Are we one?

Well strange as it may seem this query is something that has been nagging me ever since I started commuting in Bangalore. Pretty often I’ve even had my sympathies shared cent percent by people I have discussed the problem with and all this to an incredulous question shot right back at me, “why the hell are you paying a road tax, When you initially purchase a vehicle?” No matter what I give as an explanation it never actually suffice as a good enough an explanation.

A few friends got together and we were discussing on this topic and it so happened that everyone had a story to tell; each one of us was stopped at some point or the other by a policeman asking us for our papers. Well not of identification but rather our bike or car papers. In spite of all the other papers being in order the only hindrance being that the Karnataka road tax was not paid. Well to be fair, each one of us were let off with a warning and sometimes a light fine. Now the circumstances all point to one, that the very people who claim to have our unity at the very highest of importance is in fact giving it the least priority, the politicians.

It is noticed that the taxes of this state is seemingly higher than that of the other states but come-on there’s no need of an economics lesson to state why one state can levy a tax that is somewhat higher than what it is charged in other states would a uniform tax system solve the problem better. This when the most advanced city in the state is not even in a tier classification of the cities that entitle for a higher tax quotient. (Whew now that’s like a lot of Greek and Latin even for me!).

Now some may get the argument together and even be able to convince people as to the virtues of having a slightly higher tax rate but then take for instance the fighting going on in Maharashtra, one man’s eccentricity for a land belonging to a state, saying other state people cannot stay there! I must rather say if that chappie went way back to his ancestral root he would in fact learn that he was part of another state himself. Further looking or after deeper thought he would realize that the very development of his state is because of people from other states.

Each one of these incidents only leads us to wonder whether we are truly living in a country calling itself the largest democratic nation bound by a single law and government!