As I was listening the speech of
our HRD Minister, Mrs. Smriti Irani, a catchy phrase, taken directly from a
news channel, came to my mind – Saas Bahu Aur Saazish. For those who don’t
understand Hindi, Saas = Mother in law, Bahu = Daughter in Law, Saazish =
Conspiracy. For every household story, Saas and Bahu represents two sides. For
the same incident if you listen the narration of Saas, it will be very
different from Bahu. Every story has at least two sides. Sometimes even more.
But in this era of social media we want to stick with one side of story. The
story which suits our ideological prejudice. So much so that we don’t shy away
in revealing our foolishness to everyone. I was not surprised when I saw
literate IT professionals sharing a post claiming that Ratan Tata has said that
they will not hire anyone from JNU. Another one said that Umar Khalid is a
terrorist linked with Jaish e Mohammed, another IT professional gave a breaking
news that Manish Tiwari (Congress spokesperson) is not a Hindu indicating that
his wife has a Muslim name (Actually she is Parsi, but should it matter?). I
have come to terms with the fact that education may not necessarily translate
to wisdom.
The story of JNU has three sides:
First side of the story is
anti-India sloganeering. In the capital of a sovereign country, to hear any
anti-national slogan is heartbreaking to say the least. It is insane to compare
this with anti-India sloganeering in Kashmir. Kashmir has a history and we know
that there is militancy in that region. But that does not mean that we can let
them go who have audacity to raise anti India slogans in the very capital of
the nation. I wonder why they are using any facility in India if they have so
much problem with this country.
Second side of the story is the
event which was organized by a group of students against the death penalty of
Afzal Guru. This is the gray side of the story. No matter how much we like or
dislike but the fact is that having a dissent view on the death penalty of a
convict is not a crime. A section of society thinks that Afzal Guru was the
victim of circumstances and that he was made a scapegoat to satisfy the collective
conscious of the nation. I do not want to go in the merit of these arguments.
But the point is that if someone has this view, he has every right to express
the same. It does not make anyone anti national. If someone believes that Afzal
guru actually conspired the attack on Parliament and that attack was the right
thing to do then certainly it is anti-national. But if one has a view that
Parliament attack was wrong but Afzal Guru was not guilty then it does not make
anyone anti national. We have people, including lawmakers, who believe that
Nathuram Godse did the right thing by killing Father of the nation. We may like
or dislike this view but the fact is that we are accommodating this view. It is
not that they think that killing of Father of Nation was wrong but Nathuram
Godse was the victim of circumstances. They openly endorse the killing itself.
Those who want sedition charges to be imposed on these JNU students, do they
have the same view for these Godse Lovers? Personally i support these hangings but i am ready to listen anyone who think otherwise without labeling him as anti national.
Third side of the story is
Kanhaiya Kumar himself. A video was aired where Kanhaiya Kumar was demanding
Azaadi. Later it came out to be a doctored one. In fact the original speech is
quiet patriotic unless for you the constitution of Nagpur is greater than the
constitution of India. Unless for you being anti RSS is equivalent to being
anti India.
Our nation is going through a
phase where patriotic jingoism is confused with nationalism. Where national
flag has become a stick to beat others. We may or may not like Smriti Irani.
But she is a great reminder of our Indian Saas Bahu Soap. Which tells that every
story has two extreme sides narrated by the Saas and the Bahu, but the truth
lies somewhere in between. I love Smriti Irani because her face reminds me of this fact. So let us stop behaving like Saas and Bahu of Hindi
Soap, and understand the conspiracy of our political class.
