We celebrate sixty years of our constitution. This is a monumental occassion. Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar as chairman of the Constitution Drafting Committee, was the Chief Architect of Indian Constitution.The Constituent Assembly of India was set up as a result of negotiations between the Indian leaders and members of the British Cabinet Mission. The constituent assembly was elected indirectly by the members of the Provincial legislative assembly.
Part – 1, of our constitution opens like this …. “India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States”. Was it foresight, that they deliberately choose to keep both the names. Sixty years hence we are not much better in clearing this perception. While ’India Shines’ across the world, does Bharat shine equally. Paradoxically we are not one but two countries. While India races forward with its IT poweress and economic consumption, Bharat is still struggling with finding two meals a day. While Indians across the world are bringing about great changes be it in IT or science or research, 70% our countrymen living in the villages of spend four to five unproductive hours every day in the evening and night due to unavailability of electricity. Just imagine how much more productive we could have become had been able to utilize the billion-manhours every day.
A lot of western countries are amazed as to why India was not much affected by the recession. Again we must thank our great nation builders like, Nehru, Patel, Azad, Bidhan Roy, who made great investments in making us self-sufficient and self-reliant today. The first twenty years post independence were the crucial years when we got our basics right. The only thing we have to import today is ‘crude’ to satisfy our energy needs. Just imagine if we had to import food to feed our billions, iron & steel to feed the industries. Yes we got it right (in the centre) whereas the communists, China and Russia opened up their borders to capitalists and the capitalists doled out billions to their private banks in the biggest expression of socialism. (Castro was right half a century back)
Sixty years back our leaders had a selfless vision of nation building. Its the need of the hour today. India generates 1.5 lakh mega watts of electricity today compared to 8 lakh mega watts of China. People in Purulia and many other parts of the rural Bharat, still live on ‘kendu’ and ’mahua’ fruits for five months of the year as well as becoming a ‘begari’. A sizable portion of our population in rural Bharat still live their entire lives under bonded labour. The benifits of the economic revolution should reach all and not only the creamy layer. The time is right for another decade of nation building and positive steps have been taken by the PM. The JNNURM, NREGA, Bharat Nirman Yojna, Gramin Vikas Yojana are steps being taken to make Bharat stronger.
As Detroit finally moves to Chenai and Pune, Silicon Valley to Bangalore, the next decade will see the seat of power move from White House to the Indian Parliament. Jai Hind!!!
