Shiban Khaibri
“When a bird is alive, it eats ants ; when the bird has died ,
ants eat it. One tree can be made into a million matchsticks
but just one matchstick is needed to burn a million trees.”
(a priceless saying)
Words of wisdom of the above saying carry lot of meaning in respect of the operation of law of nature on the one hand and the type and the levels of discretion , prudence and circumspection employed by human beings, on the other hand, in not only ordinary matters but even in those of great import. It is still unbelievable that much hyped and floated political concepts like dissent, criticism, critique , democratic rights , free speech, right to protest etc are now going to be the exclusive domain of those who want to weaken this country which otherwise was dealt with a severe blow in 1947 due to partition on communal grounds and still thanks to the intrinsic ancient culture, tolerance, broadmindedness and belief of Hindus that the entire world was one family , left over part could be declared secular . The other side of the gory picture is that it is still unbelievable that Maharashtra coalition government partnered by Shri Bala Sahib Thakery’s Shiv Sena was going to probe the ordinary but patriotic tweets of our icons like the melody queen Bharat Ratna Lata Mangeshkar , cricket wizard Bharat Ratan Sachin Tendulkar, actors Akshay Kumar, Sunil Shetty , Ajay Devgan and others as “there is scope of suspicion that the BJP is behind this,” . Home Minister Anil Deshmukh reportedly has given “orders ” to the intelligence department to order a probe over the tweets of the celebrities on the farmers’ issue. Deshmukh , therefore, appears much ”worried” that national heroes were being ”intimidated” by the ruling party. But, have they lodged any report , any complaint , signed any petition etc and submitted the same to Maharashtra government that they were “intimidated” by the Ruling party to write the tweets ?
Perhaps ,farmers’ cause has ”weakened” with these tweets and goes repugnant to the strong advice and caution doled out by Rahul Gandhi to them that “if you give up your stand , you will never be able to stand up again , Congress is standing up (Khadi hai ) with you, hence hang on and be persistent .” It is a replica of what Congress President Sonia Ji on December 14 2019 rally in Ram Lila Grounds had similarly exhorted the “victims” of the CAA to “come out of your homes to do aar paar key ladayee .” Not only that, Congress leader Priyanka Vadra , had advised people in the rally, “those who don’t fight the prevailing situation today will go down in history as ”cowards”, if you love India – raise your voice, if we remain silent today , the “revolutionary” constitution will be destroyed.” In ordinary parlance , the invective of “coward” is such a prodding which could easily lead to incitement to prove being “not coward” . What we unfortunately saw in Delhi as a drop scene of Shaheen Bagh should put traders in cheap and opportunistic politics to shame who should get proper treatment by the people through their vote in elections for which this entire exercise is undertaken. This “revolutionary constitution” was all protected and strengthened in 1975 when emergency was imposed and hundreds of thousands jailed , it was further saved on numerous occasions enumerating which in details is beyond the scope of these lines due to space constraints.
Deshmukh could not , however, spell out whether the contents of these Indian celebrities’ tweets in response to a pop star called Rihana, a Barbadian doing work in America , someone 18 year old American Greta etc interfering in sovereign independent India’s internal matters, were in anyway against the honour, national integrity and sovereignty of India as that should concern every Indian including Congress leader and the Home Minister of Maharashtra or is it that it had been decided that patriotism and speaking for and wishing well for the country was now a crime. Every decision taken including the one under reference, has to be seen in the context of whether it was beneficial for the country or would boomerang later in whatever form notwithstanding. After perusing the tweets of these Bharti celebrities , one could find them all in soft, dignified and highly matured taste and should not offend anyone , even in the least, even those in response to whose uncalled for and unsolicited acts of poking nose in our farmers’ issues, they had expressed their views . How much ludicrous and strange does it look that a probe is ordered to see whether they were under some influence of or ”intimidation ” by the ruling party. So , anyone who, in this country speaks for the motherland , writes in its glory and chides those who had evil and satanic intentions against this country, is influenced and even intimidated by the ruling party. Perhaps , since to a jaundiced eye everything looks only yellow , banning singer Kishore Kumar from singing on All India Radio as ”punishment” for not obeying the dictates of Congress to sing in an event sponsored by the party during days of emergency is sought to be legitimatised even now by proposing to “punish ” these celebrities in case they were found having succumbed to the “influence and intimidation” of the ruling party. This manufactured “Influence and intimidation” can be nothing except a cover to keep the morale of a few thousand agitating farmers high and provide more of a space of ”acceptance” of poking of nose in our internal matters by the likes of Rihana, Greta, Mia Khalifa et-al . There cannot be any worst in politicking than this , there cannot be anything except rueing over where some politicians want this country to be taken.
