Patriotism symbols

Last Sunday's "We the People" had Ms. Barkha Dutt arranging a group of cocky and opinionated speakers talking about how it was okay to burn the national flag or sit down when the national anthem was being played! And the only people to protest were predictably, a retired soldier and a BJP representative, Smriti Iraani! It was plain obvious to everyone where Ms. Dutt stood on this issue as she giggled at the smart aleck comments of the majority of the speakers while joining issue with Smriti!

What amazed me was the comment of one guest, none other than an "eminent" blogger, Amit Varma of India Uncut. He asked a strange question, "Can patriotism be enforced?" I wonder! So are you trying to say that patriotism is a matter of choice? Is it okay to say - fine, so you are not patriotic to India, I still love you? Its shocking that such things are even discussed. According to him, there should be no holy cows! I wonder if even the sentiments of the soldiers who die on the battlefield can be then debated?

And then there was a charade of the national anthem (of Bharat Bala) being played in the studio and everyone standing up. And predictably, a PYT started murmuring that she stood up only because of peer pressure otherwise she would have sat down. Her query, "If I sit down while the national anthem is being played, does that make me less patriotic?" Ok, I touch my parents feet when I take their leave. You might give them a smack on their face and say "That doesnt mean you love your parents more than I do mine?" So what can I say? Its a question of different styles of demonstrating the love and respect, I guess!

Choking over a Song!

The manner in which a ruckus has been created over the Vande Mataram song is quite infuriating. While the mullas have predictably played spoilsport to what would have been an uplifting patriotic event, the media has once again demonstrated its bias very blatantly. The rare exception to this was the RKB Show on Sahara Mumbai. (Surprising, since the Sahara boss is so close to the Samajwadi Party!)



The RKB Show discussion had one mulla (I don’t know his name and don’t care) who went on to say that not only Vande Mataram but even the Jana Gana Mana song was objectionable. And RKB was aghast! Of course, the very next day, he sang a different tune after he got Tushar Gandhi on board who went on ranting about the compulsion factor!

Swati Chaturvedi on Janmat was trying to get a word in between about patriotism “Thopa nahin jaa sakta”! {Patriotism cannot be forced upon!} Swati? Are you saying being patriotic is optional? I can understand somebody saying that merely singing the song does not a patriot make! But surely, one cannot say that patriotism cannot be insisted upon!



Predictably, Vinod Dua disregarded his own SMS survey which showed 70% results showing people voting for Option A – which was completely against his rant! His problem was that BJP was making this a political issue! He got (of all people) Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi (through satellite), who was making a good attempt at explaining the position of the BJP, but was hampered by his own religion! He was being ridiculed by a member of the AIMPLB and Vinod Dua was merrily enjoying the show along with Nilotpal Basu (in his studio) who was trying to sound very intellectual analyzing the "divisive nature" of this song!



The less said about the way it was covered by NDTV, CNN – IBN and Times Now, the better!