We speak of dirty politics, increasing crime rate, growing terrorism, employment problem and so many more. Still our eyes go wet with the sentiments our patriotic songs invoke; Deep inside in all of us we feel proud when India beats England in cricket, when an Indian wins the international beauty pageant, when we are rated among the most intelligent species, because that’s the emotion that bonds so many diversified religions and people.
Independence is freedom; it is following your heart with an approval of your mind. India has undergone a breakthrough transformation over the last sixty years since independence with achievements and unmet challenges. Sixty years may not be a long era in a nation's history but considering the turbulent times through which India has passed since independence, it has acquitted itself a respectable name globally.
The rapid pace of growth has induced international interest in India to be recognized as a rising economic power in Asia. While a country of over one billion people, with growing per capita incomes, is viewed by the richer nations as a huge market for goods and services have already drawn droves of foreign investors and multi-national firms to its attractions. Be that as it may, there are far more basic and pressing problems for India to tackle at home -social and economic - where limited and disjointed initiatives may not make much of an impact on deep-rooted problems of poverty and unemployment. The country as a whole has to be galvanized for massive efforts in revival of agriculture and infrastructure building, resolving attendant difficulties.
India is also shifting its focus on improving quality at different levels of learning, institutional and infrastructural problems to increase the literacy level. India, with all its stability as a state, faces serious challenges in internal security with the rise terrorism to which the country is now exposed. Economic and social policies have to be fine-tuned in a way that is acceptable to the broad mass of the people in terms of social purpose and are workable involving community cooperation at decentralized levels.
India seems to be ready to play by the rules set by other powerful nations such as in the quest of energy security. While we may gloat over our growing international image, India is among the emerging nations called upon to undertake obligations with advanced nations. India should once again become a generator of ideas and an active campaigner for an equitable international order, economic and political.
Sixty is like one has completed the half century cautiously in cricket and pacing up for the big score. No country is perfect and India too, with its imperfections, is fighting hard to become a country where all Indians could proudly say, ‘India is my nation.’