By Justice Markandey Katju-
(Justice Markandey Katju is a former Judge, Supreme Court of India, and former Chairman of Press Council of India. The views expressed are his own.)
Real freedom is freedom from poverty, unemployment, hunger, malnutrition, price rise, lack of healthcare, and good education, etc. The Independence of 1947 gave us no such freedom, and hence was phoney freedom.
Indians are slowly realizing that they were befooled by being told that after 1947 they were free. All that happened in 1947 was that our white masters and oppressors were replaced by brown ones.
Our people were told that now they are the rulers of the country, because we have democracy under the Constitution, and democracy was defined by former U.S. President Abraham Lincoln as rule by the people, for the people, and of the people. However, the truth is that the Indian people are not the rulers of India, but are being ruled by a handful of shysters.
Former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill said, “If India is granted Independence, power will go into the hands of rogues, rascals, and freebooters. All Indian leaders will be of low calibre and men of straw. They will have sweet tongues and silly hearts. They will fight among themselves for power, and India will be lost to political squabbles. A day will come when even the air and water will be taxed in India.”
How true this prediction of Churchill has proved to be. Our political leaders, of all parties, are indeed a bunch of “rogues, rascals and freebooters, and men of straw”, fighting among themselves, who have no genuine love for the country, but only seek power and pelf, and are experts in polarizing society and inciting and spreading caste and communal hatred for getting votes.
What a dismal and grim sight the Indian political scene presents today.
Our national leader is a ‘dramabaz’ who has nothing in his head except hatred of minorities and belief that in ancient India we had knowledge of head transplant surgery, genetic engineering, and stem cell therapy.
We have today in Bihar a Chief Minister who is regularly somersaulting, like a trapeze artist. An Urdu sher accurately describes him:
“Jeevan ka safar hai toolaani
Yaan ikraani hai naadaani
Jo shahsawaar maahir hain
Woh raah badalte rehte hain”
i.e.
“Life’s journey is long
Being on one track is foolishness
The expert horse riders
Keep changing their routes ”
We have a ‘royal family’ heading another national political party, whose members, though having no idea how to solve India’s massive socio-economic problems, claim the right to rule India being a royal dynasty.
There is another political leader in Tamil Nadu who became Chief Minister by dynastic succession, and who has already anointed his son as his successor. The list can go on and on.
There are about seven individuals who own wealth equal to that of the bottom 50% people of India.
And we have a Constitution which has become a scarecrow.
This is the truth about the ‘Independence’ we gained in 1947.
(Photo courtesy: Unsplash)
