When the nation was in the state of mourning on the martyrdom of Lance Naik Hanumanthappa Koppad, a rabid and shrill attack on India shook the nation.
That attack did not come from an enemy state but from New Delhi where students of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) had decided that terrorist Afzal Guru was actually innocent and that insulting and threatening India was their ‘right’ to freedom of speech.
It all happened this Tuesday when a student group from JNU came together to celebrate Parliament attack terrorist Afzal Guru and Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front co-founder Maqbool Bhat.
Slogans such as “Kashmir ki azadi tak jung chalegi, Bharat ki barbadi tak jung chalegi” were also raised at the protest meet.
Anyone with a sound mind would have demanded what the majority of the Indians are demanding, i.e., punish those who heaped insults on India. That India was already nursing a wound after seeing her soldiers attain martyrdom in Siachen, all for protecting the sovereignty and well-being of the nation and her people, while our own students wished her destruction, antagonized a large number of Indians who see this as nothing short of stabbing in the back.
Such is the hurt that the country’s illustrious ex-Army officers are threatening to return the degrees that they procured while studying in JNU. This clearly shows that our men and women who serve in the army find that their service to the nation is not being valued anymore. Is this a healthy sign for India and her citizens? Anyone with a fair mind would find this act of JNU student group worthy of condemnation but even here we find that political classes are busy targeting the government for initiating action instead of coming together as a force and telling the culprits that we won’t allow the integrity of India to be diminished at any cost, come what may and whatever be our political differences.
One such move would have brought the country together, but instead, we found our senior politicians indulging in petty politics.
It is clear that our senior politicians are targeting the Bhartiya Janta Party government at the center and that Narendra Modi too is a clear target. On any other issue, the two would have actually got support as there is a section that wishes to have an alternative to BJP and Narendra Modi. There are so many issues such as farmer suicide, economic growth and foreign policy that could have reaped them much more wholesome dividends, then why did they choose to instead go with the fiasco at JNU, that too with such provocative vocabulary?
They should be asked as to why, when and how has the hate for BJP and Narendra Modi clouded their better sense and has forced them to stand by a clear anti-India act?
At this stage, we need our political groups to come together and vouch for the nation’s integrity. No matter what the shortcomings of India, it still is a force of goodness, love and light and no one, not even its own misguided citizens, must be allowed to destroy her.
No matter what the shortcomings of India, it still is a force of growth, ‘true’ secularism and justice, and no one, not even its own misguided citizens, must be allowed to destroy her.
