Rudyard Kipling

If—

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By Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you   

    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,   

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

    But make allowance for their doubting too;   

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

    Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,

Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,

    And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;   

    If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;   

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

    And treat those two impostors just the same;   

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken

    Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

    And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

    And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

    And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

    To serve your turn long after they are gone,   

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

    Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,   

    Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

    If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

    With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,   

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,   

    And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

The Faultlines of Jawaharlal Nehru Uniersity

                                    

Real education should widen one’s horizons of thoughts and actions that one may not be considered normal. Normality in the understood notions is all about settling down, buying house, investing in the financial markets to reap benefits in the long run and so on. Individuals with widened horizons are led by their mind and heart into ever widening thoughts and actions. Sometimes, therefore, they are labelled as abnormal but such abnormalities are necessary in the larger interests of the society, nation and humanity as a whole.

But my mind fails to understand the abnormality that certain fringe elements on the campus of JNU are suffering from. At the same time it must emphatically be put that this abnormality is not a general phenomenon with all students or the majority of students on the campus. At the most, it’s a specific phenomenon with certain anti-national characters on the campus. These characters have consistently misled the new entrants in the university.

The support for terrorists like Afzal Guru, Yakub Memon etc., the champions of misunderstood notions of a particular religion is very much antithetical to a certain philosophical or political understanding which takes religion as opium of masses thereby denies place for religion in public duty and in private thinking. But what these misguided elements on the campus are doing is exactly opposite to the notion of the ideology that they claim to be guided by. They are celebrating the death anniversary of a terrorist who planned an attack on the parliament of India thereby waged a war against the nation. His hanging is therefore very much justifiable by the state.

Universities must remain as the centers of churning of thoughts. Academia must debate on the issues like capital punishment, freedom of expression and so on that would serve to safeguard the constitutional rights of citizens. But the choice of date of the death anniversary of a terrorist inspired by anti-India conspiracy, reveals the wretchedness and the anti-national feelings these characters embody.

Which Azadi for Kashmir are we talking about? The one that would definitely turn out to be a safe haven for terrorists that will wage war on the sovereignty of India putting a lot pressure on the security apparatus on the country or something that would turn out to be a colony of our strong neighbor to pursue its policies of containing India? Aren’t they aware as to how Pak Occupied Kashmir or the State of Pakistan has become hell with everyday incidence of terrorists brutally killing innocent individuals or school going kids or they themselves have alliances with these groups? If later is the case then it’s definitely an awakening call. We must start identifying the hidden agenda behind such events that shout the slogans of “India ki Barbadi”. Strictest of actions against such characters is then a logical conclusion!!

Suicide is no Tool

Unfortunate and sad to read the news that a Ph. D. scholar had to commit suicide under whatever the pressure may be. I strongly believe that those who stand for the righteous cause should be stronger enough to carry on with the fight without ending life that’s so precious. Nothing can be achieved by killing own self. The battle can only be fought by being in the battle ground even if it means being exposed to the harshest of circumstances.

It is equally important the national security can’t be put at stake by setting up Yakub Menon’s memorial. Why that terrorist's memorial in the first place? Having spent four and half years on the campus of JNU, I have seen how some of us support terrorists like Afzal Guru and Yakub Menon. No nation can afford such a mischief at the cost of national security. No doubt we have social structures that have subjected us to unending backwardness but to fight against such latent violence, we certainly can’t support the anti-national and anti-human forces. All sections of society must be with security apparatus of the country in the larger goal of eliminating such elements on our land.

The fight against atrocities and discrimination that we are subjected to must not be misinterpreted. We must not forget that these terrorists have destroyed the magnificent statues of Budha in Bamiyan.

Countering the Danger Outside and Within

The fidayeen attack on Pathankot air base of the Indian force that hosts the squadron of MIG-21 and other fighter planes and helicopters is yet another alarming sign to the Indian government and defense establishment. Such a development must be taken seriously.

Today no country has remained untouched by the dangers of terrorism inspired by religious fundamentalism that doesn’t have any place for values based on rationality and reason. Such individuals devoid of simple sense towards humanity are detrimental to the existence of humans on the planet earth.

The Pathankot air base incident also paves a way to believe that these terrorists have local support so much so that their handlers have penetrated their spies within defense establishment e.g., Ranjith K K fell prey to honey trap.

Fortunately we have a NSA like Ajit Dhowal whose career time is spent working on this area. His idea, ‘offensive defense’ must be implemented ruthlessly. We may have difficulties in extracting out terrorists from foreign lands but on our own soil we must haunt them to the hilt. We can’t and must not extend humanity to the inhuman. Statecraft is not the business of Utopians. It’s the business of ruthless pragmatists.