Being Republic !!

“A Salute of 31 guns and unfurling of the Presidential flag over Government House will herald the historic birth of the Indian Republic, 894 days after this country became a dominion by withdrawal of British power.”

This is the first sentence on front page of The Times of India, (Bombay edition), January 26, 1950. For reading full page, log on to http://www.indiapoised.com/india_bestoftimes_best.htm. 47 years have passed since then…..two generations indeed, and this country have seen enough of ups and downs.

For us, the day has got its own importance………creation of impulsive patriotism when we look at Republic Day parade or the Tiranga or even our calendar which shows Jan 26. But do we need such instances or days like Jan 26/Aug 15 to build so called Indian-ness which is like a quantum of current flowing thru our body for few moments…… even a movie like Rang De Basanti can do the job for 3 hours.

I think we have to start thinking some thing different now……… the crying need of the hour is to develop the tempo sparked by Big 5 (Manmohan, Chidambaram, Reddy, Narasimha Rao, Ahluwalia) some fifteen years ago, when our reserves declined to a week of imports. Some of us start looking at the calendar months ago…….when is Jan 26^th…..Oh !! gr8, its Friday man….and Jan 30 is Moharram….wow..that means Friday to Tuesday gap..with one break of Monday. Give me a break!! We are not school going kids cursing Mondays and praying for Sundays. I may sound a bit of party-spoiler…..but the truth is that we need to put in extra for gaining something extra…..

Our Gross Domestic Production figures have touched $700 billion, so that means if on that day we are not working, we are loosing approximately $ 2 billion for each non working day (and if you inculcate present value of all future investments of this amount….this cud be a huge figure). Banks are not working……millions are lost in transactions……machines are not producing goods……..

Remember we are the youngest nation in the world with average age of 27 years, expected to be 24 years by 2015. We should not forget how Japan developed itself after World War 2…… the hunger to stay ahead of America. Yes, we need to show the world where we stand….what true India is…. but for that we don’t need false shows and impulsive patriotism………we have to fulfill basic needs – empower our people. We talk of retail and telecom boom, but that has become possible only when middle class population is growing at 30% and percentage of BPL population has declined to about 18% from 25% and is expected to reach a level of 12% by 2010. The true meaning can only come out when we act together and lay emphasis on true meaning of being REPUBLIC:

R – Rural upliftment: this is where our future is as growth will be driven by these markets when it get saturated in urban areas. One in every eighth inhabitant of the Earth lives in some Indian village and this is where the entire world is looking at.

E – Education of general masses and Energy sufficiency

P – Political Stability

U – Unlocking the free flow of entrepreneurial ideas with emphasis on innovation

B – Bonding of all communities and regions. There should not be any Maharashtra Vs Bihar or General Category Vs Reserved Category

L – Look Forward approach: The Yes factor

I – Infrastructure Development

C – Capital markets development to boost trade, research, merchandise and ultimately - productivity

"Where the mind is without fear and the head held high;

Where knowledge is free;

Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;

Where words come out from the depth of truth;

Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;

Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;

Where the mind is led forward by Thee into ever-widening thought and action;

Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake."

- Rabindra Nath Tagore

Tagore prayed to awaken the country. India – the caged tiger was awakened many times earlier, be it 1857, 1947, 1950 or 1991, but could not gather the required pace. Let this tiger go out in the jungle and its roar be heard to entire world.

Amen !!

Gantantra Diwas ki shubhkamnao ke saath ……………….