DNA Edit: A wonder that is India

It hasn’t been a smooth ride, and the trajectory has been far from linear. The tumult has been unnerving, and innumerable times it seemed as though this prodigious nation — that rose so boldly, so majestically and despite all odds — would come undone. And yet here we are, marching confidently with large strides in a world that is riven apart, in a world ready to implode in the duel between terrorism and an unsympathetic capitalist machinery, in a world of terrible iniquities and incomprehensible inequalities.

No, one is not so foolhardy to say that we have overcome the myriad challenges that lie before us. Poverty, violence, corruption still bedevil us. Yet, amidst all this, there is cause for joy. A resolute India is finding its feet. A resurgent India is raring to have a go at a world that is in awe of its scientific temper, its business acumen, its intellectual heft and the monumental strength of its young demographic. A New Age is upon India. And naturally age-old institutions of the Socialism bogey and dour notions of planned development are falling by the wayside. The future is open, inviting and challenging. It will find an India that is strong, self-assured and undeterred. Obviously, not all are happy.

Not all see the roadmap of progress. The erstwhile elite coterie, so smug in its proximity to power, so accustomed to compromising the mandate of a desperate people, is now shaking in its boots as the old order is chipping away and their currency has been ‘demonetised’. Now, this coterie leaves no stone unturned in nitpicking, in finding flaws, in reducing India to nothing but a community of conflicting interests. And, like clockwork, in the aftermath of every poll, this group is stung into silence.

The deafening and unambiguous mandate of the Indian people is a befitting reply to their raucous noise. As we forge ahead into the 71st year of India’s Independence, one must take stock of how far we have come. From the legacy of Jawaharlal Nehru, Indians have moved far ahead. It was under his regime that India suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of the Chinese in 1962.

In the minds of Indians it is still a raw nerve, and while much water has flown under that bridge, things haven’t been smoothed over. Unlike then, India is now treading cautiously with a judicious mix of diplomacy and defence.

Another blow to the Indian spirit came in June 1975, when Indira Gandhi unleashed the Emergency on us. Those days, no matter how much Congress would like to state otherwise, are behind us. There is a sea of difference in being elected to power on the back of a rousing mandate as against appropriating power by abusing the Constitution.