Governance Now and CVoter carried out a survey of the trust various institutions of governance inspire among the people. Read more about the overall findings of the survey here: Trust of the Republic survey: little faith in government or in print in the February 1-15 issue. The armed forces were found to be the most trusted institution.

That the Indian armed forces top the ‘most admired’ polls and come off the most trusted entity in the country is largely because historically the men and women in uniform have been a race apart. They live in cantonments like walled compounds, leading a parallel life that, until recently, was governed by a different value system. There was civil and there was military.

Besides, they have had no central role in the common man’s life since the 1971 war and do not affect him adversely like the police who earned the wooden spoon in the polls…ergo, distance makes the heart grow fonder. Also, the image of the esprit de corps, the camaraderie and the sense of discipline in an unruly and frightened world endures and in it we find solace. Even though some of the sheen has gone and the armed forces are no longer a ‘hand the son the baton’ family tradition and their once untainted integrity has been splashed with far too frequent scandal, there is still a residual faith and trust that the uniformed two million keep the nation safe and secure from the enemy at the gate.

Again, a fair amount of the victory does come by default. Where is the competition, who else would you admire? Our politicians are scarcely worthy of respect, regardless of their party affiliation, our bureaucrats are venal and greedy and abuse power, the  captains of industry do much the same, our educationists have made a right dog’s breakfast of serving knowledge, the media moghuls are mediocre to the point of heartache, our television stars ludicrous, our literary giants mere pygmies in the bigger picture, our sportsmen crippled before the starting gun, our medical fraternity businessmen suturing their bottom lines, our architects create brick and mortar monstrosities, our poetry is sour and our popular music worse, what is left?

I would have thought the judiciary, toiling against great odds would have got a shy at the coconut but they are defeated by a system that delays justice and hence denies it, so maybe public affection has dried up considerably. Good intent will fail against an archaic lawbook.

It was said the armed forces, the postal service and the railways were the three adhesives that kept India together after 1947. The postal service has been ‘emailed’ into oblivion. The railways are shunting out of synch and off the timeline, no longer dependable even though the cholesterol-clogged arteries still do flow the length and breadth of the nation, lifeblood for an arthritic country. That leaves only the armed forces between us and anarchy.

The irony is that if they are ever compelled (God forbid) to play the role of protecting and maintaining the national fabric from within and confront their own people, it will rent asunder all love and regard. Like we witness in Assam and Kashmir, where the bridging of the distance between the civil and the military creates an explosive and hostile chemistry.

Run to your homes this Republic Day and fall upon your knees, pray to the Gods that does not happen anywhere else or there will be a reckoning we cannot afford.