Who are the real anti-nationals?
In a recent meeting with the Women's Press Corps in Delhi, Union Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, reacting to the recent JNU Students Union elections in which the Left candidates swept the polls and ABVP was routed, said that there were anti-Indian forces within the JNU campus which were waging war on India.
In my opinion, the statement was puerile and inane.
The real people waging war on India today are most of the Indian politicians, who polarise society and spread caste and communal hatred, instigate casteist and communal violence to get votes and amass fortunes by corruption.
It is true that caste and religious differences have existed in the Indian society from before, and it is not that it is the politicians who created them. But the effort of all genuinely patriotic people should be to narrow down these differences. Instead, the effort of our politicians is to further widen and escalate them in order to get votes.
India is a country with tremendous diversity, with several religions, castes, languages, ethnic and regional groups, etc. As I explained in 'What is India', this is because India is broadly a country of immigrants, like North America – the only difference being that in North America immigrants came mainly from Europe over the last 400 years or so, in India they have been coming in for about 10,000 years, mainly from the North West, and to a lesser extent from the North East.
About 92-93% population of India today consists of descendants of these immigrants (the original inhabitants of India are the Adivasis or pre-Dravidian tribals like Bhils, Gonds, Santhals, Todas, etc., who are only 7-8% of our population).
Whichever group of immigrants came to India brought with them their own language, religion, culture, customs, etc., and this explains our great diversity.
As the celebrated Urdu poet Firaq Gorakhpuri said:
"Sar zameen-e-Hind par aqwaam-e-aalam ke Firaq
Qafile ghuzarte gaye, Hindustan banta gaya "
"In the land of Hind, the caravans of the people of the world
Kept coming in, and India kept getting formed"
In view of such tremendous diversity, it is absolutely imperative that all communities, sects and groups, whether religious, lingual, ethnic, caste or regional in India be given equal respect and treatment if we wish to keep our country united - otherwise it cannot survive long.
The real "anti-nationals" and the real persons waging war on India, therefore, are hardly the people inside the JNU campus. They are the ones outside – most of our politicians, who spread caste, communal, lingual, regional and ethnic hatred in our society for their selfish lust for power and pelf.
India today has all that is required for becoming a first-rate industrial power, like Western countries. We have a huge pool of technical talent (many of our engineers are manning Silicon Valley in California, and many Indians are Professors in Science, Engineering and Mathematics Departments in Western Universities) and we have immense natural resources.
By now, we should have become another super-power, like China, with our people enjoying a high standard of living. But instead we are still having colossal poverty, unemployment, farmers' distress, malnourishment, etc., and we are still embroiled in Ram Mandir, cow protection and caste politics, which is entirely due to our crooked politicians, not JNU students.
So, who are the real "anti-nationals", and who is waging war on India?
Nirmalaji, zara apne girebaan mein bhi jhaank ke dekhiye.