OUR REPUBLICAN DREAM
originally was one of establishing a sovereign, independent, democratic, socialist-oriented, secular polity with true federal democracy and self-governance for social welfare and development given the prime place. It is essential to remember this vision of Mahatma Gandhi too: “I shall strive for a constitution, which will release India from all thralldom and patronage ... I shall work for an India in which the poorest shall feel that it is their country in whose making they have an effective voice; an India in which there shall be no high class and low class of people; an India in which all communities shall live in perfect harmony. There can be no room in such an India for the curse of untouchability or the curse of intoxicating drinks and drugs. Women will enjoy the same rights as men. …we shall be at peace with all the rest of the world, neither exploiting nor being exploited … All interests not in conflict with the interests of the dumb millions will be scrupulously respected, whether foreign or indigenous. … This is the India of my dreams… I shall be satisfied with nothing else.” Of course he was disappointed in his own life time and was finally liquidated by a fanatic. The point is eradication of poverty, illiteracy, unemployment, corruption and sundry social evils, which was his cherished ideal, still eludes realization and regrettably we still stand in the last row in the worldwide human development indices. May be Obama is scared of being overtaken by China and [us] India in economic surge but the fruits of such development, we see, have only gone to the rich and new middle classes and the bulk of the people still suffer. Rule of the law is more on the paper than in practice and the concentration of wealth detrimental to the common weal, condemned in no uncertain terms in our Constitution, is flourishing in its loathsome extravaganza. We are languishing in a coarse, corrupt and cruel capitalist State strutting in the guise of a socialist republic. Apart from the ever growing economic woes, staggering corruption, communalism, intolerance and hatred of the worst kind are dividing and decimating our people. Can we rest satisfied with such a state of affairs; should we not be up in arms to alleviate such misery and alter this disgusting situation to achieve the cherished ideals.
