First of all I would like to define what makes a nation great. A country does not become great by its GDP. Nor it becomes great by its growth rate. Good defence may make a country safe, but not great. A country bountiful in natural beauty may be a great tourist destination, but nature alone can’t make a country great. For me a country becomes great by its people. The greatness comes by the collective greatness of people.
Our country was once great. It had world’s greatest thinkers, philosophers, scientists and leaders. It had people who laid their lives serving it. It had a class of rulers who went on exiles just to follow their father’s words. It had people who used to work for common good, for collective progress. People who were sensitive to their society, to the pain of their neighbours, who used to respect women and treat her with dignity and respect and who gave their children equal opportunities in life by teaching them in same school (Gurukul). All those people made our country great. So great indeed, that people from all over the world used to come here and marvel at its greatness. So great that we still use that greatness as our best excuse whenever we fail to put up any other point (we are used to say that our culture and values are great in any discussion).
But sadly, I think we no longer qualify for that category. Our once great country is no longer great. I know many would not agree with me on this (I myself want to think otherwise). But the fact is India is not a great country. A country which cannot protect its women and children from rape and exploitation can’t be great. A country where common man doesn’t even have a right to protest can’t be great. A country that can’t provide equal opportunities for its children, where farmers are forced to suicide and yet it endorses FDI, where perpetrators of worst industrial disaster are left free, where “National Leaders” publicly say that they can’t stop bomb blasts, where people know and judge each other not by name and deeds, but by caste, where every day millions sleep hungry yet people are conveniently left free after scams worth billions, can never be great.
A 23 year old girl was brutally raped and left to die along with her friend in Delhi. All that we needed from our so-called leaders was solidarity and assurance. Yet our puppet Prime Minister failed to address nation (he did addressed us on TV in an emotionless speech, a week after the incident). The angry citizens (mostly young people) next decided to protest for it and demand for action. Instead of listening to their demands, the authorities used tear gas, water cannons and lathi-charged them. The next day was one of the blackest days in our democracy. Rajpath was blocked. Metro-stations were closed. The common man of India lost his right to protest that day. Those people were not demanding for a separate state nor were they protesting on a religious ground. They didn’t had any weapons. And they were not harassing police. Neither were they trying to attack any so-called leader nor were they trying to hijack Rashtrapati Bhavan. And yet force was used on them. I fail to understand the reason to close 9 metro stations including Rajeev Chowk where more than 5 lakhs commuters come everyday. All 5 lakh of them were not protestors. These 5 lakh include daily wagers, school and college students, working professionals, tourists, etc. Govt didn’t even thought about them. And then they went a step ahead and issued a circular in media not to cover the rape story and protests anymore. A girl is fighting for her life and these insensitive morons say not to cover her story! A nation with such heartless elected representatives can’t be great.
I was very disturbed with the incident (not only rape but also the death of democracy). So I decided to join the protest for it. But if the state of our political class is appalling, the attitude of common man is pathetic to say the least. I was hoping to see a big crowd of people equally disturbed. However, hardly 100 people came to protest. I guess others were busy celebrating Christmas. A nation where people are so much indifferent to their fellow citizen’s pain and sufferings can’t be great.
No matter how much we achieved in terms of GDP. But the fact is we are amongst the last ten on almost all the HDI indexes. We may become great again by developing on this front as well. We may become great again by becoming more sensitive as a society. We may become great again by electing a better class of people to represent us. But till then, we would remain a backward, insecure nation and definitely not great.