Tolerant that we are…

The current tolerant versus intolerant debate that has been fabricated irks me to no end. This meaningless debate has been ushered by some so called intellectuals and other disgruntled elements from our society with ulterior motive.

Interestingly, it all began after Narendra Modi our Prime Minister took Office. The Congress party which ruled our country for decades went into a state of shock after the drubbing it received in the polls. It is still to recover from that shock. Given the pathetic and listless leadership it has, where its vice president is unable to even write few lines in condolence book, i think the party will remain in self afflicted shock. Such things happens when one is in denial, goes into his own cocoon and refuses to adapt / change and take or listen to opinion of other side.

The principal opposition party unable to digest the massive loss was even not able to find one scandal or scam which were in full flourish under the rule of its economist prime minister. Hence, issues were fabricated. A member of minority community at Dadri was killed allegedly for beef eating. Killing anybody is the most unsane act, i must say, but how can the Prime Minister be held responsible for one localised issue, when there is a state government in place with law and order responsibility.

I am not a BJP fan, I must say. BJP too is not a holy cow for that matter being. But, here is a Prime Minister who is atleast seen doing something. Instead of supporting him the opposition is doing all the tricks in the book to make his work more difficult.

So the supporters of the Congress regime in form of  writers, the actors the littérateurs, the leftists suddenly started feeling insecure, secluded voices started arising and gained momentum when the Bihar elections were near, to create a sense of insecurity amongst minority community that indeed they were unsafe under the BJP dispensation.

Then one fine day suddenly Aamir Khan the person who endorsed India’s cultural diversity as its brand ambassador in Atulya Bharat campaign exposed his double standards and stated that he too was feeling insecure. A new trend started and Award Wapasi Gang was born. Rabindranath Tagore had once returned his award in protest of British Government. Do the people who returned their awards claim to be of the stature of that great poet? Many a names were only heard by people after they returned their awards. Was that a cheap idea to hog into limelight by returning the award then?  These members of Award Wapasi gang got a well deserved backlash from the public in general and especially on twitterati and social media. The fad faded thereafter.

On 09th of Feb.,2016, something very bad happened at JNU. Some bigots mostly of left inclination in the name of freedom of speech and expression gave anti national slogans. The names Umar Khalid and Kanhaiya Kumar unheard off even outside JNU campus became national figures. The guys too enjoyed the limelight. Any publicity was good publicity for them. The opposition waiting for something to cling on started with siding them. The party which once in its prime struggled for freedom of our country today sided with traitors like Kanhaiya Kumar and Umar Khalid. Yes, at least for me Umar Khalid & Kanhaiya Kumar is a traitor. For in no other country (including the US and other western democracies), except ours would they have shown this kind of gut and gumption to raise anti national slogan and get reception of hero. Freedom, obviously comes with some restrains and responsibilities, we as Indians, i’ve noted scare away from our responsibilities, even of menial nature, while demand freedom.

Coincidentally, when all these things were taking place, some thousand kilometer away in the freezing glaciers of Siachen our jawans were buried under the ice mountain which came crashing on them during an avalanche. Barring one solder viz. Shri Hanumanthappa nine died, Hanumanthappa fought it for some days and finally left this world. I wondered, then that are we living in two different world? Here are the soldiers guarding our frontiers so that we can sleep peacefully, and here are the band of disgruntled intellectuals unable to find any issue raise slogans like “Bharat tere tukde honge”. Rightly so, the students were booked under sedition law which some claim as draconian. Again, the people who perennially oppose started feeling pity for poor Umar Khalid and Kanhaiya Kumar, their careers and things like this. First things first, are students sent to the colleges and universities to do politics or study? Surprisingly, the father of Kanhaiya Kumar residing in some remote leftist prone village found his son has done a great thing, the village folks celebrated his release on bail. People like Khalid and Kanhaiyya should not be sent to jail, for they one day come out and become larger than life heroes. I believe, they should be sent to places like Siachen to work with the army for some years.  The media opposing the current dispensation started eulogizing Kanhaiya Kumar and he too like a seasoned politician started giving measured responses. Kanhaiyya has prepared his ground for his entry into politics, one must now not feel shocked to see him in the lower or even upper house of our Parliament one day. However, the mean and shameful method that he has used, the shortcut that he has used to attract publicity at the cost of our motherland is demeaning.

