Turning Sixty

Well our independent nation turns sixty tomorrow. The media will take this opportunity to draw up a score card of what has been achieved and what might have gone seriously wrong in these years of independence. I can't remember whether I read it somewhere or someone has related this incident but I heard of a person being quite taken aback by a book entitled Three Thousand Years of Pakistani History! Well actually when we keep refering to the thousands of years of Indian history we should be similarly struck by the incongruity of the phrase as what we know as India is only sixty years old.
That consideration apart, I was just thinking of all that we have achieved as a nation. Quite a lot really when we look as the economics of it and then may be quite a lot still needs to be done. This nation was created amidst severe violence and communal strife and the violence latent in the people is finding new forms of expression. Consider the news headings of the last few days_ Taslima Nasreen attacked by Islamic fundamentalists in full view of the media and no sign of repentence and no retribution for the perpetrators, pandemonium at MCD meeting with counsillors fighting like common street goons and more alarmingly a young mother of two doused in kerosene and burnt in front of her own house not in some remote village but in the heart of the capital of this country. I ask you if this is not violence what is? The new incarnation of non-violence -Gandhigiri is forgotten in less time than the teachings of the original Mahatma. The most scarey part is that the perpetrators do not for one moment think themselves to be in the wrong or they are smug in the belief that they will not be punished for their act. Such is the disregard for ahimsa and compassion for others that children, youth or women no one is spared from violence and tyranny.
What is the nation coming to?Are we scripting our end even before we complete a century?For violence can only reap violence and death and destruction follows. On this auspicious day I pray for sanity and the rise of humanity among the people of my country, may we think twice before harming others in any way may we be able to bring lasting peace and prosperity in the country. Jai Hind!