India is a free and democratic country that values its citizens’ Liberty, Equality and Justice. Each and every citizen has the right to be heard and express his/her views about the political system freely, and therefore we must consider ourselves fortunate enough to be born in a country that embraces freedom of expression.
We have witnessed protests out in the open, against corruption, unfavorable law & order situation, women’s safety, equal rights and the list goes on. This is so because our country gives its citizens a sense of security and the basic human right to speech. If we compare it with some of the Middle East countries which are either dominated by dictatorship or stringent rules and regulations, then we would realize the significance of a free democratic country.
However, of late people have become very aggressive and brazen while expressing any unfavorable opinions about the country. Be it a youngster organizing a protest in a Government University opposing the country’s decision to give death sentence to a perilous terrorist named Afzal Guru, the Reservation andolans that led to vandalism of public and private property and caused threat to a common man’s safety, some political goons posting belittling tweets against some politicians or the social media platforms that are loaded with the content making mockery of even the smallest decisions of the Prime Minister.
The fact that I am trying to highlight here is that that if we are living in a secular democratic country, we do not possess the right to say anything and everything or publically act in an undesirable way, especially if it hurts political or social sentiments.
If we compare India with some of the other Asian countries like China, Kazakhstan and Vietnam where the citizens are deprived of their basic right of freedom of speech then we can conveniently say that India actually stands out in many respects.
Having said that, I won’t opine that our country is just flawless in terms of political stability, Infrastructure, social and cultural norms as well the growth curve. Perhaps, there are many issues that we as citizens face, be it corruption, bad infrastructure, law and order with full of glitches, bureaucracy, lack of enough job opportunities, education system, lack of technological innovation, etc., but there are ways to address those issues than to just put slanderous allegations on anyone or anything that is not in your favour.
If you are not satisfied with any decision of the court of law then file a petition; if you aren’t happy with customer services, file a complaint in the consumer court; to address any political concern, write a letter to the Prime Minister’s office; if you think that the law & order system is full of loopholes then take a step to bring a change in it by joining government bodies; to create enough employment opportunities, try to come up with something innovate and expedite it with full zeal. There are ways and numerous platforms through which your voice can be heard and there can be multiple solutions to any problem which do not necessarily require you to be aggressive and intolerant then why to adopt such audacious methods of showing disagreement.
Any country’s situation cannot be termed as indefectible and only its citizens can work toward its development. Thronging the streets, damaging the public property, using abusive words against a group of people doesn’t count as a step towards development.
If you really want to bring a change and make a mark then be courageous enough to adopt some tough ways; join administrative services, Army, government offices where you can actually possess the authority to impact some vital decisions related to the country.
So come out of your comfort zone, try to understand the root cause of issues that are prevalent across the country, find out ways to tackle what is impacting a nation as whole, but through well thought out actions, instead of adopting the route of dharnaas & protests, controversial messages and tweets or blame games.
