Written by Supriya Tyagi ( www.Supriya.im )
Today India celebrates its 62nd Republic Day. In parade conducted at New Delhi, we would be shown some examples that prove India has obtained immense power. Yes, it has. Ruling party tried to make us believe that we are growing year by year, and are being counted amongst one of the superpowers of the world. We get to see some brilliant advertisements by government that try to convey that India has come a far way off. True, India has developed a lot.
Still A normal Indian(say its me, or you, or its any face in crowd) tries to search some questions that have been left unanswered by the march parade in New Delhi on republic day, and something that is not conveyed by those flashy advertisements boasting development of India. That face is still trying to find why India is still counted among third world. That face is still searching an answer to the question: Why is India still a developing nation after almost 65 years of getting independence?
Every nation has problems, and it is a truth that a nation cannot run away its problems. If its citizens work hard enough to eradicate problems, it develops. Else those problem root themselves deep into the mentality of citizens, and degrade a nation like termite. Similar is the case with India.
Corruption has become one of its largest problems. Some days ago, I came across a news that was showing the amount of black money deposited in foreign banks. Its amount was somewhere near 28 followed by 23 zeroes !! Had this amount been used to develop India, it could have a lot more educational institutions, and hospitals. Leave corruption on larger scale, smallest step in the hierarchy of system is corrupted. And on this stands a giant infrastructure. Basically corruption has affected every Indian to some scale. Even if those 28 x 1023 rupees flow into India, we need clean minds to utilize them for the welfare of India. Some miracle save my India. And the miracle is nothing other than a huge initiative of Indians to improve the system.
Anyway, let me discuss just second of so many problems because I feel republic day is a right time to discuss it.
It has been 62 years since India became a republic. Or I must say, India declared itself a secular state. But a true Indian finds its pathetic to see politics dividing Indians into Scheduled Castes(SC)/Scheduled Tribes(ST), Other Backward Castes(OBC), Minorities and etc etc. When we’re growing up, we are taught that all Indians are equal, but when we are able to adjudge things rightly, we come to know that all Indians are not actually equal. On one hand we’re taught that boys-girls are equal, but as per some reliefs given by reservation, they are not. Some sections of society are given “extra” privileges than the others. Those “extra” privileges do not come to them by the virtue of their economic condition, but by the virtue of the caste/religion/gender they’re born in. Its painful to see some real talent in India never gets a chance because some non-deserving candidates get to their place through those extra privileges given to them. India doesn’t develop because non-deserving people fail to give optimized performance designed for that post.
India is struggling to cope-up with the problem of brain drain. Its chief cause is nothing other than reservation. Because good minds do not get a chance in India, so they simply choose to work for other countries. And those countries make most of those magnificent minds, and they develop. Our politicians feel India still needs reservation, and they keep India in hunt to become developed.
As per our system, girls need reservation because they’re weaker. Or to say the other way around, boys do not need reservation because they’re stronger. Not limiting this to gender, our politicians extend it to all religions, castes and sections of society. They silently play Divide and Rule among all of us, giving false assurances that India is rising. But these problems now lie in our minds. We have to take a start. We must realize India is our own country, and if we work for its development, it is going to benefit us back.
We need to revisit and rediscover our Indian-ness that has survived many ups and down in several millenniums. We have to clean our minds to make India corruption free, and we have to treat all countrymen as Indians and show that we do not need reservation anymore. We have to start !! We must do it for India !!
Happy Republic Day to my motherland.