“Nehru ji ka naam tho vaise hi kharab kar
diya, ab Patel ji ki baari aagayi”
I will tell you what the
next few months 'probable' political prophecy of India can lead to. A well-known
fact is that BJP severely lacks the backup of any historic image. So, in near
future, it will adopt pro-Sardar Vallabhai Patel's campaign so intensely that
it may force Congress to counter attack by following anti-Sardar Patel's policy
(even though he belongs to the same political party).Then starts the great Indian
tamasha of defaming Sardar Patel. If not Congress then at least its followers
will take up this 'great job' of throwing mud at Patel ji while BJP will be
continuing its tradition of aiming mud pumps at Jawaharlal Nehru (and sometimes even Gandhi
ji).
One can make this
prediction after observing the last few years’ political trend in my own home
state of Andhra Pradesh. Late Dr.Y.S.R (Dr.Y.S.Rajashekara Reddy,Ex.CM of A.P)
is considered as one of the good leaders and politicians in A.P’s history (mainly
because of his good grip on governance and party cadre, just like his opponent
Sri Chandrababu Naidu).He was highly praised by his Congress ‘high command’
even for few months after his demise until his son Y.S.Jagan started his own
congress in the name of YSR. Jagan, who considers himself the ‘de facto’ heir
of CM chair, tried (ofcourse ‘still trying’ with his never ending ‘condolence
yatra’) his best to take full advantage of people’s favour on YSR. So the
reluctant Congress had no other option than to deliberately distance itself
from YSR tag. And now we can find many Congress’ MLAs openly criticizing YSR. The
summary that projects out is “how a political game on possession of a famous
person’s fame ends up vilifying the same person”.
I can find many books, many
videos on Youtube and news articles whose sole intention is to get famous by
criticizing/comparing the nation leaders. There is much ‘literature’ that
claims to expose the ‘dark sides’ of our nation icons like Gandhi, S.C.Bose, Nehru,
Patel. We can even find in ourselves a second mind that gets frenzy whenever it
hears some ugly truth about great persons. And we even take great interest in spreading
those unconfirmed rumours which recaps me of a quote “a bad about a good person
and a good about a bad person takes no time to spread”. May be the things
mentioned in them are true. But why should we care ? Yes you heard me right “WE
SHOULD NOT CARE EVEN THOUGH THEY ARE TRUE”. If we start caring about such
things then we will end up defaming all our great leaders without sparing
anyone of them.
You may ask me “What’s the
use of these icons?”. I say “to get inspired”. Be it a religion or a nation, we
always needs some famous figures to whom we can look up to. Great religions
always reckon on some icons like Jesus, Prophet Mohammad, Lord Rama, and Buddha.
In the same way all nations have icons like Washington, Gandhi, Mao, Stalin and
Lincoln. These icons may have their dark sides but why should we care. What we
need is inspiration, not just for now but for many more future generations. These
inspiratory figures are what that will help flourish the religions and that
keep the nations intact. They are the testimonies that prove that it is
practically possible to lead/sacrifice one’s perfect life for great cause.
Let me make it
comprehensive to some of the India’s inhabitants (I call them just ‘inhabitants’
because they think of their nation at least or only while watching India’s
Cricket match). Sachin is considered as the GOD of Cricket (and no doubt he is).Suppose
in future some news comes out revealing something ‘bad’ about him. That news
will obviously go viral and its editor may become famous but it can completely smear
cricket, thus reducing its audience. Ironically, the same editor may lose
revenue that he used to get from cricket news.
So what I entreat my
present generations is to forget any rebukes on our national leaders, discourage
anyone who provoke such things, and don’t start combat on the claiming of these
icons. All of us don’t want to see the day when one side comes to rule,it casts
Gandhiji’s pic on Indian Currency notes while other one comes to cast Patelji’s
pic, eventually confusing the future citizens with “Who’s the actual father of nation?!!”. Don’t think that we are following them besides they
have some ugly truth behind them but obey that we are following them for our
own good. In fact it’s our duty to guard our icons as
long as their public principles will continue to shape a better tomorrow.
