WHERE THE MIND IS WITHOUT FEAR (26/01/2016)

 

Commuting in Delhi, especially in Central Delhi, which houses all Ministries and Central Government offices, became a tedious exercise this week as multiple layer of security checks and thorough frisking in metros, as part of raised security concern in view of the terror alert sounded before the Republic Day celebrations, saw huge queues outside the metros and traffic jams on every stretch. We are living in difficult times, indeed. I remember when we were child; the three national holidays were marked with additional activities and enthusiasm. The annual sports day was organized on Republic Day and the whole day was spent in school celebrating the occasion and also participating in sports events. But these appear to have become a thing of past. Schools in Delhi close on Republic Day and there are no celebrations in school these days to mark National Holidays. We need to bring life back into Republic Day celebrations and inculcate the values of these events in our future generation. Merely watching Republic Day parade on the Rajpath over television is not enough. If our future generations do not celebrate these festivals- in school and in their society- these festivals would soon lose their importance. Just because of a terror alert we cannot order school to remain closed on this important day. This is our defeat. Closing schools is not an answer to terror attacks. We must learn a lesson from United States of America where there has been no terror attack after the 9/11. Only if our national leadership come up with a solution to this menace, will they be considered worthy upholders of the legacy of Gurudev who had dreamed of a nation “Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high, Where knowledge is free, Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls, Where words come out from the depth of truth, Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection, Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit, Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action, Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake”… Jai Hind!