Res Publica?

The skies are overcast with the fog this morning an ironic metaphor put forth by nature’s artistic expressions, on whether the day’s really worth celebrating. I switch on the television set to watch the Republic Day Parade after two decades. The format has not changed. The duty bearers have braved out in the cold to show their commitment to the nation, as the country watches in awe.

One can’t help but feel a sense of ‘today’s our day’ as one watches the otherwise inaccessible, expert decision makers of our country, warmed by the ‘corridors of power’ ,now step out and salute the Tricolour, showing off their patriotic prowess in the chilly winter air. From the other end of the country, news filters in of an activist being arrested as he was circulating pamphlets during a Republic Day celebration to children. It was in the Home Minister P Chidambaram’s constituency, stating that the Minister has been responsible for ‘destroying 166 villages and converting 3 lakh people into refugees in their own homelands in Dantewada, Chhattisgarh’. The anguish is of villages in Chhattisgarh where the state has waged a relentless war against an unknown enemy, evacuating thousands of tribals from their own homelands under the banner of ‘Salwa Judum’. Serious questions on their Right to Life is raised here. Many postulate that this is a pogrom financed by Corporates creating inroads into an area never ventured earlier for its mineral wealth. Well it is well on its way to success. The Chhattisgarh State tableaux rolls over the Parade grounds on the TV set, ironically it depicts no people dancing on it, forests on a stalactite stalagmite cave frequented by a couple of tourists with cameras, is the depiction of Chhattisgarh at the National Republic Day Parade! It seems like blatant hypocrisy.

And as the Korean delegation beams on the screen, one cannot help wondering what they will be deciding on the fate on the life and livelihoods of the fisherfolk and farmers in Jagatsinghpur. The struggle against the company has been continuing since 2005, but it seems that the rulers have no ears. The newspapers said today that the Steel Minister will make all efforts to expedite clearances for POSCO, a Korean company with a large number of American investors when only a few days back it was reported that the company officials had been held hostage by villagers for attempting to enter the area for a ‘rehabilitation survey’.

The parade is dotted with some cultural dances, spraying the colours of people where possible, as civil and military join hands together. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s face is flashed two three times on the screen, as young girls in short frill skirts dance and do an aerobic performance which resonate of an Amercian cheerleader drill with a globe which says ‘Globalisation’. A friend and philosopher calls, witness of many social movements in the country since the early seventies, she says sorrowfully, I don’t feel ‘free’, ‘yeh azaadi hai?' I think of all those numerous Indians across the country, fighting, slaving, struggling to survive, to be heard, to influence political will, arrested, tortured, widowed. I think of the number of young soldiers in uniform and those out of it who give up their lives in vain idealism. I think of the teeming numbers of Indians today who have given up their lands and homes for large corporate projects, for a ‘development’ whose metaphor and language makes no sense to them, and as they are forced to come in line while their life, lives and sentiments are sold away.

The camera moves to the guests who have come to see what India, is about, who look clearly bored by now, I think it was the Mumbai tableaux with the “dabbawallah’ depiction which did it. Well what can you show of a city which is a financial and trade complex, besides lunch boxes en masse for the numerous who slave to work and back. There will be many more of that now, in a nation dotted with township projects and SEZs. Clearly our leaders have visibly succeeded in thwarting the ‘imagination’ of a Republic that has ceased to be.