Has India achieved what our founding father dreamt after 72 years

of Independence?
The Swaraj of my...our...dream recognizes no race or religious
destinations. Nor is it to be the monopoly of the lettered persons nor yet of
moneyed men. Swaraj is to be for all, including the farmer, but
emphatically including the maimed, the blind the starving toiling millions.
We should wipe away tears from every eye. I quoted an excerpt from a
book called “And I see a new India arising right here ...right now!” The 4
lines underline what the hearts of our founding fathers wanted us to
achieve after independence. But we in a race of power, money, greed and
organised loot have subdued the core ethics over our materialistic
pleasures.
Warm greeting to one and all present here.
The swaraj we are enjoying today didn’t come free of cost. Thousands of
people have shed their life and blood for us to have a better future without
thinking of their state. Freedom is never dear at any price. It is the breath
of life. What would a man not pay for living? We are the fortunate ones to
be born in an independent India where we don’t have the opportunity to
die for the nation, at least we have a great opportunity to live for our
nation to fulfil the dreams of our founding fathers. But sadly, though we
have heard and seen minimal change towards this dream, decades have
been wasted in meeting the personal demands of few privileged ones.
Today we stand in a society where caste, societal background, money,
economic inequality has ruled over humanity, ethics and equality. Though
we have seen consistent efforts from various Govts from time to time we
have failed to achieve radical change and have a paradigm shift to what
our fathers wanted this nation to be. From independence we have come a
long way, socially and economically but yet to attain our position yet.
Gandhiji had said, “The day a woman can walk freely on the roads at
night, that day we can say that India has achieved Independence”. This
was Gandhiji’s idea of Ram Rajya. But I say this with utmost regret and
displeasure that a woman is raped every 20 mins in this country. And the
worse part is only 1 out of 4 of these cases leads to conviction. This nation
or perhaps a particular segment of society still see women through this
prism. And thanks to our slow judiciary, though we are having a death
sentence in force for this crime, we don’t have a societal fear among these
men. Bal Gangadar tilak had said freedom is my birth right and I shall
have it. Though we have all provisions, sections, articles and clauses for
this, we see in our society people murdered for communal hatred, for
religious beliefs and for establishing a fear among the other religion. Was
this the dream of our Founding fathers? India, widely known as a country
of diversity is also a country of contrasts because though our law books
aim at destroying one evil element, the other takes its place with much
more cruelty. Yes, I agree that we have moved a long way since
independence in various aspects, I also wish to say that we have to walk in
a different direction with a radical change in our hearts so that our future
generations don’t repeat what I am saying now.
Can India be called as a developed nation with a crime rate exceeding the
avg world crime rate? With every societal fear which persists among
individuals, with caste based benefits transfer rather than the needy based
benefits transfer and at last can this nation be called as a developed nation
without having the vision of our founding fathers as a base for the future
of this vibrant nation which is rich by nature but poor by people.
By saying these lines I’d like to conclude my stand stating India hasn’t
achieved what our founding fathers wanted even after 72 years of
Independence.