What makes a democracy possible? And, thereafter what makes it work? It’s the people. Ordinary citizens of a nation, people like you and me. It requires no distinction of religion, caste, class between the rich and the poor or the strong and the weak. The only thing it requires is a simple notion of being a citizen of a country. Citizenship of a nation is what makes a democracy possible. This in turn is made possible by the consensus to self-government. As Abraham Lincoln said “it is for the people, by the people and of the people”. A democracy cannot spring just as a systemic need; it has, does and always will spring from the aspirations of the ordinary citizen for self-government and freedom. The people choose to form an idea which takes concrete shape as a nation. People choose to form a republic which enables people an equal political status, equality of opportunity, an avenue to justice, to bring out the best amongst each one and the freedom for the pursuit of happiness as they see fit. Their choices may be singular but the destiny is shared in the idea of a nation.
After an end to the British raj this is just what we the people choose to do, we chose to give expression to the aspiration of millions for freedom, prosperity and dignity in the idea of India. Because the founding father of this nation knew as we know today that a system of governance has to find expression in its people because: IT’S ABOUT US! THE PEOPLE OF INDIA. The idea which is under siege today, because we as citizens of India derelict our duties as citizens of a nation, choosing loyalty to ideas of caste, class, regions and religions, dislocating the idea of a nation, in some sense we have abandoned it. The idea today hangs in a metaphysical space waiting to be reclaimed. Just as the formation of the idea of India, began with the people, by the people for the people, so will the reclamation. This is our time to give expression to our aspirations to reclaim that idea from the darker depths of history and hurling it into the future. A future better that any we have seen.
The first step to reclamation of the idea of India is to feel the need for the reclamation. No one can make you feel that it has to be realised from within oneself. One has to feel the protest within and act upon it. No one can do that for you. The rest will then follow and will follow swiftly. You may choose as of reading this to ignore politics but remember this – politics never ignores you. You are part and parcel of the country’s politics whether it is to one’s liking or not. You may choose to close your eyes and pretend that all’s well but every time you open your eyes you will be hit by a different reality, it is pointless fighting it. Our inaction today is precisely what has given fuel to the ills that plague the nation. This inaction and the compliance with silence at everything around us, acceptance of this state of the union will cost us another generation, their silence another so on and on. It is a vicious circle. And, the circle needs to be broken by ordinary people like us. The people of this country with the reclaimed idea of India, we the people….
You may churn up a thousand of excuses for not wanting to join politics or participate in it, ranging from systematic to economic, form social to historical, but all it requires is one reason to join it. The reason is that politics is about us.IT’S ABOUT US!
When a dream of a mother to have a better future for her children, a dream which is lost as collateral to the state’s arrogance and paternalism, we lose a potential scientist, engineer, a good politician, a good Indian citizen to the consequences of bad policy and bad politics. IT”S ABOUT US!
When the politicians i.e our representatives take away our freedoms by the very means they are meant to protect them, when we realise the dream of a democracy slipping away form of us leaving us with lesser of it every day. We know IT’S ABOUT US!
When ordinary citizens for want of justice, equality and fairness take up arms and turn against the constitution, turn against our democracy, turn against us their fellow citizens and we look on helplessly, but we know IT’S ABOUT US!
When corruption and graft have become the order of the day. When our hard earned money that we pay as taxes are looted by the state and its agents. When we are treated as being different from the state differently from the democratic process and not a part of it. We know IT’S ABOUT US!
When democracy starts to become a burden by the tyranny of the political state and its agents.
When we hear a voice that tells us that we are a better people, the finer angels of our nature are still alive. When we remember a man who give up life for the freedom of his country, and sought no power in return. When we hear the echo of a distant song of freedom coming near, resonating on the horizon. When people take to the streets in a form of protest. When we wake up from a slumber of a numb dream. When we choose to reclaim the idea of India which we believe in with a growing conviction. We know IT’S ABOUT US!
Inaction is not rewarded, not in this world not in the next. The glory that we seek requires vigour and strength. Rise and lead your nation to fundamentally new direction. Our generation has this duty knowing the words that inspired a nation;
Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by Thee to ever-widening thought and action –
Into that heaven of freedom, my father, let my country awake.
By Rabindranath Tagore
Vidyut Jain's Blog 
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