The New India Want's To Ask Questions....But...

"Bhakti in religion may be a road to the salvation of the soul. But in politics, Bhakti or hero-worship is a sure road to degradation and to eventual dictatorship."— Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, 1949

Long before Dr. Ambedkar articulated this profound constitutional wisdom on the floor of the Parliament, the legendary Greek hero Odysseus had sounded a remarkably similar warning to his son Telemachus, or so we are told, if the latest Christopher Nolan cinematic spectacle, The Odyssey, is anything to go by.

When Odysseus famously advises his son to “not look for Gods in Men’s eyes,” he is laying down the ancient blueprint for democratic survival: never put human leaders on a flawless, infallible pedestal. He warns that even the most celebrated "heroes" are merely ordinary men capable of grave errors, crippling fear, and terrible misdeeds. It is a timeless lesson in stripping away political mythology to see the world as it brutally, realistically is.

Regrettably, this IMAX broadcast came a few decades too late for an audience whose memory of Ambedkar’s constitutional wisdom had already been completely wiped and replaced with political devotion. It arrived long after our mainstream media and millions of a "grown-up" citizens had already decided that political Bhakti was the ultimate recipe for a modern democracy.

Ignoring both the father of our Constitution and ancient Greek wisdom, we successfully upgraded our supreme political leader to the status of a non-biological demi-god, allegedly a direct incarnation of Lord Vishnu.

And that is exactly where the comedy and the tragedy begin, kicking off a national journey as tortuous and destructive as Odysseus’s legendary return to his kingdom.

In New India, we have unwittingly adopted an unwritten Golden Rule: God Cannot Be Questioned. Once the people treat a leader as a deity, democracy undergoes a very convenient transformation. Because a God cannot make mistakes, any citizen who asks a basic question is no longer just a citizen. They are heretics. They are anti-national. They are clearly working at the behest of foreign conspirators.

Did the economy crash? It must be a divine test of our faith. Are unemployment and inflation at record highs? Surely, it is a spiritual cleansing.

When a leader becomes a deity, the government stops acting like a constitutional body and starts operating like a political mafia. Opposition parties are ruthlessly dismantled, and lawmakers are "purchased" to manufacture a fake majority. Even the sacred Ram Temple in Ayodhya, marketed as the ultimate symbol of national pride, faces allegations of insider looting. Even the basic democratic right to vote is denied under the guise of "cleansing" the voter lists.

But to point any of this out is to commit blasphemy against the state—err, correction: against the infallible divinity of the leader.

The degeneration of our democracy was on full display this week. A handful of dangerous, terrifying individuals under the banner of the “Cockroach Janatha Party” decided to march toward Parliament. Their heinous crime? They wanted to ask why the education system is decaying and why exam papers keep leaking, daring to demand accountability from the education minister.

Naturally, the state responded with full divine fury. Hundreds of heavy-handed riot police were deployed to block these students. In New India, demanding a fair exam is the ultimate act of treason.

Shockingly, "We the People" and our mainstream media view a handful of students asking questions as an existential threat to our "Vishwa Guru" stability, a hilarious, heartbreaking irony where logic dies, news anchors write hymns, and citizens behave like a cult.

In this divine autocracy, the government enjoys total immunity from crumbling judiciaries, leaked exams, and soaring inequality because a God never owes explanations; the rules of the game have flipped, leaving ordinary people to just be grateful to the supreme owner of the country for the mere privilege of surviving.

Odysseus's advice came too late for New India. We wanted a savior, so we built a pedestal. Now, as the country faces a deep national crisis, we are realizing the hard way: when you treat a politician like a God, you don't get Heaven. You just lose your democracy.