Never before in the history of 73 years as an independent nation, the biggest of all days in national life i.e. the Independence Day 2020 is going to be so bereft of its usual ceremonial shine and grandeur. A virus named corona’s upsetting qualities has brought the nation to a near standstill and for every citizen now, the one and only longing is to get rid of it. Nonetheless, the occasion, like all other years, is also the moment to look back, introspect and attempt an objective assessment of the nation’s journey as an independent entity with 130+ crore people as its human resource bank. While there are mind-boggling advancements in various sectors such as IT, space, biotechnology and various others that fall in the bracket of ‘sunrise’, there are an equal number of sectors, that are ‘core’ in the light of socio-economic backdrop and the ailments thereto have continued to remain unattended to a major extent. Despite the avalanches of curse heaped on corona for its unabated lethal run, it will be hard to ignore that it has exposed the loopholes of these ‘core’ areas like never before.

The first and foremost that will invite debate is the current state of the national economy which is trembling and showing little signs of any immediate revival. A strange phenomenon in this regard can be observed which is attributing the entire blame of this economic downfall to the pandemic alone. While it is true that millions of jobs have been wiped out within a very short period due to successive phases of lockdowns, it will be a travesty of facts that the trend has started much before and the pandemic has just aggravated it further. Despite acknowledging the necessity of rolling out lockdowns for saving lives, the way it has been done within a short notice of just four hours will continue to trigger debate. The consequences have been too many and extremely intense and millions of labourers and daily wage earners have to bear unimaginable hardships, leading to deaths in large numbers that have tarnished the nation’s image in the world fora hardly like before. The infirmity of the nation’s public health infra has been a long-unattended issue and Covid-19 has once more made it starkly visible. While the trio of CAA-NPR-NRC that has caused the nation including the Northeast to erupt has been buried for a while due to the pandemic, a new bone of contention has arrived on the horizon- the EIA 2020, which is exhibiting all qualities as yet another issue to escalate discontent. Interestingly and in a marked similarity with the trio above, it appears that the NE is also going to be another ‘playground’ due to it.

True taste of freedom will continue to remain a far cry unless hardships of the nation’s common people remain overlooked. On the eve of this I-Day, the clarion call must be to have a relook at the actualities, acknowledge them and work for their mitigation.