On February 14, 2019, 44 CRPF personnel got martyred in a bomb blast in Pulwama district of Jammu and Kashmir. This incident shook the whole country and spread sorrow all around the nation.
Today morning I went to the gym and found a ‘closed’ board on the gate. I rechecked once by the clock whether I am ahead of time and found myself on time. I called the gym administration lady and she told me that she will recheck once with the trainers and get back to me in the next couple of minutes. I got her call after two minutes and there she told me that “Sorry Mam, because of what happened in Pulwama on the 14th we are considering today as a black day; we are off today.”
I was walking towards my house, scrolling down my Instagram page, when I saw the gym lady’s stories, featuring her having fun last night at the club. Now, the dissonance here baffles me. And it’s not only about her, but it’s also a story of our society in general at this point in time. I can see people removing their display pictures from WhatsApp, putting images of candles on their stories and the next moment posting their fancy outing pictures.
I am not saying you should stop living your life. What I want to convey here is how we as responsible citizens of this country can help and contribute our bit in order to counter such heinous acts.
- Stop social media wars: I have seen people arguing in length with some unknown accounts on social media, giving this heinous act the color of religion, blaming Kashmir and its citizens for the incident and abusing government for everything. What we need to realize here is that terrorism has no face and religion and there is no point of spreading communal hatred through social media platforms.
- Monetary support through government: I won’t term it as a donation but instead I would request you to show your support towards the families who lost their brave heroes as well as their financial support. We don’t want their families and children to feel abandoned and we can surely contribute towards making their life normal. You can send your monetary support to them through the government portal.
- Create awareness among youth: Instead of giving the day off, we can create awareness programs among youth regarding terrorism or conduct a seminar regarding how youth can join forces or maybe how we can counter fake news.
- Signing petitions: We can surely sign a petition in order to request the nation to include the JeM Chief Masood Azhar as a designated terrorist.
People, what we need to understand is that talking about the issue is not going to help in any way. It’s very important to ponder upon the ways in which we can contribute to our nation and support our defense forces.