Brig (Retd) K.G.Behl
President, All India Consumer Council & SNS,
Uttarakhand
Independence Day is celebrated to remember and pay our tributes to the heroes who suffered and even laid their lives to achieve the Independence, the fruits of which we are enjoying today. We celebrate this day by unfurling the National Flag and singing the National Anthem and other National songs to instill and imbibe in all the spirit to work together to keep this Independence alive, maintain it and further refine it to suit our present day needs. On this day we eulogize the deeds and lives of those who were instrumental in achieving Independence and draw inspirations to work in the same spirit to maintain and further nurture it.
Our freedom fighters drew inspirations from all above and Mahatma Gandhi became the cementing force to bring them all under one banner of Ahimsa, which scared British, Of course leaders like Sardar Bhagat Singh and colleagues kept on showing their guts to strengthen freedom struggle and leaders like Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose raised Armed Forces abroad to give another dimension to the freedom fight. But surprisingly all paid full respects to Gandhiji under whose command the whole freedom movement was carried out and got success.
We have to vow today to revive this spirit and give our National leaders their true honour and respect. They should in no case be linked with any party or section. They are above all politics and should be respected at every platform. There are a galaxy of leaders right from Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit JawaharLal Nehru, Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, Shahid Bhagat Singh, and his colleagues, Lala Lajpat Rai, Udham Singh, Maulana Azad, Dr. Rajendra Prasad, Rajgopalachari, Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan and many others who sacrificed their lives for the country. In addition we remember leaders like Dr. Bheemrao Ambedkar & other legal experts who drafted the constitution of India. There are many who sacrificed their lives, unwept, unheard and unhonoured, to achieve Independence for the Country. We must read their lives and try to eulogize and practice what they did for the country.
The youth of today are feeling restless and under the circumstances get violent on slightest provocation on minor issues which the politicians and others exploit. The youth have to see that they do not fall in the traps of anti National leaders, for minor allurements, whose main aim is to achieve power and are not bothered about the ways and means to get those and not welfare of the people. Such elements are creating problems and one has to watch them carefully and keep them at their proper places. Students have to be guided so that they do not become preys of such anti National elements and spoil their careers and future. They must realize that slightest blot at this budding stage can mar their future. They should avoid joining such hooliganism which destroys the very foundations on which we stand. It takes years to build but no time to destroy and feel helpless when those very facilities are denied to us which we ourselves destroyed with our own hands. Well, it becomes too late to realize.
We should never forget that we have taken the responsibility of not only maintaining independence but to take development works to take the country ahead as dreamt by those who laid their life for it.
Self realization is the only way out and to act selflessly for the good of the Nation is the true act. Every action has to be weighed in terms of Nation and all activities which are anti- National has to be stopped. One should not take law into their own hands but allow that to take its own course.
We have to resolve on this auspicious day to work selflessly for the good of the Nation through strict governance and raising moral values. The corruption rampant in the society has to be uprooted and it is the younger lot when filled with selfless spirit and Nationalistic ideas can achieve this with ease. They have not to get scared of what others do. They have to carry on their own duties without fear or favour and the results will automatically flow. Like the struggle for Independence difficulties will certainly come but those have to be faced boldly to tide over the situation All of us have to resolve on this Independence Day to fight this menace and bring back country to its old glory in the comity of Nations.
