From: bond@jupiter.sun.csd.unb.ca (Girish Bonde)
Subject: A meaningless Golden Jubilee.
Organization: University of New Brunswick
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1992 19:56:44 GMT

                        "A meaningless Golden Jubilee"
                         ============================
         An Editorial from "The Pioneer" (New Delhi), August 11, 1992.
     ---------------------------------------------------------------------

     Mrs. Aruna Asaf Ali, who unfurled the flag of  Indian  nationalism  at
     Bombay's Gowalia Tank Maidan 50 years ago, heralding the start of what
     is perhaps the most glorious chapter of Congress' history,  the  "Quit
     India movement", was not being gratuitous when she recently said, "The
     young today do not have the idealism we had." The last of  the  Indian
     freedom struggle's old guard might as well have added that the lack of
     idealism is the reflection on the political ethos of the day. The fire
     and  zeal that moved hundreds of thousands of people across the length
     and breadth of the Indian  nation  to  come  out  on  the  streets  in
     response  to  Mahatma Gandhi's "Do or Die" slogan died an early death.
     With carpetbaggers taking charge of free India's destiny,  it  is  not
     surprising  that  the  post-independence  generation  should have been
     deprived of  the  legacy  of  the  1942  movement  which  rattled  the
     standard-bearers  of  the  Raj  and  finally  proved proved untrue the
     imperialist claim that the sun never sets on the British empire.

     The pious platitudes that were proffered by the Prime Minister  during
     Sunday's  celebrations  to  mark the golden jubilee of the "Quit India
     movement" exemplifies how meaningless the past has  become  for  those
     presiding  over  the nation's future. Rather than use the occasion for
     honest introspection and to  revitalise  India's  sovereignty,  leader
     after  leader  sought refuge in banality and inane speeches to paint a
     halo aroung their heads. While the parody that was staged at the  his-
     torical  site in Bombay may have provided some comic relief in an oth-
     erwise grim socio-economic scenario, it has by  no  means  fooled  the
     beleaguered  people  of  the country. For, the comman man for whom the
     Mahatma took on the might of the Brtish empire,  is  fullly  aware  of
     national  tragedy.  Captured between the loot and plunder, the subter-
     fuge and political chicanery, to which the powerful and the rich  have
     resorted  to without any let or hindrance, Indians can only dispair of
     the promised fraternity, equality and liberty.

     Indeed, if proof were needed to show how far those ruling  the  nation
     have travelled from the dream that inspired the "Quit India movement",
     it is best found in the multi-crore-rupee securities scandal. The very
     fact that individuals who were honoured and lionised by the Government
     are now found to have been plotting and scheming how to loot the coun-
     try,  is  a telling comment on today's Congress. The official celebra-
     tions are clearly a travesty of the nation's history,  played  out  on
     public  platforms  to  the  aplause of the Harshad Mehtas, the Chandra
     Swamis, the Krishnamurthys and the Win Chadhas of the world. They  are
     a travesty of the cherished goal of Swadeshi which has been sacrificed
     at the altar  of  the  IMF  and  the  World  Bank.   Standing  at  the
     crossroads of August 1992, every Indian must ask the question- both to
     himself and those whom he keep in comfort - is this why an entire gen-
     eration sacrificed everything at its command?
     ======================================================================

Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian,talk.abortion