Seventy four years had rolled over since India got her Independence! Yet, where do we Indians stand in the global arena? This extract reflects the pale image of reality.
“We have saved Gandhiji for over 30 years although he staged many protests against us. But it is a disgrace that you people (Indians) could not save him for more than 3 months!” pointed out Winston Churchill after Mahatma was assassinated on the 30th January, 1948, three and half months after Freedom!
First, the partition of Pakistan from India triggered of the Ghetto disturbances. It raged on for many days. But Mahatma’s ‘Fast unto death,” brought the communal clashes to a grinding halt. What followed thereafter was a total disgrace: assassination of Mahatma!
India’s economy at that time was in jeopardy. Unemployment problem, oppression of women, child marriage, poverty, illiteracy, malnutrition, starvation, lack of medical facilities – while all these posed the problem, there was this natural calamity, flood, fire, drought, lack of water – all these haunted the innocent people, then.
United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) report appeared before said, that 10,000 children in India die due to malnutrition and lack of medical aid. How shameful! More observation reveals that there are 360 million people live below poverty line (BPL) and 360 million are illiterate! And what is more glaring is that, there exist about 300,000 child prostitutes, mostly in Northern and Western parts of India and that India had been branded as the ‘Sex tourism destination!’
To find a solution for all these, Five Year Plan was implemented in 1951. It surged the nation at snail’s pace. Since then, many Five Year Plans were made. Population increased steadily. More government and private sectors emerged. Transport, communication, irrigation, electricity for every nook and cranny, tractors for tilling and so many advancements were made.
Meanwhile, the war with China in 1962 crippled our growth. When it started to limping, two more wars with Pakistan in 1965 & 1971, once again dented Indian economy. More political parties were floated.
But thanks to the father of green revolution, M S Swaminathan who made miracle in food processing and India attained self-sufficiency. So did Dr. Varghese Kurien, founder of white revolution in milk production. (These two achievements were made by individual Indians and not politicians!)
Today India has improved dramatically and drastically. Nuclear energy, IT, 5 Star hospitals and hotels, more MNCs doing business here, ISRO, defence, equal rights for women, quota system for underprivileged, stressing total integration, TV, mobile phones, computer, internet, metro rail, aviation, education loans, more schools and colleges, thus the improvement is immense.
Tomorrow what will India be? Will it grow into a superpower or remain stagnant? Will the government come forward with a good proposal for all problems? What India would be tomorrow depends on what India government is going to do today!
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