Shiban Khaibri
Can patriotism be conditional, fair weathered, elastic or selective strikes one’s mind when, with a longing to put a political opponent down, who otherwise happens simultaneously to be the darling of millions, a help is implicitly sought from a country that nurses a state policy of hate , animosity and has a blot of waging armed raids (1947), wars (1965 and 1971), armed Conflict ( Kargil 1999) and a continuous behind the scene proxy war, notoriously known as armed terrorism since early 1980s against our country. Not only that, incessant border skirmishes and violations of the LoC causing immense trouble to our people living around or near there has been its avowed strategy to trouble its noble neighbour from where it separated to give itself a name of an independent country and still quenching its thirst and irrigating its parching fields with the waters emanating from the parent country. It is pertinent to note that love for one’s country should be conditional which in other words means that an ideology that you are believing in or a political party of which you have been a member, when in power, alone makes you showcase yourself as a patriot and when there is a different choice of the people , you change your loyalty towards the country and go to any extent in vindicating your hollow ego and assumed notion of being the only best. For it to happen you are even seeking the support of another country even a hostile one where you are giving a call to overthrow your own elected Government or alternately warn that country to “suffer” for four more years to expect the desired results. It is tantamount to emasculating India by its own people.
Two Congress leaders , Mani Shankar Iyyer and Salman Khursheed both having remained Union ministers , now out of power, a fact with which they even after 16 months do not seem to reconcile, find themselves at ease in the environs of Pakistan about which in the starting lines a brief sketch , vis-à-vis their policy towards our country is given. Mani Shankar Iyyer , a nominated member of the Rajya Sabha and a former Union Minister could not feel any hesitation in praising and sharing the stage in Pakistan with the same person called Parvez Musharraf who “reciprocated “our grand gesture of friendship in 1999 and to “open new vistas of amity” with stealthily inflicting a conflict in Kargil and even after being deposed, out bursting venom against us by saying that nukes were not meant for Shab-e-Barat but for using (against India). He boasted of being a “nuclear power” to vain fully overawe India. He did not stop at that but admitted that Pakistan had “created” and trained Taliban and terrorists like Osama Bin Laden and Hafiz Aziz were ” hamaray apne aadmi Ji” and “we trained , supported and sent terrorists into India to fight Indian army”. In other words, he admitted all that, even more, what we as sufferers of terrorism, have been charging Pakistan with. Even he went a few steps farther. It is pertinent to mention here , though not fully out of context , that it was the same Iyyer who had repeatedly confidently said that Modi would never , never and never become India’s Prime Minister and that the Congress Party at best could allocate some space to him in its Head quarters for “selling tea”. That unwanted rant having no reason or basis whatsoever, having fully got blasted did not make Iyyer any saner but in Pakistan he said,” Modi needs to be removed if talks between the two nations have to resume”. He further said,” hamain lavoo aur inhain hatao” or Bring us to power( The Congress Party) and Remove them (Modi Government). “We will remove them but till then, you have to wait, the first and the foremost thing is to remove Modi , only then can talks move forward….”, Iyyer told the Pakistani TV Channel .
This shows that love for the country wanes and gains looking to the circumstances of losing power and regaining power respectively. How could otherwise be it accounted for that in the land of a belligerent hostile country, a person of the stature of a former Union Minister and a sitting MP who swears upon the constitution, can solicit open support from it to overthrow a democratically elected peoples Government in our country and continue to get kudos and protection from its Party by either evading ” We have not heard what he has said” and then “it is utter nonsense”. It also is intriguing as to how Iyyer continues to roam free and is not arrested and slapped charges of instigating a foreign country to overthrow a legal , constitutional and a peoples’ Government in India. As is wont with flicking politicians of the ilk of Iyyer , sensing ridicule and condemnation , they later either chant “misinterpreted” or “distortion of my statement” or “political vilification ” and what not.This is not against Shri Modi per – se, but very much against the respect, honour and integrity of the country. Otherwise a well educated man and unexpected of him , it is supposed that he must have in his school days read about the well known saying of George Bernard Shah that ” Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born here.”
Perhaps anyone from his Party could advise Mani Shankar that patriotism is about more than a country, it is a blend of inspiration, love and lifestyle and above all, the sense of intense belongingness. You cannot, Mani Shankar , claim belongingness only when your Party is in power. Iyyer has embarrassed India by his foot in mouth unsolicited remarks on the recent IS deadly attack on innocent children, men and women in Paris by saying, ” The anti Islam phobia that is being carried out in the Western countries should be stopped immediately. The Muslims in France should be assured that they are also the citizens of the country.” This statement not only depicts the haywire politically compulsive clumsy remarks but is a brazen interference in the internal matters of a sovereign friendly country.” Perhaps Iyyer should be knowing that French leaders do not practice vote Bank politics like his Party does and via this statement too, he and his Party have tried to pump fresh lease of life into their vote Bank which gave them more returns than the investment all these 55 years but now the position had changed. Iyyer must feel remorseful seeing how within hours of the attack, France swung into action to take revenge of these enemies of Humanity and civilized societies as against his Party’s Government showing no spine in retaliating when 26/11 horrible terror attack on Mumbai took place. France imposed Emergency for three months, no one – absolutely no one, criticized the Government for “murdering democracy ” nor did a soul criticize the “inaction and incompetence” of the government in preventing the attack. This is called patriotism and not instigating a neighbouring country to “Unko hatao aur hamay lao”.
Another congress leader and a former Union Minister Sulman Khursheed too chose Pakistan’s soil to slam his own Prime Minister and laud Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and to this extent that “Modi had yet to learn how to be a statesman”. His laudation and flattery of Pakistan did not stop at that but he gave a clean chit to that terrorism breeding country so as to praise and appreciate “Pakistan’s efforts in curbing terrorism”. It is a travesty that while writing these lines, its proof lay in how one of our Army brave hearts Colonel Santosh Mahadik was ambushed by Pakistani terrorists in Kupwara Kashmir and martyred besides injuring three of our Jawans seriously. While the proud son of the country deserves our reverential tributes for his supreme sacrifice in defending the country, at the same time indignation and condemnation for Khursheed’s open certificate to Pakistan on their soil is spontaneous and a natural corollary.
Does the diatribe against the constitutionally elected Indian Prime Minister and the Indian Government by the two most important leaders of Congress and on the soil of our hostile country Pakistan which is loathsome, reflect its frustration or the quality of its much hyped patriotism, the people want its clarification.
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