Today is our Independence Day and we are grateful to our forefathers who fought for it. We have spent seven decades being a free country, progressed well and as a nation remain more or less integrated. Various challenges as a civilisation we have to overcome and as we progress, our culture and traditions have taken us forward. Our human capital, have sufficiently contributed to the world of science, commerce and arts. In new technological intervention, Indians are involved anywhere in the world. We are progressing without being under any foreign domination. We are growing as a young nation. Seven decades is not a big timeframe. We have been progressing to be self-reliant and are determining our course of governance, administration, judiciary within the framework of our constitution and law of the land. Our media is strong enough and is evolving over a period of time. In global scale with all our weaknesses, we are not far behind in any field and each phase of time we are growing. World respect us for our strength and achievements knowing fully well the various weakness a vast country with such diversity can have.

The nation is built by people and we got our freedom through people movement and from the midnight of 15 August 1947 we have started on the journey of Nation-building. With the growth of the Nation, with various opportunities created we have also created our own opportunities. The celebration of Independence Day is a reminder that the ‘work-is-in-progress’ and we just cannot be lackadaisical in our approach.

Over these decades of freedom, we have equally misused our rights and different types of ‘slavery’ has taken shape. The virus of corruption, casteism, separatism, individualism, greed, social divide, religious fanaticism, political degradation, various nexus in bureaucracy, police, politics, crime etc.are the weakness which most of the time is undermining the strength of our country.

A different type of society is being created, the ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’ and their gap is not getting reduced which is the most important job of any government. The social deficiencies with the 2nd largest population in the world create a situation that needs to be concerning. The present Covid-19 pandemic is a catastrophe that should be seen as an enemy which has already invaded our land and we are slowly becoming a slave of the invisible.

This decade should be the beginning of a phase in our civilisation where we stand to learn and realise many realities. People born after 1947 is not able to comprehend the pain and obstacles of not being free. What does Independence mean? We are born in a free country. But Covid-19 Pandemic has made us locked up in our houses for the first time in our lifetime. We were not free to do what we wanted to do. We were stuck, we could not reach our home, we could not move out at our free will. These few months has for the first time in decades post our freedom struggle has shown what is meant by being “NOT FREE”. What does Freedom mean? Today a district magistrate is having the power to restrict your many rights under the laid down powers and acts in order to contain and manage the health emergency we are going through.

So it is now time to understand that the freedom we had enjoyed for the last seven decades has not come free. Lots of blood, sticks and sweat was required to achieve the hard-earned freedom. The present generation needs to understand why freedom is important. The biggest question of this decade would be how do we get now the Independence from the Pandemic?   To start with we need to understand that this pandemic is not only making us stay in our home, but it is the reason for the death of people, economy, relationship – the death of Freedom. We are not able to lead an independent life.

So let us this Independence Day starts a journey to be free from Covid-19. Let us take a pledge to fight the virus out and completely eliminate it. The vaccine will come at its own course but we need to carve out a course of action to achieve Independence from Pandemic.

March to Freedom from Covid-19: Let us Pledge

1. I will follow all health guidelines and help create a ‘socially distancing lifestyle’ till we eliminate the virus completely.

2. I will remain productive and do my work in order to achieve my defined work-goal. If I am a student I will study from home, if I am a worker I will manage to complete my work without becoming a virus spreader as well as lowering my organisation productivity.

3. I will introspect and understand why we are facing this pandemic. I will protect our environment. I will do green deeds every day. I will inculcate a civilised lifestyle, a conflict-free society.

4. I will try to realise where we have gone wrong. I will lead a life that can contribute to a well-balanced society, a society where happiness, peace and co-existence take precedence over conflict, hatred and selfishness.

5. I will be part of the solution and contribute each day towards our self, family, society and country. I will be grateful to our hard-earned independence and now will be in a mission to eradicate this pandemic, and all the social evil from our motherland.