Independence Day : Challenges Facing the Nation

EDITORIAL

Independence Day : Challenges Facing The Nation

THE country is observing the 55th independence day on August 15. While celebrating this anniversary and remembering the great sacrifices made for independence by earlier generations, we are also compelled to address the grim forebodings which pervade the atmosphere.

The shadow of Gujarat hangs over this independence day. What has been witnessed in Gujarat from the end of February is an all out attack on the basic values nurtured during the independence struggle. A section of citizens in Gujarat, who belong to the minority community, are homeless, their loved ones brutally murdered, women violated and children made orphans. Worse, there is no guarantee that they can live in peace and security in the coming days as the state government has no intention of treating them as citizens with the same rights as those belonging to the majority community. Such a regime is a blot on independent India. The sooner they are removed and those guilty of the barbaric crimes punished, only then can the image of a secular democratic republic be restored.

The Indian State is now governed by a set of people whose allegiance is to the saffron flag of the RSS. As one of its swayamsewaks, Prime Minister Vajpayee delivers his fifth independence day speech from the Red Fort on August 15, it will be a reminder once again of an irony of history. The very people who stood apart from the freedom movement are today the ones who deliver sermons from the Red Fort. The chameleon-like character of the BJP can hardly mask the truth that their political ideology is at total variance with the inheritance of the freedom struggle.

The millions of the rural people, kisans, agricultural workers and artisans in different parts of the country are suffering under the worst drought since 1987. Despite an unprecedented strain of normal monsoons, one bad year has found the government unprepared to face the drought. The loss of incomes, employment, cattle and the wherewithal to live will lead to an increase in rural poverty and destitution amongst the poorest. The spectacle of 65 million tonnes of foodgrains in the FCI godowns rotting away makes a mockery of Gandhiji's goal of wiping every tear from every eye.

The callous rulers of the BJP and the NDA are unfazed at the sight of this large-scale human misery. They have been busy institutionalising corruption and racketeering. The petrol pump allotments scandal has once again caught them red-handed as in the Tehelka case. Instead of owing up responsibility, they have embarked upon intimidating the media. The Chief Election Commissioner is also trashed as he refuses to abide by their wishes in Gujarat. The authoritarianism of the Hindutva regime is out into the open.

The spirit of independence has been undermined by the pro-imperialist stance of the pseudo-nationalists. The newspapers which played an important role in mobilising the people for freedom struggle are now to be opened up to the foreign capitalists. It seems there can be no limit to the betrayal of India's sovereignty and freedom under BJP rule.

All told, if August 15 is to have any real meaning for the people in the future, they need deliverance from this pestilential regime.

(August 14, 2002)