One who has read about ancient India and its travel in 21st century will laugh at those stupid intellectuals sitting in cosy chambers and in Conferences and say that India is an intolerant. India was and is never an intolerant country. It was attacked by invaders right from Hun, Shaka, Kushana till the British. Yet, the country and its people had in themselves the tolerable attitude, the invaders barring the British merged into this large cauldron call Bharata and became part of it. One should always look around, not far away, our neighboring country Pakistan which parted from us on the name of religion. Did it survive as a nation? it broke away in 1971 and even today is never at peace with itself. What religion does it have in majority. Only Islam. However, the two paths of Islam, the Shias and Sunnis cannot reconcile with each others for centuries. Here in our country, we must feel proud, that after every few miles the entire gamut changes, the soil, the people, their clothing, their culture, their language everything changes and yet we are a one nation of one billion plus people.

We have been to tolerant as a nation, sometimes, i feel, that people with questionable mentality start questioning the existential questions.  Governments, may it be of Congress or that of BJP or Third Front or any other should never show lame tolerance when the questions are raised about the very unity of our country. Politics will always be played around. But nation should stand first and bad politics with narrow vision must not be played around for cheap goals. Like what Kanhaiyya did, like what Khaled did. For, if we do not nip these elements in its bud, we will have to face yet another kind of intellectual terrorism.

Height of Opportunism…

I am not a habitual blogger, i must admit, for i do not write articles on all and sundry issues. Only things that stand out awakens the lazy author in me. For many a days i was thinking of writing, many a things happened in my personal and social life, but the urge to jot down and article did not arise in full. However, the happenings of last week made me write.

Politics it is said is the last resort of scoundrels. Sometimes, i thought that the proverb was overstated. But the incident that happened last week has forced me to reconsider my stand. Before i drag the article beyond limits let me come to the point.

As most of my friends know, I work in one central government ministry and we had organised a National Level Event in a city adjoining Mumbai. It was a three days event and everything was going smoothly (atleast by government standards! ).  The programme being a national exhibition, the Union Minister of our Ministry was supposed to attend it. As a protocol, it became necessary to invite the local Member of Parliament and other Dignitaries. Nobody thought it would be such a fuss then.

Some four five days before the event a team from my Office alongwith the co-organisers a national level association went to invite this particular Member of Parliament, who represent a rabble rousing political party. Let me admit, i fear for my life and limb, and moreover my government job will not permit me to name and shame this particular guy.

To our surprise, the MP was as furious as he could have been.  What he said and what he expected shows the mentality of our politicians who think that they are the masters, the rulers. The politician in no uncertain terms using all unparliamentary language under his command said that he rules that particular city and how could we organise an event without his permission. Morever, how could we invite a minister who was from a party different from his. He threatened to disrupt the entire event. He was more harsh on the local association who were our supporting organisation.

Somehow, after initial jolt, my boss somehow tried to recover and pacify this MP.  He gave some vague reference and tried to convince the MP that this Exhibition was in fact being conducted with his implicit permission. May be the MP was convinced or atleast his ego was somehow soothed. He got bit mild. May be he knew that this being a government event, he could have however not stopped it and somehow required and alibi to wriggle out. The soothing words of my boss provided him that escape route. He then ‘wholeheartedly permitted’ to conduct the programme and asked to organizers to declare that this event was being organised on request of this particular MP. 

The programme went ahead smoothly, on the Inauguration day, the Union Minister arrived, this particular MP was on the dias as the most honored guest and was felicitated by the Organizers for his magnanimity and his foresightedness he had shown in organising this particular event in the city for the first time. The MP too did not lose any opportunity to impress upon everyone including the Union Minister that he toiled very hard to organise the event. We, the organizers however knew what brew had transpired behind the scenes. The next day’s newspaper was full with special references to the efforts of this MP. Paid Media is this ?

The real organisers of this event was our department, which was chained in bureaucratic chains, we were meek and helpless spectators to witness how our event was been hijacked by petty politicians, even the co-organisers did not spare a chance to go to town shouting that the event was organised by them single handedly.  Politicians of all hues made beeline to somehow raise their hands and get counted in this event. Isn’t it a classic example of the saying, success has many fathers.?

Till the day, these elected representatives stop thinking that they are VIPs and that they are born to rule, democracy and people’s writ will surely not dominate our society.