I recall getting woken up by a call from India one morning — Mrs Indira Gandhi had been assassinated. I felt bad even though I had absolutely no respect for her. But on second thoughts, she played Dr Frankenstein, and like him, she too died (indirectly) at the hands of the monster — Bhindranwale — she created. Karma. It catches up eventually.
Then followed the slaughter of Sikhs, orchestrated by Rajiv Gandhi’s minions and executed by Congress party faithfuls. Over 4,000 innocent Sikh men, women and children were mercilessly killed. That was 26 years ago. No one has ever been brought to justice. No one even served one day in jail. To me the greatest enduring mystery of the whole affair is how can any Sikh support the Congress. How can they? Don’t they care?
The more I think about it, more I am convinced that the fatal character flaw in Indians is that they simply don’t care. Sikhs getting slaughtered by Congress goons, and not just non-Sikhs, but Sikhs themselves carry on unperturbed. Innocents being raped and killed in Deganga in West Bengal? Not a problem. In fact, I doubt that too many Indians even know about what happened there. And the ones that do know, couldn’t be bothered. They don’t care.
Soldiers dying in the frozen wastes of Kargil? Ho hum. Pakistan sending the mutilated bodies of tortured Indian soldiers? Oh well, let’s just forget all that and play cricket with Pakistan. And invite the soulless evil bastard of a dictator to India and feed him biriyani and deferentially interview him on TV.
“We Just Don’t Care” should be the Indian national motto instead of “Truth Alone Prevails.” Actually, I sometimes think that Indians would not recognize truth if it came up and bit them on their behind.
Union Carbide and 20,000 dead, and Rajiv Gandhi let’s the head honcho responsible get away? No skin off my back. I don’t care.
Over four hundred million abjectly poor people in the country? Don’t care. Let’s have that Commonwealth game. Did the Congress lackeys actually loot most of the money spent on the games? We just don’t care. Not my money. Did A Raja actually cost the Indian public around $30 billion? Maybe. But the prime minister does not care. So why should I care?
Anyway, talking of the appointed prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh, here’s an article from the Times of India: Does a Sikh PM absolve the Congress of ’84?:
. . . a court is, in 2010, discussing whether a chargesheet filed in 1992 about the 1984 riots should be formally filed before it! Engaging. A colleague said to me recently that essentially, it’s all about the “we have moved on” mindset. Nobody’s really making a hue and cry any more, it’s not a recurrent political embarrassment for the government, and protest groups are of little consequence. So why take any real action, when the pretence suffices? Truth is, not even the victims expect any justice. It’s been so long, anyways, it’s not politically relevant.
We just don’t care. Knowing that, the appointed PM Dr Manmohan Singh does not care also. An uncaring appointed prime minister of a country of mostly uncaring people. A voice of protest is heard once in a while — which is quickly ignored and the people move on.
Here’s a voice of protest from Satbir Singh Bedi. He wrote a comment in response to the TOI article. The comment — 1984 riots: Congress took revenge on Sikhs and Manmohan Singh is a Congressman”
Manmohan Singh is not a Sikh just as I am not a Sikh. We both were born into Sikh families but I have gone to become Pro-Hindu and he has gone to become Pro-Muslim. He is least bothered about the victims of 1984 riots. He might have felt otherwise had his relatives been killed and burnt alive in those riots. Actually, it was Rajiv Gandhi who ordered that these Sikhs should be killed for they have killed his mother. It was an act of revenge. It succeeded because people voted Rajeev Gandhi to power. However when Rajeev Gandhi died and was actually killed by an LTTE worker, no Tamilian was killed and no revenge was taken because Congress was not in power at that time. Sikhs can never have justice under Manmohan Singh’s Pro-Muslim regime. Manmohan Singh even favours an Islamic Banking system as per news reports. He has been chosen by Sonia Gandhi to become PM of the country not because of his being a Sikh but simply because he has no mass following and could not defy her. He is a perfect sychophant and would go on doing the bidding of Sonia Gandhi. Sonia Gandhi too does not want justice for Sikhs because her mother-in-law was killed by two fanatical Sikhs. She is a very revengeful lady and taking it out on Sikhs.
