Friday, January 30, 2009

TRUE NATIONALISTS?

Today I was totally bemused and mystified after reading an article in the newspaper that ABVP men ransacked a missionary school in Bhopal protesting against an alleged insult to the National Anthem. On reading this article the reader would jump to a conclusion that these so called patriotic political outfits are guardians of India, its culture, its national flag, its national anthem, its father, its constitution etc. If you deduce so, you are wrong. After reading this article, I wanted to have a look at the home page of the so called custodians of India to see whether there is anything prominent in their homepage that symbolizes India or a patriot. First I started with the website of ABVP www.abvp.org. You would see a burning torch and an article "Gandhigiri cant curb terrorism?" which indirectly trounced the Gandhian values of tolerance and ahimsa. If you expect anything that symbolizes India, you would be disappointed. Then I visited the website of Shiv Sena http://www.shivsena.org/. It had the photo of a roaring tiger and the Thackeray's. It had nothing on India, no India map, no national flag, no Gandhiji photo. Sorry, they don't believe in non-violence. Then I visited the website of VHP http://www.vhp.org/. It had the OM Emblem, photo of Lord Rama and other Hindu Gods. Nothing to bewail. Then I visited the website of so called guardians of India http://www.rss.org/. I spent a lot of time to identify something that symbolizes India. Definitely something should be there because they talk so much about India, Indian culture, respecting Indian flag, akanda Bharath, so on and so forth. I could see the photograph of Sevaks marching with a Saffron flag. Photograph of a shaka, etc. I am still searching to see whether anything symbolizes India. Friends!!! Don't lose heart some day or other you would find one. Till then keep searching. Then I visited the website of Bajrangdal http://www.bajrangdal.org/. It had a prominent display of Trishuls and a Big OM symbol above that. I could definitely see a distorted Indian Map (by the way is it South India Map?) with Lord Hanuman with a mace on top of it. No national flag, No Mahatma, No Ashoka Pillar. Only Weapons that symbolizes a non-violent nation that won Olympic medals in wrestling, boxing and archery. Wow!!! Then went to the website of God of Big Things and the savior of India, BJP http://www.bjp.org/. I could see a big lotus photo, the photo of a gentleman turned politician Mr.ABB Ji, the photo of a man who called Mohammed Ali Jinnah a secularist waiting for the Prime Minister's chair desperately and photo of his friend waiting to pull him down. You would definitely agree with me that the Homepage is incomplete without the advertisement of the Autobiography of Mr.LK Advani title "My Country, My Life". Yes, I could find that. But what about the national flag? Sorry it is His Country and only Lotus is allowed. Then finally without any hope I visited the website of the people who are exploited for their vote bank http://www.iuml.com/. I could see the Green Flag with a Crescent on it symbolizing their religion. But what is quite interesting is that you can find the picture of the father of our nation displayed prominently which said "My Life is my Message". It also had a clip art which said "Against Terrorism" with a Dove carrying this message. I am not advocating anything. Of all the websites I visited today only the website of IUML carried something which symbolizes the non-violence, religious tolerance and ahimsa preached, followed and lived by Gandhiji.

Published for msn.com
http://content.msn.co.in/MSNContribute/Story.aspx?PageID=32a9cf72-60c0-4ff5-9ca1-881a10f03246

2 comments:

Sridhar said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Giri Vasan Guinness said...

Sridhar Sir!!!

I see some comments which says removed by the author.

We would definitely discuss this.

Thanks