Heroes and Awards

The Deccan Herald called the award to Major Gogoi, the man who tied a (alleged) protestor to his jeep and used him as a human shield, as “wrong and perverse". Why? Because, they say, the army was “rewarding a person for an egregious crime he has committed”. It went on to add that all “right-thinking people have condemned it”. This is a ridiculous argument: who decides which set of people are called “right-thinking people”? In any case, how did they figure out what those “right-thinking people” feel anyway?

At least Santosh Desai’s argument was better. He said it’s not fair to criticize Major Gogoi because he had to make a decision in real time, in a situation with no clear ground rules. What do his detractors expect, asks Desai. That he should have opened fire on the protestors? Or that he should have just gotten pelted with stones by the protestors? After all, says Desai:
“Stones are neither harmless nor are they lethal, at least in most cases- a barrage of stones can cause enormous injury and damage.”
That said, Desai does have an issue with awarding the Major. Is it right to laud a move like this? Does it mean that using human shields would be approved army policy from here onwards? After all, the army chief. Gen. Bipin Rawat justified the award saying a “dirty war” calls for “innovative” approaches. That’s the part that Desai has issue with.

Why is it that the critics are silent after every act of terrorism, every act of violence against army troops? So every death caused by a terrorist doesn’t warrant a statement from them? But what gets them livid is an award to a man who got election officials and his troops (and the tied human shield) alive out of a very difficult situation without killing anyone on the other side? If that’s what is called “right-thinking” these days, then I don’t want any part of it…

The perfect answer to the critics are these lines from that awesome movie, A Few Good Men:
“I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom I provide, then questions the manner in which I provide it! I'd rather you just said thank you and went on your way. Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a weapon and stand a post. Either way, I don't give a damn what you think you're entitled to!”

Comments

  1. Ramiah KumarJune 5, 2017 at 3:47 PM

    How can there be any doubt this debate is eternal!

    In Mahabharata we find both the Pandavas and the Kauravas were both ranting about the dharma of their side while shouting hoarse about the adharma of the opposite side! The reader can see both were simply the same, brimming with wrong deeds. The author Vyasa had had not even shied away from describing how the so-called God of the story, Krishna, indulged in plenty of cheating and cunning violations of dharma. Yet, Hindu simpletons would side with the Pandavas, condemn the Kauravas and, mark this, be silent or actually sugur-coat Krishna's wrongs as "God's glorious lila"! A saying goes thus: 'Nobody can be more blind than the one who refuses to see'.

    During the World War II, the Allies, the Axis, "first our Axis then our Ally" policy-holder Russa - all of them, both as individual nations and together as a group, did plenty of questionable (say, wrong) deeds, from some point of view. We can always say we would like to question the competence of judging people. Sure.

    I am not surprised that there is abundance of polarized opinions on this matter of human shied. As to what is justice and what is truth, who can say? God, if there is God, will know, but then He has the habit of not sharing his mind with us! So we will never know the answer to the dharma-asharma dilemma of the human shield; and also to the later question, whether both or only one, i.e. eihter terrorists or the armed forces, should award and reward the shield-user while the other should just move on.

    The Buddha says, "We need not know all about dharma. Hold what dharma or rightness you believe in. Period". Actually "dhar" means 'hold'. One needs to hold one's principles. Dharma, as far as higher philosophical systems go, is not about forcing it down others' throats. It is focused on individual's spiritual growth. There are some takers for this even today, after the original idea was propagated ages back.

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