INDIA 2030 – A Scary Outlook Forms

It’s been about 5 years since I wrote a piece. Which, in a way is a good thing. Nothing poked enough, enough that I had to get up and write. Today, that changed. I feel anguish, pain, and a general sense of hopelessness.

In 2015, as a gullible sophomore, I wrote an essay trying to form a general sense of what the country would be like in 2020. It exuded confidence in our future as a nation, it put faith in the people, it imagined a powerful country built by, and for the people. An Industrious, hard-working and honest population. Governed by fallible but somewhat sincere and honest representatives.

2020 did turn out to be somewhat along those lines, the idea of India as a global power was gathering steam, entrepreneurship was on the rise, middle class incomes were improving, health awareness was increasing, and there was a general sense of positivity amongst the populace.

Today that positivity is puff. A series of incidents over the past year have proven, that the political class of today is equally, if not more, corrupt, deceitful, immoral, and insensitive than the ones from our past. We are still that country where Nambi Narayanan was ostracised. We are still that country where Nirbhaya was raped and murdered. We are still that country where Aditya Sachdeva was shot dead for overtaking a politician’s car, and the accused acquitted.

Our justice system is broken and serves the whims of politicians. The government today is all smoke and mirrors. There is no honesty and zero accountability, just a lot of heart-thumping and Rah-Rah. Every question is answered with anecdotes, allegations, and past references. The parliament is supposed to procedurally run this country, in the present, not reference and catalog the past. The failure of one does not justify the failure of another. Amongst all this loud-mouthing, blame-shifting, and baselining, it’s the common man who is left holding the mixed pot of truth, lies and outright deceit.

Every tyrant did it in the name of the broader good, and the public accepted. They know well that they need the support of the masses, so every misdeed is justified by referencing the larger good, the past, or a bunch of pseudo-reforms for the future, anything that makes the wrongdoing procedural rather than personal. We would do well to remember that it is personal. Imagine being in the place of that honest, hard-working girl, being raped and beaten, knowing that her perpetrators would continue living respected lives. Imagine being in the place of Aditya, shot, fighting for your life, knowing that the shooter would scoot free. Imagine being Nambi, giving up on every comfort for your nation, and a bunch of good-for-nothing policemen frame you as a traitor. Imagine that anguish, and the smoke mirrors start to break. We are a failed people, to everyone who gave their honest work for this nation, and got death and injustice in return. A few stories come out, there are plenty others. The victims fought and perished as we went about our daily lives.

It is not our responsibility to fight for justice, it is our right as a victim that justice be delivered. If it is my duty to work, add value to the GDP, and pay my taxes, it is your job as my elected and paid representatives, to ensure that my rights are delivered.

A population forced out on the roads for justice? What got us here? A thoroughly corrupt political class, their morals and humanity in a bottomless pit. Accentuating that is the fact that our police grow a spine only while harassing us, anything significant capitulates to the colloquial “pressure from the top”.

Today, as we celebrate our 78th Independence Day, I am scared. Scared of what the next 5 years will bring. Don’t expect me to love a country where my life depends on the whims of an illiterate goon / a dirty politician / a rich brat. Don’t expect me to help build that country. Don’t expect me to cheer for it.

Don’t Celebrate, we don’t have that right, yet. Question, question what we have become, and where we are going. The fight for freedom from political tyranny is yet to come.