By Vaibhav Bhalerao
Its 14th of April 2020 today and still we are not happy even though it is Bhim Jayanti. It is not because of the lock down due to pandemic of covid-19. The virus more dangerous than novel corona virus is the reason behind our restlessness. This is the virus of intolerance. This virus has damaged our democracy to such extent that if we want to utter a word, we need to think twice because somebody might totally miss our emotions and declare us as an ‘Anti-National’ or an ‘Urban Naxal’.
Freedom of speech and freedom of expression have just become mere words. Speaking truth is called as unlawful activity these days. The two independent pillars of democracy which are media and judiciary have become puppets in the hands of rulers. Real culprits roam freely and intellectuals are behind bars. Sadly, the constitution is being used as a weapon against them who want to save it. Some draconian laws have created the atmosphere of terror amongst all of us. If every intellectual talks in favour of majority no matter whether they are right or wrong, then will there be anything named democracy? Or am I expecting too much?
The beauty of democracy lies in the strong opposition. It is the thing which keep rulers at watch so that they cannot forget the fact that people have chosen them to solve their problems and not to loot them. “Democracy is rule of the people, by the people and for the people”, is this definition is only to write in the exams? Is this what forefathers of our nation expected while dreaming about Future India? Or we are not supposed to even ask this question?
Babasaheb please forgive us because so far, we have failed to create India of your dreams. India, where everyone is equal, where we are Indians firstly and lastly who can freely express themselves. We have succeeded to label ourselves based on our religion, state, language, caste and even sub-caste. We proudly talk of your masterpiece ‘The Annihilation of Caste’ but firstly ask for caste while looking for a life partner. Oh, why life partner, we often secretly care for caste even to share our views with someone. Such is the atmosphere of fear that we feel it necessary to know about one’s background even if we want to discuss very important issues in the society. We are living in the society where hate speeches get most of the attention and intellectual people suffer a lot. We have an illogical solution to every problem but we cannot question that, otherwise we will face wrath of the majority. We need to give up our conscience for the fear of offending majority.
We are helplessly watching a black flag being hoisted outside your residence Rajgruha and that too on your Jayanti Babasaheb! Today we proudly shared messages telling people how great you were! But we failed to achieve an iota of your greatness. We are busy fighting each other. Who cares about ‘samaj’, we have split for our temporary gains. We truly have become wise for penny and fool for pound. We are helplessly and shamelessly watching top level intellectuals in the country getting arrested and irony is that most of us don’t even know what is really happening in the country. Our media shows us what their masters order them to show. We laugh in the parliament, joke about situations and make caricature of ourselves.
We truly need you Babasaheb. Your entire life you could not sleep calmly because you were whole heartedly dedicated to create a better society for us. But we sleep very calmly even on a volcano waiting to erupt. We have a new solution for each and every problem: ‘To be sentimental for a while’. Then we forget everything and return to our old ways. The chariot of reformations that you carried on your shoulders alone and handed over to us at your last breath, is stuck somewhere around you left it. We are just looking at it and that too only on April 14th and December 6th. Oh, I forgot to look at the clock, April 14th is about to end, I should take your leave but don’t worry I promise to meet you on December 6.
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The author is assistant professor of English, Solapur, Maharashtra.
Nice article. It depicts reality, the virus of intolerance is dangerous than each and every Kind of viruses. The dream of Babasaheb, the society with liberty, equality and fraternity, does not exist still today. As our patriotism, which is high level on independence and republic day, we remember Babasaheb and his teaching only on 14 April and 6 December and later as always forgot it.