Did he just have another

Unauthorized thought?

To the House of Correction,

Then, where all thought

But the authorized one

Is quickly forgot. After all,

If the nation is to gallop apace,

Ideological democrats must

Be shown their place.

How are we to scale glory

Number one, if we forever

Carp knowledgeably at our own story?

 

Speaking of number one,

When thoughts proliferate

They convey a clear and present

Danger to the nationalist state.

And when colours  multiply, they

Besmirch the authorized nationalist

 

Dye. Nor must it be forgot  how

Our great sages have defined

Nirvana as that empty condition

Where the mind is without thought.

 

More practically, however crude

Be the facts on offer, the image

Of the Motherland must never suffer.

Our mothers may well be without

Nutrition, the idea of the Mother

Must remain a sacred one. Just

As we are known by the clothes

We wear, the truth of civilizations

Is to be found in the myths and

Legends we devotedly foreground.

We commit no greater crime than

To let thought meddle with this

Supremely elevating paradigm.

 

It is seen that too many handlers

Mangle the spice. Salubrious

Home food is best served to

One  habituating voice. Our

Abacus must cease with the

Count of One; chaos descends

When it stretches from one to ten.

To this end we must reorient

Our education, as much in books

As in the realm of politics.

Should you fail to see this simple

Point, you have to be a left out critic.

Those that laud the sickle and

Hammer, and insist on argument

Must now be promptly sent

To the salubrious slammer. But

Only after patriotic roughs first

Chastise them with fisticuffs.

 

Remember what Chanakya said:

“Nothing is in itself bad, you

Must know; only thinking makes it so.”

Think not, obey, O Bharat ki santaan,

Obedience  is the surest way

To multiple Nirvana,  And remember,

Nothing is ever wrong with

The land in which you are born.

Such expressions of discontent

Place you squarely in the enemy tent.

 

Thus, relent, relent, be thoughtless,

Nimble, and thou shalt prosper

Under the authorized symbol.

Those that dream have the Preamble.

Think not with the people

who lay claim to the nation;

let the territory constitute

your nationalist passion.

Go there and lay down your

Fervent breath; and the state

Shall reward  you in your death.


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Badri Raina is a well-known commentator on politics, culture and society. His columns on the Znet have a global following. Raina taught English literature at the University of Delhi for over four decades and is the author of the much acclaimed Dickens and the Dialectic of Growth. He has several collections of poems and translations. His writings have appeared in nearly all major English dailies and journals in India.

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