We all need to stand up for the truth in these times when threats are so rife. All that flowery oratory and pep talk by this government over the last ten years has not taken our nation forward. Mere preaching that the nation must progress but having a private devious agenda is not in keeping with the larger interests of the nation. Those public postures of intentions to make India the leader of the world, is on the wrong path because of its religion-dominated agenda and the hatred towards all other creeds arising from its patriotism. There may be some fine individuals but their patriotism fills them with bitterness and wrath towards every other creed that does not bow down to their skewed agenda. Patriotism is the last resort of the scoundrel, wrote Tolstoy in his essay on “Government and Patriotism in the 1900s and it was promptly banned by the then Russian government. Tagore did not approve of militant nationalism and wrote a book (‘Nationalism’) which reportedly was approved as a textbook by the British University. May better sense prevail.
