Author: V Sundaram
Publication: News Today
Date: June 1, 2006
URL: http://www.newstodaynet.com/2006sud/06jun/0106ss1.htm
We freed ourselves from British yoke on August
15 1947. We are yet to free ourselves from the clutches of our pseudo-secular,
corrupt, communal, anti-Hindu and ANTI-INDIAN politicians not only in New
Delhi but in all the states. The dastardly attack on the RSS Headquarters
Office in Nagpur this morning makes it clear that Government of India cannot
make love with the terrorists. Maharashtra Police and in particular those
police officers who successfully defended the RSS Headquarters in Nagpur deserve
the highest Presidential honours for having performed their allotted duties
in so splendid a manner.
Amidst this encircling gloom comes the cheering
news that the 19 day long strike by resident Doctors of all five premier medical
colleges in New Delhi has come to an end yesterday evening, with the striking
medical Doctors bowing to the Supreme Court directive to end their strike
immediately. The withdrawal of their strike was necessary in the interest
of the helpless and poor patients in these hospitals. At the same time, we
also have the healthy and exhilarating news that undergraduates and medical
students will continue the strike. It is also heartening to note that students
from IIT and other institutions would also be stepping up the anti-quota stir.
Even if the students resort to peaceful and
non-violent methods of agitation, there is no guarantee that one or two lives
might not get lost on account of indiscriminate police action engineered by
interested communal political parties. It is in this context that the words
of Thomas Jefferson who fought for American freedom against British colonial
tyranny become relevant: 'What signify a few innocent lives lost in a century
or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood
of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure'.
It is in this context I would like to cheer
up the students of India by quoting the immortal and beautiful words of Justice
Learned Hand of America spoken during the dark days of the II World War in
1944: 'What then is the spirit of liberty? I cannot define it; I can only
tell you my own faith. The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too
sure that it is right; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which seeks to
understand the minds of other men and women; the spirit of liberty is the
spirit which ways their interest alongside its own without bias. The spirit
of moderation lies at the root of the call for real liberty. What is the spirit
of moderation? It is the temper which does not press a partisan advantage
to its bitter end, which can understand and will respect the other side, which
feels a unity between all citizens real and not the factitious product of
political communal propaganda which recognizes their common faith and their
common aspirations, in a word which has faith in the sacredness of the individual.
Amidst the cacophony of discordant anti-national
and anti-social voices from all the Islam-embracing, Christianity-coveting
and anti-Hindu pseudo-secular political parties, we should not forget to read
carefully the following paragraph incorporated in the Supreme Court interim
order on this issue passed on May 29, 2006: 'It is contended that the adoption
of this policy will divide the country on caste basis. This will have ramifications
for the social and political fabric of the country, and the Court will consider
this issue later'. This comes as a breath of fresh air to all the law-abiding
educated citizens of India (pseudo-secular politicians excluded by virtue
of their chosen profession!). All the right thinking people in India today
are hoping against hope in their non-violent struggle against the deathly
pseudo-secular politicians who are hell bent upon dividing and destroying
Hindu society for ever that the Supreme Court will take up this issue and
pass its considered orders in the larger interest of national security and
national integration. I do hope that the Supreme Court means what it says
and that it will not bury fathoms deep the above remarks, treating them as
incidental 'obiter dicta'.
India today presents a general picture of
cultural, ethical and spiritual degradation and de-nationalization. Vast sections
of our population have lost all touch with the strengthening, invigorating
and purifying spiritual traditions of our timeless culture. This is bad enough.
This is sad enough. But what is worse and sadder still is that we have also
failed to get ourselves ethically and spiritually re-nourished and re-strengthened
by our own consciously chosen socio-political actions, consequent upon the
attainment of our Independence as a free nation during the last five decades.
The current malady in our society, if allowed to grow unchecked and uncontrolled,
will only lead this country to an irretrievable chaos, turmoil and confusion.
