It’s Teachers’ Day folks. And to little surprise, the country’s Twitter-friendly Prime Minster Narendra Modi sent greetings from his account on the occasion.

“I salute the teaching community that is devoted to nurturing minds and spreading the joys of education in society,” Modi tweeted.

And though the narrative revolved around making India’s next 5 years about ‘teach to transform, educate to empower & learn to lead,’ are we really concentrating on the right issues?

Look around and you will realise that many years after the passing away of the great man and the spirit behind Teachers’ Day, Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, his words resonate in the ironic hollows of the country’s current political climate.

Only if his words could come to life under the rule of the current Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government. 

“A life of joy and happiness is possible only on the basis of knowledge and science.”

But when history is being rewritten, Mughals being literally wiped off textbooks and public places being renamed to suit the ultra-nationalist propaganda, knowledge seems to lose its essence.

As for science, the country’s sailor believes that mythological figures Ganesha and Karna were the first benefactors of cosmetic surgery and genetic science, you know where he’s leading the ship to.

“All our world organisations will prove ineffective if the truth that love is stronger than hate does not inspire them”

Hate is the foundation of power in many manners. Take the instance of the riots that take place every now and then in Uttar Pradesh. Do you really think people are that insane to cut each other’s throats at the drop of a hat?

And with party leaders and politicians being booked for hate speeches on a regular basis, it doesn’t seem that love is the inspiration behind any of the government’s actions at the moment.

“Tolerance is the homage which the finite mind pays to the inexhaustibly of the Infinite”

Of beef lynching incidents, hacking of EVMs, oppression of press and mockery being made of India’s diversity, it’s difficult to prove that intolerance doesn’t exist in India right now. 

“It is not God that is worshipped but the authority that claims to speak in His name. Sin becomes disobedience to authority not violation of integrity.”

Criticising the government is equivalent to sedition in the country at the moment. An army of trolls will pounce on you the minute you commit this sin. Otherwise what business does the mighty government have in interfering with the affairs of campuses like JNU, Hyderabad University and the likes?

“A literary genius, it is said, resembles all, though no one resembles him”

Former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh’s estimation of PM Modi’s demonetisation move hit the bulls eye even many months after the wretched announcement. Dr Singh was a literary genius, a soft-spoken man and one who came across as someone unscathed from the filthy nature of politics. Can you speak the same of Mr Modi? Maybe not.