Mr. Ravish Kumar happened to be the guest speaker in the recently concluded Youth Conclave organized by my college.
First things first, I am not very fond of him and differ in a great deal with his ideologies. We all are well aware of his anti-BJP stance and the extent to which he stoops to criticize the government. I was anyway not very enthusiastic about his visit because I kinda expected what’s going to be said to students.
Much to my expectations, he did everything in his power to sway and manipulate students against the incumbent government and distorted facts and how. He carried forward the usual rant of freedom of expression and how journalism is being manipulated by our PM and his forces. To gain sympathy from the students, he went on to victimize himself and how his life has turned miserable because of Narendra Modi and his Bhakts. Yes, he said that. Well, according to him everything happening in the nation is wrong and instigated by Modi and further fueled by his supporters.
Yet, none of this surprised me.
What surprised me were a couple of his statements.
Defending the journalists’ questioning of Indian Army’s willpower and actions, he said that government was manipulating the citizens into not questioning the army citing that this act would lower their spirit. He further shamelessly said, if Indian army couldn’t handle a few questions, how could they handle bullets on the border. He even had the audacity to say that if the army’s willpower was so low that it could be dampened by few questions, then they should be sent to him for training.
What an absolutely disgusting point of view is this!
I so wished to stand right up then and there and tell him that facing suspicions and questions on their will power from the same people they are fighting for day and night in extreme dangers, risking their lives is not similar to facing bullets from a rival nation or terrorists. How could you and your self proclaimed guardians of Freedom of Expression sitting in the comforts of your air conditioned news rooms even think of saying in a public platform that you are even remotely capable of standing at the same status as them, forget training them?
How could somebody like him, holding such an immense influence in a public sphere advocate such a thinking?
And the sad part is that for people like him and so many others, brave hearts like Abhinandan stand tall and brave in a dangerous territory unafraid, not caring about their lives and their families.
Quite honestly, I only used to disagree to his viewpoints earlier but after statements like these, I totally despise him.
