This is not an opinion, but a compilation of thoughts of prominent (not the pseudo ones) Indians.
The day started with the blog of Mohan Lal, the Malayalam superstar doing rounds. He wrote emotionally – ‘What is the point of living, when India is dying”. Mohan Lal referred to the soldiers dead in the heights of Siachen, guarding the borders. On seeing the picture of the four month old daughter being shown the body of Late Lance Naik Sudheesh, he commented “The soldier could never see his daughter. In the same newspaper I read about the fight in our universities on what love for the nation is. Fights in assemblies, bar scam and other news stories too were there. I felt sorrow and shame at the same time,”
Mohan Lal felt it is hypocritical of us to talk of freedom of speech and of patriotism, sitting in the comforts of the home. Enjoying these comforts, we go to offices and universities to discuss about our soldiers only to abuse and question them, he lamented. As children cannot abandon parents, citizens cannot distance themselves from the nation. Indeed some beautiful words, after listening to the poison that was force-fed into our minds over the last one week by all self-declared intellectuals.
A simple man, Mohan Lal offered a solution:
“Parents should sent their children to Univesrties where culture is valued. When students reach such places of culture, they will learn to give salute with the same spirit they shout slogans. They will also learn to weep for the nation in the same spirit they deliver their fiery speeches.”
Read JNU – The sanctuary of literate uneducated fools
Then came the sports superstar Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who played his helicopter shot, after a long time, albeit in the news arena. He simply took the message to home, by talking about the soldiers who guard borders, so that we can debate on the rights ‘to be anti-national’, the tattoo so many people started displaying on their foreheads. And no guess, he won the match in two tweets.
Spl forces and commando unit's r normal ppl like u and me who r highly motivated and trained to put the interest of the nation before self
— Mahendra Singh Dhoni (@msdhoni) February 21, 2016
As v have this debate on freedom of speech our forces r making sure v stay in position to keep debating.
— Mahendra Singh Dhoni (@msdhoni) February 21, 2016
And the day ended with Santosh Hegde, spoke: “You can’t meddle with patriotism. Everything is alright [but] patriotism can never be compromised”.
He explained further why people raise anti-national slogans. “Many people think differently in this country whose allegiance is with some other country or some other group … if democracy has to survive, then there should be some restrictions on the people talking against the country.
“Forget all other things. You criticise the government, criticise the individuals, criticise the system. Patriotism can never be criticised,” he said.
Read JNU Hooligans need to be crushed with iron hands AND THIS NEEDS TO HAPPEN NOW
Speaking more on this, the retired Supreme Court judge argued that the act of some Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) students, who allegedly termed the execution of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru “judicial murder” and raised anti-India slogans, “definitely amounts” to sedition.
“I believe in sedition law. I am a patriot. Any patriot cannot go on abusing the country. There are certain parameters,” the former Karnataka Lokayukta told.
I sincerely hope politicians likes of Arvind Kejriwal and Rahul Gandhi will listen to the likes of Mohan Lal and Dhoni, for unlike you and me, they have some standing in this country. Of course, I don’t expect the bunch of presstitutes to change their opinion, as they are playing to their pay masters or have their allegiances not with this country.