A march back to history

The great German playwright Goethe had once famously said, “He who moves not forward, goes backward”. The legendary litterateur’s observation is even more apt for the present era, because if we don’t move forward with the times and remain stationary, the fast moving world will leave us way behind. So, the word 'rat race’ has been coined, wherein we all are running to remain in the fray not knowing where our destination lies.

India as a whole, along with her states and cities, is also not untouched from this phenomenon. As ministers make a beeline for investors to bring business to their constituencies, they are also finally looking at improving infrastructure to ensure rapid growth. Contrast to this, our once lovely town Silchar is still far removed from these modern day developments.

We are still caught in an ever continuing time wrap. Everything seems to be moving in super slow motion. While roads take ages to repair, the darkness that envelopes the town in the evenings often reminds one of the haunted and spooky alleys shown in Hollywood horror flicks.

The state of infrastructure is so pathetic that the Americans might some day qualify the town as a specimen of the prehistoric world. The roads can be a perfect example of how the narrow lanes of the prehistoric days looked like when there was no blacktopping technology, the monsoon floods would give an idea about the sufferings of the common man in the absence of proper drainage and the candle lit houses would be a superb specimen to show how people spent their evenings before the invention of electricity.

We have lost touch with the modern era long back. We have also moved back from history to pre history. Now the town is working hard to move from pre history to ancient history. We have all read fairy tales of how people would travel for days through mountains and rivers facing innumerable challenges to reach their villages in the ancient times. Those of you who have walked kilometres facing constant landslides at Sonapur and then taken a boat to reach a flood hit Silchar from Guwahati would agree that our travels back home are not far removed from those fantasy tales.

While other parts of the country fight because SEZs and multinational industries are taking away farming land, our farmers don’t even know the meaning of an SEZ. Forget an SEZ, at least give us a factory where hundreds can get employment, but even that is an impossibility. Whatever little we have (read Cachar Paper Mill) is also on the brink of closure. MPs become ministers, ministers become cabinet ministers and municipal chairpersons graduate to become MLAs, but the town continues to remain in a morass of hopelessness and gloom.

So how can we make a difference? Democracy doesn’t inspire much confidence. Whether ‘Ram’ wins or ‘Rahim’, nothing is going to change, nothing has changed over decades. But, unfortunately democracy still remains our best bet, because if we decide to get rid of our democratic ethos, guns and bombs would be the last resort.

Let us all unite and make democracy meaningful. Let us tell ourselves that, leaders without accountability would not be entertained anymore, let us be vigilant to ensure that the right people get to fight for the post of our leader. Most importantly, let us have the guts to ask questions and add a price tag to our votes.