Cricket legend Sunil Gavaskar on Saturday urged students across the country to ‘head back to their classrooms’, stating that their primary duty is to be in classrooms and study, while expressing that the turmoil in the country shall subside and the country would come out in a greater shape. Gavaskar’s remarks were directed at students participating in protests against the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act.
“Main unko kahunga classroom wapas chali jaiye (I would like to urge them to head back to the classrooms.) Class mein jaiyein, kyunki wohi aapki main duty hai (Head back to the classrooms, that’s where your primary duty lies). Aap university gaye, padhai ke liye gaye hai, padhai kariye (You went to the universities to study, so please do that).”Sunil Gavaskar
Speaking on the sidelines of the 26th Lal Bahadur Shastri Memorial Lecture in New Delhi, the former India captain expressed concern over the violence that has raged across campuses in India over the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and the NRC
“The country is in turmoil. Some of our youngsters are out on the streets instead of being in their classrooms, and some of them are ending up in hospitals for being out on the streets,” he said.
“The majority are in the classrooms, trying to forge a career and to build and take India forward. We as a nation can go high only when we are all together; when each one of us has to be simply Indian first and foremost. That is what the game taught us — that we win when we pull together as one,” Gavaskar added.
Taking a walk down memory lane, Gavaskar spoke highly of Lal Bahadur Shastri, stating that the former Prime Minister had stood tall when crisis engulfed the country back in 1965.
“India has overcome many crises’ in the past and it will overcome this one as well. Our minds go back to one such major crisis in 1965 when our neighbours invaded us and got a befitting reply,” he said.
“The leader of our nation then was a man whose leadership and quick decision-making made the invaders make a hasty retreat,” Gavaskar added. “Respected and revered late Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri was that leader who stood tall. It was his decisiveness and quick thinking that helped our armed forces to stop the invaders.”
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