It's been quite a long time... I must say. I seem to have suffered the sort of haemorrhage in creativity that seems to be a rather common affliction among the salaried middle class today. But, as they say(and just to be clear, I have no idea who 'they' is either) there isn't any rest for the wicked, or some such suitably epiphanous epithet. Not to waste your time, dear reader, not that I have bucketloads of it to spare these days either, I will get straight to the point. Man is born equal, some men are born more equal than others, and most men tend to live their lives in the pursuit of equality. Indeed, someone like Robert Vadra, whose name appears in such exalted(and generic) company as the Prime Minister and President of India when it comes to airport authorities would only argue that it was his right to be exempt from frisking, in the name of equality and all that was held holy by the constitution of the country. And not the black and white kind either, but the sort of higher echelon we attribute to the state of moral steadfastness.Indeed, our law minister would have even more of a fan following among the good natured secular citizens of our country. As his website so proudly proclaims:
"If their (muslims') forefathers decided they wanted to stay with 80 percent Hindus rather than 100 percent Muslims, go to Pakistan -- if they decided to stay here, it means they're liberal, it means they want a secular country, they want a country that isn't dominated by religion" -Khurshid
Of course, no one said that quotes had to make any sense. Most of 'their' forefathers didn't in fact decide to stay here, or this whole odious question of going to Pakistan wouldn't have arisen in the first place. And the whole point seems to be assumed here. We assume that because people like to live in secular countries, they aren't extremist. And conversely, any Muslims who live in single religion countries are bound to be extremist. But who the hell heard of a terrorist blowing up a bomb in the mountains of Afghanistan anyway..don't they have their own problems? Secular countries have more extremists, for monotheists there wouldn't be enough parochialism to justify the body count.
The point here is, that our bright, burning, righteous sense of justice... our eternal quest for equality is as hopelessly misguided as the prime minister of this country. Reservations in educational institutions, in government office, benefits for women in the workforce and almost every step taken to enforce equality are counter productive and egregious. You see, man isn't born equal, neither does he die equal. Most men strive towards being equal to whatever high or low standards they set for themselves. You give equality to man, and you strip him of any reason to continue to live. And you give equality to man and the only thing he would want to do is to be better than you.
The next time anyone tells you about equality, in the workplace, in our centers of learning or pretty much anywhere, remind him that human nature abhors equality. Most people just want to earn more money than their neighbours. And most people aren't wrong.
