While watching a decorated military veteran break into tears during a heated television debate very recently, when the whole of India had virtually erupted in rebellion over the detention of a student leader from New Delhi’s prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) on false charges of sedition, it occurred to this writer that such melodrama was part of a well-thought-out plot to subtly infuse rabid patriotic fervor in the polity and exploit the resultant churning for petty political gains.

And the retired major general is a mere actor in this theater of absurd or why else would he make an irrational claim of the Indian tricolor or national flag being that piece of silk for which hundreds and thousands of soldiers have fought and died for, only to see it fluttering? Unfortunately, this learned gentleman, a staunch Narendra Modi loyalist, has been economical with truth. He needs to be reminded that a soldier lays down his life for the safety and well-being of his fellow citizens and not merely for that cloth of Khadi silk, which flies prominently atop every government installation.

After all, the country, said a decorated military officer related to this writer, is neither the earth beneath our feet nor the flag that, according to the pro-Modi army veteran, is the symbol of who we are. A country, one must realize, is ultimately all about its people who inhabit the tract of land that is identified as a distinct entity in political geography. Surely, for any Indian soldier, flesh and blood matters the most and it is for these precious human lives that warriors do not think twice to make supreme sacrifices. And even the national flag, which stirred up the pro-Modi ex-serviceman’s emotion so violently that he felt isolated in a nation where one has to be pro-Hindutva to be considered a patriot nowadays, actually represents the hopes and aspirations of the Indian people. Perhaps, this Modi apologist is oblivious of the fact that millions of Indians have fought British colonialism steadfastly when there was no official national flag, as the Indian tricolor, in its present form, was adopted by the Constituent Assembly only on July 22 1947, just a few days prior to the country’s independence.

So, what did those brave hearts struggled for and even died when there was no national flag, the violation of whose sanctity can apparently bring tears to battle- hardened eyes? Those daring independence activists — one of them was incidentally this writer’s grandfather — had dreams in their eyes. And their dream was to liberate not only the landmass called India from foreign subjugation but also the mind of every Indian from rigidity. Patriotism to these lofty souls had different connotations. For those selfless freedom fighters, patriotism was not just an intense love of the birthplace that one possessed in his or her heart. Unlike Modi or his band of overzealous supporters, they did not believe in resorting to jingoism to prove their love for the nation. Patriotism, they sincerely believed, was a lively sense of collective responsibility to one’s motherland as well as the rest of the world and that this very feeling cannot be imposed from outside by coercive means.

A patriot, according to the valiant warriors of India’s anti-colonial movement, will not hesitate to boldly speak up and point out the flaws in national governance or expose the societal faults. For those liberators, patriotism was synonymous to treating fellow citizens, irrespective of faith, like family members and creating an emotional attachment, instead of looking upon them as aliens or asking them to leave the country whenever they air a differing opinion on any subject matter. In short, a patriot is capable of sharing joys and can feel the pains of fellow citizens lying deep within their heart and consequently help them overcome any crisis. Unfortunately, in today’s India there is no dearth of voices emanating from the high echelons of the society, dishing out a strange brand of patriotism laced with perverted moral dictum on a regular basis. But such people, going by the benchmark of patriotism laid down by the real patriots or revolutionaries of the freedom movement, are in reality pseudo-patriots, hell-bent on destroying the very idea of India, whose identity is forged in diversity and peaceful cohabitation through mutual respect and understanding.

In fact, true patriotism requires a citizen to stand up against the state courageously and soberly articulate his or her angst. And this honest action, however small it might be, will strengthen the national resolve to rectify all follies. Unfortunately, in today’s India people close to the ruling BJP are drowned in myopic patriotism and are unable to understand that by being unduly partisan or accusing critics of committing sin of political transgression or leveling serious charge of ungratefulness toward the motherland, they are stifling the space of meaningful dialogue and debate. There seems to be a dogged determination in Modi and company to turn India into a nation of charlatans with no moral objective. An India full of conceit, arrogance and egotism is not what the soldiers of India’s independence aspired to achieve. They wanted a free nation with an egalitarian ideal — a land of prosperity and equality, where none would be targeted for being who they are, where perceived opponents will not be accused of treason. Alas, today’s India has gone astray.