Democracy

Few days back, I came across the website “Right To Information”.  It’s an Indian organization whose vision and objective is to create awareness in the people about their basic rights. Their concept made me flabbergasted about the question rose in my mind that is our nation really unaware about its own rights? My mind said no but my conscience bowed down in front of their idea.

This is very unfortunate with the two biggest countries of the largest continent that they are being deceived with the name of being democratic. The word democracy, sometimes, put me in bittersweet state. Is this a democracy that I cannot go to my school in the days of boycott or when strike is called? Do I live in democratic country where my urdu speaking fellow is being persecuted in the hands of sindhi fellow or vice versa? Do we really call it democracy where people are being killed brutally and then left in the baggage at trash? Is this the value of democracy that extortionists have spread terror all over the city?  What is the use of that democracy that even after having one of the largest army in the world, we cannot control the law and order situation in the city and deweaponize the country? Is this a democratic country where inflation is created on wheat, rice and sugar to make more profit by exporting them? If swearing upon Quran, blaming an individual or one political party for the created fuss and expressing truths while using slangs and abusive language shows democracy and if the person in the drunken state, sings burkay mein rehnay do while dancing and calls himself the leader of peace and democracy then it is better to live in autocracy than being the citizen of democratic third world country. You might not agree with my conclusion but I, like many of the Pakistanis, am in the dilemma about where are we going and where is our country heading us towards? 

This blog is not about democracy v/s autocracy but what actually forced me to type these words here is the thought, prevailing in my mind since last few days that the above mentioned acts of these so called leaders do not represent democracy but some Mohalla type politics and we are trapped in it. Their politics in the guise of democracy, is ailing rather snatching our rights of living. I cannot blame Pakistan specifically for that because it is also accompanied by its neighbor in this race but the acceptance of Lokpal Bill and the promotion of many organizations like Right to Information have showed that it is running to counteract the adverse effect of so called democracy. It’s the time to modify our vision about politics. We have to realize that democracy is far beyond of what actually showed to us on press conferences and addresses. Thus, it cannot be achieved by singing a song of calling your country democratic.

Reflection

This blog is all about the inspirations we take in our daily lives. Reflection and inspiration play the vital role in setting up our moral, social and religious values. Reflection is the image and the Perception is to take inspiration from that image. However, sometimes, these are our inspirations which take us towards the downfall.

We all have grown up while answering this question very often, Who do you fancy? Most common replies are: my parents, some religious scholar or any of our national heroes. We take inspirations from their lives to set our lives according to them but at that time we actually neglect the authenticity of those reflections.

The world we see now and the world they lived in past, prevailed in very different circumstances. They had fresh food to eat and we rely on tin packed frozen items. They were brought up in the era where politicians were the leaders. They saw the film stage as the world of fantasy but we are seeing bitter truths being performed as dramas. Moreover, they just heard about the natural calamities but we are in the time where those calamities are being revealed. Thus, taking inspiration from their lives is nothing but insanity. On the other hand, the authenticity of their righteousness is always in doubt.

Till the 16^th century, the Muslim world was progressing well and Islam was the fastest embracing religion. However, the advent of 17^th century, besides modernizing our lives, took us away from our inspirations. Being muslims, those inspirations were nothing but Quran and Hadiths. These are the two most important and authentic sources of Islamic laws. From the birth till the day of judgment, they comprised all the problems which a person could come across. Ijma, Qiyas and Ijtihad were the supportive sources for the exceptional cases. But industrialization, weaponization and modernization also modified our point of views and today we have arrived at the stage where these sources are sitting at the back seats and considering some renowned scholar leads the religious sources.

Thus, we all have to realize that our sources are not authentic, our reflections are wrong and if our reflections are wrong, how our perceptions can be right? And if our perceptions are not right, our lives have no meaning in this world and even in the world hereafter.