty under Article 21 of the Constitution. Individual freedoms pertaining to what one eats, who can be one’s partner in life and exercising one’s right to profess, practice and propagate religion (not my words, but spelt out in black and white in Article 25 of the Constitution) are severely circumscribed by legislation enacted by state governments, using the proviso of reasonable restrictions on such activities. “Hate speech” directed at specific communities and calls to boycott goods sold by vendors of minority communities are increasingly heard. Directions from the Supreme Court have been required to get administrative authorities to move against such elements. The same administrations act with alacrity to demolish structures of persons from minority communities for various alleged offences, without following due process of law, drawing adverse comments from the Supreme Court. Investigative agencies launch criminal cases which drag on for years in Kafkaesque fashion. These cases go into a miraculous limbo when political opponents affirm their support to the ruling dispensation. One would certainly hope that, in the new year, officials act only on the dictates of the Constitution and the laws of the land drawing sustenance from it.

So, as we enter 2025, it is time to revisit the great poet Rabindranath Tagore’s unforgettable words from Gitanjali:

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.