Action or words?

I am pained by the recent videos of Indian soldiers being heckled by coward youth in Kashmir. Soldiers who were equipped with weapons which had the potential to kill these cowards in a fraction of a second. It needed a great amount of patience and valour for our soldiers not to react. As Kamal Haasan said in one of his tweets — height of valour is non-violence.

This edit is not to condemn the act, or to bad-mouth the cowardly Kashmiri youth, but to ponder on a question — what can we as common men do beyond the social media tweets, and blogs like these which I write?

I think the answer is in actions and no longer words. To do things which contribute towards negating such atrocities, to make a change on the ground. What can be done — many things to begin with. These are things which come to my mind.

A) Serve in the armed forces: make it mandatory for every Indian family to send their daughter and son for a mandatory Indian armed-forces training and service. The clear benefit I see is our youth getting a taste of what goes into making the armed-forces life, and why it is important for them to not just respect but live that life and empathise beyond social media.

B) Mainstream involvement: get India to Kashmir. We need to get Indians to Kashmir across every profession and every sector. Government should ensure safety and make it appealing for doctors, civilians, engineers, media and communication professionals to spend time in the valley. Safety and employment are two factors for the common Indian — if that is taken care of, much can change.

C) Engage thoughtfully: let us decide what is good for the region with calm heads rather than letting the noise of social media colour our opinions. When your child is with a doctor, you don’t go to social media to seek opinions — you trust the doctor.

There is a lot of talk, but little or no visible action on the ground which involves the country. The Kashmir problem is our problem too — it is not just the problem of the armed forces. Time for India to involve Indians in resolving what could potentially be the longest-standing conflict in post-independence India.

Actions will surely speak better than words.