India took small steps to become one of the largest democracies in the world, overcoming many challenges to gain global recognition. India has come a long way since independence, avoiding many right and wrong decisions, and leaving behind many landmarks that define its journey from the agony of partition to a strong, powerful, and developing nation. In recent decades, India is gradually climbing up the international space and due to this its global influence as a major superpower of the world is also visible. In the last four decades, it has emerged as a formidable force and India has also achieved great heights. Due to this, the center of economic power in the world has started shifting from Europe and North America to Asia. Despite emerging as a dominant force, India is often mired in ideological bickering. This is the reason why there is a difference between the bright future of the country and reality. While India meets key points in the process of becoming a superpower, it falls short due to domestic issues in the wider international context. Although many of India’s leaders failed to carry the momentum and avoid a socio-political crisis, it was also a matter of lack of political will and commitment. Due to the diversity in India, it is hard to come across anywhere. However, efforts to incorporate Article 44 into the Uniform Civil Code (UCC), ie Uniform Civil Code, faced resistance from conservative sections, who claimed that it would lead to communal disharmony. Like water, language changes over kilometers in India. Hence, bringing Hindi as the only official language was difficult and saw violence and heated debates such as the Tamil Nadu anti-Hindi agitations in 1965. The Population Control Bill of 2019, which was to be withdrawn in 2022, is the Population Control Act. The two-child policy has been introduced in Parliament 35 times since independence. These drafts were heavily criticized by the general public. Agricultural economists and other stakeholders have been advocating agricultural market reforms for decades.
This made the government hesitant about going ahead again in stealth mode with three major farm reform laws that were repealed to avoid a crisis. Rules on labor code deferred to date. The code would result in lower take-home pay and easier layoffs. Undoubtedly, the government will have to tread very carefully on the path of reform. The first in the success of a democracy is to make voting compulsory, as has been done in at least 30 democracies, which has increased the turnout to more than 90 percent. At present, the voting percentage in India is low. The blatant misuse of IPC section 124A is a travesty but most political parties do not want this provision of the law to be removed. The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act must use the State Armed Police and the Central Para-Military Police. There is a strong case for repealing the Act to move armed forces from civilian areas of Jammu and Kashmir and the Northeast near the international border to deal with infiltrators, mercenaries, terrorists, and terrorists.
Given the political interference and inadequacies in the police investigation, the time has come for India to make a structural change from the accusatory system to the inquisitorial system practiced in Europe since colonial times. Justice VS. Malimath has also suggested the same in his report on the Reform of the Criminal Justice System. India is still undecided on genetically engineered or genetically modified organism (GM) crops for GM food crops.
Political will is lacking to adopt and implement a modern agricultural policy framework including biotechnology to address the country’s food security concerns. The political establishment has distanced itself from the political activist movement. Despite the socio-political unrest in India many hard decisions and reforms were taken by the leaders during the 1991 reforms the political will of the leaders should be remembered. We applaud the leadership that saved India from “falling off the cliff” and managed reforms under compulsion to fund and bank with the looming balance of payments crisis.
The Green Revolution in India in the 1960s saw an increase in food grain production with the development of highyielding varieties of wheat and pulses. The 1976 mass vasectomy campaign was started by Sanjay Gandhi and in one year around 6.2 million men were sterilized, in which around 2000 people died due to the surgery. In 1990, the whole country was in the grip of protest against the VP Singh government giving government jobs based on the birth reservation to some castes, yet the decision continued. India conducted nuclear bomb tests at Pokhran in 1998, with the codename “Operation Shakti”, a tough decision under global pressure to disarm. This made India a complete nuclear nation. In 2016, the government announced the demonetization of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes. Many farmers, traders, and youth sections were all agitating but as a step against black money it was pushed forward the Goods and Services Tax: It was the resultant tax after subsuming the major central and state taxes. Solving the Kashmir Riddle The abrogation of Article 370 for the full integration of the state was long overdue and should have been done years ago to set the record straight on the situation in J&K.
One of the most important lessons postindependence is that the process of reforms has to be more consultative, more transparent, and better communicated to potential beneficiaries. It is inclusiveness that is at the heart of India’s democratic functioning. Given the argumentative nature of our society, it takes time and humility to implement reforms. But doing so ensures that everyone wins. To make India develop, we need to work sincerely and sincerely in five major areas. These include agriculture and food processing, education and health security, information and communication technology, reliable electronic power, and self-reliance in critical technology. These five areas are not only related to each other but also influence each other. So there should be better coordination among them. It is also very important for the economic and national security of the country. Along with this, we should also have this positive thinking that we can bring good change in our country only by inventing something new because only science and technology can bring human welfare, peace, and prosperity.
Even the smallest corruption has a direct impact on the public. India has started talking about realizing the dream of a corruption- free India. India, once interested in films and sports, now wants to become a corruption-free country. Even today there are many places in India where girls are not allowed to study just because they are girls. Even so, it would not be wrong to say that every citizen of this country is not free. If the country is really to move forward, then gender discrimination has to be abolished. Today’s India is troubled by many small crimes along with big crimes like murder, rape. Somewhere unemployment is also a big reason behind these crimes, but crime can be controlled by changing thinking and providing employment. The country is not as Hindu-Muslim as it appears on social media.
Today’s India is not going to be misled by anyone. Things like giving priority to the country by taking decisions based on their conscience came to the fore in the people of changing India. No country can progress without literacy. In such a situation, only if everyone is educated, freedom from all problems can be found. Along with literacy, increasing unemployment across the country gives the youth a feeling of slavery, when will they be free from it? Immersed in the celebration of Amrit Mahotsav, where do we stand today? would think.
(Writer is Poet, freelance journalist and columnist, All India Radio and TV panelist. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the newspaper.)