Well, we don’t care. We see the images of criminals plastered all over huge billboards announcing yet another scheme cooked up by the Congress party to buy votes, and we just go about our business without comment.
I am getting convinced that the root cause of our misery is that we just don’t care. Only if there is a way of making caring people out of Indians, only then can India progress. I don’t know if there is such a way.
It’s all karma, neh?
Atanu Dey : Life is a Random Draw 
Atanu, there is already a long-established, widely-used term for this syndrome: Chalta Hai. Unfortunately, it has insinuated itself into the National DNA, and artificially selecting it out is the only way forward.
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We get the rulers we deserve – since we’re every bit as apathetic as them.
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You are right, Hindus have become so debased and corrupted that they literally put up with anything, as long as where they live is not affected, they do not care. That is why they do not command any respect anywhere in the world, when you do not respect yourself, no one respects you.
I am perplexed by the thought that the Justice system in India does not work and it takes years for the courts to decide anything. This hampers business as well. Why do people put up with it and not demand it be changed fast? Everyone knows the bureaucracy is dysfunctional. So why do not people demand it be changed? When I talk to foreigners most people cannot imagine why people just “put” up with anything. Who cares that India had a past, it is the present that really matters, and just as Christ says he who never sinned to throw the first stone to Magadelene, Hindus cannot complain because they only talk, they are incapable of changing their lot, they do not have what it takes, they cannot demand change because they have tacitly accepted the corruption at every level of their lives by their silence…
Imagine if common people were to actively protest the little injustices and corruption they see around them in their daily lives at work and on the streets, do people not think this would gain momentum? India needs a new generation of leaders who can galvanize people to demand the government listen to their needs…One will be amazed at how much awareness private citizens can raise for the general public, but people need to network and galvanize…
I fear that change might come to India via a nasty way, such as by Maoists, by a Chinese invasion. Most peoples in other countries would never put up with the levels of injustice the common man in Indian puts up with.
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Atanu
I share your anger against the Congress party and I dislike them as much as you do. But I genuinely believe that the Congress could be best challenged for their socialist ideology and not for their support for some or the other vote bank.
This is bad politics and it simply doesn’t work. More importantly, we needn’t resort to it! It’s a waste to have someone like you who wants to cleanse the politics (as I understand of you) play the same old politics!
I gather that you are a very experienced economist and I would expect you to take on the establishment with innovative economic ideas – more numbers, details, analysis from you than the usual right-wing claptrap.
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@ Larissa
“Hindus have become so debased and corrupted that they literally put up with anything, as long as where they live is not affected, they do not care.”
Where did that come from? I would have agreed with you if have replaced “Hindus” with “Indians” because India is a home for people with a variety of religious backgrounds.
I do agree that the “I don’t care” attitude is growing among the Indian middle class and youth as we are giving more importance to making money and enjoying the comforts on offer. Also, those people who are interested in raising their voice against the injustices limit themselves to NGO activism and blogs. We don’t have young and talented people coming forward to take up active participation in reforming the political system of the country. Thirty years back, when three or four young people get together for a chat, they used to discuss political issues and other issues of national concern. But now when the youth of the 21st century (and that includes me) get together we talk about the latest movie, or the latest mobile phone.
I believe that twenty or twenty five years down the line there will be another independence struggle – for freeing the “Bharat” from “India”.
The 836 million Indians or rather “Bhartiyans” who still live on a meagre sum of 20 Rs a day (Arjun Sen Gupta Report) will rise to revolt against India. If we really have to prevent that from happening, we will have to leave our high paying jobs and take part in reforming the current political system of India.
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@Vineeth
The inhabitants of India were referred to Hindus before our corrupt times; by HIndu I include all that is native in origin: Buddhists, Sikhs and Jains. All those who susribe to the native way of life and are loyal to its civilizational ethos would also be included.
