An appeal to my country by Trish Bose

I am a citizen of India, I was born here, raised here and I have received all my education in this country and specifically Mumbai. I have seen all the facets of this city may it be good or bad. I have suffered through the terrorist attacks, the bandhs and live through the hustle and bustle of this remarkable city daily.

I am sure you who have stayed in this city for a while have gone through the same in your own way. My observations have brought to me to a conclusion, the conclusion being that we are a city of world class malls and third class government facilities, of highly educated professionals and hardly educated politicians, we have a world class mentality and third class sense of social responsibility. The most amusing part about this whole situation is that we have excelled at giving blame to government and do nothing as citizens to rectify our situation.

But the fault may not be ours all together we ourselves don’t know how we can rectify this situation that we see ourselves in or maybe it is our fault and we have forgotten that our country is a democracy although it feels more like a demo-crazy at the moment. Our country has one of the most democratic systems wherein our constitution itself says that it a government of the people, by the people and it’s for the people of this country.  Us the people need to be reminded what we are capable of, what we can do, how we can do it. For the ones who want to study it by themselves we have to study only 3 books, i.e., the Constitution of India, the Indian penal code and the code of civil procedure. These three books govern our country for the most part, these books give you the power of equality because all Indians are equal there is no religion, caste, creed, social standing or gender that is superior to another we are all equal as per our rights as citizens of this Country. There is no difference between you and the Government because we are the Government. Thus the situation that we see ourselves in, in a religious ideology based conundrum that bothers us today is of our own doing, the corruption, lies and deceit we face is because we allow such corruption, lies and deceit to prevail. We must take the power back into our own hands and make this country the country that we deserve and want. Pool our intelligence and resources to make a difference to guide the next generation to a better tomorrow. Us as Indians have made a mark worldwide we are regarded as one of the most hardworking and successful immigrants in foreign countries which ever country that we may go to. Why can’t we be a successful nation?  It is because we fear that our efforts may not be recognised, that we may face adversity, that we may face violence from the people in power.

The People are in power because we have put them in power, they can bully maybe a 100 people, but we are not just 100 we are a billion. We must become more responsible for ourselves, we must ensure we are not handed substandard leadership, disgusting government facilities and a bang for our tax payer’s buck. For this we must educate ourselves in electoral politics and we must ensure that the best of our community strive to become our leaders, we must eradicate the taboo behind politics and perform our duty as citizens to lead one another, to help one another and ensure that we grow together.

It is us who is responsible for the growth and development of our own societies and communities. Spreading our influence in a 5 kilo-meter radius from where we live can contribute towards the development of our own areas. We must ensure that our Public service sector like the BMC should be properly manned with qualified professionals, who give us quality service. A proper corporate structure is required in the Public sector of our Governance that can be ensured by having our qualified and educated youth to choose Public sector job. Local governance of localities must be emphasised upon. The Local population of a locality must be responsible for the governance of their own locality, the local populace must strive to occupy the government positions responsible for the development of their own area. There must be an assured 5 year plan which is to be followed step by step for ensuring development specific to each locality. Local problems must be identified and solved as per the priority of the problems, meaning that local polls and research must be conducted to identify problems and the issued must be solved as per the urgency and requirement.

This is a mere example of the ideas we can employ to ensure that we develop our own city, state and country. We must study the ways of developed nations and institute a local system based on proper scientific process and competence. This may seem idealistic but this must be a goal so that we involve ourselves in our own development. We must strive to think globally and act locally. We must make a global culture based on mutual respect and admiration rather than lies and deceit.