I’ve been keeping myself from writing about the circus that has been going on in our country for quite some time now. For the simple reason that too many one-sided opinions had come up from too many people. But I just happened to read a piece about how “we need freedom in India” and that amused me – because if I have to worry about anything in this country now, I will worry about too much of freedom.
Too much of freedom that any dumb-ass can hold a memorial service for “martyrs” who died in the name of “freedom”, mocking the death of thousands and thousands of innocent people and soldiers, and still walk away scot-free – “martyrs” like Afzal Guru, Ishrat Jahan, Yakub Memon and numerous others who worked to bring about freedom – freedom which includes killing people for thinking for themselves, freedom which includes killing thousands of innocent people just to prove a lame point, freedom which includes spreading hatred, freedom which includes opposing any form of progress.
Too much of freedom that any lunatic can live in India, enjoy all the perks of being in a democracy, fight to be called backward so that they can be entitled to an eternity of caste based reservation which has nothing to do with their economic status and then call out to others to join them in the noble cause of destroying the very country they live in.
Too much of freedom that any so-called intellectual and youngster can raise a slogan against the government and embrace terrorists who have openly declared war on our country, and they are considered forerunners of change, activists for freedom and equality, and gain unconditional support from opportunistic politicians who stoop to the level of supporting even terrorist groups and hovering over corpses like vultures to bring down their political rival.
Too much of freedom, that if you exercised the same level of freedom in any of the highly developed nations where freedom is the keyword to existence, you would be executed, deported or put behind bars for the rest of your life.
Too much of freedom, that it has become the license to blabber anything and get away with it.
Too much of freedom, that the responsibility that comes along with the freedom is conveniently forgotten.
I don’t think there is any other country on the face of the earth where people of the country are only too happy to support terrorists and shatter the country from within. For that matter, if there is any reason one should be afraid of living in our country, it shouldn’t be intolerance as the intellectuals name it, it should be too much of tolerance – because if we were really an intolerant lot, this kind of bickering would not have gone on for so long.
If this is what freedom could do to our people, or rather, what our people could do to the hard-earned freedom, I’m sure the real martyrs who fought to bring about freedom for our people and died for our country are looking down on us and shedding tears.
But then, who am I talking to? Our people are so busy branding and segregating others with fancy names like Bhakts, Sanghis, Aaptards, Chamchas, sickulars, presstitutes etc. that do you think they would have time to use their brains? Hell no!
March 4, 2016 at 8:08 pm
Nice write-up Radhika! But I feel that the bigger question is not freedom in this whole debate but the idea of what is national and anti-national. The fight is against the repression of freedom under the garb of nationalism. Sure what was shown in some videos is certainly wrong and unpardonable – but why arrest someone when you don’t have an evidence against them and when your forensic experts certify that some of the videos were doctored. So, let us not presume that what was shown was actually done! It was only passed on to incite doctored feelings!
And to underscore your point – one of the major problems is that people tend to see everything in black and white – either my way or the highway. Both the political factions tried to play the incident to their audience – the one that raised it after it was settled by an internal proctorial committee and the other that stood-up after it was raised. The fact remains that any concerned citizen cannot just remain a mute spectator.