Lal Bahadur Shastri gave us the immortal slogan ‘Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan’. The slogan is a powerful tribute to those we are indebted to, the farmers and soldiers whose ceaseless toil keeps India strong and secure.

What a tragedy then, that in the very month when we remember Shastri Ji’s death anniversary, our Prime Minister and his government are demonstrating that they believe instead in ‘Mar Jawan, Mar Kisan’.

The behaviour of the Government should not come as a surprise. After all, they are merely following the path set for them by their masters in the RSS. Their shoddy and criminal treatment of our farmers and soldiers is easily understandable when we see what they have been taught in their Shakhas.

The first lesson Modi Ji learnt in the Shakha is ‘ekchalakanuvartitva’. It means that every system must run as per the unquestioned command of a single supreme leader. His (it can never be a woman) word is final. There can be no dissent or debate. It must be obeyed without discussion, no matter what the cost is!

This is how the RSS is run and this is exactly how the Modi Government wants to run India. Based upon Modi Ji’s farman, laws are redrafted to handover our farms to a few corporates. Based upon Modi Ji’s orders, the laws are rammed through Parliament without debate or a vote. Because they raise their voices against Modi Ji, the protesting farmers are called ‘Separatists’ and raided by the NIA. And finally, because they dare to resist Modi Ji’s evil schemes, they are allowed to die at the protest sites without even the courtesy of a visit by the Prime Minister. Modi ji does not care if the Kisan dies so long as his agenda is executed.

The second lesson that Modi Ji learnt in the Shakhas is the role of martyrs in society. Here is a passage from MS Golwalkar’s Bunch of Thoughts (page 283) whom Modi Ji and the RSS calls ‘Guru ji’, “Such persons (martyrs) are not held up as ideals in our society. We have not looked upon their martyrdom as the highest point of greatness to which men must aspire. For, after all, they failed in achieving their ideal, and failure implies some fatal flaw in them.” For the RSS, martyrs and those who give their all for the Nation are not heroes worth emulating but instead ‘failures’ who have ‘fatal flaws’ in them. It is therefore no surprise that the blood of our soldiers means nothing to Modi ji. It is merely a way to distract voters and earn TRPs for Arnab Goswami and Modi Ji’s other stooges in the media. So, Modi Ji does not care if Jawans die as long as his agenda of distracting the people and selling the Nation marches on.

Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru taught us that Bharat Mata is in fact the people of our land. Nationalism is therefore the well-being of the people of India. Patriotism is working for the freedom, justice and progress of the Kisan, the Jawan and each and every one of the 130 crore citizens of India. By this definition, the Modi Government is behaving in a manner that can only be called anti-national and unpatriotic.

The sooner we get rid of this Government, the sooner will we be able to say once again with pride, ‘Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan’ and ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’.

Jai Hind. Jai Congress. Jai Jagat.