Amit Sharma
There is a beauty involved in everything we do in life. But honestly speaking, every surviving human being presses the PANIC Button in life, at one moment or the other. Some keep doing it more frequently, some keep showing the coolness in their respective characters and get ultimately labeled as cool characters like Mahendra Singh Dhoni, ex-captain of Team India who was labeled as ‘Captain Cool’ by his teammates.
See, it is not that anxieties would not have gripped Dhoni ever in life but it’s the attitude towards life with which you handle them. There are always butterflies in your stomach especially when you are leading a top cricket team like Team India wherein expectations are sky-rocketing, not only from the Selectors per-se but from the entire cricket-frenzy nation wherein people worship this sport and even focus more on the outcome of every single game of cricket whenever played, even more than the outcome/result of the exam in which they have to appear, the very next day. But what I want to emphatically mention here is that Dhoni never used to not let his anxieties to get better of him or the same could never be seen in his facial expressions, actions or even decisions, even in the toughest moments of game when most of his counterparts would have either panicked or created a hype about same.
Similar other glaring example can be seen for our present Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi ji who would always keep a similar kind of facial impression or stable expressions even in the toughest of the tough times when panic amongst others keeps gripping. And undoubtedly because of this immaculate quality and bold attitude, he has slowly but steadily emerged as one of the top leaders of the contemporary world. His popularity can be felt from the fact that even the longest surviving Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu is using Modi effect in his ongoing election campaign at this moment. So, such persons who neither panic and let others panic, as a Halo effect of their panicking, can undisputedly be rated as top trend-setters or leaders of the world and our PM proudly futures one amongst this list.
Many other Unsung Heroes like the two just-quotes examples go unnoticed in the world but let me tell you here that the world today is surviving and flourishing because of such elevated souls only. My father late Shri Baldev Sharma was also amongst this list of such Heroes only who always had showed a great character even in the most tough and critical situations which came into his personal as well as public life, whether at the time when he used to be a Member of J&K Legislative Assembly during 1970s or as a Director of National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation popularly known as NAFED representation for J&K as a sole Director representing J&K state there for almost three terms extending to fifteen years during 1980s and 1990s or as the Chairman of Jammu Central Cooperative Bank (JCCB) in the post 20th Century where he took bold decisions in the interest of the this Apex Cooperative Bank of Jammu Division top minimize its losses but with a cool attitude all throughout these phases of life. Even when certain challenges used to hit him parallely on the personal front, he used to remain cool as a cucumber and always used to follow religiously, teach and preach two guiding virtues even to all of us since childhood which were “Patience” and “Real Knowledge”, commonly mentioned by him as “Sabr” and “Liyaqat”. Those who have spent life in close quarters with him even today keep quoting his examples often amongst circles and inspire their younger generations to follow the pathway set-up by him by his own conduct and deeds till his last breath and because of his most admirable quality of not panicking at all, even in many situations and times when the worst amongst the worst crisis used to hit him.
Now, let’s switch over a little bit and talk about the impact of this phenomenon of PANIC which happens across the world and how it would galore at the macro level in an exponential manner. No need to go far down the memory lane and yesterday’s example only which is the best one I can quote from the present times and this is the best example as it relates to our state of Jammu & Kashmir. Why I often keep stating with conviction that the entire world thrives on Panic phenomenon because it is the easiest business to spread rumours like a wild-fire as it takes nothing but awakens the otherwise dormant emotional chord of we, the human beings. Look, since childhood, when we grow-up in societies, our ideologies keep getting shaped-up in the environments surrounding us, be it in the shape of religious sentiments or political sentiments or geographical sentiments or cultural sentiments or educational sentiments, etc. And anyone amongst these sentiments have an automatic tendency to resurge from the dormant state when few unscrupulous and negatively-minded igniting factors raise these sentiments amongst us but the worst is seen when these kinds of sentiments get raised upto the boiling-point, especially due to unnecessary and unwarranted contribution from those elements who get into this usual business of creating Panic amongst the public. This phenomenon is mostly found especially in developing or under-developed part of the world wherein there is a constant struggle for survival and majority of the public is striving hard for basic elementary requirements of life.
