Salute to our leaders

Our country celebrated its 63^rd Republic day on 26^th January 2012 with great fervour and enthusiasm. This is the day when every Indian remembers about the sacrifices made by our great leaders of the past and the progress made by the nation in the last 65 years. This is also a day which gives us an opportunity to introspect and decide the future course of action and also to take care of the issues we could not take care of during this period along with strengthening the areas of our strength. All will agree that the nation has progressed a lot and the standard of the life of the people has improved. This is clear with the data available to us in terms of the literacy rate which has gone up. The number of children enrolling in the school education, the road network, the IT revolution, science and technology specially the space science, more educated people entering the political arena and the list is long. This may not sound good to many people but I am sure most of you will agree with that. The governments, state bodies as well as the centre has introduced different schemes which have proved to be really beneficial to the general public of the country. There might have been a few problems in the implementation of these schemes but that should not be the reason enough not to realize the impact of these schemes on the life of aam aadmi for the positive. Our nation is one of the very few countries of the world where the people are free to express their views and are heard by their leaders. The constitution of our country has been the guiding light for all of us. The leaders involved in preparing this document have done a great service to the people of the nation who gave us a nation of the people, by the people and for the people. The secular nature of the country is unique and we all are proud of that.  Our great leader Baba Sahib Ambedkar would always be remembered by the people of this country. Our young generation does realize that and it is very much evident when they discuss about the constitution of the country. Sometimes a wrong perception is given by many that this country is full of problems. But the question is that, is the country of century old culture and traditions so weak to let its path of peace and progress get lost so easily? Certainly it is not so and that is proved by the recent problems faced by other countries due to economic slowdown in which so called developed countries faced a grave challenge but our country sailed through the same crisis without much of a problem. If we had not progressed then it would not have been so. Look at our neighbouring countries and it will be clear that so many hostile conditions are created by these countries but we have stood firm on our grounds and progressed. The world today is very complex and in this situation also the whole world looks at us. All these things are there and probably known to all of us but the problem of recent years has been that negatives are  highlighted to an all time high. There have been such a progress happening in the country but only wrong or negative things are reported, highlighted and hyped. As is the human nature, when you talk more of the negatives you tend to feel and become negative. In this condition, even good things appear to be bad. This can be understood by an example. Take the case of a person who is happy with someone around him/her and believes that person is good and positive. Anything said and done by this person will appear to be good to the other person even if that may not be the case. But if the case is opposite, then everything done or said by the other person will appear to be negative or wrong though this may not be so.  In the last few years, our country is flooded with a lot of information through media and other means of communication. This is good but at the same time it becomes a problem too. This will be clear to all of us if we analyze the time spent in discussions for something good done by the people individually or in group and the time spent discussing anything wrong that happened. It is found that negatives are given more time than the positives and if it is so, what would be the impression on the mind of the people? Take the case of the children who are given bravery award on the occasion of the republic day every year. I would like to know how much had we heard about them before? They must have done some brave act that is why they were selected for this award; then why the people and the media did not discuss about them in detail before. After a few days (may be tomorrow itself) they would be forgotten and we shall discuss something else which would be negative. It was heartening to see that some TV channels telecast the talk with the children who were given bravery award this year. But the problem here also was that the anchor was more on the TV screen than the children who were given the award. The other thing observed was that the children were interrupted so many times and some of them were not able to put forward their side properly. May be the TV channel had its own constraint of time and advertisement. But on such important occasions the country and its people must think of the achievements and what has been their contribution in making this better in spite of wasting time in criticizing the government and the leaders and other people. There are so many things which have not been taken care the way these should have been but that also should be discussed in a manner that it does not depress the people but encourage them to take care of such neglected areas of concern also. I mentioned somewhere that we all may not become like many of the great leaders and there is nothing wrong in that but let us try to be the followers of such leaders in the right spirit. Mahatma Gandhi, the father of the nation can be one but nobody stops us to become his follower and a supporting hand for the cause he fought for all through his life.

Let all of us resolve on this day to talk and discuss more about the good and positive things happening in our country and see the change in the attitude of the world towards us. United we shall progress and that should be the reminder to all countrymen on this auspicious occasion . My most sincere felicitations to all the fellow beings and salute to our leaders who gave their present for our future.