Sometimes things shake you up...

A few days ago I was chatting with a colleague of mine who is a Sikh. She was complaining about our Prime Minister, who also happens to be a Sikh. Her main grouse was that his becoming the Prime Minister had not done any good to the Sikh community, the victims of the '84 riots have still not got any justice. In my superficial superior way i told her that he was the Prime Minister of the Country and not of any particular community. He has to look at India from a much broader perspective.

In the evening while crossing the road (i am not the chicken here) i was still thinking about her comment when it kind of struck me that I was looking at it from a wrong angle. The sad part about her statement was not that people look at their leaders throw narrow religious/regional lenses.

The sad part was that a Citizen of this country has to resort to the same narrow identities to get justice. She believes that only a Sikh leader will now get them justice. The Constitution of India which guarantees protection to all it citizens is not able to provide its citizens that confidence. Why are we not worried that a citizen of this secular democratic country now feels that only a religious identity will provide her community with the justice it so rightly deserves. I was only 3 yrs old at that time, I don't remember any of it. Just one part, our neighbors who were Sikh fled Delhi that night and left their aging father to fend for himself. We all took him in. I remember him and still feel the terror and desperation.

How many of us actually believe in the Constitution, truly believe in it? Believe that it will provide us with justice and protection. Believe that it will also punish if we break the laws framed under it. Believe in the people who have vowed to implement it.

We make such a hue and cry when the national flag is worn as a sari or a cap, but why are we silent when the Constitution is being insulted everyday.