My dear brothers and sisters,
On the eve of 63rd Republic Day of India I congratulate you and greet all soldiers of the country. Our armed forces are known for their valor and supreme sacrifice to keep us safe. I once again salute them heartily.
Today while coming to office, I came across a fat lady on main sector 70-77 dividing road. The lady was crossing the road without caring about the traffic lights and high speed traffic. I stopped my car and straight went to that lady and told her that while her own life was in danger, her a single act could have caused multiple accidents. She looked at me and said, “Gentleman who are you to give me sermon. You know today is Republic day, the day when (in 1950) our constitution was passed by Parliament. We got Freedom of Movement as our Fundamental right and better you do your business”. I simply bagged sorry and went away. Dear friends, “Is this the meaning of Freedom”? We have taken the words of constitution the way we please. So we take freedom as free passes without any restriction. We have simply chosen to erase and ignore that we have also certain obligation towards society. While constitution has given us fundamental rights, it also speak about the fundamental duties of citizen right next to it. And very first duty is that we will respect the Constitution of India and abide by the governing laws. But how many of us care to understand this?
We in Punjab, perhaps 90% of us go to foreign countries particularly USA, CANADA,UK, Australia and also seek permanent immigration. We admire their traffic system, their laws, their civic sense, their cleanliness, their infrastructure and what not. And many a times, live in inferiority complex that in India, we lack all these beautiful things. We start comparing ourselves with uncivilized society. But still do we learn a lesson? That is the moot question! Once we come back, we are “Ajad” again. The first thing which we do is to spit at any where in corner of airport building. We sit in our car with family members who come to receive us. We will throw wrappers of chocolate on road. If traffic cop is not standing then we will simply jump the traffic light. If caught, we will bribe the cop. If distance of our residence is more, we won’t mind wetting the walls of any building to relive our bladders.
My dear brothers, I am not trying to give you examples of all our wrong doing. But the core thing which I want to emphasis is that these are very small things which do not cost us anything. They are very easy to adopt. It is rightly said “example is better than perception”. Our children learn from our behavior. Let us give them finest example of our behavior. I am sure, at some point of time, we must have felt embarrassment when our kid scolded us for violating zebra crossing.
Therefore, without taking more time, it is my humble request to all of you, let us make our country a beautiful place by our simple and good behavior. International community comes to us to understand our rich culture and heritage. Even the renowned TV host of USA Ms Oprah Winfrey was mesmerized by our family system and caring for elders when she visited us recently. So let us buckle us. Respect our laws and respect ourselves.
Jai Hind.
