by Deepa BHOOKHUN

Menon Munien, rector of St Mary?s College, came on national TV on Saturday, sat there, looked at people in the eye and tried to explain why some twenty of his students walked out as minister Gokhool was about to read the prime minister?s Independence Day message to students. Mr Munien?s excuse ? a pathetic one at that ? was that they walked out symbolically to demonstrate their anger at the government?s decision to withdraw subsidies on examination fees.

How can a college rector not know that there can never be any justifiable excuse to boycott a ceremony as symbolic and important as Independence Day? Those students did not insult Mr Gokhool or the government; they insulted the country; there is a difference, you know. Even if many dimwits confuse the two, Independence Day is not celebrated to promote a particular government or its policies. Independence Day is sacred because it celebrates our dignity and our freedom, because it symbolises everything that is good and worthy about patriotism. Have those students ever heard of the word? Maybe Mr Munien should explain it to them - if he?s heard of it, of course.

Those students, who don?t have the notion of what freedom means, will never appreciate the chance they have to live in a free country because they have never lived in an occupied one. It?s not their fault that they weren?t born then. But it?s worrying that those who were ? I?m thinking of their parents ? never thought they should sit their kids down and recount the colonised days. And reminisce about that feeling of joy and pride when, at long last, the country was given the chance to stand up, with its flag held high up. The chance to be the master of its destiny, for better or for worse.

I would like to think it was for the better. Despite it all. Even if those who have been given the chance to govern this country, haven?t deemed it important to ensure that this country?s contemporary history should be taught to young ones, should be instilled in them at a young age. So that when they hear the word ?independence?, it makes sense to them.

I would like to think it was for the better even when I see stupid people driving around with an Indian -or other foreign - flag adorning their cars. I would like to think it was for the better even when I read depressing publications by people who have made it their mission to feed division and fight against a united nation.

Maybe it?s high time to start brain-storming on the idea of rendering compulsory some sort of citizen?s service for a year, not military but civil to instil in our youth values that they seem to be lacking, values that this country desperately needs.

Because, if we keep failing our youth, we will eventually fail the country. And that was not the choice we made on 12th March 1968.

Happy Independence Day.