Enemy Within Us

By Rituparna Chakraborty
Gurgaon, India

We are angry. Justified. We feel like strangling our politicians. Expected. We suddenly feel like fanatics. Anticipated. We want answers. Notably.

Didn’t we go through these emotions during the Mumbai blasts? During the blasts at Ahmedabad, Surat, Bangalore, Delhi or Jaipur??

My question is how long will these emotions last? We question the integrity and sense of responsibility of our politicians, but at the end of the day, aren’t they reflections of our own social network, our “chalta hain” attitude and our opportunist approach?

We ourselves are perfect examples of lawlessness and even in the most trivial things! And my personal experience shows that education in this case is hardly a deterrent. Be it on road, at the market place, at the railway station, at the airport wherever we go! While we want changes in our lives be it a cleaner India, be it a more organised India, a safer India; we always want someone else to be the catalyst of this change. We ourselves jump red lights and we complain of incompetent traffic police, we crib and complain about the long queues at airports during security checks (very well knowing that we are a country with 1 billion population which is getting more affluent day by day), we abuse and scowl at the CISF forces to the point where they are completely demotivated and disinterested; we indulge in counter interrogation when we are frisked at malls and cineplex, we fight endlessly with security guards to prevent them from doing their job of preventing us from taking hazardous items in sensitive areas........and the funny part is that all this and more we happily comply to doing the moment we step into a foreign land.

We elect our politicians sometimes repeatedly and then we spend endless airtime blaming their incapacities. Did we miss - we get what we deserve? We have set such low standards for our politicians that someone really competent and deserving will never feel motivated to take up the reins.

We ask questions but only till the times when the emotions fly high. Just like the emotions were running high after some recent bombings in Delhi but it all died down within days of the incident. Thereon, we got back to our Fashion Weeks, our late night parties, our breaking every law under the sky and calling it opportunism of the privileged. All this gets guised in poetic quarters as the "Spirit of the Nation"

The reason India becomes the favorite spot to boost the spirit of terrorism and the spirit of terrorists is our very own attitude of not questioning what needs to be questioned rather spending endless hours quizzing the unimportant; of succumbing to the real challenges and flexing our muscles with the weak; of making "ki farak painda" a more consoling phrase than "bahut farak painda".

I love my country but I also know that saying this isn’t enough and being angry in times like now isn’t also enough – “I” need to contribute to the change irrespective of whether an Anti Terrorist federal agency is set up or not; irrespective of whether there are more NSG hubs across the country; irrespective of India's stance with Pakistan. And that can happen when I can make change in the way I approach each day here on. And I shall comply and I shall raise my voice against those who don’t. I shall do everything possible to make it a wee bit difficult for every damn Tom, Dick and Harry terrorist in the world (who bomb India to boost their morale) to get away with bombing yet another corner of this country. I would vote and I would vote responsibly. And I would not stop asking questions till they are answered.