Reflections on Republic Day

As India celebrated its 60th year of the inception of Constitution on 26th January this year, my thoughts turn to the splendid hour when in 1950, on the same day, the Constitution of Indian Republic came into force and we moved from a British dominion to a sovereign republic. In an exquisite balance of various streams of ideas and in language that is poetical, the Preamble to the Constitution pledged to secure for our people "justice, social, economic and political; liberty of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship; equality of status and opportunity, and to promote among them all fraternity assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity of the Nation."
Dr B R Ambedkar, presenting the Draft Constitution, professed political freedom but questioned the social and financial freedom of a common Indian man in his famous words "On 26th January, we are going to enter a life of contradictions. In politics we will have equality and in social and economic life we will have inequality. In politics we will be recognizing the principle of one man one vote and one vote one value. In our social and economic life we shall by reasons of our social and economic structure continue to deny one man one value". And he then asked: "How long shall we continue to live this life of contradictions? How long shall we deny equality in our social and economic life?"
These questions raised by the chief architect of the Indian Constitution then are still valid 60 years later. Republic Day is an appropriate occasion for us to evaluate the facts of our society and our economy, and to examine our hearts to find out how far we have succeeded in overcoming these contradictions in our minds and in the objective conditions of the life of the common man in India.
In retrospection, we have achieved political stability with strong roots of democracy. Financially, India is the second fastest growing economy even in this year of credit crunch. While politicians in general have been criticised, the Prime ministers and Presidents that India got, were educated visionaries right from Pandit Nehru, S Radhakrishnan, Dr Zakir Hussain to Dr Manmohan Singh. They have led our country to an era where India is indispensible in the world politics and financial considerations.
On the other hand, still, there is corruption, molestation and suppression of women, terrorism, inter religion and inter caste divides which makes us hang our head down in shame. The education levels are still amongst the lowest in the world. The issues of child labour and child abuse have just begun to be addressed.
It is not important here to repeat the public expressions of politicians but time to take action. It is a time for us to assume responsibility; responsibility in thoughts, actions and deeds. As Dr S Radhakrishnan said, “Be ever alert, be ever on the move, go forward, work for a free, flexible, compassionate, decent democratic society in which Christians, Sikhs, Moslems, Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, will all find a safe shelter." It is important for us, as Indians, to realise that Republic Day is not only for us to celebrate what was achieved 60 years ago, but also to find a direction of shaping the future of India.
We need to make sure that our children get the best education, which provides them with a stimulus to think about ourselves as a nation rather than as individuals. It is paramount to ensure promotion of self esteem of women to enable their equal participation in the development of modern India. Our armed forces, which sacrifice their lives for our safety, need to be felicitated for their contributions in maintaining peace in India, in adverse conditions. The farmers and the menial workers who work tirelessly to feed the whole of India need to be provided with facilities to ensure a comfortable and meaningful existence for them. Our concerns should not just be limited to multi national companies that bring in the revenues, but also to the village dwellers as that is where the heart of India lies.
We as Indians must once again take a pledge to re-dedicate ourselves to our beloved motherland to make our country excel in every field from education to development, science and technology and wipe out all obstacles that forbid our nation's progress.
Jai Hind

Post By Devdeep Ahuja