Dear A Concerned Citizen and all my countrymen,
With the same great concern that you have raised the issue of cancellation of Gandhi Jayanti, I consider it my formal duty to respond and address you and the fellow citizens who share the same sentiment. It seems quite logical to me to address them in the sequence you brought them out.
Gazetted Holidays are declared annually, months in advance to enable employees to plan their schedule. This includes complex itineraries for tourism and pilgrimages, as well as simple pleasures like visiting ageing parents and family get togethers. Hence the sudden and last minute cancellation of this holiday is causing great hardship to employees and their families.
Very true. Our children, since the time their formal education starts, are taught to think broadly. One has to sacrifice himself towards the good of one’s family, sacrifice family towards society and sacrifice society towards state and sacrifice states towards the good of nation. As you must be aware, the cancellation of Gandhi Jayanti Holiday stems from a bigger social cause, that has started to become so much important and inseparable that Indian, our nation, is still considered low on the cleanliness parameter. So much so, we avoid our pictures being taken with dirt and filth behind us and look for cleaner spaces so as to tag them to our timelines, and at the same time, cursing those who are responsible for cleaning the space – the Municipal Corporation, the state government and the central government. If the countrymen sacrifice their one holiday to make their future holidays cleaner and happier, would it be a bad idea? You talked about tourist places, pilgrimages, historical places and the small pleasures with the family… and forgot the fact that those places-to-visit are still dirty. If the government has planned something in this direction, should we not all come together at a bigger level and contribute towards it and sacrifice our small family get-together? Continue reading “Cancellation of Gandhi Jayanti Holiday – A Justification”