The Hindu Business Line : R-Day musings

This, one would imagine, is a hackneyed annual exercise, one which has been repeated ever since the nation was declared a Republic on January 26, 1950.

Without fail, on this day every year resolutions have been adopted for the following twelve months, the hope being that things would be better.

Indeed, for about a quarter of a century following the adoption of the Constitution, matters did improve in most spheres of national life, the pride of place being accorded to economic development.

These were the years during which there was frenetic activity to set up the infrastructure of heavy industry, a preoccupation which, not surprisingly, led to agriculture being accorded a lowly place in the scheme of development policy, which in turn resulted in, among other things, the emergency PL-480 food imports.

In 1975 Indira Gandhi declared Emergency, which subjected the nation to a spasm of “republican dictatorship”, since when the flavour of Republic Day has been “tainted” inexorably by politics.

Sanctity lost

Indeed, in recent years, since the 1990s perhaps, things have come to such a pass that the sanctity of Republic Day — a day on which the people of India began to enjoy the fruits of individual freedom and political choice, the inestimable value of which is only understood by the bonded citizens of a dictatorship — has been lost in the entrails of the game of political one-upmanship, the principal manifestation of which has been horsetrading on the floor of legislative bodies at all levels.

Since the late 1990s, however, politics has taken a “backseat” in the sense that the economic prowess of the nation has leapt into the forefront of what can be termed as “the Indian presence” on the world stage, a development which is actually nothing less than the celebration of Indian entrepreneurship and innovation.

Material ingenuity

The true significance of this latest phase of the evolution of the Indian Republic is to lay bare before the world the fact that the material ingenuity of the people of the subcontinent has remained unimpaired since the time India, or Hindostan, was seen as the land of unbelievable riches by the earliest travellers and traders who visited the place in past ages.

This is an inherent, embedded capability which today is being canalised into new, productive lines with the help of modern production technology and organisation.

In fact, during the past few years, it is this precise flowering that has come to mark indelibly the Indian nation both at home and abroad, the “triumph” coming at the end of a rather long period of struggle (since Independence) with the forces of debilitating political behaviour which, ironically, have grown even stronger with the passage of time.

What this means is that there should be no let-up at this juncture in the Governmental support being extended to allow Indian businessmen and traders to make further inroads in the world market, the fallout of which on the domestic front cannot but be hugely beneficial, as in fact it has already been.

Viewed in this setting, this January 26 was different from the others in view of the fact that the threat to the journey towards economic advancement is a very serious one indeed, generated by the financial turmoil and attendant economic recession that has gripped the world.

The most important thought on Republic Day, therefore, ought to have focused on the economic year ahead, the hope being that on January 26, 2010, the nation will be in a far better position than it is now despite the gloomy forecasts being made about the months ahead.

RANABIR RAY CHOUDHURY