“I am an Indian and India is my Country” - to say these words is not enough and nationhood is much more. We must also know the Country we live in thoroughly.
India boasts one of the oldest, most complex and most fascinating civilisation with a Kaleidoscopic variety and rich cultural heritage
In 3000 years of our history people from all over the world have come and invaded us, captured our lands, conquered our minds. From Alexander onwards. The Greeks, the Turks, the Moguls, the Portuguese, the British, the French, the Dutch, all of them came and looted us, took over what was ours. Yet we have not done this to any other nation. We have not conquered anyone. We have not grabbed their land, their culture, their history and tried to enforce our way of life on them.
Why? Because we respect the freedom of others.
Our first vision is that of FREEDOM. I believe that India got its first vision of this in 1857, when we started the war of independence. It is this freedom that we must protect and nurture and build on. If we are not free, no one will respect us.
Our second vision For India should be DEVELOPMENT. For fifty years we have been a developing nation. It is time we see ourselves as a developed nation. We are among top 5 nations of the world in terms of GDP. We have 10 percent growth rate in most areas. Our poverty levels are falling. Our achievements are being globally recognized today. Yet we lack the self-confidence to see ourselves as a developed nation, self-reliant and self-assured.
Our THIRD vision should be India must stand up to the world. Because I believe that unless India stands up to the world, no one will Respect us. Only strength respects strength. We must be strong not only as a military power but also as an economic power. Both must go hand-in-hand.
We are such a great nation. We have so many amazing success stories but we refuse to acknowledge them. We are the first in milk production.
We are number one in Remote sensing satellites.
We are the second largest producer of wheat.
We are the second largest producer of rice.
There are millions of such achievements but our media is only obsessed in the bad news and failures and disasters. Once In Tel Aviv , the day after a lot of attacks and bombardments and deaths had taken place , the front page of the newspaper had the picture of a Jewish gentleman who in five years had transformed his desert land into an orchid and a granary. It was this inspiring picture that everyone woke up to. The gory details of killings, bombardments, deaths, were inside in the newspaper, buried among other news.
In India we only read about death, sickness, terrorism, crime.
We, as a nation are so obsessed with foreign things.We want foreign TVs, we want foreign shirts. We want foreign technology.
Why this obsession with everything imported?
Do we not realize that self-respect comes with self-reliance?
India is not an under -developed nation; it is a highly developed nation in an advanced state of decay!
We say that the municipality does not pick up the garbage. We say that the phones don't work, the railways are a joke, the airline is the worst in the world, mails never reach their destination.
We say that our country has been fed to the dogs and is the absolute pits. We say, say and say.
What do We do about it?
We wouldn't dare to eat in public during Ramadan, in Dubai.
We would not dare to go out without your head covered in Jeddah.
We would not dare to buy an employee of the telephone exchange in London at 10 pounds (Rs.650) a month to, "see to it that my STD and ISD calls are billed to someone else."
We would not dare to speed beyond 55 mph (88 kmph) in Washington and then tell the traffic cop, "Jaanta hai main kaun hoon (Do you know who I am?). I am so and so's son. Take your two bucks and get lost."
We wouldn't chuck an empty coconut shell anywhere other than the garbage pail on the beaches in Australia and New Zealand.
Why don't we spit Paan on the streets of Tokyo?
Why don't we use examination jockeys or buy fake certificates in Boston?
We are still talking of the same YOU. YOU who can respect and conform to a foreign system in other countries but cannot in your own
When it comes to us actually making a positive contribution to the system we lock ourselves along with our families into a safe cocoon and look into the distance at countries far away and wait for a Mr. Clean to come along & work miracles for us with a majestic sweep of his hand. Or we leave the country and run away. Like lazy cowards hounded by our fears we run to America to bask in their glory and praise their system.
When New York becomes insecure we run to England. When England experiences unemployment, we take the next flight out to the Gulf. When the Gulf is war struck, we demand to be rescued and brought home by the Indian government.. Nobody thinks of feeding the system. Our conscience is mortgaged to money.
India is a rich country in which poor people live, a big country which does not realise its own potential. India must build on its strengths and achieve its potential to become an economic superpower with a good and just society. A number of attitudinal and structural factors, such as lack of national pride, politics based on caste and other identities, a hierarchic and corruption-ridden feudal society and the tendency to reward failure and weakness rather than success and achievement are the major hurdles that are stopping us from achieving our true potential.
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