BE INDIAN - VENERATE FLAG AND ANTHEM- DO NOT BE FOOLS

http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/prasad-sanyal-blog/i-stand-up-for-the-national-anthem-i-also-stand-by-those-who-dont/

Times Of India has an obnoxious habit of presenting blogs in its on line editions, that teach you how not to be moralistic. The arguments presented by the authors, mostly drawn from journalistic clan, are stupid and to be derided by all nationalistic thinking Indians. I already responded in my blogs to two such degraded authors and pat appears a third one. This one is from Prasad Sanyal, who presnts the stupidest of all arguments why one need not stand when National Anthem is played. He does not stop there. He says one is free to sit, lie down, crawl or sleep on floor when the Anthem is played. It is individual choice, he says. Counter view is that those who opposed the family of those who did not stand when the Anthem was played had the same FOE. Only difference lay in the way it wass expressed. In our childhood my father used to say, "A man needs a word, a bull needs a thrash". So, in a free society that the author envisages, it is free for all. Accept the fact. He further elaborates,

"As I understand, there is noting that constitutionally mandates that as an Indian citizen, I stand up when the National Anthem is being played. People do it as a mark of respect."

Is it mandated in constitution that when a teacher enters a class room all students, whatever their religious faith is, stands in veneration and says "Good Morning, Teacher"? Is it mandated in constitution that you should respect women and treat all other women as your sisters and mothers? Is it mandated in constitution that you should drive only on the left, you should not spit in public places, nor urinate? Should someone beat you with a stick to see that you follow these ethics, not strictly a law. Why you feel vexed when people honk at traffic signals knowing fully well, the red light was on? Do you not shout on those so honking? Is it constitutionally mandated? It is ethics. It is veneration.

Did you expect a few years back that people stop smoking in public places, buses, trains etc., Was constitution amended? Through public awareness campaigns it was made possible. Your arguments that what is not stated in constitution is not morally binding falls flat on your face, Mr. Sanyal. You are spitting on the high skies imagining it to be constitutional.

My four year old grandson was telling the other day that he would be a dumping truck driver and dump all garbage outside the city. My three year old grandson picks up any piece of garbage on the way, searches for a bin and throws it. They do not know constitution. They follow what teachers teach. Why are teachers teaching them these morals now? It is because the Government gave a call for cleaner India to prevent diseases. We have a moral or two to learn here.

It is not law but it  is ethics to stand up in veneration when a National Anthem is played. Our flag and our Anthem are symbols of the Idea of India. Idea of India is not that one religious faith has one set of ethics different from others. We all heard the saying "Your freedom stops, where my nose starts.". Let us have freedom coupled with national respect. This is what Theodore Roosevelt has to say.

“In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag... We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language... and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.” 

― Theodore Roosevelt

Be an Indian, if you want to asimilate in Indian culture. Your faith follows that.

SATYAMEVA JAYATHE