Though every eclipse of the year germinates wishes, dreams, and aspirations in the minds of people across the world, rarely do we realise that wishes work only when we do. And, more importantly, only when we are allowed to wish and work on them. That is, when individual and collective interests or, more appropriately, rulers and ruled, see eye to eye, the outcomes of underlying wishes inclusively materialise. However, rulers in our country have evolved such a system that operates according to the wishes of the powerful, and in a manner that has left little space for the needs, let alone wishes, as humans of the ruled. And that was not out of the blue.

For decades, the playbook (not the Constitution), indexed on brute force, fear, coercion, and deception, subjected people to unquestioning allegiance to a handful of powerful institutions and individuals, all in the name of democracy, national security, and patriotism. Even beyond this, people sacrificed their wishes, efforts, and years for repeatedly betrayed promises of inclusive prosperity.

Lately, and to their utter dismay, however, people began to discover the fruits of their labour of sweat and blood amassed offshore or in the fortified palaces of the powerful. The discovery of........

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