I was listening to the PM’s address to the nation and the first thing he said was “We have achieved much but still we have to fight against poverty.” Though I never heard Nehru’s first address to the nation, I am pretty sure that fighting against poverty was his agenda as well. In fact, this single line was a part of every Address to the nation on the eve of Independence. And we have 64 such addresses!
64 years, and still we are fighting against poverty. 64 years and still more than 250 million people sleep hungry. 64 years and yet 290 million people don’t have access to basic health amenities. 64 years and still 130 million children are out of schools. 64 years and 640 million don’t even have toilets at their home. And we talk about growth and booming economy!
The question is, are we really independent in a true sense? Is this the independence for which Bhagat Singh laid his life? Bhagat Singh was a Socialist who believed in inclusive growth. He always feared that when India attains freedom, the poor farmer would fall into the hands of Zamindars and his exploitation would continue. For him true independence meant equal opportunity for all regardless of caste, creed, region, religion and more importantly money.
But post-independence, farmers did fell into the hands of zamindars. Rich continued to become richer, and poor poorer. Thus, while we became free from the British, we could not free ourselves from the shackles of poverty, the fetish of hunger.
The main problem with us is that all our attention is focused only to a few big cities, the metros of India. We forget that most of the population of this country lives in the villages. And its with their inclusion into the mainstream that our country could really prosper. But instead of giving them equal opportunities and let them shine with a Shining India, we neglect them and let them rot and get wasted.
This neglect is the only reason that we face so many problems, violent protests by farmers, distrust of people in Government and of course Naxalism, to some extent. I’ll give an example to validate my point. How many of us know Sharmila Irom Chanu? How many ever heard her name? I doubt even 10% would know her. But she is fasting for a cause for past 11 years! She has not ate since 3rd November 2000. She is force fed by the police. The cause she is supporting is removal of AFSPA, Armed Forces Special Powers Act from her state Manipur. And she decided to fast when Assam Rifles killed 10 innocent people waiting for a bus at a bus stand, including the National Child Bravery Award winner Sinam Chandramani. The incident took place on 2nd November 2000.
Imagine if this happened in Delhi, whole nation would have come to streets to protest. Candle light vigils would have been organized and it would have been made sure that the guilty are punished. But who cares about Manipur? We see unprecedented support for Anna’s movement and Ramdev’s fast. But Swami Nigmanand died fasting unto death and nobody noticed. He fasted for 115 days for Ganga. But Ganga does not affect a metro citizen who will get pure water, no matter what. In worse case, he’ll have to buy mineral water, that’s all. But what about crores of Indians for whom Ganga is lifeline? The answer is, we simply don’t care. That’s the only reason that such issues don’t capture the national media’s attention.
These people, our fellow citizens, are forced to live under constant denial. Until that won’t change, I don’t think we can call ourselves truly independent, socialist republic. For me, we would achieve complete independence the day, when every child born on this great land is given equal opportunities, regardless of the place where he/she is born.
