The StolenWealth Games

The Commonwealth Games, a quadrennial event, ongoing at The Gold Coast Down Under (Australia), saw some unusual incidents making news headlines, apart from hundreds of artistes performing at the opening ceremony and thousands of athletes taking part in it.

There was a set of people holding placards and sloganeering outside the Carrara Stadium in protest of the Games. ‘The StolenWealth Games’ they called it.

These were the Australian aboriginals, who inhabited the island continent for more than 60,000 years. Today, they have reduced in number and are unrecognized, largely as a consequence of the British colonization. Just like India and Ireland and Africa and all the other nations the British so unapologetically ravaged, Australia too was a victim.

The Australian aboriginals have echoed the unspoken of millions by derisively rephrasing the Commonwealth Games to StolenWealth Games. Wasn’t it, after all, the plundered wealth of 51 countries (& more) on which ‘the Great Britain’ thrived on for so long? Didn’t the British abuse & loot these nations beyond reparation in their quest for power? Well, yes! Then why remain a party to it?

The Commonwealth nations group is nothing but a redundant organization and a sour reminder of a dark period in our history, of how our motherland was raped of her heritage and wealth.

The grouping, ostensibly created to co-operate and promote democratic values among member countries, had no real motive but to prevent retaliation from these exe-colonies-now-independent-States against Britain.

Whatever the British did in India (or any other country for that matter) was wrong morally, ethically, politically and in every other aspect. They devastated our culture, social fabric & language and left our country in shambles. They did no good to us through the Raj and are not doing any of it through the Commonwealth either.

Why should India be a part of it anyway? We are a republic and the only head of the State we recognize is our democratically elected President, not Queen Elizabeth II, III, IV, V or any other for that matter. We are not receiving any indispensable benefits from the grouping, rather, on the contrary, the cost of travelling to England has increased manifold. Our economy is on the way to surpass that of UK’s this year, so don’t really require much of their assistance too. Britain has also lost much of her repute globally and is bound to lose more under the stewardship of Theresa May. Friendly relations can still be maintained and as far as trade is concerned, the dynamics will inevitably change on account of Brexit.

There is (and never was) anything to gain from this membership but an international reminder that we were once a British colony. I strongly feel that India should pull out the Commonwealth. India and her resources is nobody’s wealth but us Indians. We are NOT the ‘common-wealth’ of those pale-skinned islanders anymore and never will be.

And as for the Games, yes, our athletes will have one event less to perform at, but then again, it is neither the last one nor the only one.

So what do you say? Should India pull out of this organisation or not. Feel free to comment.

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23rd March: Time to Give Them Their Due

87 years ago, on this very day, three sons of our motherland were hanged to death. The common dream that their eyes kept watching until they were shut forever only came true after 16 years of their unmatched sacrifice. And today, even after 70 long years of independence they are yet to receive what is due to them- status of national heroes, akin to that of M. K. Gandhi.

Yes, there are many who hold Bhagat Singh, Shivram Rajguru and Sukhdev Thapar in the highest of gravitas, even higher than M. K. Gandhi, but our country on a whole have somewhere failed to do so. My intention here is not to draw comparison among our freedom fighters but only towards the fact that how the successive dynastic political regimes of our nation have deeply under-rated one set of freedom strugglers and over-rated the other, purely to gain and then to retain power at the Centre.

It is somewhat abhorring to see ‘terrorist’ prefixed to the names of these heroes. The British are long gone and this tag should go too, now & forever. They were not terrorists or revolutionary terrorists. They were nationalists. The reason they and many others like them have been sidelined for decades is because they vehemently disagreed with M. K. Gandhi’s kind of politics: ahimsa.

We are often told that India achieved her freedom through peaceful means. I don’t know how many of us are acquainted with this but by preaching so we are spuriously undermining, firstly, the sacrifices of many who happily laid down their lives for our nation, and secondly, the cost of independence- partition and its concomitant, massacre of thousands of Indians. Would India have achieved her independence much sooner and sans partition if Bhagat Singh & his likes had lived longer? Maybe, maybe not. Maybe this question holds no relevance today altogether, but what does is that the youth of our nation, which is being beleaguered by the sick mentality of the likes of Kanhaiya Lal, LeT, JeM and ISIS, must be made familiar with the supreme sacrifice of such heroes so that as and when they take up arms, it is only to protect our nation, not to kill our nation.

There are many Bhagat Singhs who remain forgotten & unsung, who died young, who were true nationalists, who were subjected to atrocities, who were fearless and who parted ways from the Congress because they knew that ‘prayer and petition’ isn’t enough to win freedom. They used other forms of methods, often termed as ‘extreme’, to fight the British because they wanted to see these foreign rulers, who had corroded India, run with their tails between their legs, out of our country. And this was probably their only folly. Had they colluded with the Congress or M. K. Gandhi, 23rd March would have been a public holiday and we would have only celebrated 50th or 60th Independence Day by now.

Maverick

I am no chip of the old block & so happily I proclaim,

I do love my parents though, but a desire to be like them,

I so disdain!

They are people of another time and of another world I will never know,

But to step in their shoes, do what they do,

Eh! Is a thought I have to forego.

Let me tell you how proud I am to have come from them,

From so rich a heritage & great culture no less;

From the Lands of Gods my ancestors rise,

And also they are known for their feats & mights!

I am happy indeed to hear so high of them,

But I am the black sheep in my pack’s den.

I cannot tread the road they trot on so long ago,

For the wilderness is different now than what ’twas

In the years they grew.

My direction is divergent and so are my thoughts,

I cannot help but find my own path.

I follow my heart, I follow my mind,

Like them I cannot stop & say it is fine.

I wish to see the world and witness its wonder,

Lie beneath the blue sky & see it thunder.

I wish to go away at dusk & come back at dawn,

When the suns an orange red & the warmth has gone.

No matter how much I yell & I cry,

You, I cannot convince, that I am no fry.

With wolves, foxes and hyenas, yes, it is filled;

But I am no deer mother, that you upbring.

You care too much, and that is your trait,

Afterall, you thought, only a lamb can come from a sheep so straight!