Not Any Other, This is Class Gap Alone

Politicians can convince us otherwise, but what India faces is a class gap. Consider this- when you, as an ordinary man, visit any government office or a public sector bank and struggle to get your work done, it is never the faith, caste or gender of the staffer to blame. The reason why many Indians fail to avail important services is because the ones responsible to diligently discharge their duty consider themselves a class apart. This class gap is almost the same for all Indians, however, people with some means use their resources to tide over difficulties, and it is for the ones with limited or no means to suffer endlessly.

India is under self-rule for many decades. There have been a few successes, for example, our literacy rates have improved and the middle class is growing. But where do we go from here? Even this middle class lacks a truly dignified life. And failures greatly outnumber achievements. From access to drinking water to quality and affordable healthcare for all Indians, we have failed miserably. Visit any public sector bank and you will experience the helplessness. While many Indians have accepted this as a norm to survive in India, they have inadvertently forgotten that it was for their own well-being and progress that we celebrated the self-rule.

On the other hand, the politician has astutely exploited things like faith, caste and gender to fool the people into believing that any supremacy in these respects can eventually lead to ordinary man’s emancipation. Socialism and communism have lost their true values in India and what has won is class supremacy of a few. There is no denying that socialists and communists have both failed to learn with times and deliver what they openly promise- equal society. They failed to adapt to modern times and revise their methods in accordance with prevailing conditions and aspirations of people. In fact, it was a blend of the pluses of socialism and capitalism that India needed post-independence.

Another key thing to note here is that this class gap has been eternal, and only the constituents change. For example, a man may have retired as a secretary with central government with no hiccups in socio-economic progress in his personal life; however, his future generations may still have to struggle should they find themselves on the other side of the elite wing. Even after so many 5-year plans that have had some elements like irrigation, healthcare and education as perpetual areas of focus, there has not been an iota of success. Farmers are not thriving, healthcare serves only the rich and any reforms in education have yet to produce the number of doctors, scientists and economists we need.

The worst thing amid all this is that politicians have failed to recognize, let alone fix this class gap, and the wilful default of government staffers and such other persons in powerful positions has gone unpunished. On the contrary, these modern day politicians have stoked faith, caste and gender enmities to keep the class gap intact. The presently ruling government at the centre is using all they can to keep the majority faith busy in faith supremacy alone and has convinced them that they should forget any personal growth since the greater objective is far more sacred. The ordinary man, blinded by this shrewd tactic, has forgotten that the self-rule, which Indians had celebrated in 1947, was to curb the class gap and lift them out of desperation and indignity.

It’s time new-age politicians re-invent their ways. It’s time they address the class gap and start a new class struggle- nonviolent, pragmatic, well-planned- to enable the ordinary man rise above such day-to-day struggles. The message that it’s not faith, caste or gender supremacy but equal society that must be achieved has to be disseminated. It is to be told that persons from all faiths, castes and genders have equally misused their elite status and have equally suffered. It is class struggle alone that India needs today, any other promise is a fraud inflicted upon the non-elite by the elite wing.

Nothing Less than a Class Struggle is what India Needs

Answer this. Was it the society that led to a nation or a nation that gave birth to the society? The society, with man as the primary building block, is at the heart of anything that came up later- nations or governments. Men, who gradually moved from hunting and gathering to agriculture and permanent settlement, came up with the modern ideas of demarcated borders, nationalism, a well-defined system of governance- be it the monarch or elected representatives- for their own well-being, and there’s nothing unlawful or unethical in what they sought.

And so here we are today- with elected governments and many other systems in place to call ourselves a society run by rules. But where’s progress of the basic unit- the common man? One needs to realise the reality. Public sector bank staffers treat common depositors as undesirable liabilities; government agencies are yet to come clean on the way they serve the common man; public transport system is overwhelmed; such basic amenities as roads, clean water, electricity are a luxury even in today’s India; and the press is busy reporting subjects that have least bearing on the lives of common people.

At the same time, however, the common man has been given some superficial things so that he can overlook his own pain and distress. He gets blinded when the rich and powerful- be it the politician or the capitalist- asks him to think of the country first, his faith first, his caste or sect first before his own progression. The famous words of John F Kennedy, former US President, ‘Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country’, are nothing but a political slogan and at best suited to countries where the common man has at least attained some progress with respect to his basic household needs.

Take developing countries, including India, where millions are poor and suffer at the expense of the rich. Consider this- in the ongoing pandemic, countless school-going students are being deprived of education, which has become a privilege only for those with means- a smartphone and internet connection. Migrant labourers were brazenly shunned by the political class even as the Prime Minister was tweeting about the benefits of yoga. The fund constituted to ‘fight the pandemic’ saw generous donations from business houses that gradually raised prices of goods and services to pass on the burden. The common man was poor and has been left poorer.

Medical services are inaccessible to the common man; commodities ranging from petrol to milk are adulterated; medicines are exorbitantly priced to cover the perks of doctors and retailers; the agents responsible for fair distribution of foodgrains at subsidized rates are becoming richer by depriving the poor; much more is happening in the lives of the common man- from the very poor to middle class- that is nothing but breaking of the trust that was placed when we shifted from being a society where resources belonged to all to being a nation. The rich are becoming richer while the common man struggles with no social and financial security.

Amid all these pains, let’s remind you that any call for religious or caste supremacy is a sham. These are things cleverly designed by the elite- including politicians, state employees, capitalists and rich traders- to keep the common man busy even as they plunder the country. India today needs a class struggle- ethical, non-violent and inclusive- more than it needs the so-called other things as advocated by the elite. And this struggle has to deliver social and financial progress of the basic component of nation- the common man- by combining the good, rational concepts of capitalism, socialism and communism.