Lindsay Pereira: How much of an Indian are you?

BJP activists in Patna protest against Arvind Kejriwal and Om Puri over their recent remarks on the surgical strikes PicPTIWhat does it mean to be a patriotic Indian This is an important question a lot of us need to answer because a large number of people have begun answering it on our behalf over the past couple of years Earlier they used to voice their opinions in private because a majority in this country would find their regressive statements laughable but a surge in jingoism on the backs of paid social media campaigns have emboldened them to come out and question the rest of usStand up for the anthem they say Because not standing up is disrespectful to Indian soldiers at the border Cover your legs they add because only people from the West walk around in shorts Show us how Indian you are mdash only buy products made in India they insist putting up these updates on foreignmade platforms like Facebook and Twitter with the help of smartphones made in China and America Their leaders exhort us to do the same tweeting while on lsquostudy toursrsquo abroadTake pride in your country they tell us mdash the same people who do their best to destroy our streets poison our lakes and uproot our trees the minute they need to score political points during a festival Take pride in your country they tell us from America the nationalists who mortgage their homes and land in exchange for green cards Embrace your history they say putting up tiny Indian flags on manicured lawns in the suburbs of New JerseySupport your soldiers if you are a true nationalist they scream at us the people who didnrsquot say a word when told about the coffin scam of 1999 involving caskets reportedly purchased at 13 times the original amount when there were irregularities in the purchase of frozen meat for troops in 2007 or when bribes were allegedly offered to clear the purchase of substandard Tatra trucks for our armed forcesMurder our enemies they say and cheer when these murders happen in order to prove you truly are Indian Congratulate the assassination of Pakistani soldiers the minute your government announces lsquosurgical strikesrsquo without trying to understand what lsquosurgical strikesrsquo mean without verifying the reports without asking for proof without stopping to think about what these strikes mean for people living along the border who are also supposedly Indians like us and must risk being killed in the crossfire so some of us can lsquolikersquo these news reports on FacebookAttack other Indians who are not nationalists like the rest of us they say Donrsquot allow them the luxury of an opinion even if the Constitution we all claim to respect guarantees them that right to voice their opinions What does the Constitution know anyway Forbid them from speaking Label them terroristsympathisers Maoists or heck go ahead and call them lsquopseudosecular liberalsrsquo because our semiliterate leaders coined that term and have encouraged so many of us to use itWhere do these nationalists go when their nationalist leaders are accused of looting the country I wonder Where do they go when others like them refuse to pay taxes What about the Indians who admitted to black money deposits of over Rs 65000 crore recently If they were all nationalists why didnrsquot they pay their taxes to help support the nation they claim to love What about political parties who question our nationalism Consider the fact that members of the parties that question our patriotism also belong to some of the most corrupt organisations in India Consider the fact that the BMC controlled by lsquonationalistrsquo parties like Shiv Sena and BJP reportedly spent Rs 2700 crore on preparing Bombay for the monsoons in 2015 Where did that money go It couldnrsquot have been on our roads that look as if they were built for Rs 20 In 2014 the statersquos AntiCorruption Bureaursquos recshyoshyrds showed that inquiries against just three municipal corporation officials had unearthed illegitimate assets worth Rs 127 crore Where was their nationalism at the timePolitical parties that shout from the rooftops about nationalism patriotism and loving our country almost always harbour Indians with the most number of criminal cases registered against them These are crimes against the country they supposedly love more than we do This is probably why I donrsquot know what it means to be a patriotic Indian anymore I used to think I was one These days however it often seems as if some Indians are more Indian than other IndiansWhen he isnrsquot ranting about all things Mumbai Lindsay Pereira can be almost sweet He tweets lindsaypereira Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycom