India is it becoming a land of contradictions? I say this because everywhere you look around you see people saying contradictory things - naturally in 'free for all' democracy you might say there'll be a resonance of different opinions....but when you have opinions which sometimes border on the eccentric you tend to sit up and take notice.
Who are these people who are flinging around their opinions all over the available space and do they have motives, even ulterior?
Let's start with festivals - especially festivals like Diwali and Holi. Come Diwali and all sorts of voices start echoing about the noise of bursting crackers, the smoke and gas levels going up....lets analyze this - bursting crackers is an expression of joy of happiness of celebration of success....when India wins a cricket match or series what is the first thing you hear - the bursting of crackers. When there are weddings taking place or receptions happening you have crackers being burst on the roads....in Diwali Melas you have fireworks display at all the major clubs and so on and so forth....even in an event like an international games meet China burst innumerable crackers and presented to the world an awesome display of fireworks - the whole world stood up and applauded.
However people don't bat an eyelid then as it's happiness being expressed, yet in a major festival of the Indian community like Diwali there are whimpers from all over regarding the noise levels being breached, the pollution levels being raised and the animals being scared etc etc....
Similarly in the festival of Holi you have various anglicized protesters coming forward against the use of colors.....yet these same people go around the whole year getting colors put on their hair, and chemicals far worse being put on their faces to maintain the artificial glow on them....then nobody bats an eyelid...
What I feel is that festivals are a matter of personal celebration and expression of faith....how you celebrate the festival should be left on the persons celebrating....you can't impose your views on how to go around celebrating only on the grounds of personal prejudices likes or dislikes....just like you don't interfere in other religions where other practices like animal sacrifices etc etc are not interfered with or commented upon, its actually quite demeaning to interfere in religious matters of other communities....and to clarify I'm not being communal here.....it's a Right to Equality apart from Freedom of Religion available to all communities and on how to celebrate their personal religious festivals - please respect that right - Period!
Similarly whenever a welfare programme is launched either by the Ruling Party or by the Govt the similar kind of voices come out again and start targeting the programme itself - point in question are various schemes for the welfare of the poor and marginalized like the Food Security Bill, the Land Acquisition Bill, the Right to Education, the Street Vendors Regulation Bill and so on.....questions are raised on the validity of these schemes, their funding, their value, their reach, so much so their motives are also questioned....
The freedom of speech doesn't always imply the freedom to disagree.....sometimes even in disagreement their should be consent and that too somewhat unanimous....
It's the Govt which fashions the policies and destinies of it's Nation....and it should be allowed to do its job unless the Govt is straying from its path or it can't see what everybody else can see, maybe for ulterior motives....but those moments are rare...
Another problem is the constant prodding and shoving which the Govt faces from different quarters on the policies it makes or the foreign policy it pursues....even there it has to face different opinions and sometimes forced to backtrack on its decisions - point in issue is the Bangladesh agreement on borders or sharing of waters, or the recent CHOGM visit of the PM to SriLanka - what possible right does internal factors localized to a certain Southern district and a hostile Opposition party CM in place have to do with the PM's visit to an international meet being attended by all Nations of the Commonwealth...we can't carry our prejudices to absurd limits and then we sit and discuss foreign relations with our immediate neighbors - Tell me can these type of boycotts help the normal ties between our immediate neighbors - are these friendly gestures or acts of provocation?
Sri Lanka as we all know is a friendly Country towards India and should continue to remain so irrespective of inane voices being raised from vested quarters and those bent on isolating India from all world events....CHOGM is not a Sri Lanka event - it consists of all the Commonwealth Nations of which India is an extremely important part - Sri Lanka is simply the venue....if you can see that difference the cacophony will automatically die down....
All these shrill voices are far worse than any burst of crackers on a particular day or festival - for these inane voices are forever attacking - all through the year...they are never ending
It's time we kept our responses muted and see the things in their broader prospective - not react just for the sake of reacting or because some interested parties want us to react in a particular manner or its a headlines story for them or they are motivated by vested interests or worse have been set up to make noise....
In a developing Nation like ours a small setback can put our development back by centuries and can make the difference between forward development and continued backwardness...even the smallest achievement needs to be applauded in a positive manner - baby steps lead to giant strides and need to be taken by a developing Nation...
These are points to ponder not mere words to preach...I love my Country more than anything else and only want its able and uninterrupted progress at a fast pace - why should we allow a handful of ppl who although speak their minds but mostly speak gibberish to slow down our progress....take the freedom of speech as a gift not as a burden or stick to beat ppl with it......Cheers!
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