Of the stupid and spineless

This one's not about food.

We, as Indians, have become used to being helpless. We have lost all hope, with apathy and ennui being our dominant emotions.

We are tired of being frustrated and angry. There are only so many things a person can be frustrated with, and only for so long.

Our outrage has a shelf life. We shout, we post, we shame people who don't, call those who are politically neutral 'cowards', and then go back to sleep. The government knows this; they wait you out and go back to mocking you and your 'anti-national' self, once you're done screaming and shouting for your rights. Sometimes they mock you during an outrage, just for giggles. For instance, while the nation is on protest, where people are asking for accountability and for the education minister to resign, as NEET, the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test, got leaked for the third time in a row, 22 students (that we know of) committed suicide, because they worked so hard and for so long for this test, our Hon'ble PM tweeted to Mr. Pradhan wishing him a happy birthday and appreciating all his hard work. That's how low the value of human life, the value of the voice of the masses, is.

Despite this, there are people (I don't know how their brains work) who are in support of the govt. Those who say "The protestors, they aren't protesting correctly, I'm not for the protest just because it's CJP (Cockroach Janata Party), they called known anti-nationalists, writers, activists to their protests, they said 'Allah', they mentioned our God, the renowned writer who came to the protest has links to terrorists." Among other senseless arguments.

First of all, CJP is not a political party; it's a group created as a parody (who is doing a better job honestly), as an answer to the Chief Justice's remark, quoting that the youth are like cockroaches. Secondly, Nandita Narayan quoted a famous revolutionary song during the protest, "Hum Dekhenge" by Faiz Ahmed Faiz, as a war cry. The song was to inspire revolutionaries against General Zia-ul-Haq's military dictatorship. Please listen to that song; it's so much more than what everyone is focusing on. Thirdly, the right wing is outraged by Kunal Kamra's "Sita ke pati" remark. Explain to me how that is offensive? Is it just that lord Ram was mentioned using his wife's name? Is your itty bitty patriarchal little mind hurt by that? No one raises a voice against the politician who had Hanumanji dancing with a BJP flag in front of their vehicle, absolute radio silence on the Ram Mandir donation scam. RTI has gone for a toss; nobody knows what happened to the PM cares fund.

Instead of questioning the horrible job our government is doing, which is a constitutional right, which is what is required in a democracy, these idiots nitpick and attack those who do. It pains me that they absolutely cannot comprehend the state of affairs right now. They are conveniently blind to the ridicule and embarrassment faced by our country overseas. Content with the religious circus as a distraction/entertainment, the recent spy movie script is their encyclopaedia. The education system, the mainstream media, and your upbringing have failed you so badly that your moral compass and your ability to assert right from wrong are non-existent.

Is this the end of democracy? Are we doomed as a nation? We all know the answer to this. We all knew the answer to this when the ruling party got elected for the third time in a row.

Asking for accountability now means getting branded as an anti-national; slogans make you a terrorist, it's simple science, ask our education minister. The one that gets confused between "meet" and "meat", the one that can't spell "Sikkim", and jumbles up his prepositions. Preposterous that he can't use ChatGPT!

Another ridiculous instance was when a reporter, whom I am now worried about, asked our minister of transport, Mr. Gadkari, about ethanol-blended petrol, how it can damage an engine, how ethanol factories cause extreme air pollution wherever they're situated, and how it helped his son turn a 400% profit. His answer to it was a threat of a defamation lawsuit against the journalist, calling her anti-national multiple times. I have one question for him - Are you that stupid?

I think helplessness has been ingrained in our minds, being helpless when you get bullied in school, helpless when your boss humiliates you, helpless when your protests are ignored, helpless when your fuel is mixed with ethanol, helpless when infrastructure you paid so many taxes for is so weak that it falls and crushes people to death, helpless when the pollution in the capital of the country is equivalent to smoking 10 cigarettes a day, helpless when you hear of children getting abducted and sexually assaulted everyday, helpless when 22 students commit suicide because of a botched national examination they thought their future was based on, helpless that the government we voted for, is as competent as an orange painted rock!

When the BJP became the ruling party, I was just 17. I had seen everyone around me, including movies and mainstream media, criticise the government openly before 2014. It was never discouraged; no one got called anti-national, 'deshdrohi', or linked to terrorists when they did so. Being accused of terrorism held gravitas back then. The government never ignored the public voice. I'm not saying it was a very effective or efficient government, but no one questioned the democratic nature of it. Our press index and our currency weren't digging their rock bottoms. People were also sensible enough to distinguish the nation and their religion from the governing party. I can understand the BJP propagating that, going against them would be going against the nation or God Himself, as they want to stay the ruling party forever, and fear of God is a good way to do it. I'm surprised the people actually fall for their bullshit.

Now I understand how the British Raj lasted so long, because of the stupid and the spineless.