I still vividly recall the address to the nation by the president of India, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam on the eve of the 57th Independence Day.
His words:
"What should we be remembered for?
Let us for a moment pause to reflect what it is that for which we would like to be remembered by the future generations. Will we be remembered for how many churches our generation has added, will we be remembered for how many mosques our generation has added, will we be remembered for how many temples our generation has added or will we be remembered for how many gurudwaras our generation has added? No, not at all. We will be remembered only if we give to our younger generation a prosperous and safe India resulting out of economic prosperity coupled with our civilizations heritage."
He further added these beautiful lines to his speech
“Oh Almighty, create thoughts and actions in the minds of the people of my nation, so that they live united.
Light the minds of the religious leaders of my country to evolve a bridge among religions with Compassion and Love.
Embed the thought 'Nation is bigger than the individual or party' in the minds of the leaders.
May God, bless my people to work and transform the country into a prosperous nation in a decade."
Clearly testifying the fact the Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam is really a visionary in the truest of sense. I can only hope that our politicians assimilate a modicum of “Wisdom” (Buddhi) from this great man.
Looking at the current Quota Quandary one sees The Indian society as clearly bifurcated into two extremely opposite factions, they are The Castists and The Elitists. The Castists backed by the politicians, the pro-reservationists and The Elitists backed by the youth-for-equality, the pro-merit and anti-quota supporters. Both the groups shouting out loud to prove their point and more importantly trying to prove the other wrong. The one thing, which worries me the most at this time, is the Hatred of each group towards the other, which can be easily seen in thousands of blogs, protests and debates taking place all over the country.
It is just a reminder to all of us that the need of the hour are Compassion and Love, the realization that Nation is bigger than the individual or party. I can only hope that both the groups instead of expressing vehement anger, come out with benign solutions which take the nations interests into consideration and not their own. I hope that rather than thinking on the lines of “what’s good for me” we will think on the lines of “what’s good for us”. The idea that “WE” are the center of the universe was found to be flawed many hundreds of years ago!!.