India celebrated 75th Anniversary of Republic in 2025: Both voter & vote seeker must ‘introspect’ & pledge for making the ‘Best’ still Better

Pledge to undo amendments made to Art-74 in 1976 and 1978 to strengthen safeguards for protecting, preserving & defending COI

DAYA SAGAR

Although Indians had been handed over a very weak economy by the British but still the Indian ‘elders’ who had been given the task of drawing the future governing system in independent India ‘Dominion’ successfully ventured into making India constitutionally land as an Independent Democratic Republic with a socialist order where head on responsibility was also to be taken by the state to equip the common Indian with adequate education and health through state owned & run education institutions and health care institutions ( Art- 46. Promotion of educational and economic interests of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and other weaker sections; Art- 41. Right to work, to education and to public assistance in certain cases; Art 340. Appointment of a Commission to investigate the conditions of backward classes, Art-341Scheduled Castes, Art-342 Scheduled Tribes; Art -335. Claims of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes to services and posts.) .

No doubt governments have all, these years spent billions of rupees out of state exchequer on health and education infrastructure in public sector. But have the benefits really reached the target classes / masses we must assess this day. How far the social and educational backwardness has reduced over more than 75 years for which we had kept the target to nearly end the reservations in the legislature by 1960 and then to have some review for making revised policies to fill any deficiencies left worth support. Similarly how far we have succeeded in providing reservation support in services and higher education institutions to socially & educationally backward masses need be truthfully explored.
Surely we shall not find the status encouraging since even after 71/2 decades the provisions have not been made to reach a very large mass of the targeted beneficiaries even when
India appears having progressed reasonably ahead economically when one sees the way the automobile population has swollen . If we go by the disclosures being made by the men who matter in recent years nearly 23 Cr citizens have been brought above poverty line and there are still over 80 cr people who need be supported with free 5 kg ration per capita per month. That means out of 140 Cr population we still have over 100 cr people who are very poor and surely 90 % of these should be educationally backward ( economically too) at today’s world standards and hence forming a very large bulk of population belonging to SC & ST too. Ofcourse large population would be healthwise also still dependent. No doubt to some on GDP basis to us we may appear to be a very large economy but we need to assess our achievements & status on the basis of our economic strength / GDP per capita basis and take the challenge for taking the educationally -economically backward members of our society to self supporting levels which our elders had slated as a mission while handing over to us the reins of India Democratic Republic.
So this Republic Day let us also pledge to work for accomplishing the task of removing the educational backwardness of Indian masses for whom our elders had also kept ‘temporary ‘ props like reservations in professional colleges , government services and legislature. Let us keep the issues and requirements of the backward classes out of political gamesman ship and also truthfully operate the government schools and hospitals to provide competitive schooling and health to our masses for which where we are already spending huge sums but have to make those employed there in to work worth the wages they are being paid. Bulk of Indian people only need that those employed in schools should only teach sincerely.
Social organizations should take the leads and should become eyes and ears of the political leaderships worth providing them unbiased feedback and support so that they shift their from “vote catching” traits more to servicing the voter citizen. . Jai Hind
(The writer is a Sr Journalist, analyst J&K affairs and Social Activist)