Let Us Make India A Strong Republic
Every year, we celebrate 26th January as our Republic Day. It is the day when in 1950, our beloved nation, our India (Bharat), had become the Sovereign Republic. India became an independent country on 15th August 1947, but its own constitution came into effect only on 26th January 1950. Thus, 26th January is the birthday of the largest democracy on the earth. It is a matter of pride for us to celebrate this important national day. We should also note that this is the day to remember and pay tribute to thousands of great men and women who sacrificed their lives for our country's freedom and dedicated themselves to making it a progressive democracy that stands as a shining example for the world.
This is the day to pledge to adopt the values of liberty, equitability, unity, amity, and justice for all, established by our honorable constitution. We should resolve to respect and sincerely follow its system of law. Our constitution has provided us enormous freedom, like freedom of speech, freedom of faith, etc.; it has endowed us with many privileges; but associated with the rights, there also come some duties! We should understand that negligence of our responsibilities towards the nation, toward the society, is also like an unlawful activity. We must remember and also make others aware of the fact that alert, patriotic and duty-bound citizens are the real strength of a democracy.
Some of our countrymen misuse the freedom of speech, freedom of expression, freedom of religion; they give objectionable public addresses that amount to propagating anti-national feelings; they dare abusing our own parliament and our own constitution. The anti-India agenda and proxy wars of enemies across the border are directly or indirectly supported and encouraged by such 'liberals,' self-styled 'secular' forces, and extremists. The strictest possible legal actions should be taken against such hidden enemies of the nation. We also must remain vigilant and prevent the expansion and ill-intended projects/activities of such elements in our society.
Enlightenment of the Masses
Progressive society lays the foundation of a progressive nation. Our country is, no doubt, rapidly progressing on many global fronts. However, the prevalence of many blind customs, backward traditions, and unjust practices in many sectors of our society continues to pull it backward and prevent the real benefits of the development. These should be uprooted by collective efforts.
Educated and progressive citizens have this responsibility to enlighten the masses and collectively oppose heinous practices like female feticide, gender-inequality, dowry, violence, and other crimes against women. All these are legally punishable offenses; however, the timely and full implementation of the law is often hindered in want of evidence and witnesses, or many times the victims' own family is fearful, or it discourages lodging of a complaint. Spreading awareness about the laws, garnering the support of more and more people to speak out openly against such crimes, and lawfully enforcing implementation of the law by the concerned authority, is, therefore, most important.
Gender-sensitive education, cultured upbringing, mass-awareness, mass-education, and constructive projects of women empowerment would be necessary and promising for healthy progress and strong edifice of our society and our nation. It may not be possible for everyone to do something on their own in this regard. However, we all, the responsible citizens of India, can certainly join, support, and participate in the grass-root programs/projects undertaken by some apolitical organizations like "All World Gayatri Pariwar" to transact our earnest duties toward our society, our nation.
The social disparity in the name of caste and creed, extreme imbalance in economic status — with narrow strata of the society living in extravagant, lavish life-styles, while major sections of the middle class striving for a better living, and still larger sections suffering poverty, are also some serious problems that challenge the viable development and strength of our country. Together with far-sighted plans of economic growth, elimination of the 'cancers' of corruption and nepotism, and expansion of self-reliant education would be essential to remove such long-standing obstacles in our nation's holistic progress.
Despite the fundamental right to education (provided under Sections 29-30 of our constitution), a large proportion of our masses is still uneducated; child-labor and exploitation of the illiterates continue to exist even after seven decades of our independence. More and more educated citizens will have to come forward so that this mass-awareness, teaching, and learning process could continue in a productive way to serve the worthy purpose of basic education.
Enlightening the masses about their rights and duties, health and hygiene, the correct approach to making their living and surroundings better; teaching, encouraging, and even supporting them to become self-dependent, are vital for viable development. Recent programs and ongoing projects of women's self-help groups, women's cooperative movements, women's education, gender-sensitivity in education and at workplace, some quota for admission of under-privileged children in good public-schools for primary education (under Right-to-Education), multi-faceted skill development, boosting of entrepreneurship and "Atma Nirbhar Bharat", etc., are some excellent initiatives in this direction. Our collective enthusiasm and whole-hearted participation in these would significantly accelerate their success and enhance the glory of our nation.
A nation's culture resides in the hearts and the soul of its people. — Mahatma Gandhi
Every Indian should now forget that he is a Rajput, a Sikh, or a Jat. He must remember that he is an Indian. — Sardar Patel