Monday Musing
[ Ranjit Sinha ]
The maxim, ‘Honesty is the best policy’, which my parents used to sermonize to me during my student life, used to irritate me – not because I was against honesty, but because I was never dishonest in the first place, or disrespectful towards my classmates and elders.
During my youthful days, I did maintain utmost honesty in my approach to the people around me; therefore I thought I did not require a lesson on morality and honesty.
During the years of my struggle, when I was looking for a job (often on an empty stomach) to make a living, I realized the importance of being an honest man in the real sense of the term. In the course of time, I understood that a man needs to prove himself as being honest not only to others but to himself, as well, in order to live a meaningful life.
I say it without reservation that the same approach matters the most when it comes to the development of a state, or the country as a whole. Honesty matters above all else.
Compose yourself, take a deep breath, and ask yourself whether you are being honest towards your duties and responsibilities as a citizen of the country. If the answer is yes, I can say that, without any doubt, along with you, the country is also progressing.
Having written the foregoing paragraphs about honesty and morality, I find myself in a bit of a situation as I consider what others might make of it. Some may argue that to be preoccupied with honesty is meaningless when the majority of the people are struggling to become rich and powerful by any means, disregarding all moral obligations.
This is where I would say it’s advisable to listen to one’s inner voice. I would suggest that one listens to the voice that tells one to develop one’s personal space and, beyond it, one’s state – Arunachal Pradesh, in this case.
To cite an example at hand, it is on honesty that the success of the Hamara Arunachal Abhiyan, which was launched on the occasion of the150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, will depend. If each and every person of the state, right from the shopkeepers to the ministers, thinks of oneself as the key to the campaign’s success and works with firm determination and sincerity, the day is not far when Arunachal will become a treasure house of success stories and an eye-opener for the rest of the country.
Administering and taking of pledges in public act as reminders, but the will to become a responsible citizen and to make Arunachal an island of peace must come from within us.
The Hamara Arunachal Abhiyan is aimed at propelling Arunachal towards greater heights of holistic development through the participation of every single citizen residing in the state. We are ‘Team Arunachal’, and a team should never give up until it has reached the milestone it is aiming for.
It is this spirit which I hope will become the guiding force behind completing the ongoing construction of the capital’s highway (NH 415) by this winter, and ensuring that the Hollongi Greenfield airport sees the light of the day by March 2022.