Anupam- The Dreamer

What should be the picture of the nation of our dreams? What should be the governing framework under which each and every person in our country could realise his/her latent potential and strive towards excellence? What should be the system which would blend best of both the long-cherished values of our great civilization and the values of modernity? Our founding fathers were confronted with similar questions when they sat down to the arduous task of framing the Constitution of India. And the result of their hardwork- one of the most well-worded Preambles in the world, encapsulating the vision of a nation which was the dream of every Indian who fought alongside them in the national freedom struggle.

The vision of an India where every person, man or woman, young or old, rich or poor, would be assured of justice, liberty, equality and fraternity in all spheres. These were not the lofty ideals just meant to be written down in the holy book of democracy, that is the Constitution, rather each one of these carry a deep meaning. Our Constitution-makers envisaged that these values will be a guiding light to all those who work under the Constitution of India, to take our people from the darkness of poverty, hunger, illiteracy, deprivation towards the dawn of development, peace and prosperity.

There is no doubt that we have come a long way in realizing these goals, in terms of poverty reduction, improvement in literacy and health indicators, women empowerment etc. But this conclusion is inescapable that we are yet far away from achieving political, social and economic justice for all; liberty in thought and expression still not fully achieved; inequality still visible around us and fraternity under constant threats. Till the time when every child is healthy and literate, poverty eliminated completely, women walking shoulder to shoulder with men in every sphere of work and basic human rights assured to each Indian, our task will not be complete.

It is, therefore, important for all of us to constantly remind ourselves of our Constitutional values, learn from our successes and failures and work continuously towards building a nation which our coming generations could be proud of. All the stakeholders like government, civil society, corporates and citizens at large, must make constant efforts to fulfil the aspirations of our people. We must continuously strive to preserve the constitutional values of a welfare state, secularism, democratic polity, fundamental rights to every citizen, independence of judiciary, federalism etc, which are crucial to realize the ideals enshrined in our Preamble. There is an organic linkage between these two, as it is through the means of constitutional values only that we can move forward in our journey of achieving the ideals of our Preamble.

On this long journey, the words of our former Prime Minister Pandit Nehru in his famous “Tryst with destiny” speech can serve our guiding light – “The ambition of the greatest man of our generation has been to wipe every tear from every eye. That may be beyond us, but as long as there are tears and suffering, so long our work will not be over. And so we have to labour and to work, and work hard, to give reality to our dreams.”