Past two evenings have been really mesmerizing. Thanks to the excellent program by Zee Marathi on their Saregamapa Little Champs special for sixtieth Republic Day of India. Zee TV on this occasion of Republic day took all the little champs to NDA in my home town Pune. They also invited parents and siblings of the Martyrs from Indian armed forces.When the champs started singing, each song was followed by some really touching experiences from these parents and an appeal to all Indian parents to send their children to join the armed forces and to the young generation to join.
I was particularly touched by two incidents about the way our army men are fighting war in Siachen glacier and the mishaps of MIG 21 fighter planes. I am sure these must have brought tears to millions of viewers watching the show. Finally Hridaynath had to wake us up to the reality that the theme of the show is bravery and we should not shed tears but celebrate our freedom and the martyrdom of those who died for our country like they did. From there the program really took a different turn and we were all charged up listening to songs and then stories of Shivaji Raje and Veer Savarkar.
This was followed by second episode of the same theme today. While watching the program I was in the same era of Shivaji, 17th century and the Adilshahi, Mughals and the wisdom of Shivaji, his justice, his vision and what not. But then I made a mistake of switching to the news channel after the program and I was awaken by harsh reality of today.
On one hand we have a media channel, which was telling us about the glorious past and trying to bring spark of nationalism in us and on the other hand we had the news channel reporters shooting the heinous incident of few goons beating up the girls and women in a pub calling them prostitutes. The media it seems knew about the incident but did not inform the police and did not even try to stop those goons from attacking the women. Two exactly opposite characters in the same business.
For most of the time we see the name of Shivaji being used by the political leadership in Maharashtra. No doubt Shivaji was the greatest king in India, but all those stories of winning the wars and all get much too attention than the ruling system Shivaji implemented in Maharashtra. So we know the Shivaji at war with the then Yavani, Mlenchh rulers of Maharastra but we don’t know much about the Shivaji during the peace time. We have war going on at the borders almost on daily basis but what about the war inside? The Marathi leaders are waging war against each other. Hardly few think about the welfare of the state. So how does Shivaji in peace time should affect them? Do let us know if you want those principals to be followed.
Finally, about the quote of Winston Churchill, Hridaynath was siting – Don’t you think that despite all the efforts taken by the revolutionaries and freedom fighters, India has become a land where humans live like animal herds? We get angry at his remarks, but eventually they are becoming true. So we have still not won the war against this British man. Like one of the mother of a martyr pilot said: Not everyone needs to take sword in his hand, but if he does his job well and feels his responsibility towards the country, it is more than enough. Going forward, I would say, we also now need to unite and make others perform their duty. The good human beings do not tolerate injustice.