Proud To Be Unpatriotic

Today morning I was greeted with a mail from one of my readers (a real irritated one). According to him - everyone loves a dissenting voice as it is the flavour of democracy but people like me and articles of mine are exactly at the wrong end of this dissenting circus. He feels guys like me and Mani Shankar Aiyer and a whole bunch of other self-righteous citizens should be hounded out or taken back to school and taught, how to articulate constructive dissent. If my behaviour is not unpatriotic then we better change the meaning of patriotism, he added.

Ok fine. Fault admitted and endeavour towards constructive articulation already started. How about beginning with changing the age old famous statement of John F. Kennedy ? - "Ask not what your Sarkar can do for you - ask what you can do for your Sarkar". Sarkar instead of Country.

This visage of my reader left me flip through few pages of dictionary to find out the meaning of patriotism. It says - devoted love, support and defence of one's country; national loyalty. My friend, in the context of the meaning outlined in the dictionary, I must take the last line of your mail (me as the definition of unpatriotic) with a truck load of salt. If I may be permitted then let me tell you - patriotism is standing up for one's country and not for the government of the day. Let me assure you also - a country is far bigger than the Sarkar running it . If a bad policy is harming the country then it could be said that criticising the government is the most patriotic thing in the world. And this is precisely what I do through my articles. Picking the wrong end of the stick for reasons unknown to me and trying to equate country with the government is one mistake I hope my esteemed reader won't repeat.

The dictionary definition of patriot is valid in other countries, but not so in India. Other countries who call themselves democracy have their government to serve the people. But in India it is the people who are their to serve the government. If this is not absurd we are also supposed to tolerate their callousness and corruption.

Look at the present day Sarkar we have. It's behaviour and actions for last year and half would easily make any sane person turn cynical. Lets start with our Prime Minister. The poor chap doesn't bother what is happening to his right or left. He is too glued to his cell phone for any incoming message from the high command; the country can take care of itself. He is one person who minds his own business, if at all he has got any business to mind. I am sure he would have a tough day if by any chance his mobile service provider crashes even for an hour. This very emotion and context less act our PM allows the other phonies in his government to behave the way they wish.

We have this Railways minister who doesn't feel like attending parliament as she is too home sick for it. Her response to her critics is simple and crisp - My home is Kolkatta not Delhi, and you idiots should have this basic knowledge before questioning my parliament bunking. A fertilizer minister have a miserable 23% attendance but he doesn't find it good enough a concern to explain about his absent nature. We have an environment minister who seems to have problems with every creature in this planet. He has this perpetual belief that the whole world is in a mission to screw up India's environment and ecosystem. Be it an international airport or a community center. Our Road transport and Highways minister sets some aggressive goals for himself, only to receive rap in his knuckles from our planning commission chairman as he doesn't expect road contractors to run the nation.Our cricketing agriculture minister has this confusion of his life - which field he belongs, Paddy or Cricket. He is not aware of our food deficit or if at all we have any food policy or not but sure enough of the money Lalit Modi gulped down in the whole IPL farce and if he has received the last penny of his share in the loot. Another minister took to tweeting as his medium of governance. Thankfully he was booted out before he could create a havoc of sort. A great collection of vernacular colourful entities, I must admit.

As Sheela Dixit pointed out (much in the same line as my reader) that questioning about CWG is not only unpatriotic but also illogical. As per her the questions only shows the failure to understand the real reason India is hosting this game. And the reason has nothing whatsoever to do with national pride, promoting our country in world forum or any of that nonsense. The real reason is actually to allow the Sarkari network (including the middlemen and contractors) to make a lot of money by foxing the common mass. So dare anybody question this collective loot. Didn't this threat frightened you? Fair enough - Please don't question this collective loot for the sake of patriotism. How does this sounds now?

And what is that latest nonsense of 300% pay hike without doing anything? lets not talk about it. Better for our mental peace. God only can save this country, if at all he has got any considerable free time. If questioning all these gross mismanagement, makes me one unpatriotic national, then I am better of as an unpatriotic than be otherwise.