Challenges Before Us.

India is famously known as a country which has never declared a war on any other nation. Peace loving, right? It has done well on the outside, but on the inside there are eruptions everywhere. That’s where things get really messy in this beautiful country of ours.

Yesterday I was struggling to sleep, so I opened the news. Weirdly, it is my favorite sleep ASMR. There was this segment where the anchor would tell 200 short snippets of news. I couldn’t help but notice that this lady just said 200! She was going to narrate 200 bits of news that happened that day in our country. And it’s still Afternoon! I was reminded of something so obvious yet concerning: There’s a load of stuff happening in our country! So I sat up, keen to hear some of the stuff she was saying. Most of it was election related obviously. Politicians talking trash to each other. Politicians explaining how this time it’s going to be their biggest win ever. People rioting outside polling booths. It’s a lot to take.

But the sad part is that it is not just politics, there are all these instances of horrendous crimes and accidents, which just doesn’t seem to diminish. And it wouldn’t because such an ideal country can only be dreamt of.

India is one weird county. For instance, the socio-economic inequality is staggering. Rising skyscrapers erected around a region crammed with slums. On one side you got people who inherit fortunes while on the other side there are the ones who are just scraping by.

Our nation takes pride in harboring a variety of religious beliefs with equality, but that is what becomes the root cause of major conflicts. No matter how many times the government changes, no matter what’s said in the manifesto, it’s the same story every day. Every decision, every single step is made considering its political advantages and only then its contribution to development.

Religious beliefs and cast differences were not already enough that political preferences are also riling up conflicts among the people. Different political standpoint brewing up hatred among citizen is the absolute worst thing, and political leaders will definitly take advantage of this. Dividing us on the basis of religion for political gain, creating an egocentric sense of insecurity amongst citizens, tagging people as anti-nationals, going after people who ask questions, preaching hatred instead of inclusion, making us turn on each other instead of growth…it’s the oldest playbook in the world.
It’s been repeated so many times in history and it has literally never worked out in the long run. So when our leaders do it again today…I wonder why we fall for it, why we think it’s suddenly going to work, even though it’s failed hundreds of times before. It should be the first clue that our leaders aren’t thinking about the long term, but only about the short term power. Because even they know in the long term, prolonged hatred never wins. By the time we wise up and come to issues the leaders have moved on. We shouldn't let hatred wins elections.

There are a gazillion other obstacles our developing country faces but what gives me a ray of hope that we can still make it out of this depression, are the unparalleled advancements in technology and science, the resilience among the progressive youth and most importantly our mighty armed forces.

The vast differences in culture every few kilometers in only seen in this country. A man who moved from Australia to America would find less difference in surroundings and lifestyle than a man who moved from Gujarat to Tamil Nadu. Even after such extreme diversity spanning all over Indian map, the fact that all of these groups coexist together under the same tag of India is nothing short of a miracle. But that being said just merely existing is not it, we have to do better.