Maj Gen Gagandeep Bakshi (Source: www.facebook.com/majgengagandeep.bakshi/)
Dear Major General Gagandeep Bakshi,
I am responding to your public outburst on Facebook and your angry reactions on a television talk show. I am one of the civilians who you think is not patriotic enough. You think the Indians who do not serve the armed forces have a choice to die for the country or not to. True, most of us never face this question. We never choose to live or die for the country; we just do. We are born on this land we call India, toil for bread on this land we call India and die on this land called India. Period.
Here’s what I think of the points that you raised through your Facebook post.
On Arnab (Goswami)’s debate… I (Retired Major General Gagandeep Bakshi) suddenly realised the difference between us soldiers and others. We have problems now with flying our national flag?
A civilian is no less an Indian and a patriot than a soldier guarding our nation’s borders. Who do you think pays for the food our brave soldiers eat, the bullets they fire and the pension they earn? If you, (Retired) Major Gen GD Bakshi, receive a pension for your service to the nation, a tiny fraction of the money in your bank is dipped in my saline sweat, no less Indian than your blood. The tricolour is our pride. If you think people are opposed to flying our national flag in our universities, you fail to see the true picture. We are not facing an external enemy that you can spot and eliminate with a bullet. India is fighting with itself, like the human body fighting with a deviant cellular growth. Irrespective of the outcome of the fight within the body, it evolves into a more suitable organism. Evolution is the means of survival. If there is no movement in the country, it is as good as dead.
I learnt with the greatest shock that so far the national flag has not been flying in our universities? Are they UN enclaves in Free India beyond the pale of our sovereignty? Are we required to sing the Communist Internationale there instead of our national anthem?
Why do we need to display the flag in every nook and corner of the country? Our national flag is an emblem of the country, the representation of the people of India. It wasn’t until recently (2001, thanks to a Public Interest Litigation filed by industrialist Naveen Jindal) that the general public were allowed to hoist flags on private buildings. Were Indian homes foreign enclaves before a court ruled in favour of ordinary Indian citizens’ equal right to hoist the national flag? Did we Indians respect our country and the tricolour any less?
For the Communist Internationale part of the public display of patriotism, why would a soldier, whose allegiance is to the country, be afraid of communism? Whether India is a socialist or a communist country matter little when the duty of a soldier is to protect the sovereignty of the country. The man afraid of communism is not a soldier; he’s a common man with selfish interests and biases.
The problem is the sophisticated debate that these bastions of Leftist liberals have created.
(Retired) Major Gen GD Bakshi, you, sir, are either too gullible or just the opposite. Obeying orders does not make a great society, liberal thinking does. Ponder before you raise a question or level an allegation. If you can accuse, convict and sentence people without being questioned, the result is a dark age that feeds on innocent lives. If there is an affront to the sovereignty of the nation, we must put those responsible on a fair trial in accordance with the spirit of the Indian constitution.
Today, the national flag can be hoisted by every Indian on his/her house because someone didn’t conform to the standard norms and the government machinery. Someone initiated a sophisticated debate. If the country has to follow orders of its commander(s) without questioning, there won’t be the India with the values enshrined in the Constitution.
Universities teach you to question — what, why, how? If universities were to churn out people trained to say “Yes, Sir” to everything, we won’t have the ever-evolving world we live in. History is all about the non-conformists, who leave a mark and change the course of society.
Only soldiers like us are stupid enough to become EXTREME NATIONALISTS. Only soldiers make that extreme sacrifice!
The nation is grateful and indebted to its soldiers who sacrifice their lives protecting its sovereignty. However, you cannot confine nationalism to those serving the armed forces. Who builds the India you protect? The food you eat is irrigated with sweat of farmers. Have you cared for the workers who built your home? It’s the tax on matchboxes and salt that funds your bullets as well as subsidized merchandise in canteen stores. You see people making money. Do you see those who go bust trying to establish factories? Yes, these are businessmen working with profit motives, but they do contribute to the nation. The uniform that you take pride of, as well as the tricolour fabric, is made of threads soaked in the sweat and sacrifices of numerous men — rich and poor.
Who defined patriotism for you? As I sit before the computer and type these words, I am serving the country in a tiny way. Yes, I am not braving a bullet fire, but I am participating in a debate that will have an impact on the country like the impact of a slow stream of water eroding a huge rock.
The tricolour is not a piece of fabric to the civilians either. It’s the identity that sits atop our car dashboards, remains neatly placed on our office tables, painted on faces of screaming cricket fans and, above all, stays in the hearts of Indians.
I will not pay heed to your definition of patriotism. I cannot lung out loud cries for the country, but my heart beats loud and clear with the flesh & blood born out of Indian soil. My India is the India that allows you to criticise me, the civilians.
Don’t ask me to adhere to your view of patriotism, please.
Yours truly,
An Indian Civilian (who will never get a Nobel Prize or a Magsaysay Award)
