Patriotism and Terrorism are two sides of a coin. Both are to be checked and controlled, if not, both would ruin a Country. Patriotism is more dangerous than Terrorism. Patriotism, if not regulated, will create an army of unruly civilians against its own civilians!  Unruly civilian army though weaponless but much more sophisticated than the real army equipped by arms and ammunitions bordering a country.

Hitler’s Patriotism carried out ruthless genocide against a particular clan of civilians of its own nation. Hitler’s Germany never arose again with such Patriotism! Such Patriotism failed there! Uncontrolled and unchecked Patriotism always ends up with State sponsored Terrorism. Germany failed because of State sponsored terrorism in the name of Patriotism.

How many of us knew? Rabindranath Tagore hated Patriotism! His way of looking at Patriotism was different than what we are taught today! His love towards his Country can never be questioned or challenged by anyone.

Patriotism is no more a matter of individual’s affection and love for his Country, but it now become a State subject or a matter pertaining to a ruling party. No doubt, Gandhi’s Patriotism was different from Tagore or Gokhale or for that sake Nehru’s too. India is no more a Country of 1947 and the definition of Patriotism those days was Nationals Vs. British and now in 2020’s it became Nationals Vs Anti-Nationals.

Today’s Patriotism is a State sponsored and it is visible from our surroundings. Unruly civilians taking law into their hands and bullying innocent activists who defies certain laws that derecognizes them or demean their occupation…We have seen peaceful agitations are converted closer to a battle field and those who commissioned such violent operations are either Ministers or their kith and kin aspiring to become politicians of the race of their mentors.

Those who raises questions against the wrong policies of the State are now called with such a scandalous imputation which we even find it difficult to trace it in Google or Wikipedia for its literal meaning.

Normally I write about law and law alone. But this write-up sets up different tone and tenor, and I am not supposed to make it audible, but, I am compelled to, because when a Writer got agitated, he would vent his anger by writing alone, and I belong to that clan.

“There is a sinister side to this game. The way the Home Ministry uses the Unlawful Activities [Prevention] Act [UAPA] brings this out. A casual look is enough to see that the rule is: What is unacceptable to the Home Minister is unlawful. The abandon with which this Act is sued against people the Government dislikes can be seen from a simple statistic: Cases taken up under the UAPA have seen only 2 per cent conviction rate. That means the vast majority of UAPA cases are politically motivated, filed outside the scope of law.

An India Today report two years ago said 68 per cent of prisoners in India have not been convicted by any court. Forty years ago, the Supreme Court had said that the high prevalence of undertrials in jail was “a crying shame on the judicial system”. It remains so.

The law lends itself to be misused. There are said to be upwards of 500,000 prisoners as of now, 70 per cent of them undertrials. In other words, thousands are citizens are kept in jail for years without their cases being heard and without bail…. The situation becomes alarming when we realise that the UAPA cases can be fabricated with ease. It is a state of affairs where law turns meaningless.”

Thanks to TJS George. He is a most respected and a veteran Journalist in India, who writes up an Article every Sunday in the New Indian Express under the heading “Point of View” and this article was published in today’s Chennai edition.

What Tagore hated about Patriotism was “Blind Patriotism” and it is very unfortunate, today’s India is articulating such blind patriotism with the aid of laws. UAPA is one such Law though its origin traces to Congress Government, no doubt political enemies were cordoned off with this Law on those days. But they were political enemies but not Civilians. Even CBI was called by the Opposition in those days as Congress Bureau of Investigation.

However, today UAPA is abused and targeted against those raising questions towards ruling dispensation at Centre. Those vigilante citizens of todays are not a Blind Patriots. Their love and affection for their Country is backed by sensible arguments towards the Government and its governance. Only intolerance leads to make their arrest under UAPA and that is why less than 2% conviction rate is found under Patriotism Vs Terrorism. Otherwise, universally, only a thin line draw both Patriotism and Terrorism.