AMID THE brouhaha of corruption and scandal in government (commonwealth scandal, Sukna land scam, 2G-spectrum, Aadarsh society scam etc), we are going to celebrate 62nd republic on Wednesday (January 26). Preparations for Republic Day parade celebrations are in full swing to showcase achievements in dissemination of justice, liberty, equality, security of citizens, our rich culture, alleviation of poverty etc in the national parade through various cultural programmes, military feasts and tableaux. But the question is that do we really have enough cause to celebrate or the celebrations are as formal as the job-going man takes the opportunity as a vacation day.
As a democracy, we have achieved quite a lot of the above mentioned aspects enshrined in our constitution. But after 61 years of our Republic we have not yet translated the vision and aspirations of the constitution-makers into reality. Their dreams will remain unfulfilled until equality and justice reaches every citizen of our nation.
We have achieved many milestones in these 61 years to cheer about. That is why we are called the largest democracy of the world. But somewhere down the line we have not met the commitments taken at the time when we adopted the constitution created by ourselves (an elected constitutional committee headed by Dr B R Ambedkar) on January 26, 1950. The notion enshrined in the preamble represents the constitutions objective. On this front where do we stand? Rule of law; liberty of thought; expression, belief, faith and worship; right to information; right to education for children; laws against child labour; child marriage; laws for violence against women etc are some achievements to count.
But we are lacking far behind in its implementation.
Even now cases of child marriage, child labour, violence against women, dowry, communal violence etc are reported daily. Justice is still far away from the reach of the poor people. On the equality front, we are nowhere in achieving this goal. In political! represe ntation and opportunities in government jobs we have set some equality parameters and are doing fine. But more needs to be done.
In respect to equality, the most worrying issue is the ever-increasing gap between the rich and the poor. According to the Planning Commission data, on one hand, 27.5 per cent of our population is living below poverty line and on the other hand, the number of millionaires in the country is increasing by leaps and bounds. The Naxal problem also shows the intensity of existing disparity between the haves and the have-nots.?
Of late decades India's economy has grown at an average annual rate of about seven per cent, reducing poverty by 10 per cent. However, 35 per cent of the world's poor still live in India (according to Wikipedia) and 28 per cent of the country's population continues to live below the poverty line. More than one third of our population lives on less than Rs 45 (a dollar) a day and 80 per cent live on less than two dollars a day. India's recent economic growth has been attributed to the service industry, but 60 per cent of the workforce remains in agriculture.
Unity in diversity is also under threat, with rising demands for separate states (even nation); the incidents like Mumbai-North-Indians story are getting more prevalent day by day. As a democracy India has been by and large successful. Many countries got freedom in the mid-19th century about the same time when
India got its own from the British rule. Many of them failed as a nation-state and are struggling even now to prove that their democracy is going to work properly. There are examples amongst our neighbouring nations where countries have gone under dictatorships and Army rule for the most of its ruling period. If there has been a democratically elected rule, it has been for a very short time and they remain as politically unstable countries.
We have developed as a great democracy with good political culture. The three branches of government, legislative, executive and judiciary a! re very balanced and have been functioning smoothly all through these years except during the emergency crisis in 1975, declared by then the Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
Taking the whole developments and pros and cons all through the years of Republic into account, we come to learn that we have not yet translated the vision and aspirations of the constitution-makers into reality. Their dreams will remain unfulfilled until equality and justice reaches to every citizen of our nation and regionalism, communalism and caste based differences vanish from our society. So lets pledge to take this commitment to make their vision and dreams come true. Only then it will be a real celebration of our being a Republic.
As a democracy, we have achieved quite a lot of the above mentioned aspects enshrined in our constitution. But after 61 years of our Republic we have not yet translated the vision and aspirations of the constitution-makers into reality. Their dreams will remain unfulfilled until equality and justice reaches every citizen of our nation.
We have achieved many milestones in these 61 years to cheer about. That is why we are called the largest democracy of the world. But somewhere down the line we have not met the commitments taken at the time when we adopted the constitution created by ourselves (an elected constitutional committee headed by Dr B R Ambedkar) on January 26, 1950. The notion enshrined in the preamble represents the constitutions objective. On this front where do we stand? Rule of law; liberty of thought; expression, belief, faith and worship; right to information; right to education for children; laws against child labour; child marriage; laws for violence against women etc are some achievements to count.
But we are lacking far behind in its implementation.
Even now cases of child marriage, child labour, violence against women, dowry, communal violence etc are reported daily. Justice is still far away from the reach of the poor people. On the equality front, we are nowhere in achieving this goal. In political! represe ntation and opportunities in government jobs we have set some equality parameters and are doing fine. But more needs to be done.
In respect to equality, the most worrying issue is the ever-increasing gap between the rich and the poor. According to the Planning Commission data, on one hand, 27.5 per cent of our population is living below poverty line and on the other hand, the number of millionaires in the country is increasing by leaps and bounds. The Naxal problem also shows the intensity of existing disparity between the haves and the have-nots.?
Of late decades India's economy has grown at an average annual rate of about seven per cent, reducing poverty by 10 per cent. However, 35 per cent of the world's poor still live in India (according to Wikipedia) and 28 per cent of the country's population continues to live below the poverty line. More than one third of our population lives on less than Rs 45 (a dollar) a day and 80 per cent live on less than two dollars a day. India's recent economic growth has been attributed to the service industry, but 60 per cent of the workforce remains in agriculture.
Unity in diversity is also under threat, with rising demands for separate states (even nation); the incidents like Mumbai-North-Indians story are getting more prevalent day by day. As a democracy India has been by and large successful. Many countries got freedom in the mid-19th century about the same time when
India got its own from the British rule. Many of them failed as a nation-state and are struggling even now to prove that their democracy is going to work properly. There are examples amongst our neighbouring nations where countries have gone under dictatorships and Army rule for the most of its ruling period. If there has been a democratically elected rule, it has been for a very short time and they remain as politically unstable countries.
We have developed as a great democracy with good political culture. The three branches of government, legislative, executive and judiciary a! re very balanced and have been functioning smoothly all through these years except during the emergency crisis in 1975, declared by then the Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
Taking the whole developments and pros and cons all through the years of Republic into account, we come to learn that we have not yet translated the vision and aspirations of the constitution-makers into reality. Their dreams will remain unfulfilled until equality and justice reaches to every citizen of our nation and regionalism, communalism and caste based differences vanish from our society. So lets pledge to take this commitment to make their vision and dreams come true. Only then it will be a real celebration of our being a Republic.
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