Respected Prime Minister Sir,
Through this letter of mine, I would first of all like to thank you for all the efforts the government is making to combat the threat of Corona Virus in our country. Since I was not born when India went to war in 1962, 1965 and 1971 and too young to understand the complexities of it during the Kargil war, this is my first hand experience of a war like situation in the country. However, I would like to state that when you appeared on television on March 19, 2020 to address the nation, I felt assured that the government of this nation is leaving no stones unturned to ward off this threat on the lives of all the citizens of India. In fact for the first time in my life, since I’ve been able to understand the political narrative of this country, I saw politics taking a back seat and all the state governments were working with the Union government to ensure that this vicious chain can be broken.
However, your reappearance on the national television to address the nation once again on March 24, 2020 to announce a nationwide lockdown reveals the biggest chink in the armour that the government has been preparing in this war against this virus. And that chink is, the public of this country. Despite the warnings in various social media platforms, the news papers and news channels and on top of that your appeal to everyone to observe social distancing, we the people of India did not listen. People walking on the roads, in the markets, assembling in groups were common sights. It was as if we are immune to this virus and the threat had passed.
The biggest hindrance in this fight against this Virus are the same people whom you want to protect from it. And on top of that, we get to see the how un-informed and insensitive people can be at this time of an emergency. The sights of people getting into arguments with law enforcing agencies and the medics, reflect the kind of society we are, an unaware and thankless lot. We blame those of endangering our lives, who risked their lives to save us or our loved ones. People abusing Airline staff and Medical staff shows the kind of mentality the people of this country has. They don’t realise the danger that the Airline staff went through when they brought thousands of stranded Indians from jaws of certain death. Those brought back may not be their family members or friends or relatives, but just the fact they were Indians should have been enough to earn these brave crew members and ground staff of Airlines a big gratitude. And I don’t think I need to say anything about the doctors and nurses and all the staff working day and night at different hospitals treating and caring for those affected by this deadly virus. These people are second only to God, because they are the ones who are standing between these affected patients and a certain death. And after all their handwork and selfless service, if they are ostracised by the very society that they are serving, I can only wonder the effect it would have on their morale.
A Doctor is bound by the Hippocratic oath, an airline crew is bound by his training to serve, a policeman is bound by his oath to serve the nation and its people. But what are we bound to? It is a question that this nation must reflect upon. And the answer to this question is that we all are bound to the Constitution of India. The same Constitution that gives us all the fundamental rights and freedoms also makes us duty bound to respect the institutions of government and bars us from getting in their way of dispensing their duties. It makes us duty bound to respect the Right to Life for every citizen of this country. And by ostracising the people who are working to protect this Right to Life for all the citizens, and by getting into arguments with law enforcement agencies and by not observing social distancing, we are committing a crime against the Constitution of India. And I believe in my heart that a person who commits this crime against the Constitution of India, forgoes his right to be a citizen of this country.
Sir, I believe that it is time that the people of this country are reminded that all the rights come with duties and all the power comes with responsibilities, towards our nation, towards our government, towards the citizens of this country and towards ourselves. It’s high time that people of India should learn the value and virtues of a disciplined society. And if we do not learn it now, then we would not have a future to regret our past.
When your Prime Minister is folding his hands in front of you and requesting you to stay at home and observe social distancing then that’s the thing we should do to give back the respect to him for caring for our lives.
Thanking you with all my heart,
A proud citizen of India
Absolutely true....Now it's our duty to save our country
ReplyDeleteSo true. Rights n duties go hand in hand. I hope people realise it before it's too late.
ReplyDeleteWe live in a thankless society and people just take everything for granted... however thankful to have doctors, security personnel, airlines and many more like them who are selflessly working to give us a good life. Salute to all of them and I Stand With You in these difficult times
ReplyDeleteProud of doctors, crew member, policemen and numerous other workers who are working in these times to provide essential services and maintain law & order. Yes even I am disappointed with a few people who are ostracising these brave workers. But we always have had such self-centered people in the society. The time has come to name and shame such people. This is the least we all can do from home.
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