The British authorities hanged three brave revolutionaries of India, who troubled the colonial masters no end during the last part of the 1920s. lala lajpat Rai, while leading a non-violent rally in lahore against the Simon Commission, was beaten mercilessly by the police. He died of grave injuries in less than three weeks on November 17, 1928. Nine years earlier, the British police had gunned down hundreds of innocent Indians at a gathering at Jaliwanwalabag, where no quick escape exit was available. Bhagat Singh, a brave Sikh boy, Sukhdev Thapar, yet another courageous Punjabi guy, and Shivaram Rajguru of Pune had become fellow revolutionaries to take fitting revenge on the barbaric British officials. They killed a Superintendent of Police, Saunders, on December 17, 1928, exactly a month after lajpat Rai’s death. Then again on April 18, 1929, they hurled a bomb at the Central Assembly Hall in Delhi which shook up the British authorities horrifically. All three were captured and charged with murder and other serious crimes. The trial was conducted unfairly and death sentence was pronounced just too soon.
The accused young revolutionaries were denied a good lawyer who could defend them. On March 23, 1931, the British officials hanged the three Indian courageous revolutionaries. Sukhdev and Bhagat were 23 and Rajguru only 22 when killed in the lahore jail. The weeping families collected the dead bodies which were cremated at village Hussainwalla, where Prime Minister Modi went to pay tributes to the great souls after 84 years of their death.
This happened while the Indian youth, oblivious of any true martyr figure, remained engrossed in the World Cup cricket matches. Not for once did they say “No” to cricket on the March 23 for the simplest reason that the English had invented the terribly lazy game. The young Indians know Dhoni and Harbhajan Singh in and out but will spend a whole day trying to figure out who Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru are. No wonder, the ordinary educated youth of India unashamedly fail to recognise the true martyrs who laid down lives for the freedom of the nation. Modi has to be admired for he is perhaps the first PM to reach Hussainwalla near the Pakistan border. The 84th death anniversary of the martyrs does not provoke youth leaders or politicians to hold a special tribute session anywhere. Not surprisingly, today’s Indian youth are a cowardly lot without stamina to run a single mile or defend parents or women in danger. All that they know too well is the smart mobile phone that can connect them to all the wrong creatures and expose to the filthiest of things.
*Coincidentally, a so-called social service organisation based in Bhubaneswar was celebrating its foundation day on March 23-24. Some founders of this fairly-talked about externally-funded agency introduce themselves severally because they would not know their role or comprehend the make-believe set of rules of conduct. One calls himself mentor and cofounder; another says he is a trustee; yet others say they are board members; one even thinks he is a director and so on. A closer scrutiny reveals a couple of guys run the show as shopkeepers without the least respect for transparency in governance or operation. The other ‘founders-trustees-board members-directors come only around feasting time and listen to big talk, fill the belly and return home after signing strange documents and listening to some self-styled social entrepreneurs who are essentially internet copy-paste masters and too crazy to grab easy money.
Ask any of the leading founders if ever once they have donated the earning of just a single month in their lifetime and they either evaporate from the scene or wickedly manipulate to have the topic changed. The reason for this bitter criticism is primarily because they have not once inspired the youth by remembering Bhagat, Sukhdev or Rajguru; let alone pay tributes to them. The owner-founders organise celebration across two or three days with March 23 falling in the middle. But they dont reward a courageous youth to commemorate the Martyrs’ Day once in a decade! In the name of serving the deprived and underprivileged, they waste money on projects that are hardly replicable. That’s the standard status of NGO contribution to nation building in our country! Maybe, five NGOs in one thousand are respectfully engaged in meaningful exercises to inspire the youth and come up with replicable models to ensure at least the basic needs of the suffering masses are met. They are shy of publicity and they don’t live in big cities to do lobbying in their personal favour. They don’t steal fat salaries and pose before TV cameras to talk crap. They instead mingle among the poor and promote democratic values.
*Interestingly, the polio menace in India is gone forever as per a public declaration. The Rotary Clubs claim all the praise for having played a major role in eliminating polio virus from the Indian soil. They celebrated the ‘polio enemy ouster’ during the close of the last year at a regional conference. The celebration theme was named ‘Utsav’. The Rotarians too do not remember the great medicine wizard Jones E Salk, who after a lifelong struggle invented the polio vaccine on this day in1953. Millions of children have been saved from irreparable deformities that polio caused to precious little lives.
*The best news that strengthens democracy is that of the Supreme Court scrapping Section 66A which was framed in violation of the spirit of the Constitution. Now, freedom of expression is back in place as a natural right of the citizens. The draconian section was framed to restrict free expression on the internet that facilitates conversation on the social media which is today the most powerful medium of disseminating and sharing information.
*Odisha is waking up to a few grave issues rather well. The people of Sambalpur vowed to eliminate polythene from their city by hook or by crook. Polythene has caused terrible distress to the western Odisha city. The polythene litter across the city makes it look like a garbage yard. The stuff also has clogged all the city drains.
The local legislator has taken great interest in initiating a polythene-ban marathon for the city’s youth with prizes for the achievers. That is great development action as polythene facilitates mosquito-friendly stagnant water in the dysfunctional drains. The State Government, even after dengue and swine flue, has not banned polythene as yet. The Gutkha ban has failed due to laxity in enforcement. The Government is shamefully glued to the meagre liquor revenue which causes more financial damage by way of alcohol-related accidents, diseases and family discord, apart from brawls and clashes among drunken fools. Kerala earned Rs 17,000 crore of liquor revenue. Yet, the sane administration decided to bring in prohibition or ignore the big bad money by discouraging public liquor sale.
*What most policy and decision makers do not get to know is that ‘silence and clean environment-loving Europeans’ have discarded Puri as a preferred tourist destination. Most dwindling number of foreign visitors says Puri is a dirty city with noisy auto-rickshaws with obsolete engines spewing toxic gases. The once superbly clean beach is full of shops heaping tonnes of litter all around and congesting the sand zones where they could even meditate for hours until the 1980s. Cycle rickshaws were a big attraction in Puri and the silence all around the beach gave a divine surrounding.
Electric rickshaws could solve the problems of noise and toxic fumes which for sure push the drivers to brink of impatience, thereby turning him hostile and foul-mouthed. Nabakalebar festival has unreasonably attracted all kinds of money from various State sources, but no financial allocation has been envisaged to introduce at least one hundred silent and eco-friendly battery rickshaws in the temple town. The chaotic city of Delhi has surprisingly thousands of battery rickshaws in place. But the so-called cool abode of the lord of the Universe is suffering like in hell.
*The saddest news of the new century is that lee Kuan Yew, who built Singapore, is no more. He died on March 23 at 92. Singapore was transformed from a shabby, mosquito-infested backward little City State to a paradise under lee’s thirty years of visionary ruling. No surprise that the Changi Airport is yet again adjudged the best in the world. It is likely that lee Kuan Yew will be meeting Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru up there for dying on the same day. May the lord instil in our youth a sense of courage and sacrifice, and a great deal of integrity and probity in the pretending social workers so as to enable them to build a happier nation!
(The writer is a core member of Transparency International, Odisha)