The last few days have been one
of the most dramatic, chaotic and disturbing for me as an Indian. While I sit
down and pen my thoughts, I have a thought at the back of my mind if I will I
be able to jot down everything as it is running in my mind? Would I be labelled
into some category and if I would be labelled would it be worse? Will my
writings offend and distance me from friends and people who have known me? Will
I be able to do justice to the background and might not miss any small big
thing while I wash the dirty linen? Is there any other way? Is there a way at
all? In spite of these and many other questions, I feel that my conscience
needs me to say what I have to, no matter what. Else I feel I would not have
done justice to my India, my motherland. So here I go. With four letters
addressed to four different sections of people. I wanted to post them as ‘one
per a blog’ but I didn't want anyone to think that I am taking sides. So here I
go, full throttle…
My Dear Students:
It is child psychology to hit a
stone on the mangoes at neighbour’s mango tree and run away. The kid knows that
hitting a stone at the tree will alert the neighbours and he might not get a
hold of even a single mango and still he does that just for the fun of it and
that too knowing full well that it is not correct to do that. It is not simple
ignorance but also a bit of mischief. That is a child’s psychology. But
remember that you are not such small kids to get away with stoning anything and
everything.
You are fortunate to be a part of
one of the most illustrious educational institutions of the country when I talk
about JNU or UoH or Jadhavpur Universities. You have the biggest responsibility
of shaping up this country’s future, our country’s future. You come here from
different and most often you come from distressed backgrounds. You are young
and restless and you should be so. You should question and try and understand
the logic behind any and everything under the sun. That is when your minds will
flourish and that is good for everyone. After all after completing your
education, you will get into a job, maybe government service, administrative
services, diplomatic service, private companies, public sector companies,
services and not to forget, politics. In fact, your baby steps into the big bad
world of real politics start with your university student unions. Irony is that
your baby steps in themselves are poisoned with shadow organizations of all the
political and non-policito-extra constitutional parties, be it the NSUI of
‘Seculars’, ABVP of the ‘Nationalists’, SFI of the ‘Revolutionaries’ and so on.
Not to forget the shadows of CPI-ML in the form of DSU. You have a huge
responsibility of questioning and correcting the country’s course but if you
affiliate yourselves with one of the existing ‘clans’ where would the new
thought go? You will end up being brainwashed by the ideologies of what each
political affiliation stands for – left, right, centre, what not! While you do
all the questioning and contradicting, please do not forge the fact that the
only thing that has kept this country united and going strong irrespective of
the million flaws and drawbacks is the constitution and the conviction of the
common man that this country and its constitution is paramount. Mind you that
constitution is a word, which according to the Merriam Webster’s dictionary
means “a constitution is the system of beliefs and laws by which a country,
state, or organization is governed. It is a document that describes this system”
and our constitution right in its preamble declares “WE, THE PEOPLE OF INDIA,
having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a SOVEREIGN SOCIALIST SECULAR
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC and to secure to all its citizens: JUSTICE, social,
economic and political; LIBERTY of thought, expression, belief, faith and
worship; EQUALITY of status and of opportunity; and to promote among them all
FRATERNITY assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity and integrity
of the Nation”.
I know we are not a cent percent
there. But, I know, with the collective will power, it is not impossible to be
there. That is where you should focus on. Your paramount question should always
be ‘How do I make my country better’ and not stuffed in negativism and be ‘What
is good in this country’. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel. The wheel is
there. All it needs is some oiling and maintenance. Don’t waste your energies
on trying to invent a wheel that does not exist and if some political
affiliation is trying to show you that there is indeed a new and a different
wheel which is beyond this constitution, then they are trying to use you as
their weapons and serve their own purpose and are showing you a mirage. Nothing
else but a mirage! We are a few generations after the freedom fighters
generation. That generation was clear that the fight was against an outsider.
But for us now, the fight is from within and within is a word to denote the
ills of the society – be it the politicians, parties, government service,
representatives, and most importantly our own selves.
Most of our student ‘unions’ and
governing bodies of universities are predominantly Left thinking and Left
leaning. Good for them. But, is it good for you? Equality is good. It is right.
But, equality over skill and hard-work is senseless. Remember the fact
‘Democracy is the road to socialism’ no matter what the politicians, the Left
ones tell you. If I understand it right socialism is nothing but democracy in
its true sense where all barriers are removed and everyone is absolutely equal
without any excuses. So be proud of our constitution which gives you democracy.
