There is a story in the Panchatantra about a cow becoming friends with a lion, a jackal and a cheetah. This cow had somehow wandered into the forest and while grazing, was sighted by a jackal. The jackal walked up to the cow, introduced himself as the minister of the lion and insisted that the cow should pay her respects to the lion since he was the king of the forest. The gentle cow believed the jackal and went up to the lion and paid her respects. The jackal went one step ahead and told the cow to extend her hand of friendship to the lion. Now the cow was hesitant at first because she knew that lions loved cow meat, but because the jackal insisted, she told the lion that she would feel elated if the lion became her friend. The lion accepted and for the next few days all four of them moved around as friends. A crow who watched this, kept telling the cow not to continue with this friendship, but the cow was happy that she was friends with a king.
That year, unfortunately, it did not rain much and soon game was scarce for the lion. One day he was so hungry that he was almost going mad. The jackal sensed this and he suggested that the lion should eat up the cow. After all what are good friends for? The lion found this suggestion outrageous since he believed in friendship & loyalty and he did not want to be cruel. But the jackal convinced him that the cow herself would offer her meat to the lion. The lion mulled over it and said that if indeed the cow offered herself to be killed, he would kill her & not just that, he would offer a share of the meat to the jackal and the cheetah. The jackal and the cheetah soon hatched a plan. They knew that the cow was a simple, noble soul who believed everybody. Also she could not see anyone in pain, so she wouldn’t mind sacrificing herself to help others. The crow warned the cow about impending danger, but the cow just brushed him off.
As planned, when all 4 of them were together, the lion showed how weak he had become due to hunger. Then the jackal with a sad expression said, “Even though I am small in stature, I offer myself to you to appease your hunger.” The lion said, “No – you are my friend and I cannot eat you.” Then the cheetah stepped ahead and said, “It doesn’t matter if we are friends. You are the king. You must not remain hungry. Eat me.” The lion again said, “No – as King, I cannot accept your offer.” The poor, stupid cow had been watching this. She felt that if she would not offer herself, she would look like a bad friend. In any case the lion would not devour her since he did not eat the other two friends. So she approached the lion and said, “What use is a friend if she cannot sacrifice herself to fulfil the needs of her friend. Please eat me, satiate your hunger and rule well over this forest.” The moment she said this, the lion pounced on her, killed her and all the three had a merry feast over the next few days. Only the crow shed tears.
Guess who is the cow in today’s Bharat? You are right – it is the Hindu. Who is the lion? Yes, it is the Shehzada. The jackal and the cheetah are the opportunists and appeasement specialists. And the crow – he is the true well-wisher whom the Hindus forget about in good times – no prizes for guessing who he is, especially after what happened in Saurashtra – the land which was water parched, got water thanks to their ex-CM’s special efforts, but the very same Saurashtrians fell for the sweet talk of the lion, jackal and cheetah.
The behaviour of the Hindus is a paradox. Let us look at this behaviour:
Hindus want that they should be given control of their temples. But they routinely put cases against the management and trustees of the temples and then want the government to take over the finances of the temples. Then they only cry that the Government is looting their donations. They pull the court into everything – the management, the finances, the rituals, everything…
Hindus want a government which will build the Ram Mandir at Ram Janma Bhoomi, but will want to vote for a party which displays a spurious ‘Janeu Dhari Brahmin’ as their leader; the funny part is that this party is majorly responsible for not allowing the temple being built.
Hindus want to stop conversions into other religions but will still support the Party which is responsible for maximum conversions in the country especially in the eastern part of the country.
Hindus want infrastructural development, reduction of corruption, punctual trains and all that, but the moment BJP shifts from Hindutva agenda to Vikas as their agenda, votes will shift from BJP to Congress which was responsible for the mess in all of the above points.
Hindus don’t want appeasement politics, but still fall for the same old tricks of division of Hindus through Reservations, caste based quotas, Brahmin/Kshatriya/Patidar/SC/
Hindus don’t want appeasement politics, but will not come out and protest openly when Love Jihads, conversions, cow slaughter, destruction of monuments (like Amar Jawan), temple demolitions take place. They will only be armchair critics.
Hindus want that their children to go to the best Hindu schools, but will not protest RTE which is applicable only on Hindu schools, thus increasing the fees in these schools.
Hindus are willing to shed their traditional image, but still want that Hinduism survives. They will not read their own scriptures, but will read translated, biased versions foisted on them by pseudo-secular scholars and then argue about the ills in ancient Hindu society.
Hindus will only whisper about Hindavi Swaraj, following Hindu traditions and customs, praising Hindu kings of yore, because speaking openly about it will make them regressive. Celebrating Deepavali is taken for granted, celebrating Christmas and New Year is progressive and modern (come on – you can’t drink on Deepavali, but you can on New Year’s).
The list is endless … It is time we realized that we have become like the cow led to slaughter. Our gentleness and noble feelings should not come in the way of recognizing the jackal. Be alert, be aware, dear Hindu. You have no country other than this one.
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