I think we as a culture are in deep need of introspection, and I think the problem is far larger than just an economic one, and has to do with the fact of how India is to be defined as a nation? Is the native outlook to prevail or are Indians to be a deracinated bunch? A nation ought to be able to think for itself what is the correct and proper course of action for it without having to imitate others as a sign of “progress”, and without having to need the approval of others. This is what real nationhood consists in. A deracinated nation produces no citizens capable of sacrifice for higher ideals. Is the governance of India taking into account what India needs or have Indians adopted willy nilly the culture of British masters, the copying of which is progress according to many? What is India today? A disorderly nation in which most of its citizens are unable to see beyond mere immediate economic benefit for themselves and family? Fine the sastisfaction of immediate wants and lack of horizons is confined to those whose daily existence to survive is a struggle. What of the chattering classes who have leisure and who have made it economically? What are these people doing? What happened to people who could put up a manly resistance to an unbearable state of affairs? What happened to our higher ideals along the way? What happened to our much vaunted spirituality and respect for learning? When the stench of corruption permeates from the most high to the most low what does this say about Indians as a nation? How many Indians are doing something which takes into account the effect of what they do on the nation, how many Indians among the chattering classes are even interested in what is happening in the nation?
I think political considerations are merely cosmetic, unless we have leaders who are capable of seeing the consequences of the direction we take. These kinds of real leaders have not appeared with a handful of exceptions, and even so the system makes it sure they are brought down. Intelligence also consists in being able to understand the conequences of our actions in the process of acting, and it is not enough to merely have a vision and good intentions.
If the government is dysfunctional, private citizens ought to be galvanizing to make it answerable to them. If governance is left to the semi-educated lacking any vision or capacity to sacrifice to higher ideals, then the government takes us all down with it. This is a reality.
I can think of nothing other than the fact that an army of private citizens who demand accountability from those in power needs to be mobilized, and mobilized by citizens capable of genuine self-sacrifice in view of a larger good. India has ended up with a democracy in which the educated are no longer interested in politics, and in which politics is seen as a means of self-enrichment for people who have not accomplished anything in other areas, i.e. has become a career for many, such as the unemployed activist.
I think we are in need of real spiritual warriors, we have lost the fighting spirit and have become placid to the point of losing all self-respect and no one in the world will respect us as a nation until national self-respect is restored again.
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Larissa,
Thanks for the above. I agree.
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@Atanu and company
Though all this is very harmful for our personal existence.
1.2 billion human beings of the current gene quality in India is not a state of equilibrium. Nature will find a way. Though some of what is happening is an anamoly. But overall for nature all this is just business as usual. Pacifist idiots Hindu or otherwise deserve to die as much as the rabidly violent islamist terrorist.
For example in Deganga – If you were staying in a 70% muslim area without keeping guns and bombs and swords and ammunition… You deserve to die.
The sooner Indians know this the better.
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@DesiGuru/Kiran- So true… we saw this first hand in park circus area of kolkata. It’s a locality with muslim majority. In the taslima nasreen flare up, it witnessed the whole muslim community youth come out with violence on all the nearby hindu shops. And, this is right in the middle of the city…
We need Narendrabhai to be the PM.
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To be anything useful a nation must be homogeneous which we very unfortunately are not,and i think that is the biggest curse of india second being overpopulation,when a nation does not have common glue(langague/culture) to stick to what see is india like situation,
no body cares attitude,people only care of their own groups rather than getting the bigger picture of country well being.and the only things discussed by indians when they meet is Stock market or some stupid tv shows i e page 3 culture.because of overpopulation, indian’s cant have opinion of their own as those who fight are silenced with goodies.
i dont think it is going in our life times.
honestly i think in the foreseeable future a POL POT like ruler may emerge from the underclass,and don’t think such things cant happen in india,because nobody can go on suffering forever.
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“people only care of their own groups” — “Own groups” has now boiled down to nuclear families, if that. I agree with DesiGuru — a gene-cleanse is on its way.
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there is a lot of justifiable pain/pity in your voice …
more pitiful is how the popular ethos directs us to accept everything with forgiveness and empathy to win moral brownie awards as we see parts of the nations crumbling finely from within …
How come dharma these days means to be only sympathetic but never the discernment for some aggression !!!
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Is it our collective karma ?
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