The same constitution which under article 19 (1) (a) gives you “Protection of
certain rights regarding freedom of speech, etc. — (1) All citizens shall have
the right— (a) to freedom of speech and expression”. Compare it with what the
Constitution of USA says: “ARTICLE [I.] Congress shall make no law respecting
an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or
abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; of the right of the people
peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of
grievances” and the UK which mentions “The right to freedom of expression”. But
as you shall, in due course of your life will come to know and understand that
there is no right without any responsibility. A ‘right’ as per the Merriam
Webster’s is “being in accordance with what is just, good, or proper ” and a ‘responsibility is “something that you should do because it
is morally right, legally required, etc.”. Our constitution, under 19 (2) says
“Nothing in sub-clause (a) of clause (1) shall affect the operation of any
existing law, or prevent the State from making any law, in so far as such law
imposes reasonable restrictions on the exercise of the right conferred by the
said sub-clause in the interests of 4 [the sovereignty and integrity of India,]
the security of the State, friendly relations with foreign States, public
order, decency or morality, or in relation to contempt of court, defamation or
incitement to an offence”. This is not unreasonable. So do cultivate and relish
that freedom of expression. Ask a North Korean, a Saudi or a Pakistani or a
Chinese or a Russian and you shall know how well thought out and responsible
each word in that (and the entire) constitution are. Haven’t you heard of the
Virat Kohli fan from Pakistan who is now serving a ten year sentence for just
waiving an Indian tricolour on Paki soil though he never said anything against
his motherland? But do not get carried away by the myopic views of political
affiliations and do not look through their prisms and start abusing and
misusing that great freedom that you have been given. In today’s internet age
it is not a big deal to research for yourselves and find out what is good and
what is not. Find out the facts, what is just and what is not and then
subscribe to that or any cause. The very fact that you are able to debate on
the ills of the society and country is reason enough for you to believe that
you are in a free society. India, like most other countries, has a big
population of tax evaders. But, we, the honest taxpayers are definitely
contributing and funding your free thought and education so that we all have a
better tomorrow. It is a privilege and not for you to take it for granted.
There are hundreds of thousands waiting for the kind of educational avenues
that you are having. Think about giving them a helping hand and do not fall
victims to the theatre of politics. Politicians from independence till date
have let us down more often than making us proud. And by politicians I call out
ALL, without any exceptions or excuses. I will tell you why in the subsequent
paragraphs.
One point that I will definitely
touch upon is the right to free and fair trial that seems to be one of the root
causes of the agitations that you are trying to take upon yourselves. Please go
back and read through the articles 20, 21 and 22. There were two individuals
and their trials and sentencing that seemed to have irked you some. Don’t
forget that Yakub Memon was deported to India by UAE based on an Interpol Red
Corner notice. Interpol is a world body of 190 nations and it does not accept
such requests unless it sees that there is a merit in the case before it issues
a notice. If Interpol would not scrub any arrest/notice request for its
authenticity and legality, most of our world leaders would have had a notice
against each other – for their own gains and causes. Fortunately for the world,
it does check the merits before issuing notices. If for a moment you think that
India was unjust in that case, note that 190 countries represented by Interpol
did recognize that he is really an accused and deserved a trial and that he
would get a fair and just trial in India. And he did for his role in Mumbai
blasts. He might not be the accused number one but he is definitely an
important player and there should not be any question on that. Likewise is the
case of Afzal Guru. He has admitted to his role as an accomplice to the
parliament attack, to attending a training camp of the militants, of knowing
the masterminds and being in touch with them and so on. He did that not just in
courts based on which he was convicted but also during the interview he gave. Both
these people got a fair trial and had all possible judicial recourse before
their sentencing was implemented. So did even Kasab and that is the greatness
of the strength of our judicial system and our constitution. They went through
each step – on merit and also on technical grounds and failed. In how many
countries do you find lawyers coming forward to even take up the case of a
militant? In our country and in our judicial system the court has itself in
