Having lived all my life in India, I am still amazed at how inefficient we are as a country. Recently I decided to get my mother’s passport renewed and we duly filled out the reissue (as the MEA classifies a renewal) form. My mother, who is 73 years old and unable due to several health problems to go the passport office herself, decided to use an agent to help with submitting the form at the regional passport office.

The agent who claimed that his father had been in the MEA and therefore had access to all those who matter in the passport office promised that the passport would be with us in a month’s time, as promised by the MEA on its website.

It’s almost been two months, and there is still no sign of the renewed passport. My mother has lived at the same address for the last 25 years. Her name remains unchanged. She has travelled abroad on her last passport. At her age she is unlikely to be a threat to anyone. Yet the government in its wisdom has yet to give her, her right within the time the government itself has stipulated.

The agent, every time we call him, pleads helplessness, saying that the wheels of the government only move efficiently if money is paid or strings are pulled. When the entire proccess started, I thought otherwise. Now two months later, with still no way of knowing when my mother’s passport will arrive, I am sadly now inclined to believe this gentleman.

The Indian government and its minions still hold the citizens of this country in such contempt, that a passport which is every citizen’s right is still denied unless unfair means are used. It’s incidents like this more than anything else proves that the country is still a long way off from being a true democracy. A fair elections is just one indicator of a healthy democarcy. But when everyday rights are denied, it strikes at the very roots of the democractic proccess.