We have been haplessly witnessing the same set of politicians and budhijeevis or intellectuals , the same set of ‘always ready’ and possessors of omniscient traits of professional self styled leaders, who plunge into any type of agitation , protest , demonstration etc which is against the present government , its policies and in particular aimed against its leader . It is immaterial for such ever-ready ”champions” whether the venue is JNU , Shaheen Bagh, anti CAA stir, farmers’ agitation and whatever the cause , they are found there in the high proverbial spirits of ”where there is rice and fish, I am with you as you wish”. The ‘rice and fish’ being publicity , cameras , evening TV debate participation and ultimately exploring possibilities of getting elected to legislative bodies to enjoy cosy comforts of power. These few ever-ready self styled leaders cum intellectuals would not mind or would conveniently afford to look to the other side when in such ”democratic events” , seditious slogans are raised, tukday tukday slogans are pitched at high decibels, provocative and divisive slogans are reverberated. After all, how long would this be allowed to continue all in the name of dissent, discharging role of opposition , democratic rights, human rights (on selective basis) and the like?
While referring to such an unfortunate scenario in the country which we have been seeing more manifest since 2014 , humour and enjoyable satire but carrying lot of meaning coming from the mouth of a person against whom a combined force comprising not only many hues but varied hues and continuing to keeping the beaten path with the sole aim to targeting him, is really awesome and highly spectacular . Prime Minister Narendra Modi , while replying in the Rajya Sabha to a debate on the President’s Budget session speech touched almost each and every important point raised by Honourable members during the discussion though many in the opposition boycotted the President’s speech ,again all in the ”interests” of democracy and ”to help and extend support” to those farmers who were agitating against the three innovative Farm Reform Laws . How could he contain himself from not pointing out about these readymade and ever-ready leaders and intellectuals and coining an appropriate nomenclature for them. These self styled leaders and intellectuals “watering the roots” of democracy and “upholding” the constitution are always to be seen squeezing themselves into the gathering to get a niche to be projected as leaders, is how the Prime Minister described them . He coined ”Andolanjeeve” , the special type of nom-de-guerre for them just like we have Budhi -jeeve (literally -one who possesses and thrives on high intellect) hence one who possesses the traits of the wherewithal of an agitation and thrives on it – as Andoolanjeeve.
The PM coined one more word or deciphered the known FDI , the short term basically standing for Foreign Direct Investment as “Foreign Destructive Ideology” which has “suddenly emerged in the country and we need to be more aware to save the country from such ideology ”. Agreed, to protest is our right but only to protest is anarchy and dragging the country backwards . Some farmers may have legit-imitate apprehensions and issues and may protest and demand their rights , no qualms about that, but let it not be dragged into one sided win-win position only but ‘win-lose , win lose ‘ position. Both the government as well as agitating farmers must adopt the dictum of winning a lot but losing something also and there being enough scope for that position, government already having walked many steps forward, let farmers show magnanimity and spirit of accommodation to end the long stalemate. Our farmers surely must always get a fair deal , hence guaranteed MSP also so that our agriculture prospers and progresses but in the mean time , Andolanjeeves need to be told , “please leave us alone , we are ourselves competent enough.”
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