numerous occasions appointed defence lawyers for these and many other terrorist
related cases. That is when their sentencing was implemented and they were
hung. Should capital punishment be carried out is a different question and you
have every right to have that question and think about it; debate and agitate
about it and put your opinion forward as strongly as you can. But, to call
either of them as martyrs or saying that they did not get a fair trial is
stretching it too far. Trust me when I say that they deserved a fair trial and
that they did get a fair trial. You don’t need to believe anyone on this but
the case documents and order copies are in public domain for you all to check. I
might not be a legal expert but I did argue with my friends on social media on
the importance of even Kasab getting a free and fair trial when almost the
entire nation was vying for his blood and wanted a mob justice and to lynch him
to ‘teach a lesson’ to any future terrorists. Also, please note that in Yakub
or Afzal’s cases, no matter what the politicians and the divisive forces tell
you, they were Indian citizens first and who have committed crime, were
sentenced for their crimes and not for their religious or any other
affiliations. Martyred were those innocent civilians who were killed in those
blasts in Mumbai on that fateful day. Martyred were those para-military forces
who laid their lives protecting that temple of democracy. Not those who had a
role to play either directly or indirectly. There are the so-called ‘liberals’
and ultra Leftists join hands with them to serve their ends and these
‘liberals’ come to question everything and try and brain wash you all. They
question and brainwash you to question the existence of our country, on Kashmir
joining India, on free speech, on the existence of the pillars of democracy
itself. Think through those thoughts and you sure will understand that when
they question the very existence of our country or the pillars of democracy or
Kashmir they are talking about their ideology of disintegrating our nation. It
sounds very funny that they use the same freedom of speech to talk about the
lack of it. Doesn't it sound oxymoron-ish?
You might have come from very
disadvantaged backgrounds, from very weaker sections which have been exploited
for long. But, you have a chance – a chance to bring about the change and to
ensure that the equality that our constitution has guaranteed is followed up in
both letter and spirit. You all have a future. A future to better our country
and to take our country and place it at the top, the rightful place it always
deserved. You would not achieve this by getting carried away by the Left and
ultra Left ideologies which talk of a revolution which does not recognize our
country and constitution. You would not achieve this by following and joining
the right wing parties just because they have come to power and with a hope
that you will get an advantage by following them. And you will not achieve this
by following the centre and centre Left who have ruled the country for long and
are now ready to stretch to any levels to get back into the power corridors and
for whom secularism does not mean treating all religions equally and equality
does not mean equal in all aspects.
Please think, retrospect and
stand up to your duty and help better the country and everything in this
country instead of getting caught in and carried away by jingoism.
Regards
An Indian
Here is my second letter:
My Dear Khadi waalas, Muffler
waalas and Johle waals:
To start with, please remember
that you are a part of a country whose constitution bestows upon every of its
citizen equal rights and in a secular environment. First let me start
addressing the latest entrants and then go on to the old players. Mr Muffler
waala, you have been at a constant dharna and though the people of your state
has given you the reins of power (and absolute power that is), you did not stop
your dissident habits. You are one of those rare CM’s who, while sitting in the
CM’s chair has gone on a dharna. The only other person whose name crosses my
mind who did a similar act was a matinee idol from South who did something
similar in my city over 30 years back. Sitting in the CM’s chair is a big
responsibility and it is unbecoming of you to talk anything that might bring
the reputation of your chair down. They say power corrupts and absolute power
corrupts absolutely. For everything you have a fight with everyone. You fly
down half of the country to come to my city to visit UoH for what? I would have
been happy had you come to show sympathy to that student’s parents and family.
But you, just like many others to whom this letter is addressed, you all came
just to fan passions and to make things look much worse. It makes a great
political statement to wear an oversized pullover, a muffler and some chappals.
But not when you represent your country in front of a foreign dignitary and the
nation’s guest at a formal get together. And the less I talk about you, the
better. Else you might accuse me of conspiring against your government.
