Flights Of Fantasy
[ M Panging Pao ]
Tomorrow the nation will celebrate the 75th Independence Day, termed Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav. Independence Day is generally celebrated across the country with parades, cultural shows, prabhat pheris and feisty speeches. This year’s celebrations include the ‘Har Ghar Tiranga’ campaign, urging all houses to fly the national flag all over India.
In some areas of the Northeast, the days around Independence Day are marked by increased security checks due to bandh calls by various organisations harassing many travellers. Nonetheless, in Arunachal Pradesh, Independence Day is always celebrated with pomp and gaiety.
Despite 75 years of independence, are we truly independent? True independence implies self-reliance in food, housing for all citizens. Self-reliance means non-dependence on other nations for basic requirements. Real independence implies universal free education and free healthcare. It may also include essential services like stabilised electricity, water supply, etc. It may not be too idealistic to include fundamental rights like free speech, secularism, pluralism, etc.
Seventy-five years post independence, India still has 21.9 percent population below the poverty line. The literacy rate of India is 74 percent, which is below the literacy rate of China, Sri Lanka and Myanmar. In life expectancy, India is ranked 125th with life expectancy of 69.6 years, below those of Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal. In the healthcare index, India ranks 66, below Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. According to the Corruption Index of Transparency International, India ranks 85th place out of 180 countries. India is also the second most unequal country in the world with the top one percent of the population owning nearly 60 percent of the total wealth.
India also imports most military weapons like aircraft, ships, tanks, submarines, weapons and ammunition, and thus is dependent on other nations. Rafale is the latest fighter aircraft imported from France.
Similar figures for Arunachal are also not so good. The poverty rate of Arunachal is 34.67 percent and the literacy rate is 66.95 percent, which is third from bottom. Arunachal has also one of the highest figures of unemployment in the country with figures of about 73 per 1,000. These figures combined with lack of stabilised electricity and poor infrastructure like roads, water supply, etc, makes life of an average Arunachali harder than others.
Except for a few items, Arunachal depends on others for most of its requirements of food, clothes, groceries, pen, paper, soap, etc – almost all products. Even for Covid-19 pandemic, most essential items like PPEs, sanitisers, masks and testing kits are imported from other places, including China.
It is acknowledged that these basic figures are much higher as compared to the eighties and the nineties. However, these figures indicate that we are still lagging behind other nations and Arunachal is lagging behind other states. Many innovative and positive initiatives like Atmanirbhar Bharat, Startup India, Stand Up India, Vocal for Local, etc, have been launched. However, many challenges remain.
Do you want to be truly independent? (The contributor is retired Group Captain, Indian Air Force)
