Independence

60 YEARS OF OUR INDEPENDENCE: RETROSPECTION



Today we are at the eve of the 60th Independence Day of our Republic Of India. So it’s a nice moment to look back at what we have achieved in the last 60 years? How far we have moved towards the realization of the dreams of our great freedom fighters? What progress we have made? Also to identify the bright and dark spots in this journey. Its time for us do the retrospection on what we have done till yet? And what we should do now to build the India of our Dreams.

Let us first start from our achievements or the tasks fulfilled by us in these six decades. We have made great progress in many spheres – Strong military, advancements in technology and science, landmark achievements in space science, development of some world class cities which have established an identity on the world map, better agricultural productivity, advancements in industrial sector and the biggest advancement we have made is in the Service sector with we emerging as the world leader in this sector. Another notable accomplishment is the successful survival of democracy which is really noteworthy in the sense that despite being such a large and diverse nation we have not only kept the spirit of democracy alive but made it even stronger and established a precedent for the whole world. In the last 60 years democracy failed in dozens of countries. On every occasion we held successful polls and complete peaceful transfer of power.

In these years India has given to this world some of the great scientists, doctors, engineers, managers, leaders,sportspersons, philosophers and thinkers. Dr. Bhabha, Kalpana Chawla, Jawahar Lal Nehru, Amartya Sen, Dr. Kalam , Sachin are few of those bright sparkling stars of this galaxy . India has established itself as a truly sovereign and independent country in these years on the world stage at a time when the sovereignty of nation like U.K. is under question. Even we have emerged as a global leader on the world stage whether it was championing the cause of non-alignment or leading the third world countries at WTO . India has actively participated in resolving International conflicts and Indian troops have regularly been serving as the U.N. peace keeping forces in different parts of the world.


We have made significant advances in energy and power sector and we are striving hard to achieve self-sufficiency in this regard. We have made considerable growth in transportation and communication especially in the last decade. The use of cellular phones has provided a great thrust in ensuring that every village and household must have a mean of communication. The institutes like IIT’s , IIM’s AIIMs have earned great name and fame on the global level.


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But it is not though everything has been done right in these years, there are not few but many grey patches also in our journey of six decades of independence. Even after 60 years thousands of villages are still waiting for electricity and the lakhs of those who have are waiting for the day when it would be available uninterrupted to them with no major cuts .What to talk of villages when our national capital is facing a deficit of upto 2000 KW . A large proportion of our population doesn’t have access to pure drinking water and people still walking miles everyday to procure water. About Quarter of our population still lies below poverty line. And we have corruption which is now what is termed as “Shistachar”.

This is not the end of the misfortune to add to this we have thousands of villages waiting for the schools, thousands of schools waiting for teachers, millions of people waiting for doctors and hospitals. The teacher/student and patient / doctor ratio is still far behind the global standards. We still find the same demons of illiteracy, dowry, female infanticide, poverty, ignorance posing serious threats in our efforts of emerging as a developed society and nation. We are not only short of infrastructure but also the shortage of initiatives and efforts as still in many villages’ people feel schools as waste of time and money. There is an urgent need for generating awareness about the advantages of education and technology in the rural areas and also about the ills of ignorance, dowry etc. During last winter vacations I was in a village in jaisalmer district for a socio-educational program of a ngo named TLFI . During our program I got the opportunity to see and feel the ground realities myself and I was surprised by the things I came across. People had no faith in school for them tilling of farms is more necessary for their kids. The killing of a girl child as soon as she is born was a custom. A man very proudly told me he had just killed his 6th girl child and also explained me how he put the child in the milk tank to let her die and further told me that there’s one more common practice of killing by putting sand on the chest of child that kills child due to no respiration. I felt like killing the butcher but I was helpless and it took me a long time to get back to my senses after hearing this cruel custom.

It is quite evident that the gap between cities and villages is widening day by day and if we really want to emerge as a developed society it has to be bridged sooner than later. Also we need to deal strongly with the problems of terrorism and naxalism as more than half of our states are facing this menace. For effective remedy the regional aspirations should be kept in mind and we should strive for the uniform development of all parts which is a tough task but it has to be done to ensure our independence.

On this 6oth anniversary we all must take a pledge that we will put all our sicere efforts to help our country attain the status of “Jagatguru” and will once again turn it into “Sone Ki Chiddiya” . So stop cursing the system and government instead make the government and system work effectively and efficiently by remaining vigilant about our rights and participating and monitoring in the noble task of nation building.
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Jai Hind !