We need a Freedom Movement

Why do the terrorists always find success? Why do we have the problems we have? Why are we shaken today by the utter inefficiency of our Govts?

 

In short it is because we have ceased to value our independence ... we as citizens don’t like "Law and Order" unless it affects us ... we don’t co-operate with security measures ... we don’t like to stand in the queue for security checks ... we don’t want to step in thru the metal detectors ... we hate the concept of traffic laws ... we don’t like lane discipline ... we don’t hesitate to litter the streets ... we are okay with paying bribe or otherwise called "tips" to get our work done... 

 

In doing all these we have compromised our professionalism and good citizenship ... the effect of this is ... we have stopped expecting professionalism in others and efficient governance ... well unless we are affected by it directly. At that time we don’t hesitate to complain and see heads roll ... We are the problem and that's why governments selected by us are so lackadaisical and callous ... and not to mention "corrupt" ... and guess what the result of that is ... The attack - despite warnings from all quarters ... and no one has answers 

 

So the point I guess I am trying to make is ... Are we going to continue to be like this? Or are we going to be the difference or the change we are expecting....

 

We need to free ourselves from this compromised sense of standard in anything we deal with ... We need a freedom movement to free ourselves from the shackles of our own inefficiency if we want to be in a country which has a government we can be proud of ... where terms like "Politics" "Police" and "Government" don’t sound like abuses.

 

Let’s join hands and be a part of a freedom movement where we pledge:

 

We won’t let us or people around us break the law

We won’t let us be divided by the vote bank political rhetoric

We won’t be swayed into violence by an inflammatory speech

We won’t consider ourselves anything else but "Indians First"

We won’t get our way by bribing any official

We won’t get our friends and children break the code of conduct of a good citizen

We won’t let IST mean "Indian Stretchable Time" it should mean "Indian Standard Time" (its real meaning in case we have forgotten that)

We will ensure we bring up our children to be good citizens and patriots

We will ensure we ask how the tax we are paying are being used

We will ensure we don’t stay quiet if we see a govt official being lackadaisical

We will love and not hate

We will contribute to the society – not only by paying taxes

We will believe in our judicial system and force improvement of it if needed

 

I am sure there are many such promises … but I want to start here … are you with me?

 

 

We Salute You

On one side most of India is paralysed and is on the verge of losing hope because we are such a vulnerable terror target. On the other hand we have committed Security Forces like the NSG, the Army, The Marine Commandos and the ATS and also people who led from the front and didnt think twice before risking their lives and sacrificing it for our safety. Should one lose hope?

Definitely not ... if we lose hope and be afraid, we would be disrespecting the sacrifices by these brave heroes. We have to stand up and get back to life ... but with a pledge to make India a better and make each Indian citizen an Indian first and then anything else ... with a pledge that we would raise a next generation to be proud of India and to have the morale to live and die for the country ... or at the least to be a good law abiding citizen.

There are many things the common man like you and me can do to improve the country and I am sure at least now a lot of us will start ... I know I will. But first lets pay homage to the brave souls who laid down their lives to save us and to those that are still fighting to ensure our safety.

We Salute You ...

Mumbai Under Siege : India Helpless

The incident was paralyzing ... I wanted to believe that all this was just a nightmare ... but as we all know it wasnt ... Why are there so many attacks? Why are we as a country nothing but a soft target to terror? Why cant we feel secure in our homeland? Why can no one feel secure on our homeland?

I think this has more faces than one. I think we need to do a lot first before we expect security. I think we as citizens need to stop being immune to these incidents ... and see what can be done to make the place we live in better ... no I am not talking about fighting the war against terror with arms and army ... while that is needed for our defense against the cross-border terrorists, we need to show the world that there is no problem within. We need to show that we Indians stand united and the home is clean and terror free ... and then say if anyone casts a terror spell on us, we will deal with that strongly. A lot needs to be fixed inside the country ... first being our nature of being compromising about infrastructural deficiencies ... but the problem runs much deeper than we can imagine and we cannot just sit and complain. We need to get involved in cleaning up the mess.

The problem to begin with is .... we dont know what level of competence we should expect from our governments, or from our public servants, policemen, postal dept or even the municipality and road contractors ... we dont know what is the reason we vote ... we dont know why we like the leader we follow, we dont know why we write exams and what we should expect after we pass that exam ... we dont know why we do the job we do ... somewhere this lack of understanding has led us to be like robots and maybe that's why we spring back to action as soon as the curfew is lifted ... as if nothing happened ... we connive at many things ... we connive at the faults of our children, parents, siblings, friends and even enemies ... we dont know what to expect or where that fault can lead us. We dont know how we should define efficiency in our life and hence we have inefficient govts and security systems. 

Now the problem of " We dont know " roots from a bigger problem of not asking "Why?" from childhood and then it becomes a way of life and we very easily resign to fate.

So where is the solution? or is there a solution?

There is but it will take a while and a lot of resilience. It will take a lifetime ... but I am sure it will be worth it. And here is where we have to do everything to unite and also parallely diminish the cause of creation of miscreants - poverty and lack of "proper"  education.