Editor,
It has been rightly asserted by one of the honchos of the central dispensation that the partition has broken India in many ways. Apart from physical (both in terms of land and lives) and economic loss, the psychological reverberation of that gory episode (in terms of communalism) also seems to have no end even after the passage of 76 years. Yet, far from drawing lessons from history, the merchants of hatred are working all-out to divide the country by exploiting religion to the hilt.
And it is indeed a revelation of sorts that those who study abroad have little understanding of the country (indirect attack upon Rahul Gandhi, Akhilesh Yadav). Perhaps the sponsors of such a unique theory are ignorant of the fact that almost all of the leading participants of the movement of Indian independence and architects of the nation had studied abroad – Mahatma Gandhi to Jawaharlal Nehru, Subhash Chandra Bose to Aurobindo Ghosh, Sardar Patel to BR Ambedkar (to cite just a few).
In contrast, today, those who are beating their own trumpet of nationalism and claiming to be ‘rooted’ to the soil of the country are being seen to pathetically lack the very basis of the idea of India. That India is not a monolithic country but rather a conglomeration of various regions, with each possessing its unique culture, language and history and where people profess various religions, simply eludes the mindset of the followers of the orthodox closed camp who try to ‘unite’ the nation through all things ‘One’ – language, religion, culture, party leader, and what not.
Also, we have got enlightened of the fact that Jawaharlal Nehru and Congress had committed a ‘great sin’ and ‘blunder’ by concentrating maximum energy, time and resources towards rehabilitation of millions of refugees from erstwhile West Punjab and East Bengal, taming the fire of communal arson and building the infrastructure of the nation through creation of ‘modern temples’ like dams steel plants and engineering institutions which would not only uplift the economy of the newly-born nation, but also provide livelihood to millions of common citizens.
After around 77 years of independence, at last that overhyped ‘Pandit’ has been ‘brought to his knees’ before the eyes of the nation and the world through the ‘outstanding revelation’ that right on 16 August, 1947, ie the very next day of taking the charge of the nation, Nehru should have taken the decision of building the Ram temple in Ayodhya.
Even after a decade-long domination at the Centre and national polity with India supposed to have been ‘promoted’ to the status of ‘Visvaguru’ (though ‘nothing happened to the country in first 67 years’), what a tragedy to notice that, barring character-assassination of Nehru and the Gandhis, along with engagement in blatant rabid communalism, there lies no electoral issue in the kitty of the most dominant political force in the country.
Actually, when there lies nothing to claim success through concrete proof and action, what option, indeed, remains, apart from mouthing abuses?
Kajal Chatterjee,
D-2 /403,
Peerless Nagar, Kolkata