Patriotism in India

I logged into WordPress today morning to write a brief summary of the Diwali celebrations and accidental browsing here and there led me to this page: http://indyeahforever.wordpress.com/2009/07/26/a-nation-forgets/

Excerpt from that article:

This is a nation that will cry with Lata Mangeshkar when she sings Aye Mere Watan Ke Logon but will not make any effort to understand the real problems and concerns of its soldiers. It is a sign of the highly skewed priorities of the Indian media that the rising turmoil and dissatisfaction within the ranks of nations’ armed forces is being given only perfunctory coverage .

Gone is the Diwali spirit and with it the chirpy mood of “first day of the week at work”. We live in a hypocritical world where we believe that the only things happening in OUR country are what the media shows on TV (of course we dont read the newspaper completely else you would have read this). One might arguably say “how else would we know?”. I say read BLOGS, use the net. These are the best, because bloggers are journalists who write out of interest & passion and NOT for the advertisements and political parties.

Are Armed Forces & discussions about them un-cool?

If you ask, say 10, friends of yours  to read an article on Kargil War, how many would give you a positive response? How many would say “later”? How many will say “Am busy right now”? They might be actually be busy, I agree, but why the upfront opposition. But why is it that in India we have such utter disrespect for Defense Forces? Because they are paid like nothing compared to the IT zombies?? Day after day we keep reading that a certain number of soldiers have died in Kashmir, we turn the leaf and check to see what Shah Rukh Khan has said about Salman Khan’s Wanted or how Deepika & Ranbir are spending time together or Dhoni & Bipasha Basu’s latest ad together. Go on read, but not at the cost that we disrespect the people who have been guarding the boundaries in near impossible conditions. The objective in writing or talking about Armed Forces is not to make people quit their jobs and join the Army, but to make them encourage people around them, especially kids, that serving in the Armed Forces of the country is the greatest honor for any citizen.

I was in 8th or 9th standard when Kargil War took off and our school gave us a chance to write letters of support and appreciation to the Indian Army. What a wonderful gesture by the Principal.  Following is a letter by Capt. Vijyant Thapar to his family :

The Last Letter

Need I say more? I had to take an hour’s coffee break before letting this post go. And in that break, picked up a discussion with a friend on the reasons for this disrespect. Will keep my thoughts on that for a later post…..