What we need today more than any time in our
past history is moral leadership, founded on courage, intellectual integrity
and complete sense of balance. We have a large number of educated, highly
specialized and capable men in our country today. But they are all working
in an uncoordinated and directionless manner like the blind men of Hindustan
groping in the dark, without being inspired by a larger vision and animated
by a larger purpose. They should remember the saying of Albert Einstein who
was a specialist among specialists and who, at the same time, could be a specialist
among generalists and a generalist amongst specialists. He said: 'It is essential
that a student acquires an understanding of and a lively feeling for values.
He must acquire a vivid sense of the beautiful and of the morally good. Otherwise,
he with his specialized knowledge more closely resembles a well-trained dog
than a harmoniously developed person'.
Growing indiscipline everywhere and at all
levels, complete erosion of all cultural, ethical, moral and religious values,
the ever rising tide of communalism, regionalism, casteism and linguistic
chauvinism, Himalayan corruption eating into the vitals of national life,
total want of inspiring and enlightened leadership in all fields of national
endeavour and finally a mounting wave of violence in all parts of India these
and other destabilizing, disturbing and disintegrating factors have raised
doubts in many responsible quarters in India and abroad about the very survival
of India as a nation. On the whole, there is a total feeling of frustration,
cynicism, helplessness, uncertainty and impotence everywhere at all levels
of society.
WE HAVE TO REALISE WHAT IT IS THAT IS THREATENED
WITH DESTRUCTION AND WHAT IT IS THAT WE ARE CALLED UPON TO DEFEND?
Let us remind ourselves how in the last fifty
five years we have at critical junctures taken always the road of the least
effort and the method of the cheapest solution and of greatest self-indulgence.
So we are here today. We are where we are because whenever we had a choice
to make, we had chosen the alternative that required the least effort at the
moment. THERE IS ORGANISED MECHANISED EVIL LET LOOSE IN THE INDIA OF TODAY.
I am appalled by the general state of bankruptcy in all walks of our national
life today, the bankruptcy of national ideals, the bankruptcy of national
humanitarianism, the bankruptcy of religious faith, the bankruptcy of political
sincerity, the bankruptcy of true commercial honesty and above all the bankruptcy
of the personal sense of honour among all our politicians. This Himalayan
disaster in the midst of which we are living today is a disaster in the character
of men. It is a catastrophe of the soul of a whole generation which has forgotten,
has lost and has renounced the imperative and indispensable virtues of laborious,
heroic and honourable men.
We have to put an end to both 'Parliamentary
Monarchy' and 'Parliamentary Anarchy'. By 'Parliamentary Monarchy' I mean
a system of hereditary Government like Monarchy which survives by manipulating
the apparatus of Parliament to serve and suit the private interests of one
family like that of Nehru family or one small group as the case may be. By
'Parliamentary Anarchy' I have in my mind the conditions of anarchy and lawlessness
created by elected members in the Legislative Assemblies in various States
and the Lok Sabha in New Delhi. We have to usher in a new era of 'ACCOUNTABLE
PARLIAMENTARY DEMOCRACY' in India in order to open out to our people opportunities
for a fuller and richer life. In order to make this happen we have to launch
a 'Second Freedom Movement' marked by enlightened and awakened dictatorship
of the people, by the people and for the people.
The pseudo-secular mercenaries at the helm
of affairs in New Delhi today would dismiss Sri Aurobindo as communal and
saffronized. Bharath Varsha can recover herself only if she pays heed to the
following inspiring words of Sri Aurobindo uttered in 1908: 'The Mother's
feet are on the threshold, but she waits to hear the true cry, the cry that
rushes out from the heart before she will enter. The Mother asks us for no
schemes, no plans, no methods. She herself will provide the schemes, the plans,
the methods better than any we can devise. She asks us for our hearts, our
lives, nothing less, nothing more. Self-abandonment is the demand made upon
us. Bharath Mata asks of us, 'How many will live for me? How many will die
for me?' and awaits our answer'.
(The writer is a retired IAS officer)
e-mail the writer at vsundaram@newstodaynet.com
