REPUBLIC DAY

Flashback. January 26, 1950. You probably aren’t even born now. Neither am I. But those who are around will witness an epic moment in the history of India. Rather, the Republic of India. And so the Constitution that would be revered, in the days to come, as one of the longest and the most successful in the world comes into play.

Why is this so significant when there already are so many other republics running successfully? I’ll tell you why. This is because, in the years to come, this Constitution will govern and shelter the largest democratic population of the world. It will crown India as the most successful democracy. Amongst all the protests, wars, emergencies, attacks, you name it, it will stay strong and keep us all united. It will give us equal rights and duties, will feed us faith, and will take India from chaos to glory and, gradually, to infinite possibilities. It will fill the hearts of the people with hope that tomorrow will be better than today. In the next 60 years, India will never look back and will climb to heights so great that nobody will ever predict.

Today. We have earned our freedom. We have earned our sovereignty. We have indeed come a long way. And in this long journey India has forgotten her heroes. She has forgotten the values upon which she was built, and the vision of those great men who lived and died for their nation. Now she lives and breathes not in the faces of the farmers and workers who helped build this nation up, but in the vaults of rich businessmen and bureaucrats. She has come a long way indeed but, somewhere in the way, she has lost her course and has trickled away into the grey corridors.

But the people are now fighting back. They are rightfully asking their government to give them their rights, and they are making the government realize that it is answerable to them. Government is, after all, for the people, of the people and by the people. The people who have been wronged against are initiating their own battles, protesting that they’ve had enough and that they can’t be misled anymore. People like Anna Hazare inspire courage and determination and awe and thus thousands follow his trail. Yes, we will create an India free of corruption and anarchy. If you change nothing, nothing will change. WE CAN. WE WILL.

This Republic Day, let us all take a break from our daily race for bread and butter and let us remember those great men, who’ve led the nation whenever the herd needed a leader. Let us thank them from the bottom of our hearts for the India they’ve given us, and let us again take a pledge to take India forward. The people who framed the Constitution of India had a vision. Let us realize those dreams, let them blend with our hopes, and give them a definitive shape, a potential direction. They can’t be disregarded, because what they have given…nobody can. When was the last time you made your country a republic?