My dear jhole waalas. You have
started to put up a show that you are above the petty politics and that you are
the only last standing torch bearers of truth, democratic values and secularism
and the voice of the poor. How can you forget the fact that you are the living
dinosaurs of Indian polity? Haven’t you ever looked around or reinvent yourselves
to the changing times? Even Peoples Republic of China (PRC) and Russia have
almost buried their respective Red books and started looking ahead. But weren't you the same ones who used to invite the PRC to come and take over our country
throughout until the 70’s? Yes, you definitely have a place in history by
becoming the first truly democratically elected communist government in the
world but you are confined to only history and not to the present. You are as
corrupt as anyone else. Proof of that is found in your leaders in Kerala and
Bengal. You have exploited the poor and downtrodden long enough. The splinter
group of yours which started in your own backyard in the tiny hamlet of Naksalbari
(it is written as Naksal and not Naxal on maps) is still trying to spill venom
and stop development and hold pockets of our country to ransom. There is news
of extortion rackets and mafia kind of jungle raj and justice system that those
groups have unleashed upon some regions. Just as you prayed and pleaded PRC to
come take over India and ‘liberate’ it, your distant cousins are talking about
a ‘Red Corridor’ spanning from PRC to Nepal to the Gangetic plains to the
Deccan plateau right until the Indian Ocean. More schools, hospitals, roads and
modes of communication and transportation of our country were destroyed by
those cousins of yours than all the natural disasters put together. If you are
so very concerned about our country, why don’t you ever condemn them and
reprimand them? You think that you are a bunch of open minded thinking class
educated and liberal minded messiah’s of the nation but in reality you are
nothing but hypocrites who have held most of the college and student unions in
your grip and hence most of the college and university campuses. If you are really
worried about the country, the secularism and the constitution, why don’t you
channel those students to constructive activities and not to destructive
activities under the guise of being liberal? You were supposed to be religion-less. But why is it that you seem to be against one religion and look
at it as the reason to all ills of the country? You have already grown old. It
is high time you grow up too.
My dear khadi baba. Every time
there is something that goes wrong in the country, at the drop of the hat you
come out and make a statement which always means that you, your party and your
family has made numerous and unmatched sacrifices to the nation to uphold its
secular fabric and its constitution. I feel you think that you and your family
have done a great favour on our country and you all deserve to be idolized and
you and your family are ‘first amongst equals’. I at times get speechless and I
am overwhelmed by the decisions that your party and especially your family took
to ‘drive towards ‘secularism’’. But wasn't it your great grandpa who has
advised the first ‘to-be president’ of our country not to wear a dhoti on an
achkan for his inauguration in 1950 and have ‘suggested’ him to wear a pyjama
along with that achkan as that would be more ‘secular’? Till date I fail to
understand how does being someone from a particular religion be against being
secular? Wasn’t it the same great grandpa of yours whose ego was satisfied by
making him the first PM of our nation as he was not ready for anything less than
that? There are some historians who say that had it not been his ego and
stubborn attitude, and the attitude not to give up the PM’s chair to someone
from a different community, our country would not have gotten partitioned. I am
not sure of that fact. But I am pretty sure that it was his dream of not just
being the first PM of our country but also to become the statesman of the
developing and under developed world which made us take a lot of wrong steps.
First it was about taking the Kashmir issue to the UN. Then, by ignoring the
military intelligence and going by his own imagination that he brought about
the PRC to invade our country. And when the Chinese were at our gates at the
North East, he went on national radio and instead of boosting the morale of the
nation; he said ‘our hearts are with you’ as if we were going to leave the NE
to their fate! I sometimes wonder if he had any disliking to the NE part of our
country. Had it not been for one Bordoloi, we would have lost a major part of
the NE region to Pakistan during partition itself because your great grandpa
never cared for what part was in and what was out. He was more worried about
inking his name in history. He wanted to showcase himself as the ‘peace loving
and pigeon flying statesman’ and because of that he didn't allow our country’s
nuclear program to go at the pace which it was ready to under Homi Bhaba. He
was so secular (read anti his religion of birth) that he never wanted to be pictured with vermilion on forehead. But at the same time people say he was against his daughter marrying someone from a different religion and it lead to
a lot of turbulence in the family and the ‘old man’ had to come and put some
sense into his head. Then came ‘Ma’. It was she and her undying love for her
younger son that has brought the worst blot upon our country in the form of
Emergency by flashing the article 352 of our constitution. If there ever was
any threat and a blot on our constitution, full credit for it goes to her. She
and her courtier were so arrogant that the CM’s of states were made to run like
slaves and puppets. If someone mustered courage to walk up to even ‘plead’
about some pressing issue of their state, they were promptly kicked out of
power. She was akin a puppeteer. What a way to uphold our constitution! Yes,
