After many debating sessions with myself of not putting such issues on my blog, I could not hold back the Indian in me. So, I am writing this for you all to read the mind of an individual Indian.
Its not been long for me as an Indian citizen. I have been a citizen of India by birth, virtue, heart, will and emotion. Growing up in the land called "Secular" was so enriching. Even with the cultural divide, communal divide, economical divide I always felt a sense of pride. Not because I am from a general class but because it inculcated a sense of love for all strata of people. A sense of tolerance towards my fellow countrymen.
But there were definitely few jolts not in my way of thinking or tolerance or love towards my countrymen or my motherland. These were the few events that rocked the founding pillars.
The demolition of Babri Masjid, the communal riots, the Terrorisation of Kashmir , The Mumbai bomb blast. I was too small to understand the meaning of all those heavy things. And those days our only news channel was DD News!
As I grew up and started to know more and learn more. Taking steps towards being a responsible, educated and aware citizen of India. I was again hit by the sad reality of The Kargil War or rather Operation Vijay, IC-814 hijack leading to the release of a well known terrorist, the attack on the parliament. And what we did - nothing again!
Then in these few years we have seen terrorists trying to terrorize us through different ways. One among them is Bomb blasts which is now become the trend (Mumbai, Jaipur, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Delhi, Surat how many more cities should go to the terror pyre?) and then the religious intolerance that has been the aftermath. The call for independent states in every part of the union of India? Where are we heading?
As a young Indian, I ask the people in the high ranks who govern us... till what time we be only a meek spectator to these kind of atrocities being thrown at us. Aren't we competent enough to take a stand other than "Atithi deva bhawa"[Guest is God].....which by our current stand seems the terrorists are also our Guests!
When Kargil war took place, many of my brave bothers shed the fear of death for our motherland. Fought bravely and finally we were able to throw those terrorists out of our land. We celebrated. Yes we needed to celebrate. But give me a reason why do we need to celebrate on such things where
1. Many of my brothers were martyrs.
2. The land belonged to India, we did not even win an inch of the land which used to be India's
3. Which revealed our blind trust in an enemy which does not have the word "trust" in their dictionary.
And still we celebrated. I too was among those. But the reality would not be far or deceptive, few years later it hit all of us hard.
The attack on the citadel of democracy in India The Parliament, our parliament. And what did we see only comments from our revered ministers. And in action only one guilty charged. Simply conveying the message rather than the tree we are happy enough to get hold of the fruit.
Why did Indian Government not have enough guts to wave a war against terror and hit the areas they knew were the main problem destinations? The reason they conveyed was that we are a tolerant nation, a nation whose father is Mahatma Gandhi. But how long and till what time we would follow ahimsa [ tolerance].
Then in recent past we have seen our cities being battered with serial bomb blasts. People dying. My countrymen dying. And we just are mock spectators to the terror and the terrorists plans. We seem to be so helpless. We seem to be so vulnerable. We seem to be so carefree. We seem to be so unattached.
And amongst these events we now have killings in the name of religion. Where is our Right to freedom of religion gone?? Where is the sense of us having Mahatma Gandhi as the father of the nation gone?
People demand free independent states for a community. They call strikes. But to what use? They fail to realise the simple fact that in turn they harm their economy, the essence of earning bread. What would independent state achieve for them that a country as a whole would never be able to? I fail to understand that. Please someone tell me? With these demands it seems like "United we stand, divided we fall" is a myth or a farce?
The recent events show us that we are a country which is tolerant to all kind of terror activity, catastrophe but regionalism and religion. The main essence of Secularism is somewhere getting lost. The vision of our forefathers are being diluted for materialistic gain by certain affluent people. Because just those people want to earn name, fame and profit and they command the gift of the gab!
At this point of time, I as an Indian feel that the time has come to take a stand and do what US did in Afghanistan. We should do the same to the terror hubs we know of. How long will we tolerate all these? We are a country which gave birth to Netaji, Bhagat Singh, Chandrashekhar Azad. Their spirits should now be shown to the world.
"Charity begins from home". Lets clean our home and the neighborhood for a better future. Like the leaders who took a firm stand for the nuclear deal for a better future, can't they do this bit for a better and safe India?
P.S. :- These are my feelings and they do not have any resemblance or attachment to any group. These feelings are the fall out of so many deaths that my country had seen for the past few year, which were just uncalled for. Its also a salute to the spirit called India.
