Youth are the Master of the Game: Shri Karti P Chidambaram

1st January 2011 - Eves Times

Youth are the Master of the Game STOP PLAYING THE ROLE OF A VICTIM On the occasion of Republic Day, Eve's Times posed Karti Chidambaram a few questions about the state of affairs in our country today. The queries elicited a torrent of responses from him. Are we truly free? We are as free as free can be. 'Free' is a relative term. I am a believer of individual liberty. But individual liberty is always contextual.  What is free which is accepted in a certain context is not necessarily accepted in another context.  Freedom for the sake of freedom at the cost of discipline or order is not necessarily freedom.  I don't think we can have an absolute definition of freedom. Freedom is always relative; relative in the context of the environment in which we are operating.  Can we say that if we are watching a cricket match then all the spectators have the freedom to rush into the cricket ground because we are a free country and stand around the pitch? Or we are watching a tennis match and we keep yelling when the point is being played?  Because we are a free country and we have freedom of speech can you speak in your mobile phone when a movie is being shown or when you are in a concert hall watching a play or theatre? There will always be curbs to individual freedom. But what those curbs are and how much the curbs will be exercised depends on the context. Of course we are a free country; let us not have a debate about that. How much freedom we have, where we have and what we have always depends on the situation. The common man is not able to get what he wants because he is bound by the manacles of a corrupt system. What is your take on that?  It is high time that the common man stopped playing the role of a victim. Self pity must stop. Somehow or the other there is a widespread impression about the honest common man getting completely fettered and abused by the system. The common mans has the power within himself. Common people collectively have a great amount of power. They must harness that power and stop lamenting that they are victims of the system. What about corruption, which makes it difficult for the common people to attain what they want? Corruption is a different problem. As there is a taker, there is also a giver. Every problem is a two-way street.  While we must condemn people who are abusing their positions, if people collectively refuse to entertain any modes of corruption, it can be contained.  I am not saying that this is the only solution but there is also a duty amongst us to do that. But because of the environment we live in  and we all want to get things done we are more than happy to cut corners when it suits our needs.  A free country should also ensure that the basic necessities of people are met. The fact that the power lies in the hands of a few people combined with corruption  makes life difficult for people who are denied  not only the right to live with dignity but also  are not able to achieve  what they  want and can.  You are talking about economic disparity, which cannot be done away with overnight unless we have great economic progress.  But I don't think   that in India today power is concentrated in a few people. Economic, social and political power is diffused. There are many political parties. Economic disparity is there in every country. The disparity is glaring in our country because in totalitarian regimes such as China, the disparity is hidden where as in our country it is not hidden. Disparities are there even in the most advanced countries including the United States.