Certainly not me. Certainly not you. Certainly not our so called ‘civil society’. Who then has the right to cast the first stone? It is imperative then to understand that before the rights comes the duties that each and every citizen has to perform so that any individual before claiming their rights are confident that at least in part that they have ‘tried’ to perform their duties towards the nation state first. While this write up doesn’t criticize the right to protest, it is a given that in our society, where the web of laws are so intricately woven that each one of us has become a law breaker in one way or the other, there is still hope in raising our voice of dissent, although in a logical way so that tangible results are achieved. It is in this context that whatever is happening in our neighborhood, Pakistan, is taken into consideration and support be given to elements that have both the will power and the capacity to foster change in the Indian subcontinent, where two nuclear armed nations have been at loggerheads, on an issue that is a humanitarian one but yet political, namely Kashmir. Considering all this, we as Indians should consider that the way we lead our daily lives, right from the so called elite class to the lowest rungs of the social stratification that is manifested in the form of our society, we have to recognize that everyone has a battle to fight every day, and the outcome is positive or negative, and lets not determine that whom we consider as the losers or the winners here.

It is in this context that we Indians should realize that our founding fathers while creating the modern Indian nation state have given the people all the instruments needed to foster a positive change in our society and in the way we as people can bring to life an ancient way of life, as practiced by our forefathers, so that we together can bring an order and some semblance of normalcy to our daily lives and at the end of a hard day, sleep satisfied by thinking that we did something that brought positivity and hope to the nation. Be it any form of our life, private and personal, and public and societal as well, we as people of the great Indian nation state realize that we are bound by framework that are political in nature, be it then in the form of natural laws pertaining to various religions or the way we lead our daily lives. How can we bring such a kind of framework in tandem with our aims and aspirations so that we can create a harmonious and a caring society, is a question that is grappling several brilliant minds all over the world.

Continuing with this, in context of whatever is happening in the United States in the form of racial unrest and the stark differences between the perception of blacks and whites, sadly this is the way we now classify ourselves, we have to take into considerations the historical wrongs that were perpetrated on the black minorities in the United States, or coming back to India, the wrongs committed against the Kashmiri Pandits or the aboriginal people or the peasantry. With such a background in mind, do you think it is these groups that have the right to cast the first stone? Sadly not. It is when both the group or the society or the collective leadership that committed the wrong unite with the victims, it is only then when they work unitedly, that something positive can be attained. Hence, instead of focusing on who has the right to cast the first stone, we should instead focus on who has the will and the intent on coming forward on the reconciliation front and put right the historical wrongs that have plagued our society since long. Thanks and stay safe.