PATRIOTICS

Pseudo patriotism:

There are three types of patriotic persons in India but majority are pseudo. Type one are real patriots who are in defense service, 0.5% politicians who wants to do good for the country are to some extent patriotic, third types are our farmers and common man. The patriotic comments have an underlying objective, some vested interests but in true sense these persons are actually hypocrites. Take for example, a recent comment by a lady journalist who said some unpalatable truths about the Indian performance in Olympics. I too agreed with her views but few pseudo moralists called her an “H” and all sorts of names. Is it fair in a democratic country? Whereas the other day a very patriotic person charged few crores for singing the national anthem! How many of us revolted against the JNU student’s comment at Delhi, None. Patriotic country is slowly but surely getting divided by religion, caste, rich-poor, regional feelings, rivers, skin color and language for vote banks and other reasons. Why different state governments give away crores of tax payer’s money? Are these athletes not from India? It’s the sports authority who should pay. Why regional feeling is coming up? Other countries give incentives but not so much. Some pay 25-30 lakhs for gold, 15-20 lakhs for silver and 10-15 lakhs for bronze. Senior citizen’s bank interest on fixed deposits is being reduced from 10% to 8%, because our economy condition is not so good in reality. One wrestler who was sent one month before to Rio for training lost in five minutes!! How much our government spent on him? Who would answer to this?

Number of pass port issued in last few months to Indians has touched one lakh, why? Our patriotic Indians are going out to work as slaves for other countries!!And those patriotic Indians get thrashing when they celebrate when the country which give them jobs and bread gets defeated by India!! Think over it my patriotic Indians.

Last night I went out for a hair cut because it was raining and I was sure there would be less hairy persons in that saloon . The young hairdresser told me while cutting my hair to size;

“Sir, Odisha saved few crores of rupees.”

“How, come?”

“Had any of our sports persons from Odisha or Odiya origin had won a bronze then our CM would have declared few crores of rupees to compete with Haryana sarkar plus a job. That way a poor state narrowly escaped from getting bankrupt.” While spraying some water on my hair he said.

“But that will encourage others to participate in sports and bring glory to the country” I said without moving my head.

“Sir, out of 118 only two medals, comes down to 1.69 medals per hundred athletes. Is it worth it to spend so much? What about those who were banned? And the money spent on their food stay and travelling for last four years? Even if I take ten births as a barber still then it would not be possible to see how two crores looks like. It depressed me to know the amount of freebies and cash our governments give to these sports persons! All show business, it’s neither from their money nor their father’s. With that money hundreds of families could have been rehabilitated?” Giving a finishing touch with a broken blade he said.

I said “neither my father nor any of our villagers have seen crores of rupees. Do not worry we should be happy with a small house, two meals a day, few dress to cover ourselves and some dignity. Actually this disparity of money distribution brings out the beast out of an individual, some control it others become criminals, that’s it.”

Some of the engineering students who came after me were waiting for their turn. They also participated in this patriotic discussion and agreed to what my hairdresser had said. One of the engineering students from Odisha neighboring state commented “now everyone is a patriotic-hypocrite, shows of patriotism for fear of being beaten up or getting punished .When someone winning a bronze or beating a weak WI or Bangladesh team, one has to celebrate, show off with a drink or two but the same patriotic persons never join or send their children to join military service. They burn Government properties and call frequent Bandhs/strikes as if India is under foreign rule? Last night we had a fight on this issue in our hostel. If someone points out that this pampering is no good in long run because in last seven decades we have not exceeded the numbers of medal a single American swimmer won in last few Olympics. No other country gives so much of facilities and money and jobs to their athletes. For that reason so many foreign players come and play IPL. Giving money in advance to someone for getting selected through backdoor is bad for the game and the country.”

A friend of that student intervened and said smiling “Why don’t you run like Bolt and bring medals, you too could become super rich?”

“Talents are not like genetic engineered seeds so that we can produce Bolts and Phelps. They are born. Only money can’t produce a world class athlete, that’s why none of our film stars or politicians or rich person’s sons or daughters is an Olympic champion?  It’s the poverty and sufferings which brings out the best from a young person, not money or encouragements alone.” said another gentleman having his hair colored.

I came out smiling from that saloon with an impression that there are still real patriotic persons in our society. They are not like our retired professors, senior citizens, film stars and politicians who fly to foreign land to get an ultrasound done or to get treated for running nose but boasts themselves as real patriotic Indians. Those patriotic Indian citizen’s children work as slaves in other countries and they are the people who show off patriotism the most, they will not like this type of articles and reject it as a cynic writing.

Jai Hind.