Message from Silkyara – Look beyond professional mission

One would have never heard of Vijay Horo. Who is he? The same is the case of Virender Kisku. Who is he? But crores of Indians were praying for them for more than a fortnight. Entire government machinery was working round the clock for them with unprecedented mobilization of all the resources. What was the reason? The reason was simple. Vijay and Virender are my fellow Indian brothers. They, along with 39 others, were trapped in the Silkyara tunnel in Uttarakhand. The entire nation was overjoyed, excited, thrilled, jubilant, and heaved a sigh of relief when the first worker was brought out of the tunnel on Tuesday late evening. People distributed sweets, danced, beat drums, burst firecrackers and many of them broke down after watching the television. For many, it was the most memorable incident in life as it was stuffed with all the human emotions.

Silkyara is the journey from a ‘Shokantika’ to ‘Sukhantika’

Silkyara is a successful rescue operation, involving a number of government agencies, private individuals, and foreign experts. Silkyara stands as a testimony to microscopic management in which humans and machines were involved. All of them must be saluted. The entire nation bows down before them for an unusual demonstration of human qualities. They went beyond human limitations and were instrumental in conducting a ‘miracle in the mountain’.

However, the Silkyara rescue operation needs to be seen beyond what meets the eyes. It would be a severe underestimation if we describe it merely as a `professional mission’. Silkyara goes beyond any professional mission as rescue operation people were not working for materialistic gains. It would be a serious blunder if somebody is reducing it as a professional mission.

Psychological studies prove that any human action is determined by motivation. It is the motivation, which is reflected in the bodily action of any human being. What could be the motivational factor for my Indian brother and sisters, who were involved in the rescue operation? Why were crores of Indians praying for success in the rescue operation? This happened because all of them had a common bondage of a nation. All of them were highly motivated by the utmost level of patriotism. All of them were contributing in their own ways to the successful operation as they shared a deep sense of fraternity as a nation. This is precisely the sense of patriotism that can result in miracles like Silkyara. It is patriotism, which brings all the people together, irrespective of the differences. Besides cricket, Silkyara is the only incident in the recent past, which demonstrated love for the nation in a distinct manner. It is the same feeling because of which families of rescued workers were seen expressing gratitude for all the Indians, who prayed for their near and dear ones. Silkyara, thus, comes as one of the biggest manifestations of collective emotions of the entire nation. It is the deep sense of patriotism because of which such a manifestation took place. This happened even though the incident had hardly any political overtone.

Silkyara sends another strong message. This message is very crucial as it involves the principle of equality. We have a long experience that the system moves only if some VVIPs are involved in any situation. We have experience that government machinery is available only for VVIPs and political leaders. We have experienced that the life of a common citizen is of no value to the system. Silkyara has taken a break from this practice. It has shown that the entire nation, including government machinery, can rush to help the man in the last layer. It has shown that everybody is equal to the government and Indians. It has shown that the life of every Indian matters to other Indians. The Silkyara incident has played a major role in establishing the principle of equality and has set a new precedent, which will guide India in the future. It has established a two-way ‘sense of belongingness’ – from people to state and from state to people. All the established grounds for discrimination were absolutely missing in the incident, which must be appreciated. Freedom, fraternity, and equality are considered as guiding principles of the Indian Constitution. In Silkyara, these principles were executed precisely in their true spirit. Workers were freed from the death trap and all were treated equally with no discrimination. This would have never happened in the absence of fraternity. All of us need to encourage ourselves by patting each other for this reason.

Many of us may not remember the Chasnala coal mine tragedy, which took place on December 27, 1975, in Dhanbad district. As many as 375 mine workers died when an explosion in the mine was followed by flooding. It was one of the worst tragedies. The entire nation found itself in a helpless situation. Nothing could be done. But India has gone far ahead now. The life of each Indian is valuable for us. This could happen because of a changing mindset and attitude, which is filled with self-esteem and pride in being Indian.