I am known to be a born optimist, but there are times, thankfully very few when I do feel despondent. This is one of those times! Our people and nation are being wilfully divided through divergent narratives, to serve some ulterior, self seeking agendas of a few.
Of all people, the Mughal ruler Aurangzeb, who is known in recorded history to have imprisoned his own father, killed his own brother, tortured and killed the Sikh Gurus and numerous people of this land, is being used to create an image of a tolerant King just to create divisions and flash riots in the country. Political parties are shamelessly feeding false narratives to target the government so as to create law and order issues. It is to the credit of the govt of Maharashtra that the riots could be contained, but only after police officers and others were injured, property vandalised and burnt, and scare mongering and stone throwing incidents tarnished the relative peace in Nagpur. Can this be avoided in the future? Who has the power to stop this? Who suffers in all this?
Only we the people suffer, and ironically also have the power to change this situation and avoid similar such disruptions to peaceful living. To prevent such madness, it is important to understand the role of the past, present, and future in our daily lives.
The past, the present, and the future, each has a specific message for us, the so called most intelligent of the animal species,
The past is history; to be truthfully recorded, without bias or distortion, so that everyone is aware and can acknowledge, the good, the bad and the ugly of it, as truth can never be hidden forever, and has a way of revealing itself at the most inopportune time
It is a fact that no one has the power to change or erase the past.
The present is all we have. Is it worth sacrificing what we have, the present, at the altar of what we have no control over, our past?
The truth however needs to be researched, documented for posterity, and acknowledged by all. The need is not of political grandstanding, but of political maturity. A truth and reconciliation commission is the need, I guess, to bring this deeply scarred civilisation back on track.
Let us all rise above our narrow prejudices to celebrate our only living, millenia old civilisation that boasts of both - "antiquity and continuity", as well as our Constitution that is testimony to our strong foundation built on our civilisation ethos of inclusivity, "Vasudaiva Kutumbakkam", as also of our sublime desire to grow as a modern nation state in the future.
The future is what we need to work towards, so that we can as a people leave behind a legacy of positivity, harmony, growth and development, in every which way, for our future generations; generations that are only being exposed to negativity and discord today; growth and development are being lost in the noise of competing narratives, some spoken, some implied, and some hidden.
We have the power to change our narrative, as a people and as a nation; our politicians are only the mirrors that fairhfully reflect our image in all our being.
Gandhiji said, and rightly so, "Be the change that you wish to see in the world". Be true leaders of the change that we need as a nation today. Jai Hind.
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