CTN PRESS

CTN PRESS

NEWS & BLOGS EXCLUCIVELY FOR INFORMATION TO ENGINEERS & VALUERS COMMUNITY

When the citizenry must shine a light

Diwali is not just the festival of lights, but it is also the celebration of showing the light. This act is usually considered the job of leadership. But the fact that it is also a communal act – in the sense of a community phenomenon – where the citizenry both shows the way and follows others needs reminding once in a while. Tackling demons like Covid, Covid-insensitive behaviour, air polluters and sectarian bigots are not just battles to be fought ‘top down’ by the ‘ruling class’ but by everyone that makes up society. One cannot have protocols and order imposed if such protocols and orders are treated as matters merely saiddhantik, or theoretical. If ‘Ram Rajya’ was the kingdom of a model king, remember, it was also the city-State of a model citizenry.

Light and darkness being our most palpable cultural metaphor of right and wrong, good and evil, the social network that makes a country, region, state or city is far more than about paying lip service to such binaries once every month of Kartik. Take the matter of bursting fireworks at the expense of public health. Or some rotten apples concocting toxic hostility between communities simply because it is easy to do so. Or conducting genuine acts of kindness, enterprise or ingenuity, all of which can be enriching materially and otherwise. In both keeping the darkness at bay and showing the light, it is the people of our many Ayodhyas that need to remember the true function of Diwali: to shine a light.

The Constitution is regularly trotted out as India’s ‘sacred book’. And, yet, like the many other sacred books from which words of wisdom are read, their meanings are rendered useless if not translated into the real, ‘ordinary’ world of the laity. Constitutional Articles of faith should not be mere lamps that make our landscape look pretty, while fumes are allowed to cloud our air. Diwali marks a time of cleaning, renovating and decorating. This applies as much to society in the palpable form of its citizenry as it does to individual homes and families. Wishing all a happy, prosperous Deepavali.

 

Source link

error: Content is protected !!
Scroll to Top