Portraying India as the world’s largest democracy in a tone of its glorified image may sound pleasing while citing its expanding population, currently estimated as 135 crore, as a mass may not sound heartening to those who have been writing in dailies expressing concern about meeting the yawning gap between the country’s various resources and the rising needs of its masses in years ahead. The lay people, not bothering themselves about issues of population that the cognoscenti are talking about, are sure to feel the bite of too many people in the land at common sites such as ticket counters of bus stands, payment windows of banks, desks of officials collecting various taxes (such as in the nine zonal offices of Mysuru City Corporation), shops selling articles of consumption on the eve of festivals, roads for commuting by motorised vehicles during peak hours and so on.

Those who have taken trips to different countries would have noticed the residents of their highly dense urban spaces, similar to their counterparts in India, living in reasonably free from overcrowding, thanks to their sense of discipline and respect for the laws of their lands. The makeover of the mind in respect of even such Indians fades upon return to their homeland in the company of the masses.

While the goings in the country, both as reported in the media and the reality figuring in the interactions among the citizens during the day is there for all to see, we hear some sections in the mass expressing dismay and the rest unfazed despite facing the consequences upsetting their daily routine. The pages of history, particularly those indicating the way of life of people in the country of the distant past, generate thoughts of wondering about the change from all-is-well to nothing-is-well with the land and its people. Many among the elderly flock have given up hopes of the reverse change to all-is-well again.

The idiom Yathaa Raja Thathaa Praja (As is the king, so are his subjects) suggests itself upon the current scenario of those who have a sway on society indulging in unlawful and uncivil acts in a long list of such acts. As a well-known jurist of Karnataka has rightly observed, the present generation of leaders cannot bring about the change because they are the authors of the present mess.