Is my Bharat still Mahaan?

It used to be a 7AM assembly at the school and the flag hoisitng was a much awaited event. The 2-week preparation prior to the event, the lezim rally, the mallkhamb show, the playing of national anthem by the school band, the sweets distribution, all the volunteers and friends excited enough to come to school on a holiday. As we moved from childhood to adulthood, the importance of the Independce Day went down. We achieve the maturity to understand that it's just another day and any celebration won't solve the mess that the country is currently in.

I consider this a fair argument courtesy my belief that life should be celebrated in moments and not in just days. Celebrating the same day overs the years reduces the importance of the moment that we eventually want to cherish. Rather than that, we should look for more such memorable moments. But then, the same argument holds true for birthdays, anniversaries, world mother day, earth day, etc. And there is a group of self-proaimed intellectuals who derive immense pleasure in taking sarcastic digs at people putting up Indian National Flag as display picture or putting a patriotic quote or a song on social network. These are the same individuals who put posts like 6-month marriage anniversary, first date anniversary, celebrating my birthday, celebrating mother's day by eating maa ke haath ka khana and other types of displays of affection. If all these can be celebrated then why not Independence Day?

Going by my philosophy of live and let live, I do not have any opposition for any of these two categories of individuals. However, the only thing that bothers me is the double standards on both sides. The person who wants to show his love for the country is waiting for an opportunity to move out of the country and settle in US or Europe, and the person who criticizes this by boasting about righteousness basically has never done any action to support the country or to question the other person's show of affection for the nation. We all love to pull each other's legs on such issues and consider our duties for the larger society done. We crib about a near-zero tally at Olympics but want our kids to take education as a priority over sports. We all vouch for removing reservations but never want our kids to marry a person from a lower caste.

This proves that we are not only the world's largest (failed) democracy but also the world's largest hypocrisy. Mera Bharat Mahaan is a baseless self-praising lie that we tell ourselves. We used to be great, but not now. We cannot be mahaan till we have conscienceless hypocritical wars internally. We definitely have the ability to move our country towards greatness but no intent at all, at least in the current circumstances. And blaming this on others will not take us there.

If a difference has to be made, the change has to start from us. As the famous line goes - Don't ask what the country has done for you, think what you have done for the country. Swach Bharat is one such change initiative which has penetrated across the barriers of political affiliation. There should be more such programs which target the larger good. Criticizing it because of the dubious credentials of it's propagator would only slow down the speed of this positive change. We have to accept it at least for it's intent. And this was just one example, whereas we can start many such initiatives with right intent and the nation will follow.

Lastly, if we have to be righteous, we should be  it for ourself and not for our facebook walls or instagram. Every act that we do eventually contributes to the larger society. So being responsible while we act can be a starting step to this change. All we need is a conscience to differentiate right from wrong in the national context. So a better way to celebrate this Independence Day is to change something about ourselves which will have a positive impact on the society. The next Independence Day should be the appraisal for us with the goals set this year (the clichéd simile courtesy the profession of the blogger). Let's take a step towards a better country to make India mahaan again.