Now that the world recognized Kailash Satyarthi with his winning the Nobel Prize for struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education on 10th October 2014, many of Indians met their national hero for the first time. Now he will be chased by the media and follow ups would be taken on who can be the next to take his interview. Before that there were hardly few who were aware of his great deeds.
As the question revolved around every Indian about Kailash Satyarthi, who he is, what did he exactly do and why every second person is unaware about him, I also felt the same and here I come with some of the reasons why Kailash Satyarthi was not known to many:
1. India recognizes its national heroes only after they are known on the International level.
If we look at our Nobel Laureates, we will be astonished to find that Dr. Amartya Sen, who was awarded Nobel in 1998 received Bharat Ratna in 1999 for his work on Economic Sciences. Scientist Har Gobind Khorana received Nobel prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1968 but Indian government made it possible to honor him with Padma Vibhushan in 1972 only. Indian media and government agencies are pretty short sighted in recognizing the efforts and great contributions of the Indian individual or a company to the country.
2. We live in India where people read only interesting facts and stories, not the must knows.
Harsh truth, but it is the truth. We are fond of reading sex scandals of leading actors and making it go viral, we are fond of political verbal wars, what did our actors wear in the random awards and not to forget Cricket, the religion of India and also the fact that other sports are being neglected. Thanks to ISL and Pro Kabaddi League though! People are interested to know about Shahrukh’s third child and about Salman’s virginity, but reading on how we can contribute to our nation is nil. What changes NaMo can bring would be proved and believed only in the following years.
3. India is entangled between Politics, Cricket and Bollywood.
Today, when the world is talking about Malala and Kailash Satyarthi, people like Arnab Goswami are trying hard on “India wants to know”, if Shashi Tharoor killed his wife! When the nation is struggling in protecting its border issues with the neighbor countries, Congress Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi shamelessly accuse the central government for not acting well. The country whose national game is Hockey, worships Cricket as god. Not to forget Bollywood, people are aware of the next upcoming movies of their favorite stars, but seriously not the important national occasions.
4. Indian Media is busy covering Dharnas, illogical dialogues between celebrities, the saas, bahu and saajish and who can win the political verbal war. As people are interested to read only these topics and remain glued to it, media is serving it!
5. Pardon me for being bold enough to say that the Indian media is more or less sold! Most of the times you would watch only what they wish you to see and not what you want to see and understand.
The day all the above reasons would take a national interest and people would develop complete faith to serve their country, you won’t believe what wonders we Indians are capable of. Now, as an Indian, I believe I should read every important news that relates to my nation’s pride, its sovereignty and integrity. I believe or I should say I can trust that even you, as an Indian would do the same, not neglect anything that is India’s pride. Read, learn, write, and speak so much about it that it should be in trend! Jai Hind!
