India has long history of being looted for hundreds of years but those looters
were foreigners,
mainly Turks and other Muslim invaders who after looting us were going back
with booty. Babar
changed his mind and stayed back to loot and also rule our country. During
Moguls rule, came thecountry.
British in disguise of doing trade who laid the foundation of East India
Company. Within no time,
they showed their real colour to end up as the rulers. Traitors like Mir Jafars
and Jaichands have
played major role for their personal greed at the cost of causing huge
irreparable losses to the
freedom fighters many of whom have made supreme sacrifices for our motherland.
There is a long
list of great of such personalities.
Farmers have played an important role in our freedom struggle. Freedom movement
in India
gained massive support of millions of farmers, who at a single call of the
leaders like Sardar Patel;
Mahatma Gandhi; Jawaharlal Nehru have rose to protest against the British Rule
by taking to
streets at short notices. Brutalities committed on them failed to frustrate but
on the contrary,
inspired others to join the movement against the cruel rulers.
Our long freedom struggle has sad chapters too like Jaliawala Massacre. Hanging
of Bhagat Singh
rejuvenated millions of youth all across the whole country with more courage,
strength and vigor to
join freedom movement against the brutalities of the British rule. 1857 Mutiny
in itself is a huge
chapter. Supreme sacrifices were made by the freedom fighters with a vision
that in free India, one
will develop confidence to live without fear of any kind to live with
prosperity and enjoy freedom of
speech and movement to live in peace and harmony.
Finally on 15th August 1947; we gained independence but with a heavy cost of
divididividing our Nation
in to two parts. Who can forget the communal flare that took millions of
premature lives? However,
silver line was knitting of many small kingdoms in to one Nation by efforts of
Sardar Patel who
demonstrated extra ordinary skill and strong will power. Our independence has
come to us at awill
very heavy cost. Martyrs had big dreams in their eyes that their sacrifices
will not go in vain. One
day shackles will be broken to make our motherland free where in free India, no
one will be poor or
sleep hungry. It was the duty of the leaders in Independent India to see that
those dreams areungry.
tuning in to realities.
ndependentleaders.People of the country in new
Independent India had many aspirations from their leaders Farmers
were anxious to see much better days. However, Policy makers decided to
encourage Industrial
sector along with farm sector to boost our economy to generate huge employment
opportunities.
Sardar Patel stood against the powerful Zaminadars who abolished Zamindari
system paving way
for the economic growth of small farmers. Democracy was at its best with top
quality leadership
during those initial years. No body even thought of corruptioncorruption.
However, things started to change fast since 1971. Under dynamic leadership of
Smt. Indirahings
Gandhi, Private Banks were nationalized to ensure flow of money towards poor
and farm sector.re
Privy purses of the erstwhile Kings were abolished to ensure that taxpayers
money is not allowed
to go into the hands of a handful few. She also introduced land reforms to add
to furthe benefit tofurther
poor and small farmers. Sycophancy was the new mantra to climb the ladders to
reap political
harvests. Corruption in public life was talked about during these days. After
her untimely death,
her son Rajiv Gandhi took over as the next Prime Minister, who made radical
changes inMinister,
information technology and telecommunication sector fruits of which we enjoy
now. Soon after his
departure due to his untimely death, Indian political scenario changed very
fast. Quality of political
leadership went down. Respect commanded by the leaders was largely replaced
with sycophancy..
Since 1991, our then Finance Minister and present PM started to gradually open
our closed door
economy. Era of coalition government had started. Economic liberalization and
globalization
became common words at discussion groups. Bajpai led multi party coalition
government replaced
the earlier coalition, who also walked on the road of more liberal economy.
Corporate houses had
already taken to the driving seat to reap the benefits. The dream of India
Shining was sold to the
voters but found no buyers. Now the hero of our free economy Mr. Man Mohan
Singh took the reins
of command in his hand as PM of another coalition. By this time lakhs of
farmers in various areas
of our country had already committed suicide. While our economic growth rate
was gaining new
heights, private corporations were making huge money; common man on the street
was forgotten.
Farm sector was totally in neglect. Despite spending billions in the name of
irrigation, most of the
farmers were crying for water for their fields. One time package of 60,000
Crore to farmers irked
eye brows of many but no body speaks a single word about huge sops and
concession of about Rs.
2 Lakh crore enjoyed by our industrial and mining corporations year after year.
Land ceiling Act restricts farmer to possess more than 18 Acres of irrigated
land but when the same
irrigated land is required by an industrialists, without doing any homework to
assess the
requirement of land not only the land is promised but also acquired at the cost
of causing lots of
harassment and even brutalities on those poor farmers most of whom are tribals,
even in a
Schedule V area leaving those poor farmers & tribals to struggle for rest of
their lives. Though large
areas of land lies unutilized even after 20- 30 -40 years of acquisition, no
body bothers to even
look at those owners of the private corporations.
Natural wealth stored in the womb of mother earth since billions of years have
become the pray to
make quick easy money for the private corporations and a curse on millions of
tribals who are
brutally displaced even by firing live bullets. British ruled us from England.
Our new corporate lords
also operate from costliest mansions in London and other countries. Those who
were the backbone
of Indian freedom struggle are committing suicides to escape the clutches of
shylocks, 75 new
corporate lords have entered in to the list of billionaire reaping the benefit
by mastering the art of
forming nexus with the people in power who make faulty policies to favour the
new kings and
break implementation of policies that favours farmers. Criminalization of
politics and Corruption in
public life is common. Transparency International ranked our country as the
most corrupt nation.
Average Per capita income has increased but 70 million of our population
struggles to survive with
only Rs. 20/- per day. Industrial sector is growing at a fast rate but farm
sector has negative
growth rate. We are also closing our eyes from the possible danger of over 20
million unemployed
youth by the year 2017 but we dream to see our country becoming global economic
power by the
year 2020. It reminds me of what Bhagat Singh wrote in his last letter that was
addressed to his
father, before he was hanged.
"Let us declare that the state of war does exist and shall exist so long as the
Indian toiling masses and
the natural resources are being exploited by a handful of parasites. They may
be purely British
Capitalist or mixed British and Indian or even purely Indian. They may be
carrying on their insidious
exploitation through mixed or even on purely Indian bureaucratic apparatus. All
these things make
no difference. "
.....The war neither began with us nor is it going to end with our lives." -
Bhagat Singh
This is the reality of India of our dreams. Is this the India, the freedom
fighters dreamt of?
Is this the India for which farmers made sacrifices? Compare; think for a
minute. Six
decades have past since we rule ourselves. Are our present rulers any less than
British to unleash
brutalities on poor tribals to please powerful industrial and mining
corporations? To day it is Lalgarh
for Jindal, tomorrow may be Lohandiguda or new battle grounds; who knows.
Neglect of farmers/
tribals of six decades can not be solved with Police brutalities in a day.
Warning bells are ringing.
PRAVIN PATEL Human Rights Activist
24 JUNE, 2009
