Standing on the last day of a year and before bidding goodbye to it, an irresistible urge to revisit those left-behind 364 days is always a customary affair, with the sole intention of knowing- how had it been. With that intention, just a few hours before stepping into 2020, to arrive at a credible answer, it will be better to ask the nation itself which might go like this- How are you India ? And if a common Indian, accepting him or her for the time being as a representative of the 130+ crore populace, is allowed to play the role of respondent, the answer, arguably might be- Not well at all. To arrive at whether the statement is true or concocted, one must have to review the year’s defining moments, compulsorily without any prejudice or ideological allegiance, only for the sake of arriving at an honest observation.
There had been so many major ones and each one had taken the nation to the thresholds of newer chapters. Strictly adhering to chronology, February Pulwama attack which factually remains one of the deadliest terrorist attacks ever in erstwhile J&K and the retaliatory revenge through Balakot strike will come first. It will be a myopic way of viewing things if its significance is evaluated from military success alone, since it actually and undeniably set the preface for whipping up a pan-nationalistic sentiment that eventually got reshaped, of course with ‘careful tutelage’, into dividend-paying jingoism, riding which, BJP alone bagged 303 seats. Nothing to say of it since it had been the collective decision taken by people and here, anti-incumbency, unemployment, farmers’ or economic distress had all been swept away by the huge tsunami of ultra-nationalism or to be specific, by the joy from the fact that Pakistan had been taught a lesson. But, it hadn’t been in one’s remotest of imagination that this brute majority will juxtapose the nation with some unthinkable propositions. The combination of CAA & NRC is now been gradually understood by majority of the nation’s people as something lethal, for which they must be thankful to the Northeast which first raised the voice. Despite total rejection and deep angst, where the cementing public perception is, the duo will eventually lacerate the ‘Idea of India’ which for ages has championed the cause of religious tolerance, hubris-laden and religious-ideology-driven thinkers are the nation’s ultimate deciders.
But, it seems that the nation has decided to cut short its ‘slumber’ and hence the spill-over crowd on streets, majority of which are young people. They want an anxiety-free existence, jobs and an atmosphere where all will live as dignified and secular Indians. These compelling feelings are the real national assets and in the current milieu of despair, the only hope perhaps. 

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Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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