she was able to head the country to the thumping victory of ’71 and a slap on
the face of ‘two nation theory’ waala’s but I give the credit to the acumen of
Sam Bahadur while not denying her of the credit for her will power. She allowed
her supporters to be so audacious that the phrase ‘India is Indira and Indira
is India’ was coined. Though India never became synonymous with Indira, the
full form of your party did change to Indira Congress thanks to a great power
struggle that your granny was in to get on and stay in power. Who has gone
ahead and enacted a law to nullify the ‘Shah Bano’ verdict to appease one
particular community knowing very well that the ‘Shah Bano’ verdict of the
court was in line with the right to equality that is enshrined in our
constitution. Wasn't that based on the same brute force majority that your dad
got because of the sympathy wave of your grandma’s assassination? Oh talking
about her assassination, didn't it unleash a wave of riots in and around Delhi? Weren't those riots no less in terms of gruesome killings to what happened in
Gujarat for which you and your mom always have tears in your eyes? Weren't they
abetted and at times involved your party functionaries? When asked to comment
about those riots as a PM, wasn't it your ‘secular’ dad who said ‘when a big
tree falls down, earth around it shakes’? Who got the doors of the Ayodhya site
unlocked so that the ‘Hindu votes’ come to his side? Wasn't that done to
‘balance’ the votes and wasn't the thought process – ‘Shah Bano reversal would
get me one community votes and unlocking the doors which were under lock and
key from 1949 would get me the other community’s votes and I shall remain the
unchallenged leader’? Wasn't it this decision of Shah Bano verdict reversal
that has almost buried the hopes of a ‘uniform civil code’? And wasn't it his
decision to unlock the doors that lead the VHP to change the tune from ‘we
shall agitate to get the doors opened which have been locked from 1949’ to ‘we
shall ensure that the place which has been architecturally a mosque but
functionally a temple shall remain a temple both architecturally and
functionally’? I am not sure if your family knows that karma is a bi**h. The
shock and depression of PRC’s invasion of India took a toll on your grandpa’s
life. And this is the same PRC for whose partnership your grandpa was yearning
all his life. The people who killed your grandma had affiliation to the person
who was initially nurtured and pampered by her to take control of the Akali politics
of Punjab. It was the same LTTE which was conceived, trained and supported by
your grandma in the initial days which eventually killed your dad.
When PV became the PM of the
nation and started driving the nation on the path of reforms, he played politics
both for his survival and to further his cause of reforms. He was hand-picked
by your mom and he was brought back from retirement. Reason? He was too
spineless, powerless and a ‘yes guy’. But when he started transforming into the
‘Chanakya’, your mom and your party started disowning him. He was at the helm
when the Ayodhya structure was finally demolished. He knew what transpired on
that day. No one knows and no one will ever know what actually happened. But,
whenever he was asked to give a clarification by the media he always used to
say ‘I am a congressman. My lips are sealed’ and he did stick to that word. He
was such a staunch congressman. But at the end, when he died, you and your mom
did not even allow his body the honour of being let inside the Akbar Road party
headquarters. He deserved some respect for bringing the country back from the
brink of bankruptcy and for a lot on diplomacy. He failed on the ‘yes sir’
aspect and till date, no one even acknowledges and accepts him as one of your
party’s leaders. So much for equality! Maybe you and your party just revolves
around only one family and that is the reason that the Ambedkars, the Jinnahs,
the Boses were forced to quit the GOP of Indian polity. It was not their loss.
But, evidently it was your party’s loss. Likewise, Patel is now projected as a
national leader by your opponents and so is PV. How ironic! Till now all that I
have said does not directly involve you. But, though you may sound and look
dumb, especially when you end up writing a condolence message by reading a
prepared text that was stored for you by someone on your mobile when you
visited the Nepalese embassy after that worst earthquake of Nepal, that is not
an excuse enough to spare you from what you can be pointed to and blamed for.
When the brave girl was fighting her life after being mercilessly raped, weren't you the party second in command and your mom the convener of the ruling
alliance? You run to every agitation today, from Hyderabad to Delhi to UP to
Gujarat. Were you very busy that you couldn't visit AIIMS at that time? Your
government’s minister, an eminent lawyer has warned people that sedition
charges will be slapped on anyone who tries writing anything against or
purportedly derogatory against you or your mom. Where did all the freedom of
expression go at that time? You and your courtier culture have been such a
nightmare to that poor chap, the sardar that he stopped opening his mouth and
even mentioned that in coalition many a times he or any other PM is found in
helpless situations.
If I continue writing about your
tales, they will never end and they will make you all left, central and
centre-left folks look like a pack of jokers. I end the mail to you all with
one statement. It is both a request and a warning. Stop playing with fire. Else
you wouldn't know when it will engulf your own house. India has a great constitution and set-up. It is people like you all who is letting it down and
not letting it grow to its full potential. You are political outfits and understandably
you yearn for power. But don’t try to divide the country to get more votes and
to get back to power. You will not get any place in the history if you do that.
