| Heralding the second freedom movement | |||
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By: V Sundaram, IAS, Retd. June 18, 2006 Views expressed here are author’s own and not of this website. Full disclaimer is at the bottom. 
FeedbackWe freed ourselves from British yoke on August 15 1947. We are yet to free ourselves from the clutches of our pseudo-secular, corrupt, communal, anti-Hindu and ANTI-INDIAN politicians not only in New Delhi but in all the states. The dastardly attack on the RSS Headquarters Office in Nagpur this morning makes it clear that Government of India cannot make love with the terrorists. Maharashtra Police and in particular those police officers who successfully defended the RSS Headquarters in Nagpur deserve the highest Presidential honors for having performed their allotted duties in so splendid a manner. Amidst this encircling gloom comes the cheering news that the 19 day long strike by resident Doctors of all five premier medical colleges in New Delhi has come to an end yesterday evening, with the striking medical Doctors bowing to the Supreme Court directive to end their strike immediately. The withdrawal of their strike was necessary in the interest of the helpless and poor patients in these hospitals. At the same time, we also have the healthy and exhilarating news that undergraduates and medical students will continue the strike. It is also heartening to note that students from IIT and other institutions would also be stepping up the anti-quota stir. Even if the students resort to peaceful and non-violent methods of agitation, there is no guarantee that one or two lives might not get lost on account of indiscriminate police action engineered by interested communal political parties. It is in this context that the words of Thomas Jefferson who fought for American freedom against British colonial tyranny become relevant: "What signify a few innocent lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure". It is in this context I would like to cheer up the students of India by quoting the immortal and beautiful words of Justice Learned Hand of America spoken during the dark days of the II World War in 1944: "What then is the spirit of liberty? I cannot define it; I can only tell you my own faith. The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which seeks to understand the minds of other men and women; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which ways their interest alongside its own without bias. The spirit of moderation lies at the root of the call for real liberty. What is the spirit of moderation? It is the temper which does not press a partisan advantage to its bitter end, which can understand and will respect the other side, which feels a unity between all citizens ? real and not the factitious product of political communal propaganda ?? which recognizes their common faith and their common aspirations, in a word which has faith in the sacredness of the individual. Amidst the cacophony of discordant anti-national and anti-social voices from all the Islam-embracing, Christianity-coveting and anti-Hindu pseudo-secular political parties, we should not forget to read carefully the following paragraph incorporated in the Supreme Court interim order on this issue passed on May 29, 2006: "It is contended that the adoption of this policy will divide the country on caste basis. This will have ramifications for the social and political fabric of the country, and the Court will consider this issue later". This comes as a breath of fresh air to all the law-abiding educated citizens of India (pseudo-secular politicians excluded by virtue of their chosen profession!). All the right thinking people in India today are hoping against hope in their non-violent struggle against the deathly pseudo-secular politicians who are hell bent upon dividing and destroying Hindu society for ever that the Supreme Court will take up this issue and pass its considered orders in the larger interest of national security and national integration. I do hope that the Supreme Court means what it says and that it will not bury fathoms deep the above remarks, treating them as incidental "obiter dicta". India today presents a general picture of cultural, ethical and spiritual degradation and de-nationalization. Vast sections of our population have lost all touch with the strengthening, invigorating and purifying spiritual traditions of our timeless culture. This is bad enough. This is sad enough. But what is worse and sadder still is that we have also failed to get ourselves ethically and spiritually re-nourished and re-strengthened by our own consciously chosen socio-political actions, consequent upon the attainment of our Independence as a free nation during the last five decades. The current malady in our society, if allowed to grow unchecked and uncontrolled, will only lead this country to an irretrievable chaos, turmoil and confusion. What we need today more than any time in our past history is moral leadership, founded on courage, intellectual integrity and complete sense of balance. We have a large number of educated, highly specialized and capable men in our country today. But they are all working in an uncoordinated and directionless manner like the blind men of Hindustan groping in the dark, without being inspired by a larger vision and animated by a larger purpose. They should remember the saying of Albert Einstein who was a specialist among specialists and who, at the same time, could be a specialist among generalists and a generalist amongst specialists. He said: "It is essential that a student acquires an understanding of and a lively feeling for values. He must acquire a vivid sense of the beautiful and of the morally good. Otherwise, he? with his specialized knowledge?? more closely resembles a well-trained dog than a harmoniously developed person". Growing indiscipline everywhere and at all levels, complete erosion of all cultural, ethical, moral and religious values, the ever rising tide of communalism, regionalism, casteism and linguistic chauvinism, Himalayan corruption eating into the vitals of national life, total want of inspiring and enlightened leadership in all fields of national endeavor and finally a mounting wave of violence in all parts of India?? these and other destabilizing, disturbing and disintegrating factors have raised doubts in many responsible quarters in India and abroad about the very survival of India as a nation. On the whole, there is a total feeling of frustration, cynicism, helplessness, uncertainty and impotence everywhere at all levels of society. WE HAVE TO REALISE WHAT IT IS THAT IS THREATENED WITH DESTRUCTION AND WHAT IT IS THAT WE ARE CALLED UPON TO DEFEND? Let us remind ourselves how in the last fifty five years we have at critical junctures taken always the road of the least effort and the method of the cheapest solution and of greatest self-indulgence. So we are here today. We are where we are because whenever we had a choice to make, we had chosen the alternative that required the least effort at the moment. THERE IS ORGANISED MECHANISED EVIL LET LOOSE IN THE INDIA OF TODAY. I am appalled by the general state of bankruptcy in all walks of our national life today, the bankruptcy of national ideals, the bankruptcy of national humanitarianism, the bankruptcy of religious faith, the bankruptcy of political sincerity, the bankruptcy of true commercial honesty and above all the bankruptcy of the personal sense of honour among all our politicians. This Himalayan disaster in the midst of which we are living today is a disaster in the character of men. It is a catastrophe of the soul of a whole generation which has forgotten, has lost and has renounced the imperative and indispensable virtues of laborious, heroic and honorable men. We have to put an end to both "Parliamentary Monarchy" and "Parliamentary Anarchy". By "Parliamentary Monarchy" I mean a system of hereditary Government like Monarchy which survives by manipulating the apparatus of Parliament to serve and suit the private interests of one family like that of Nehru family or one small group as the case may be. By "Parliamentary Anarchy" I have in my mind the conditions of anarchy and lawlessness created by elected members in the Legislative Assemblies in various States and the Lok Sabha in New Delhi. We have to usher in a new era of "ACCOUNTABLE PARLIAMENTARY DEMOCRACY" in India in order to open out to our people opportunities for a fuller and richer life. In order to make this happen we have to launch a "Second Freedom Movement" marked by enlightened and awakened dictatorship of the people, by the people and for the people. The pseudo-secular mercenaries at the helm of affairs in New Delhi today would dismiss Sri Aurobindo as communal and saffron zed. Bharath Varsha can recover herself only if she pays heed to the following inspiring words of Sri Aurobindo uttered in 1908: "The Mother's feet are on the threshold, but she waits to hear the true cry, the cry that rushes out from the heart before she will enter. The Mother asks us for no schemes, no plans, no methods. She herself will provide the schemes, the plans, the methods better than any we can devise. She asks us for our hearts, our lives, nothing less, nothing more. Self-abandonment is the demand made upon us. Bharath Mata asks of us, "How many will live for me? How many will die for me?" and awaits our answer". V Sundaram, IAS, Retd.
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