THE OTHER SIDE OF SUCCESS

Travelure

By HUGH and colleen Gantzer

In our last column we celebrated our country’s success in many fields.  But no country, political party or person can have success after success without having failures.  Those leaders who tried to convince themselves and their followers that they were god-men, who could not fail, came to a sticky end.  We think of Hitler, Mussolini and Saddam Hussein. They never answered questions.

Here are the 7 questions that remained unanswered in our country in 2023.

1. Why did some cheetas, imported from Africa , die in our country?
2. Who was responsible for the death of Ankita Bhandari ?
3. Who was liable for the collapse of the Silkyara Tunnel that trapped 41 miners?
4. Who instigated the ethnic violence in Manipur?
5. Who planned the attack on Parliament which was done beyond the jurisdiction of any Parliamentary official?
6. Why were the 146 MPs suspended for making the same request? These MPs represented the following voters.

Assam -83 lakh, Bihar -3.7 crore,Chattisgarh-91 lakh, Goa -6 lakh,Gujarat -1.2 crore ,Himachal Pradesh-13 lakh, Jammu  & Kashmir-40 lakh,Jhakhand -50 lakh, Karnataka -1.7 crore, Kerala-2.2 crore, Lakshadweep-55 thousand, Madhya Pradesh-62 lakh,Maharashtra-2.3 crore,Rajasthan -2.2 crore ,Odisha-14.3 lakh,Puducherry-9.7 lakh,Punjab-1.1 crore, Tamil Nadu-6 crore ,Uttar Pradesh-1.5 crore, West Bengal-5.8 crore . These figures were published in the media by Derek O’Brien, Member of Parliament.

This gives rise to the 7^th question.

7. But apart from strict legality does not morality also prevail?

It could be argued that there is no legal obligation on any Parliamentary Official to consider the morality of passing legislation in the absence of the representatives of so many voters. In one version of the Ramayan Lord Ram heard a dobhi making an allegation.  He decided that it was his duty to act on high moral principles.  Can any Rambhakt cower behind legal niceties when moral  principles are at stake?

All religions are based on morality.  Their self- serving officials may use legal quibbles to further their own ends.  But there is no religion in the world whose principles placed legality over morality.  This is the basic rule of all Faiths that prompts us to have the symbols of many religions in our cottage.  It also encourages us to pray in every house of every faith if we are permitted to do so.

We have been prompted to express our opinion on the manner in which politicians, all over the world are using religions to whip up frenzy and death. It is not morality that pits the Israelis against Hamas and the Palestinians .  They both follow the same holy book: the Old Testament of the Bible, and yet they indulgence in an orgy of blood that threatens to suck the entire world into is vortex.  This has happened all through history but we didn’t have the weapons of mass destruction which both sides have today.  We, in India, have managed to keep this cycle of destruction from our doors, but make no mistake that agents from both sides of the conflict will target us.  They have succeeded in getting their neighbours involved in their terrible war.  We are all aware of the fault lines that lie within our nation.  We also know that quibbles by politicians might widen  the fissures to serve their evil ends.  We need not mention where these fault lines lie, but any person aware of what is happening in our sub-continent will know what we are driving at.

Every failure in our society will be played upon.  Every attempt to brush the failures under the carpet will be highlighted.  And every difference however small, will be widened.  Our greatest strength is our diversity.  Any attempt to force this diversity into the straitjacket of uniformity will be highlighted and differences will be levered into conflict.  This is what has happened throughout history from France to Ireland to Russia, to the USA and to many states closer to us.

If the 7 points of dissention, which we have listed above and are not attended to promptly, honestly and openly things could get out of hand.  But we hope the leadership which has played the global south in is positions of authority will turn its attention to cultivating our greatest strength: our diversity. 

(Hugh & Colleen Gantzer hold the National Lifetime Achievement Award for Tourism among other National and International awards. Their credits include over 52 halfhour documentaries on national TV under their joint names, 26 published books in 6 genres, and over 1,500 first-person articles, about every Indian state, UT and 34 other countries. Hugh was a Commander in the Indian Navy and the Judge Advocate, Southern Naval Command. Colleen is the only travel writer who was a member of the Travel Agents Association of India.) (The opinions and thoughts expressed here reflect only the authors’ views!).