Thus, even if few routine steps are being taken at the Government level in the form of sending more troops to Kashmir Valley, issuance of advisories to tourists for Shri Amarnathji pilgrims for so as to ensure their safe exit from the Kashmir valley due to some strong Intelligence inputs, a routine weather advisory coming-up in the ongoing monsoon season for landslides or excessive rainfall/cloudburst etc due to which Amarnath Yatra has got suspended, these negative elements took the best opportunity to develop strong correlation in-between all such co-incidences in the innocent minds of local public and even in the minds visitors that Kashmir is no more safe now and one needs to rush out of it immediately. If this was not enough, a strongest Panic Button has been pressed on the name of a big invasion on Kashmir by the Central Government forces which may be in form of Trifurcation of J&K state or removal of Article 35-A or Abrogation of Article 370 from the Indian Constitution and as a resultant of same, the General public goes into a state of panic not only in Kashmir but also in Jammu, starts over-stocking of food items and ration items, starts filling up fuel in vehicles thereby emptying petrol pumps, next rumours spread about closure of schools & colleges for 10 days, advisory for even Darbar-move Government officials working in Kashmir valley to reach back to safe places and a lot more is being spread with full intensity, inspite of the fact that the Administration and Government have repeatedly assuring that there is no need to panic and all things are going as per the routines and there is absolutely no reason to link-up one thing or event with the other. But the worst starts happening, when media especially Audio-Visual including so-called ‘responsible’ National TV News Channels and Social Media are being used as a strong platform to spread all kind of worst wildest imaginations like UT status for Kashmir and Ladakh regions and Jammu to be declared as a separate state, etc keeps frightening the public that toughest times are coming-up ahead for Kashmir in the days to come. If that was not enough, top politicians of the state of the likes of Ex-Chief Ministers and Ex-Minsters also join the Panic party and they start holding emergency meetings, press-conferences, followed by meetings with Constitutional head of the state requesting for not disturbing the topography and geo-political situation of Jammu and Kashmir state, altogether forgetting that there is always a set procedure and protocol to be followed by the Government for any major step to be taken. The most surprising and shocking thing is that all this is happening with the involvement of those persons who have had held the highest seats of power in the past and have vast experience of handling such kinds of crisis even the constitutional crisis at times but even after multiple times assurances being given by the Government, its officers and who better than, the Governor of J&K himself assuring all quarters not to panic at all, it all keeps happening and spreading like a typical wild-fire in just last one-two days so as to raiser panic levels attributed to a great extent to present-day top politicians of the state who have equally played a role in spread of panic, social media rumours and even public chaos in general.
We all are well-aware about the fact that any state-of-panic across the world has led to major manmade catastrophic disasters in the past as the history tells it and it often leads to an irreversible situation due to which irreparable damages occur to the lives and properties of general masses and Panic Spreaders escape unhurt. A recent example can be seen from the North India only wherein Dera Sachha Sauda head Ram Rahim was arrested and on the day of his arrest, many cities in Haryana and Punjab including most peaceful town of Panchkula, which is adjoining Chandigarh was engulfed in the grip of panic-mongering and lot of precious lives were lost and properties were damaged. Ultimately, law took its own course and the culprits met their fate accompali but by that time, the damages which had already occurred with reversals not possible. So, we must draw examples from such recent contemporary examples that there is no fun to regret later over the split milk and we must set our basics correct before its too late. But it seems that there is a mad rush amongst the public to Panic first and then settle down later, especially when they find out afterwards that “All is Well” and there was absolutely no need of panicking at the very first level at all.
(The writer is a Senior JKAS Officer and presently working as Special Secretary to Government. He can be reached at amit1kas@gmail.com)
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