What Now?

As citizens of this country we have taken for granted a lot many things , and assumed that these things wouldn't change. Accordingly, we designed our lives, formed our values and made decisions. But even as we grapple with the socio-economic fallout of the Covid crisis, certain momentous developments are underway , that could completely change the course of our history, rendering the multiple bridges we have made redundant and endangering our houses which will now fall in the path of the new course of a far more violent stream. 

To begin with, we should all be extremely concerned about the contempt case against Adv Bhushan that is being heard by the SC. The judgement in this matter could decide whether we can legally excercise the freedom of speech or not.  

We should be concerned that the PM of the country has , by attending a religious ceremony as such, overstepped a line, that seperates a secular nation from a theocracy. Of course, our secularism was always shaky and susceptible to collapse. But it appears that the slender wall supporting it has now been permanently broken down. So secularism or the dream of it may no longer exist. 

We should be very concerned about the way the executive is bypassing the legislature and how the judiciary is now championing judicial deactivism . The fact that words like horse trading are being used casually , as though, they are perfectly legal instruments of democracy, is disturbing, to say the least. 

We should also be concerned about the way the media ( which never really was an epitome of integrity) has gleefully turned into a peddler of falsehoods.  Its function is now to conceal than reveal. 

For what it's worth , we ought to be very concerned about the upcoming telecom judgment  . It may well decide whether we can remain a socialist polity or whether the market will now determine our welfare policies. This case may also sound the death knell for the illusory concept of free markets and usher us into an era of state supported private oligarchies. 

If anything, we should be deeply concerned about the developments at the LAC  with China, where the government has been giving contradictory statements . Meanwhile, our neighbours publish maps with outrageous territorial claims, with impunity. 

I congratulate those who have already adapted to the fallouts of the above developments and are ready to thrive in a Subservient, Theocratic , Monopolistic , Autocratic nation. 

For others, who may not be comfortable living in such a polity, it is time to stop paying attention to the bridges and start focusing on the river beneath. May be it's time to build damns to prevent the water from changing course.