Silly Dreams

In 1931 Sardar Patel said,” No one would starve in independent India. Its grain would not be exported. Clothes would not be imported by it. Its leaders would not use a foreign language and finding justice in it would neither be costly nor difficult.”

Had he been alive today, I am sure he would have regretted fighting for a cause like this. Or if he knew this would be the condition of his beloved country even after 56 years of his much wanted ‘independence’, he would not have bothered to fight for her independence.

Lacks of people starve to death every year in this ‘independent India’. 23 Cr Indians lived below poverty line in 2004-05 and 3 Cr is the estimated number of Indian children who work, making the world’s largest child labour force.
The best quality grain never reaches the people of this country because it is always kept for exports. Exports are never brought down even if our country is facing famine.
Indian cotton is what attracted Britishers but still the clothes we wear on daily basis are imported from China. And the fashion conscious people prefer Armani and D&G to Rohit Bal and Ritu Beri.
Speaking English is still considered as a status symbol in our country and even in our parliament. Any leader who knows even a single line in English will not spare the chance to flaunt it.
And the last point that Sardar Patel wished was justice – neither costly nor difficult. I won’t say it’s the most important thing but I feel it’s in the most rotten and wrecked state today. It’s both costly and difficult. In fact, more than being victimized, it is getting justice that is more tiresome and annoying. Our idea of justice now is actually in a more sorry state than in British rule. In British regime, they gave a good reason, at least, on records for killing a person. But in our ‘independent India’ nobody even needs that. Look at Manu Sharma; he killed Jessica Lal in front of 500 people and even after 7 years after that incident he is as free as you and me. And the most ironic and shameful thing is that he was acquitted because of ‘lack of evidence’!

These things make me less respectful towards the freedom fighters of our country because even if they had not fought for our independence we wouldn’t be in a worse state. At least we would not have felt as much guilt of wounding the dreams of those who gave up their lives for us.

When I read this line in some magazine, I laughed at him and his unrealistic intuition. But now I feel extremely heartfelt sorry for him.