Be Away From The Agents Of A Divisive Political Agenda

Understand That Vendetta Is No Remedy For Any Community

Reminisces from ‘New Dawn’ by Jagdish Kapoor(G47, Masjid Moth)

By Anindita Roy

He is 72, a working professional and the President of Residents Association, G&H Masjid Moth. The day we met him he had suffered a fall and hurt his knee and fingers while going to get a colony tube-well repaired. “Well, it’s a President’s job to get all kinds of odd jobs done”, he smilingly says.
I wondered that if a 72 year old working person has time to look after the welfare activities of his colony in his spare time, why can’t the others? Where are the youngsters? The association does not just comprise of the President and others members but it encompasses all residents and everyone should actively participate!!
The little book ‘New Dawn’ is a memory of Strife & Struggle that had to be endured by a family because of the 1947 partition. Jagdish Kapoor chronicles his life from the time he had to run away from his family home along with his family at the tender age of 4 till the time he became an established professional.
 “There were many families like my family who suffered the same fate while migrating from Pakistan. However, none of them thought of revenge in times to come, even though they did not forget the pain. They became hard workers, and were prosperous because they did not think of revenge. Vendetta is no remedy for any community. All those who suffered during partition have moved ahead by forgetting the past. It is those politically divisive people, terming themselves secular though not being truly secular, who keep spouting language of hatred, in order to divide people for electoral reasons. This owes to the compulsion of vote bank politics”, says Jagdish Kapoor in his book.
Essentially, secularism entails the inclusion of all belief systems so as to create a harmonious society. This is what we have to understand and adhere to if we have to have a ‘Truly Secular India’. Instead of fighting each other on flimsy pretexts one should live for promoting and enriching one’s own life and the community’s development.
I wish all of us would think like Jagdish Kapoor and instead of thinking of revenge and vendetta for past events, in all spheres of our life, we should strive forward to better and enrich our lives through hard work and sincere efforts.