One more time together, friends, let’s stand up to celebrate the 60th Republic Day. Let’s tell our country, one more time together, that we love it. Let’s be proud, one more time together, that we are Indians.
Let’s salute our tricolour, one more time together. Let’s sing our national anthem, one more time together. Let’s say, Chak de India, one more time together.
Why am I stressing so much on ‘one more time together’?
Because I’m afraid, now we be Indians, together, in true spirit, occasionally, rather only on these two days—Republic Day and Independence Day.
So——just one more time!
For the rest of the days, we belong to separate places, speak different languages, love those who speak our tongue and kill the ones who dare to set foot on our soil.
No, I’m not talking about different nations. I’m referring to one nation, our nation, where we stay like estranged neighbours.
Giving up our lives for the sake of our country seems to have become passé. Now, we end up being killed, fighting for states.
Each of us wants a separate state. And let’s not blame anybody else for it. Let’s not say ‘you want it and I don’t.’ We all want it—knowingly or unknowingly. If people who have been living with us want to separate from us, we are responsible. It’s because we have treated them unfairly, we’ve been unjust towards them. It’s because we have not made them feel at home, we have discriminated against them.
At a time when we should be working towards wiping out all discrimination based on caste, creed, gender and religion, we are moving backwards and dividing ourselves further on grounds of language, beliefs, practices, etc.
When we should be doing our best to prevent unfortunate incidents like the Godhr riots and Babri Masjid demolition, we are involving ourselves in ‘Telangana’ ‘Vidharbha’ and Marathi and non-Marathi.
Eventually what are we planning to leave for our generations to come? A separate Republic Day for each state? Or worse still, a small bunch of them hoisting a flag to mark the independence of ‘So and so Colony’?
A visit to Chandni Chowk
12 years ago
The blog makes you wait...and think...and introspect. A genuine concern. It's high time we realised where we've been heading. Creation of small states - majorly the agitations over them - in the name of controlled governance, is somewhere or the other alienating us from our countrymen. True...
ReplyDeleteJhakassss likha hai dost.......
ReplyDeleteWell when you glue together lot of different cultures and people,when you sew a lot of differnet fabrics together,when you bring together estates with carrots for the rulers,when you still have politicians using divide and rule,it is bound to happen
ReplyDelete"VANDE MATRAM" is relegated to "ONE DAY MATRAM"
Nice social thoughts from somebody working on business desk. Ur progressive ideas really matter and u dont need to be passimistic about our future coz the idea of India has enough resilience. So, just chill n b happy...
ReplyDeletevery well written...in true Indian spirit..
ReplyDeleteआपकी बातों से मैं पूरी तरह सहमत नहीं हूं। हम मात्र दो दिन ही एक साथ नहीं रहते हैं या यह साथ रहने का अहसास मात्र दो दिन ही नहीं दिखता है। और अगर ऐसा ही रहता तो आज भारत जहां खड़ा है, उसकी हम कल्पना भी नहीं कर सकते थे। हम साथ साथ हैं, इसलिए हम आर्थिक मंच पर आज दुनिया से कदम ताल कर रहे हैं। हम साथ साथ हैं, इसलिए शिक्षा व तकनीकि के क्षेत्र में कईयों से बेहतर हैं। हम साथ साथ है, इसलिए इतनी भाषाएं, जात प्रांत की खाईयों के बीच हमने लोकतंत्र के साठवें साल में सफलतापूर्वक कदम रखा है, सिर्फ अपवाद स्वरूप आपातकाल की घटना को छोड़ दे तो। हम साथ साथ, मुंबई हमला हो या कारगिल वार, हर जगह यह जज्बा हमें देखने को मिलता है। ऐसे कई उदाहरण है, राजनीतिक, सामाजिक व सांस्कृतिक क्षेत्र में, जहां हमने सफलता के झंडे गाड़े हैं, वह हमारे एक साथ होने के कारण ही कारगर हो सका है। इस साकारात्म भाव से, इस पाजिटिव सोच से हम वो सब कुछ पा सकते हैं, जो हममे पाने की क्षमता है या जो हम पा सकते हैं।
ReplyDeleteसादर - नीरज वशिष्ठ