Remember the oft-quoted words of Dietrich Bonhoffer, a Christian martyred by the Nazis: “When they came for the Jews I said I was not a Jew. When they came for the Communists, I said I was not a Communist. Now they have come for me.”

Right now, we are all Jews.

India is on trial. Not just India, Bharat as well. But whose India ? India of the secularist or of the Hindutva believer? Of the Akali or of the Buddhist, of the Christians of Orissa and Kerala and Karnataka or their killers? Of the Dalit or the OBC or the Brahmins and Thakurs? Of the Gurjjars and Meenas and the Marathi Manoos or the Bihari road worker hounded across the land from Assam to Mumbai? Are we each merely an entry in a vote-bank, ready material for manipulation in our march to the ballot box?

Who speaks any longer for all of India? Sadly, no single party, no single leader, no civil society group. There is no longer a Mohandas or a Vallabhbhai or a Jawaharlal or even a Jayaprakash. Yet the hour demands unity of purpose and nobility of vision. It demands all hands to the mast, all shoulders to the wheel. No single voice is loud enough to be heard by all. We need a chorus of all our voices. It is a test of leadership.

Can India’s political parties, tested for 60 years in the crucible of democracy, rise to this occasion and save our country? Can we set aside partisanship of our politics and forge a united front? Can the two major parties set aside differences in their visions of India and weave a common narrative of why India is a nation, united and single? Can we give our unreserved support to

... contd.