Power without morality is a dehumanizing weapon. Freedom without morality is dangerous to human development.” This quote from Dr Chia Thye Poh, the political prisoner from Singapore known for his socialist leanings, is most relevant in the contemporary Indian politics where morality has mostly been banished in lieu of power and pelf.

Today morality and ethics are treated by many as mere clichés when it comes to the pursuit and exercise of power. India offers the starkest of illustrations of individual interests being unabashedly prioritized over national or collective interests.

To many Indians politicians, morality and freedom of the country are mere abstractions having little significance. It is disgusting to see so many people acting like puppets in our political circus. Are we really living in the 21st Century, in which according to Francis Fukuyama, history was supposed to come to an end?

Perhaps not; perhaps we, Indians, live in some other temporality. Loyalties are allegedly being traded at the behest of an imperialist power so that here freedom is just an illusion. The awareness that freedom is the most cherished human value that must be guarded at any cost, is missing. Any viable moral system is predicated on freedom. For all intents and purposes, we are a slave society, wary of freedom because being free requires facing the truth. Facing the truth is no easy task.

Talking recently to a few youngsters about freedom, I asserted that India will be free in the real sense only once we start producing our own knowledge (which means self-representation), formulate a foreign policy suited to our national interests and our leaders stop buying property in the developed world.

Many of the youngsters reckoned that it was far too much to ask for. But the fact remains that until that moment, we are merely nursing an illusion of freedom. We are not friends but lackeys of the superpower based far away whose interests in our region are best described as neo-imperialist.

Freedom is no manna; it has to be earned. This point needs to be comprehended by the opinion makers operating mostly through the idiot box. These people are a big part of the problem. Let us accept the truth that we are not worthy of being free. When I started reading about freedom and the processes it involves, it dawned on me that many of our legislators are probably ignorant of what freedom is all about. Many would be all at sea with respect to its connection to morality.

Thus, freedom is our right. Sovereignty of our nation is sacrosanct. The superpower must be told this in no uncertain terms. The question is: is there any person among us having the spine to do that besides the prime minister against whom a no-confidence resolution has been moved? I see none.

Versuasion India