With India celebrating 75 years of its independence the coming Republic Day will be a great opportunity for the country and the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to showcase India’s manifold achievements. Modi’s tenure at the helm has seen the country grow in all spheres both on domestic and international fronts. The world needs to know about India’s phenomenal rise.
The coming Republic Day is going to be special for India as the country is celebrating 75 years of its independence. This will also be a great opportunity for the Narendra Modi-led government to showcase its achievements on various fronts. India today is a rising economic power which is being acknowledged by countries around the world. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also has a say in international matters and no one can afford to ignore his views.
What Modi government will be showcasing on the coming Republic Day is the transformation of India under Modi whose came to power in 2014 riding a popularity wave. He won a second consecutive mandate in 2019. His second term, by all accounts, has been more eventful than his first one as it has witnessed many momentous developments. India progressed on all fronts with the Prime Minister succeeding in keeping the economy on an even keel despite challenges. He also took the country ahead with the new mantra of self-reliance (Atmnirbhar).
Many people think that Modi’s self-reliance formula is the product of India’s clash with China on the borders. Since India used to rely a lot on Chinese goods the need was felt to produce these things indigenously. But this notion is wrong. The slogan of self-reliance was given by the Prime Minister during his first term. He only took it forward with decisiveness during his second term.
Today India is self-reliant in many fields with the country’s manufacturing industry growing by leaps and bounds. Now the emphasis is on achieving “ATMNIRBHARATA” even in the field of defence. The coming Republic Day will see India showcasing its self-reliance in a big way.
Modi’s second term has been full of challenges but he has overcome every challenge with decisive actions, a reflection of his typical brand of politics. Modi 2.0 has been a roller coaster ride so far with many outstanding achievements. The abrogation of article 370 through a Bill passed in parliament on August 5, 2019 was a major milestone as it paved the way for the true integration of Jammu and Kashmir with rest of India. It was, in a way, the mainstreaming of J&K which was bifurcated to create the union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. The article 370 which gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir was abrogated and the government announced the splitting of the state into two Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.
An equally stupendous achievement was the laying of the foundation stone of Ram Temple in Ayodhya by the Prime Minister. This was a promise made by the BJP in its election manifesto and it is now well on its way to being fulfilled. PM Modi laid the foundation stone of the new Ram Temple in August 2020 and with work going apace the temple should be ready by 2023. According to available information it is set to be inaugurated on January 24, 2024, just a few months before the next elections. This will not only mark the fulfilment of the aspirations of crores of Hindus but also put to rest a controversy that threatened to polarize the country along communal lines.
The 75th year of independence was marked by the launch of a programme aptly called “Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav” which is being celebrated across the country. It recognizes all those who contributed to India’s struggle for freedom. The campaign highlights the contribution of unsung heroes of India. Right from programmes being organized by the Ministry of Culture to the Film Festival at Cannes, where India was the Country of Honour, India has shown its power and maturity as a democracy and also demonstrated its rich cultural heritage. All these will find a reflection when the country celebrates its latest Republic Day.
Despite the challenges faced by the country, which had to deal with the constraints imposed by the Covid-19 epidemic, the Prime Minister never lost sight of his primary goal—the welfare of the poor. It was during the first wave of COVID that Modi had announced free ration for the marginalized section of society. The scheme was then extended during the second wave and was extended for another six months till March 2022. Through this scheme, 80 crore beneficiaries were given free ration each month. The poor of the country, thus, never really felt the pangs of poverty during the Covid-19 emergency.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government launched the nationwide vaccination programme even as the country battled COVID-19. Said to be the world’s largest vaccination drive, India has achieved its goals on this front successfully. The best part of the vaccination programme was that India developed indigenous vaccines in the shortest time. The country not just vaccinated its population but has also extended a helping hand to neighbouring nations by providing vaccines through the Vaccine Maitri scheme. This achievement, too, will be showcased on the Republic Day.
India has also achieved a lot on the health front which it needs to showcase before the world and there could be no better opportunity than the Republic Day. For example, Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana is a national public health insurance fund of the Government of India that aims to provide free access to health insurance coverage to low-income earners in the country. More than 22 crore people have registered in the scheme. This is perhaps the world’s biggest health insurance scheme which has drawn praise from health experts across the globe. The world needs to know more about it.
Achievements on the foreign affairs front have been no less spectacular. Under the leadership of the Prime Minister Operation Devi Shakti was launched in Afghanistan to rescue stranded Indians after the Taliban took over Afghanistan. More than 700 people were evacuated from Afghanistan. An evacuation operation on this scale has never been carried out in the country. With this operation the Prime Minister was able to keep his commitment of ensuring the safety of every Indian stranded in Afghanistan which had fallen into the hands of Taliban.
Yet another key achievement of the government on the evacuation front was the rescue operation carried out in war-hit Ukraine. The central government safely evacuated around 23,000 students including some foreign nationals. Four union ministers were sent as special envoys to the neighbouring nations of Ukraine to monitor the rescue operations. However, even as the war in Ukraine goes on India has come out emphatically in favour of peace. It has told Russia in no uncertain terms that the world needs peace as that is the need of the hour. The coming Republic Day will be an opportunity to tell the world about all this.
