Popular cricket commentator Harsha Bhogle, on Tuesday, stated that winning elections is not a good enough reason to highlight the differences between the people of the country. Taking a dig at the central government for not doing anything to address the fear among the people around the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and the National Register of Citizens (NRC), he also stated that the government must do more for the governance of the country than working on dividing the country.
In a Facebook post, Harsha Bhogle recounted how India, as a country, was opened to a wave of new economic policies in the 1990s. “Maybe Narasimha Rao was forced into opening up India by the calamity that would have befallen us otherwise. Maybe Manmohan Singh had no choice but to deliver the budgets he did. But they saw the writing on the wall and they acted,” he wrote, adding these initiatives has made India more confident, aware and ambitious. “It is a beautiful India and it has been nurtured by people who are liberal and secular at heart. Those are beautiful words,” the post said.
Highlighting the confidence the new India had given the people of his generation, Harsha Bhogle emphasised that, at present, the younger generation is not happy with the way the government is working. “We are shrinking our country by highlighting our differences and young India is telling us it isn't happy,” making a reference to the widespread protests by students in educational institutions across the country. Students from across India have been actively protesting the CAA and the NRC over the last two weeks, demanding the withdrawal of the act which is against the Constitutional principles of equality.
Taking a leaf out of his own life when he was at a low point in his career and how he resorted to being at the sidelines and let the young guns take charge, Harsha wrote that while it is an example at a small scale, it shows what is possible if those in power choose to do so too.
“At a low point in my career, I got to work with young people. Their energy was an eye-opener. All I had to do was pat them on the back sometimes, provide a window to a new world. No more...It is just a small example in a small sector but it tells us what is possible,” the post stated.
Slamming the ruling dispensation that winning elections do not give them good enough to highlight differences among the people, Harsha wrote that creating opportunities through liberalisation, openness and togetherness could help the ruling party win more elections.
“This is a great time to be a benevolent government; to think of education, of infrastructure, of technology; to remove barriers, to embrace openness, to free this beautiful generation to take India beyond where we think it can be,” Harsha wrote, adding, “Let us not burden the next generation with talk of war and cultural differences. They are going to be better than we were. Let them be. In a happy, open, secular, liberal world, they can become the best in the world,” he implored.