NEW MEASUREMENT OF PATRIOTISM: BEYOND 56 INCHES, STOMACH, POCKET AND POSTERS

NEW MEASUREMENT OF PATRIOTISM: BEYOND 56 INCHES, STOMACH, POCKET AND POSTERS

22-AUG-ENG 9

RAJIV NAYAN AGRAWAL

ARA-------------------------Such historical moments do not come again and again in the country, when the speech from the ramparts of the Red Fort does not only focus on international diplomacy or development plans, but directly attacks the circumference of your waist, stomach and pocket. This year's (2025) Independence Day will be placed in this category - the Prime Minister declared obesity a national concern, and also presented new remedies for improving the economic front and the nation's image. Now the citizens of the country have to understand that keeping the size of both stomach and salary under control is the real nation building, because when both stomach and pocket are light, the mind automatically gets filled with heavy patriotism.

They first used inch tape to measure patriotism. There was a time when there was a lot of enthusiasm on the 56-inch chest. Then on clapping and thali. Now the matter has reached the stomach. Your image on the international stage is determined not just by foreign policy, but by the roundness of your stomach – just as the body is measured before getting a suit stitched in the G-20, similarly, the stomach is weighed before measuring the image of the country in global politics.

And this is where our nationalist thinker Dilip C Mandal enters – that great man, whose pen once used to be used as a sword against the government, but today plays like a drum for government slogans. His recent statement – ​​“Don’t eat so much that you burst” – is not a normal advice, but a deeply nationalistic proclamation. As if he is saying – ‘The one who cannot handle the plate, how will he handle the country’.

Let us remind you – this same local thinker used to proudly tell in 2018 that before 2001 there was no tradition of hoisting the tricolor at the Sangh headquarters, and it started only after the court order. At that time, his eyes were on the size of the country’s chest. Today the same eyes are on the size of the country’s stomach and its geography.

This change may seem like a 'U-turn' to some, but in reality it is a 'developmental mindset' - that which becomes light at the right time, lasts for a long time. The principle of both ideology and fat is the same - reduce it as per the opportunity, increase it when needed.

It can be said that this is the 'low-fat' version of patriotism - less fat, more taste.

Another announcement by the Prime Minister - if a member of a family goes to a private job for the first time, the government will give him fifteen thousand rupees. This scheme sounds as attractive as reducing obesity, but there is a 'calorie chart' hidden in it too - the plate of a government job has become so small now that it is not possible to seat everyone in it, that is why it is being said that go, eat somewhere else, and when you return, we will put sweets in the plate.

If our local thinkers had written something on this, they would probably have said - "Leave the government job, take fifteen thousand and eat pizza from the corporate canteen in the national interest. This is also a kind of fast, because half of the salary will go back to the nation in the form of tax." That means you have to make your job private, and keep your stomach private too – the government will only keep contracts for clapping and ringing the plates.

In this speech, there was also a discussion on tariff war. It was announced that foreign grains, milk, fish come and farmers and fishermen get ruined – this will not happen as long as we are here. A wall will be built to stop foreign goods.

Our local thinker immediately said on this – “If Modi is here, then farmers, fishermen and cattle rearers need not worry.”

Now it is a different matter whether farmers get minimum support price or not, whether the fishermen’s boat rots on the shore or in the sea, but the resolution to stop foreign milk is the real patriotism, because even if the stomach is empty, it should not be foreign.

And meanwhile, in the week of Independence Day, the Petroleum Ministry moved Gandhiji a little to the side in the congratulatory post and placed Veer Savarkar in the middle and above him. This is not just graphic design, but a new energy policy in the energy sector – in which petrol, diesel and positioning in posters are all considered strategic.

Looking at our Desi Thinker brings back old memories – when he was as keen on correcting historical facts as he is today in giving health suggestions. Once he used to say that Savarkar had given only five apologies, not six. Then it was the politics of numbers, today it is the politics of the angle of the photo. The only difference is that earlier the weight of history was weighed, now the stomach and background in the photo.

In this era of inflation, giving up late night meals, reducing sweets and oil – all these are not only good for health, but also reduce the consumption of LPG, electricity and pulses and oil. It has to be admitted that the health campaign of our Desi Thinker matches well with the ‘policy of reduction’ of the Finance Ministry. That is why along with these things, he also talks about fasting in his Facebook posts.

In fact, fasting here is not a religious-cultural act, but an economic strategy - eat sorrow, eat less, save and pay the electricity bill with the saved money. This will reduce the size of the stomach as well as the burden of government subsidy. Needless to say that the shortfall in the country's budget will be met by your stomach.

The first step in both is - renunciation. Just as it is difficult to give up sugar, so is giving up old critical statements. But when Dilip C Mandal deleted the 2018 statement, the Desi thinker reduced one thought, as if one kilogram of weight has been reduced from the body and when he deletes the one apologizing to Savarkar, which he will do in a day or two, he will lose 1008 grams more weight. Then comes the replacement - jaggery instead of sugar and praise instead of criticism. In the beginning, the taste seems strange, but after a few days the stomach feels light and so does the social media timeline.

This is the same process in which obesity also reduces and the government's burden also reduces. Nor does it come down from your shoulders and sit in your pocket.

This is the new pentagon chart of patriotism – balance of stomach, salary, tariff, poster politics and social media. Striking a balance between these five is the real national duty. The person who was once gasping under the burden of ideology is today the flag bearer of stomach control, foreign goods resistance and background management.

Therefore, do not take the advice of the local thinker lightly – you have to be light, not the advice, because now the real measure of patriotism is not the expanded 56 inch chest, but the size of stomach, pocket and poster. All other thoughts are just nonsense.