By Rajdeep Sardesai
As a difficult and turbulent year draws to a close, here is a prayer for a ‘better’ India in 2022.
An India where our political leadership will walk the talk on issues of critical public importance. Where you can’t ask people to mask up, maintain physical distancing and strict discipline and yet choose to be personally reckless in not observing Covid protocols during election campaigns. Where you don’t claim premature ‘victory’ over a pandemic as a personal image building exercise but prepare instead for a long and arduous battle, where you keep science above superstition when dealing with a once in a lifetime calamity. Where the oxygen of winning elections must surely matter less than the number of oxygen plants you actually set up, where good governance matters more crafty politics.
An India where young resident doctors don’t have to hit the street to protest a delay in medical college admissions. Where there is no point in hailing hospital staff as ‘covid warriors’, engaging in ‘taali-thali bajao’ photo-ops and then denying them better working conditions: how many people are aware that post graduate medical admissions in the country have been delayed now by almost a year?
Where those who die of Covid are at least assured dignity in death, where Covid death numbers are accurately reported, where we don’t revere the Ganga as the ultimate holy river and then allow dozens of decomposed bodies to float in the river or be buried in the sand banks only because there is no place left to cremate the dead and then target the media when it exposes the grim reality.
Where governments are accountable to the citizens and parliament. Where parliament functions in a spirit of genuine bipartisanship and not as a notice board for only bulldozing government bills by firman and without discussion. Where ministers cant get away by claiming in parliament that they have no knowledge of migrant deaths caused by lockdowns, or indeed of job losses because of economic dislocation. Where the government can’t claim in court that the PM CARES Fund is not a public authority and hence cannot be brought under the purview of the Right to Information Act. Where it is my right to know how the thousands of crores raised in the name of the Fund have been spent in purchasing ventilators, vaccines and oxygen cylinders else the opacity threatens public trust.
An India where leaders don’t seek to divide us by pitting one religion against another. Where no religious or political leader from any community is allowed to get away with hate speech or incitement to violence. Where the atrocities of Aurangzeb in the seventeenth century should not determine the fate of the Indian Muslim in the twenty first. Where scars of past animosities can’t become the template for an India of the future. Where the electoral battle shouldn’t be over who rebuilds how many temples and places of worship but who builds how many quality schools and hospitals. Where Hinduism’s remarkable strength is seen to lie in its uniquely plural, inclusive traditions, not in seeking to mimic faiths driven by monotheistic beliefs. Where weaponising vigilante groups by allowing violent mobs to break into church halls is seen as a heinous criminal act that must lead to prosecution. Where the real battle is not between Hindu versus Hindutvawaadi but between constitutionalism versus anti constitutionalism. Where the Indian state must keep away from promoting any form of religious ritualism or intervening in personal freedoms. Where what we eat and drink, who we marry, what we wear must remain a matter of fierce individual choice.
An India where our borders are secured, where China and Pakistan aren’t allowed to tie us down into a ‘two front’ war, where national security isn’t entangled with viciously competitive domestic politics. Where an agitating Sikh farmer isn’t labelled a ‘Sikh terrorist’ or a Kashmiri student isn’t branded as ‘anti-national’. Where terrorism doesn’t resurface in Punjab or get caught in a bloodied cycle of oppression, alienation and violence in the Kashmir valley or where innocent labourers are shot dead by trigger happy armed forces in Nagaland. Where a robust civil society isn’t seen as a new frontier of ‘war’ and dissent isn’t criminalized.
An India where the health of the economy is not determined by the buoyant mood on Dalal Street as much as the deepening concerns over shrinking employment levels and falling incomes. Where no ‘V’ shaped economic recovery is possible until there is a revival in the struggling micro and small enterprises sector. Where rising inflation is reined in and fuel prices don’t consistently challenge Sir Don Bradman’s cricket average because of rampant profiteering by governments imposing unacceptably high taxes.
An India where governments realize that an entire generation of young students are victims of a widening digital divide in Covid times that needs urgent remedial measures. A recent survey shows that only 25 % of children enrolled in class 3 were able to read a simple sentence in 15 states across rural India. Did you know that 17 % of children in secondary schools have dropped out in this Covid period? According to the National Right to Education forum’s policy paper, around 10 million girls alone are at the risk of dropping out. Where with 33 lakh children reportedly malnourished, an emergency intervention is called for to meet the nutrition challenge. Where environment consciousness is not just confined to seminar chat-rooms but translates into concrete action in ensuring clean air and protecting dwindling forest cover.
Where the political executive respects institutional integrity and doesn’t misuse enforcement agencies to simply pulverize the opposition into submission. Where the process doesn’t become the punishment, where it cannot be that opposition leaders are raided just before an election but then quickly given a clean chit if they switch sides. Where a top actor’s son isn’t imprisoned on spurious drug charges if only to send a chilling message to other celebrities to fall in line, where outdated sedition laws are not enforced to intimidate a young climate change activist, where the police realize that their true allegiance is to the rule of law and not to their political bosses. Where it cannot be that the Supreme Court protects the life and liberty of a high profile news anchor but habeas corpus petitions of less known Indians are kept pending for years. Where inconvenient truths aren’t kept hidden in sealed envelopes.
An India where journalists realize that their professional duty is to ask questions of all but their primary task is to hold accountable those in power. Where we must all remember the golden words of the South African anti-apartheid icon Desmond Tutu who passed away this week: ‘If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor’. Happy New year!
(The writer is a senior journalist and author. mail : rajdeepsardesai522gmail.com )