The Republic of India, the largest democracy of present times, has a culture, more than 5000 years old, with its foundation dating back to the Vedic Age. All the beliefs and practices, crafted by the greatest educators of the Ancient Era are enlightening the world even today. The country was known as the educational hub, which always played a vital role in the up-lifting of the society on a global scale. Its mythology, literary traditions and Hindu philosophy portray its vivid greatness.
The rich heritage was so alluring that even foreign clans of medieval times couldn’t resist directing their interest towards this heaven on Earth. Repeated attacks by Mongol raiders, rule by the Mughal Empire, and loot by Western Powers have been accounted in the Indian history that was finally over after years of struggle and brawl, when India gained its independence in the year 1947, with only one vision: To give a shape to the Gandhian dream of ‘Ramrajya’. A constitution, which was vital to India’s self image, was formed in 1950 that put in place a secular, sovereign and a democratic republic on the pandemic front. We started working together to make our country, Incredible India, so that we could provide food, water and electricity to every citizen of the nation. We started developing with an amazing pace, in spite of the numerous challenges ahead of us.
Today, it’s been 61 years and an obvious question arises: Did we really achieve those targets that we set? Well, it’s really disappointing to say that the answer is ‘No’. We still have major a part of our population below poverty line in both rural and urban areas. Unreliable infrastructure, religious and caste related violence, Naxalite insurgencies, separatists in Jammu and Kashmir, and the most critical; Corruption, are amongst other grave problems. Corruption in India has reached feverish level. Bofors scandal, Share Market scandal, crooked 2G scandal, Commonwealth Games issue and many more cases have cost us billions of dollars.
The metaphor ‘Incredible India’, which was suppose to demonstrate our rich cultural heritage, moral values and traditional way of life, now stands absurd. It tells us about our contention with poverty, corruption, unemployment, and many other distressing affairs.
Now the time has come to take matters to the grass root level & by making people aware of these humongous problems. Programs like Jan Chetna, Competition Commission of India, Masum India, and Wildlife Trust of India, etc. can make people acquainted with the present scenario who, through appropriate actions shall alleviate from these problems. We need to add more and more people to these groups as well as instigate all the other coteries serving the same purpose to form a nexus to strengthen the movement. We can support the deprived crowd of India to attain their rights through a collective, cooperative and united effort. Further, we can help people in building their capacities through social education, training and information dissemination to take collective actions to resolve their issues.
It is true that at present, we are facing a number of snags, but we should not forget that there is always a hope; a silver lining. India can become ‘Incredible’ for sure provided necessary plans are realised and executed in a supportive and proper way.