History has seen many people who played these kinds of games and history never
recognized them and they went into oblivion though they got power in their
hands for some time. If you want history to remember you, do things which are
the need of the hour and which will make our country a stronger, better and
equitable secular society.
Regards
An Indian
Here is my third and last letter for this post:
My Dear patriotic and nationalist
mantle bearers:
Where do I start when I talk
about you? You are the trickiest one to talk about. You have so much of social
media support that I am pretty sure that if I get any comments back, they would
most definitely come in response to this open letter. Let’s start with the most
trending phrases from your side – Nationalism and Patriotism. These have been
the most abused and misused phrases in the entire human history. Right from the
Greeks to Hitler to Stalin to Mussolini to Saddam to Korean Kim clan and many
more have used the same phrases – patriotism and nationalism to persecute
anyone on whose behaviour these rulers had any question. These were some of the
world’s worst tyrants who used these as excuses to eliminate any opposing
thoughts. Are you trying to do that? Who is one party/person/group/entity to
certify someone as being a patriot or a nationalist? Are these some certifying
agencies? Who are you or someone to question my patriotism or nationalism? What
is nationalism or patriotism according to you? Are you talking about
patriotism? An association who had almost zero presence in the nation’s freedom
struggle – neither anyone from the any previous avatars of your political
outfits nor those from the RSS. Nowadays RSS is being labelled as being a
nationalistic and patriotic body. Isn’t it the same RSS that had zero presence
in India’s freedom struggle except for Veer Savarkar. I do respect the Savarkar
but I differ on his choice to seek pardon from the British Raj to come out of
the Cellular Jail. Wasn't it this RSS which has sent a clear directive to its carder to not participate and to boycott the Quit India call of 1942? I don’t
want to take names but go back to history books and check the facts as to who
was the RSS chief who called to boycott that Quit India call. Wasn't it this
RSS which has opposed to our national flag? Who was the RSS head of that time who opposed this flag? Wasn't it this same RSS which said caste system was an
important and integral part of India as enshrined in ‘Manu Smriti’ and that the
constitution should not dare to tamper with it? The parties who are hell bent
on commemorating Ambedkar and coining the ‘Constitution Day’, how can they
forget that RSS has opposed the constitution and has demanded that ‘Manu
Smriti’ be made the constitution of our land? I don’t subscribe to a million
things that MK Gandhi asked or did but I do not support those who assassinated
him. Two wrongs never make a right, right? For me, a murder is a murder and the
murderer needs to be a sentenced – be it Godse or Memon or Guru. And who was
Godse having private conversations with up to the D day? What is the background
of Hindu Mahasabha? There is a huge furor about raising our tricolor on each
central university campus. Please check your facts as to how many times was it
unfurled at RSS’ Nagpur HQ from 1947 until as recently as in 2000’s? In
pre-independence provincial government formations, do you remember who the
coalition partners were? The answer my dear ‘nationalists’ is same Muslim
League and Hindu Mahasabha? Yes. And did you forget that it was during the
tenure of this same coalition ML-HM that the then Sindh government has passed a
resolution for a ‘Pakistan’ – the first by a provincial government under the
British rule? You ask people to be lynched, crucified (not in literal terms but
that is the end meaning of the inflammatory words that you use) but do you know
that the HM members of that Sindh cabinet which resolved for a Pakistan
continued in that same government. Do you know that Savarkar was heading HM
during that time? Some patriotism!
Now I talk about the Afzal Guru Issue.
To start with, let me make it very clear that I feel Afzal was sentenced for
what he has done and the just and due process was followed for his sentencing. It
was not so long ago that you formed a coalition government in J&K. Do you
know the stand of PDP, your coalition partner on Afzal Guru? As per PDP, Afzal
was a martyr. Didn't that fact come in between you and the temptation of
forming a government in J&K? How is it that the nationalists stand up to
ask you to come clean on that? Why couldn't you convince PDP to change their
stand? You have made a lot of fun on the ‘coalition dharma’ statement of MMS. What
JNU students allegedly said (I use the word ‘alleged’ because of the
conflicting reports of the ‘ghar ghar se Afzal niklega’ shout) is not any
different from the stand taken by PDP. Isn’t it? Coming to Punjab and a long
standing and all weather tried and tested partner – SAD. Don’t they consider
Bhindranwale as a martyr? What is the stance of all the nationalists and
patriots on what the Bhindranwale phenomenon was? Indira might have sent the
tanks inside the Golden Temple but wasn't it this Bhindranwale who accumulated
arms and held the most sacred Sikh place to ransom? He and a lot of SAD
sympathizers were chanting ‘Khalistan Zindabad’. Can someone please clarify if
that is seditious? By extending that derivation, isn’t the claiming of
Bhindranwale as a Sikh martyr by the SAD controlled Sikh bodies sedition?
