How to build the nation

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How to build the nation

Sunday, 09 June 2019 | Pamarty Venkataramana

Ascribing a permanent relationship to a nation and for posterity is a glowing example of how a “myth” is created.

There are mythical characters galore in all classical texts and works of ancient civilisations of mankind. And then, there are real mythological tales of bygone eras on planet Earth!

From being a planet of apes to aping the apes, mankind has turned into becoming an application of the apps! No more is original thinking revered nor original thoughts accepted as being the foundation of all life in societies!

Has mankind fallen or bad times befallen our times?

Little knowing and anonymous handles on social media platforms become pundits of all knowledge on earth and pseudo scholars turn into “instant-celebrities” to be followed by umpteen bots as also bottled-up minds who need such an outlet to unleash the accumulated mass of ennui or frustration generated over decades of dreadful existence.

A lack of self-control or unbridled misuse of the sense of freedom imbibed by the Constitution book, authored by a motley Group of old men who saw the past and could not foresee the future, has led to a mass “un-awakening” of social behaviour.

Social hierarchies and societal mores have been at loggerheads constantly leading to dismantling of existing structures of government and creation of yet another experimental cocoon of comfort.

Images are weaved. Brands are created. Mummies are exhumed. Ghosts are exorcised. Mass appeal and gross notional income are the order of the day.

If such be the environmental camouflage being spread to support hatred for dead men, long gone and living ones as good as gone dead, then the notion of a “Father of Nation” gets hit as the “eye of the fish” Guru Dhrona goaded upon his pupil Arjuna to seek out as his target. Or else, if right-thinking India were to admit that “truth alone triumphs”, the very concept of

One Nation; One Civilisation”turns out to be a big hoax — for, neither are all citizens equal in regard to rights and liberty but even the states do not let the nation be ruled, one abode for all of Rama’s successors to land of righteousness and fair-play.

Yes, the Father of Nation is a myth as much as the nation itself is a myth. But,  unless such a myth is allowed to be continued, life as a united mass of population-unit would not be allowed to exist by little rodents who run amok with nuclear arsenals thrust on to their camelbacks and caravan-houses!

Stop fighting over inane issues as was late Gandhi the chief-divider of Indian sub-continent. Instead, concentrate your living energies on rewriting policies to link all rivers of India to supply water through pipelines, to declare a two-national parties only political battle during polls, to harness power of new path-breaking technologies developed by Indian wizards, to abolish menace of personal taxation and victimisation of innocent citizens by a fully collapsed criminal justice system; to end domestic violence... And so on…!

Such a positive change alone will help keep the notion of #OneNation or slogan of #NewIndia alive! Otherwise, this generation and the next will but write the epitaph of a great civilisation that was BHARATH!

So, stop squabbling: start sharing myths with a mirth of laughter!

(The writer is is an eminent jurist, based in New Delhi.)

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