{"id":2352,"date":"2018-08-15T12:47:18","date_gmt":"2018-08-15T07:17:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/?p=2352"},"modified":"2018-08-15T12:47:18","modified_gmt":"2018-08-15T07:17:18","slug":"i-want-to-be-free-to-express-myself-dissidence-is-not-disloyalty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/i-want-to-be-free-to-express-myself-dissidence-is-not-disloyalty\/","title":{"rendered":"I want to be free to express myself; dissidence is not disloyalty."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>What freedom means to me<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I was born on 15 August 1948 into a land of freedom and hope. Today, when I was asked by the media \u201cAs an Indian Muslim what are your feelings and wishes on Independence Day?\u201d, I replied, \u201cWhy should my wishes and feelings be different from other citizens of the country to which we all belong?\u201d I cannot be wrong. Here is a wish list:<\/p>\n<p>*I want my country to be a world power and a helmsman, untainted, incorruptible.<br \/>\n*I want the disadvantaged and under privileged to get affirmative action in education.<br \/>\n*I want soldiers to be given their rightful place in society and the &#8216;pecking order&#8217; in accordance with the universal respect and admiration they command.<br \/>\n*I want to be free to express myself. Dissidence is not disloyalty.<br \/>\n*I want the police to be just and non partisan and police postings under a central authority.<br \/>\n*I want freedom from hunger, unadulterated food, sparkling clean rivers and an environment free from garbage.<br \/>\n*I want security for my daughters and grandchildren from molesters, unworldly god-men and paedophiles.<br \/>\n*I want an end to religious processions and activity which hold the country to ransom for weeks.<br \/>\n*I want deliverance from animals which forage my crops, simians that endanger human lives and rabid dogs.<br \/>\n*I want pot-hole free roads and punishment for contractors who cheat in the repairs.<br \/>\n*I want roads with shady, fruit bearing and flowering trees.<br \/>\n*I want speedy and deterrent punishment to violators of law.<\/p>\n<p>One who never loses hope,<br \/>\nLt Gen Zameer Uddin Shah (Veteran)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What freedom means to me I was born on 15 August 1948 into a land of freedom and hope. Today, when I&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":2353,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_seo_keywords":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2352\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}