Public discourse in India has an unfortunate tendency to become trapped inside metaphors while quietly ignoring realities. A recent remark comparing unemployed youth to “cockroaches” has generated outrage, political reactions, television debates, and social media indignation. The controversy travelled quickly because words, especially from positions of authority, carry symbolic weight. Yet beyond the immediate reaction lies a more uncomfortable and important question: who are the real destroyers of public life and national morale?

A cockroach, however unpleasant its imagery may be, survives largely on leftovers. It thrives in neglected spaces created by disorder and human carelessness. It does not destroy the structure itself; it merely inhabits what has already been allowed to decay. Termites, however, are entirely different. They work silently within foundations. They hollow out structures from the inside while the surface continues to appear intact. By the time cracks become visible, the damage is often deep and irreversible.

And if one were to extend this metaphor to contemporary India, the real termites of society are not unemployed youth struggling for opportunities and dignity. The real termites are uncouth politics, institutional corruption, bureaucratic apathy, administrative inefficiency, and the normalization of public irresponsibility that quietly eats away at the living fabric of the nation.

India today possesses one of the world’s youngest populations. Millions of young citizens wake every morning carrying ambitions far larger than their circumstances. They prepare endlessly for competitive examinations, acquire degrees, migrate to unfamiliar cities, work temporary jobs, attempt small enterprises, and continue nurturing hope despite repeated setbacks. For countless middle-class and lower-income families, education is not merely a qualification; it is the only bridge between hardship and dignity.

Yet this generation frequently encounters a system that tests endurance more than talent. Recruitment examinations are postponed or cancelled. Vacancies remain unfilled for years. Administrative files move through corridors with painful slowness. Merit often competes against patronage. Entrepreneurs spend months navigating permissions instead of building businesses. Public services that should function efficiently frequently become exercises in delay and frustration. Citizens seeking ordinary entitlements are made to feel as though governance itself is a favour rather than a constitutional responsibility. These failures are not created by unemployed youth. They are produced by the termites within institutions.

The tragedy of termites lies in their silence. They rarely arrive dramatically. They survive through accumulation — one compromised decision at a time, one delayed file at a time, one manipulated contract at a time, one act of indifference at a time. A corrupt official demanding a small bribe may appear insignificant in isolation. A politician reducing serious governance issues into endless spectacle may seem merely opportunistic. A department tolerating inefficiency may appear routine. But together, these habits erode public trust, and trust is the invisible cement that holds nations together.

Societies do not weaken only because of economic crises or external threats. They weaken when ordinary citizens begin losing faith in fairness, competence, and accountability. The damage caused by uncouth politics is particularly severe because it lowers the quality of public conversation itself. When politics becomes excessively performative, governance slowly turns into theatre. Noise replaces substance. Outrage replaces policy. Serious national concerns such as education quality, judicial delays, employment generation, healthcare, agricultural sustainability, environmental stress, and urban planning are pushed aside by carefully manufactured controversies designed for immediate visibility rather than long-term solutions.

The result is a democracy constantly speaking but rarely listening. Corruption deepens this decay further. Corruption is not merely about stolen money; it is the theft of opportunity, time, trust, and dignity. Every bribe extracted from an ordinary citizen is a reminder that influence is often valued more than integrity. Every delayed pension, manipulated tender, or nepotistic appointment sends a silent message that systems can be negotiated rather than respected. Perhaps the greatest danger of corruption is not financial loss but moral exhaustion. Citizens gradually begin accepting inefficiency as normal, dishonesty as inevitable, and accountability as unrealistic. That is precisely how institutional decay becomes cultural decay.

Bureaucratic inefficiency adds another layer to this problem. India undoubtedly possesses many capable and sincere civil servants, but the machinery itself frequently rewards caution over innovation and procedure over outcomes. Excessive paperwork, overlapping regulations, administrative centralization, and fear-driven decision-making often create a system where files move more securely than ideas.

Ironically, the very youth casually criticised in public discourse continue carrying much of the nation’s resilience upon their shoulders. They adapt constantly to changing economic realities. They support families despite uncertain incomes. They build digital enterprises from small towns, acquire new skills online, and continue competing in overcrowded systems with extraordinary patience. Their frustration is not evidence of weakness; it is evidence of aspiration colliding with institutional stagnation.

A mature democracy must therefore exercise caution with language. Citizens, especially young citizens, should never be reduced to dismissive caricatures. Democracies grow stronger not by humiliating discomfort but by addressing its causes honestly. The role of institutions is not to mock public anxiety but to respond to it with competence, empathy, and reform. India does not need a politics of insult. It needs a politics of repair.

The national conversation must move beyond symbolic outrage toward structural introspection. The challenge before India is not merely achieving economic growth figures but strengthening institutional credibility. Efficient governance, transparent systems, timely justice, accountable public offices, ethical political conduct, and dignity for ordinary citizens are the foundations upon which stable democracies are built.

A society eventually becomes what it repeatedly tolerates. If arrogance is celebrated, corruption excused, inefficiency normalized, and accountability diluted, the termites multiply quietly beneath the surface while the visible structure continues to appear strong. The danger is that collapse, when it comes, rarely announces itself in advance. The answer, therefore, lies not in anger toward struggling citizens but in discipline within institutions. India’s real national cleaning exercise cannot remain confined to roads, walls, and public spaces alone. The deeper task is institutional sanitation — cleansing systems of corruption, arrogance, indifference, and decay.

For a truly “Swachh Bharat” to emerge, the metaphorical termites within politics, bureaucracy, and governance must be firmly identified, ethically restrained, and institutionally managed. Only then can the Republic evolve into not merely a large democracy, but a just and functional one where citizens are treated not as burdens to be mocked, but as partners in the nation’s future. / DAILY WORLD /

(The author is a retired Indian Forest Service officer and former Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Haryana. The views expressed are personal.)