I'm going to make a confession today. Every year without fail the Republic Day spectacle on Rajpath makes me a little teary eyed, and this year was no different. I always feel a little foolish at that little lump that invariably forms in my throat, and I always struggle to hide this from whoever it is I'm watching the parade with!
I'm sure there are many others who feel the same way but never acknowledge it even to themselves because it seems stupidly sentimental and unworldly and naive. True, we are surrounded by scamsters, tax evaders, Swiss bank account holders with crores and crores in black money stashed away safely in them. We are bombarded everyday with news that slowly but surely destroys any hopes we might have that these thugs will be brought to justice.
And yet the pomp and pageantry on Rajpath unfailingly remind me about all that is precious, pride worthy, and beautiful about my country. How can I ignore and close my eyes to the fact that despite the discipline, perfection and brilliance of our armed forces, amply on display on this day every year, the military remains staunchly unpoliticised and loyal to our Constitution? This is just one very good reason why we need to keep celebrating the day we adopted our Constitution, the day we committed ourselves to Democracy and the Rule of Law. There are of course a million other reasons including the fact that we are pretty much surrounded by countries that make a mockery of their constitutions, if they have one that is!
On the one hand it saddens me to hear young people sometimes say in despairing, disparaging and cynical tones, "Yeh India hai, yahan kuch bhi ho sakta hai", but then on the other, I feel better when I remember what a very senior, sophisticated, brilliant bureaucrat said in the days following the terrorist attacks on Parliament some years ago. She said and I quote "I cried because I was so hurt that our Parliament had been desecrated and attacked and that they had wanted to destroy it."
And now that I have confessed to crying a little as I watch the parade every January 26, let me also confess that it feels wonderful to shed my cynicism about India, if only for a couple of hours every year! I want to say to all those jaded young Indians, "Try it, it feels good!"
I'm sure there are many others who feel the same way but never acknowledge it even to themselves because it seems stupidly sentimental and unworldly and naive. True, we are surrounded by scamsters, tax evaders, Swiss bank account holders with crores and crores in black money stashed away safely in them. We are bombarded everyday with news that slowly but surely destroys any hopes we might have that these thugs will be brought to justice.
And yet the pomp and pageantry on Rajpath unfailingly remind me about all that is precious, pride worthy, and beautiful about my country. How can I ignore and close my eyes to the fact that despite the discipline, perfection and brilliance of our armed forces, amply on display on this day every year, the military remains staunchly unpoliticised and loyal to our Constitution? This is just one very good reason why we need to keep celebrating the day we adopted our Constitution, the day we committed ourselves to Democracy and the Rule of Law. There are of course a million other reasons including the fact that we are pretty much surrounded by countries that make a mockery of their constitutions, if they have one that is!
On the one hand it saddens me to hear young people sometimes say in despairing, disparaging and cynical tones, "Yeh India hai, yahan kuch bhi ho sakta hai", but then on the other, I feel better when I remember what a very senior, sophisticated, brilliant bureaucrat said in the days following the terrorist attacks on Parliament some years ago. She said and I quote "I cried because I was so hurt that our Parliament had been desecrated and attacked and that they had wanted to destroy it."
And now that I have confessed to crying a little as I watch the parade every January 26, let me also confess that it feels wonderful to shed my cynicism about India, if only for a couple of hours every year! I want to say to all those jaded young Indians, "Try it, it feels good!"
