During the early years after attaining independence on August 15, 1947 and the subsequent adoption of the Constitution on January 26, 1950 where the Preamble initially declared India to be a ‘Sovereign Democratic Republic’ among other virtues, world was much sceptical of the longevity of these hallowed objectives and even of the nation named India itself. Well, proving detractors wrong, the nation has not only existed as a roaring republic and attained an unchallenged spot of being the world’s largest running democracy, it has earned further accolades through amending the Constitution which replaced the words “Sovereign Democratic Republic” by more egalitarian ones such as “Sovereign Socialist Secular Democratic Republic.” If all these had allowed the nation to bask in glory for being a champion of so many pieces of righteousness all over these years, while commemorating the 70^th day of the march as a Republic today, there is an unprecedented confrontation with a question – is the current milieu a precursor, or rather an ominous sign heralding an era which will see unfortunate and reckless deviation from many of the aforesaid proprieties. The answer perhaps lie in the question itself and although despair seems to be galloping fast in the initial rounds, at the end of the day, looking at the non-stop efforts displayed by the people themselves to reinvent the ‘Idea of India’ which actually is the mirror of the long-nurtured core principles that has kept and will keep the nation alive, it is pure hope that emanates.

It will not be necessary to resort to prolixity to arrive at reasons as to why the nation, especially the youth segment forming bulk of population has started harbouring the feeling that current times are hard and future is blurred and hence perilous. Topping the list will be economy, which has very few parallel since independence in terms of overarching distress and massive unemployment. Back-to-back indices and deluge of data whose geneses lie in the country’s think tanks as well as from those globally renowned have already painted the current picture which is very grim and a future which is equally uncertain. And people, youths in particular, are wise enough to decode the reasons for all these. In this backdrop, as if to create havoc, the trio of CAA-NRC-NPR has hit hard putting under question the very idea of tolerance and religious equality. That the overwhelming electoral majority has sadly shrunk the space for views is amply reflected by rejection of Northeast’s repeated pleas of not implementing CAA in the region.

But, there are still signs of hope as all mass protests against this trio are actually a proof of people’s continuing faith in secular democracy. Formed as a result of testing circumstances that are undoubtedly forced imposed, these platforms will perhaps lead towards rediscovering the Republic in further enriched form with more finer dimensions.

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Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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