Terrorists who killed Beant Singh, a CM of Punjab, were honoured by SAD
controlled bodies as martyrs. There are calls of these same bodies calling
Indira’s killers as martyrs. Is that what a patriot can agree to? As much as I
disagree with Indira for the emergency and a lot of other policies of hers, I
still call her killers as killers because they didn't just kill Indira Gandhi
but they killed an elected PM of our country.
Despite all these and many more, I
am no one to label or rank or grade someone’s patriotism or nationalism. If I say
all these things, I also do say that it was the same RSS that played a role in
getting Goa and Daman and Diu to annex to India. That doesn't make RSS any
greater ‘nationalist’ than a Communist party which played a great role in
getting the Hyderabad state annexed to India. Even if it means that the Dutch
and Portuguese who made up their mind to leave their colonies in India were
forced to by RSS whereas the Nizam of Hyderabad was way more ‘naughty’. The role
played by Jayaprakash Narayan in opposing the Emergency, the blot on Indian
democracy can never be undermined and also the fact that most of the BJP
leaders either worked with him or got into politics inspired by him cannot be
denied. But at the same time, it cannot be denied that many from Left
inclination also got inspired by JP’s movement. It doesn't make Right any Left or vice versa. Nor would it make either of them seditious. After all the section
124(a) of Indian Penal Code reads “Sedition.—Whoever, by words, either spoken
or written, or by signs, or by visible representation, or otherwise, brings or
attempts to bring into hatred or contempt, or excites or attempts to excite
disaffection towards, the Government established by law in [India], shall be
punished with [imprisonment for life], to which fine may be added, or with
imprisonment which may extend to three years, to which fine may be added, or
with fine”. Though the Emergency was draconian, the JP movement was against the
government of the day and the policy of Emergency that it came up with.
I do understand that power
corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. It is for the first time after
1984 that a single party got majority to form a Union government and also this
is the first time that a single ‘non-khadi’ party got a majority of its own. Power
gives one a ‘high’ and it tempts one to feel that they are the law instead of
realizing that they ought to be by law. Remember that though democracy is by
far the best form of governance in the world, a ‘proportionate democracy’ is
better than our existing democratic system. A proportionate democracy is one
where you need to have a 51% vote to win an election. But an ‘inclusive
democracy’, a democracy where a 100% agreement happens is the best. But we all
know that this is idealistic and does not work in real life, especially in a
vast and diverse country like ours. Brute force is not the best way to deal
things always. There is a poem in Telugu which means that a branch full of fruits
will be modest/polite (will bend in humility) whereas a branch without fruits
will be the one that makes a lot of noise. Also, as they say, people should not
point fingers at someone because while one finger points to the other side,
there are three that point toward us.
I sincerely hope that you
understand the analogies and stop branding, grading and judging people and
their patriotism and nationalistic intents. It is not code where one is ‘guilty
until proven otherwise’ but it should be a code where one is ‘innocent until
proven otherwise’. One cannot find anything but nationalistic intents in Hitler’s
speeches but we know where he drove the world to. Understanding these concepts
might help sanity prevail at your end rather than an ‘eye for an eye’ attitude.
Hope it makes sense to you all
and helps peace to have a chance.
Regards
An Indian
I would end this super lengthy
post by quoting a poem from Gitanjali, by Rabindranath Tagore, the father of
our national anthem. I feel that this poem and what it wishes for is the need
of the hour and not the prime time TRP’s that have started to influence our
opinions and makes ‘India wants to know’ even when in reality India does not
Where the mind is without fear
and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been
broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the
depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches
its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason
has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of
dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by
thee
Into ever-widening thought and
action
Into that heaven of freedom, my
Father, let my country Awake!
Jai Hind!
