Independent? Free? Think about it...

We as Indians celebrated our independence day on August 15 like every year. We entered the 60th year of our independence and we have achieved a good status when compared to our status in 1947, the year of our independence. As it should it did created a sense of pride in our nation and the effort of all the countrymen in reaching this state. Then I started looking at the pictures of the Independence day celebrations posted all over the web and started thinking what is independence....

Ok ok guys dont get started on the whole story of all the non-violence fights against the british attrocities and the great lengths our forefathers had to go to to achieve the independence from the britishers. I have read, heard and seen (on TV/movies) all the details you are talking about. Befor you get to the details I will tell you the exact picture which got me to think about it. It was one of our beloved Prime Minister in a bullet proof "box" with four gunmen behind him in view of the latest threats warnings made to us and informed by the US.

Well are we truely independent?? Are we really able to enjoy the freedom? Well I dont find that to be true. Let me take one at a time. Are we really independent? It doesnt seem to be so with all the discussions going on about the Nuclear Energy bill with US. We are importing oil and are totally dependent on the Middle eastern nations for our oil. We are importing food grains from various nations. We are dependent in many indirect ways at the US. We are dependent on their IT projects, we are dependent on the fashions and trends in various countries to follow it blindly and claim ourselves to be independent. We want to follow our peers during various stages of our lives and claim it as our freedom to do whatever we want to.

This brings the next point of enjoying the freedom. Do we really enjoy the freedom? We see our PM in a box during his most important speech of the year, we see the scare in others eyes when they have to go to areas where they are a minority. We see the people scared to come to vote in selected regions during the election be it for the local elections or for the whole nation. Is this the freedom our fore-fathers were looking for. Think about it ...