Beneficiaries of the Uri Attack

If the title shocked you, then welcome to the real world. Get out of the trolls and memes of the social media which have been working overnight to provoke few seconds of patriotism and the latest two bit of my-contribution-to-the society via internet-activism.

The Uri attack left 20 soldiers dead and I wonder how many of the patriotic citizens remember the name of a single jawan dead. I haven’t even asked if any of the rabble-rouser and the ‘patriots’ have done anything worth a dime for the families of the dead.

The first beneficiary is definitely the Government in power which used the surgical-strikes post-Uri attack to its credit. As the Defence minister was found bragging that the surgical strikes were by the army, but the brain was the PM. The army spoke once but the politicians are still speaking about it and taking all the sheen away from those who took all the risk and efforts for the strikes which were conducted post the Uri terrorist attack.

The second beneficiary was of course a marginal political outfit, which was in the margins of near extinction. A sudden chance to flex muscles and show they existed and a poor film producer who had crores at stake, had to bear the brunt the organisation’s new found patriotism. What was sad was how the over-the-top patriotism received tacit support from the Government, given the political compulsions of the moment.

Absolutely unexpected beneficiaries were of course the small traders, who suddenly found a tertiary benefit in wanting to ban Chinese products. While the PM was meeting the Chinese premier and delegates were discussing business as usual the citizens of the country joined in the mind-violence of ban-Chinese-products. Yet another opportunity to display patriotism and remind people how great Indian products are, a la Sarojini Naidu in her “Bazaars of Hyderabad”. Unfortunately the same people seem to have forgotten that Chinese constructors will be working on the 3000 ft statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the government’s pet project and a Chinese corporation has recently been awarded the 900 cr Nagpur Metro project. But all of us get to display our patriotism by participating in ban-china-ka-maal like Diwali lights and paper-lanterns and sleep a peaceful night’s sleep after contributing to our two-bit of patriotism!

I think all of us who support such divisive and self-recreational politics, should hang our heads in shame!