Gopal Sharma
Nearly sixty-six years ago, the country attained independence from the British rule. India progressed a lot in many fields and is much ahead of its counterpart-Pakistan, in terms of over all development but still the country is fraught with many challenges. In fact, it is still facing innumerous challenges and needs to do a lot in several fields. Corruption, safe drinking water and food, electricity, education, health care, communication, internal and external security are certain major challenges before the country which need immediate attention.
Expressing his views on the subject, former Union Minister of State for Defence Prof Chaman Lal Gupta said that country got independence over six decades back but unfortunately, some of the countries which came into existence even after India, are far ahead of us. “We could not even solve the basic problems of the people. We only excelled in strengthening our vote bank and primary focus of the country leaders remained on managing vote bank by exploiting people for their vested interests. We ignored the threats to the country and gave least attention to resolve the issues of immediate concern, rather tried to make them complicated and the results are before the countrymen.”
Prof Gupta, a veteran and seasoned politician from J&K said it is unfortunate that country is unable to provide basic amenities to the countrymen. “Safe drinking water, adequate power supply, heath care facilities, safe and adequate food/ ration are the main essential services which are not available to all the citizens of the country even after 66 years of attaining independence. Worst is the condition is rural India. Roads are in bad shape, tele-communication facilities are non existent. Education system is crumbling, drainage system does not exist. Law and order problem is every where. We could not provide transparent and responsive administration at all,” he maintained.
If we see behind, it is pained to note that even after so many bitter experiences, we could not learn lessons and improve our defence and security system. So many states are disturbed due to Naxalites problem. Jammu and Kashmir is also not peaceful. China is aggravating problems for the country and posing threat. In fact, we lacked long term planning and will to resolve these issues. The country rulers bought time and linger on these issues and tried to divert the attention of the people from basic issues. Ignoring these problems in the past is going to cost heavily to the country in the coming times. These major challenges were deliberately ignored and the result is just before us,” Prof Gupta added.
Maj Gen (Retd) G S Jamwal pointed out that the country progressed in many fields, especially in the field of information technology, raising infrastructure but there are still many challenges before the country. People not very happy with the Government and the system of governance at present. They feel what went wrong after attaining independence. The creation of Pakistan took over the peace of many Indians. That country waged three-four wars and even its soldiers indulged in barbaric and cowardice act of killings of Indian soldiers while guarding own borders in Poonch. The problems related to borders with China is yet another issue of serious concern.
“A clear message should go from the top leadership in the country to Pakistan that we are no longer a soft State. We are talking about peace and initiating CBMs with Pakistan but he is indulging in such acts and conducting ceasefire violations. See the past track record of over 65 years, Pak will never learn the language of peace. Whether China or Pakistan, they should be warned appropriately and must be dealt with in the language they understand,” Gen Jamwal maintained.
The problem of Naxalism, Bodo land movement and the `so called’ issue of Kashmir are the major challenges before the country which are of serious concern and needed to be resolved rising above the petty politics by the leaders at the top. On such issues there should not be any politics. National interest should be the supreme. Infact, playing dirty politics, some political parties and successive Governments allowed these issues to linger on and its consequences are now very serious.
Unfortunately, the democracy gave us many wrong politicians. Sometimes we feel embarrassment when we see criminals occupying seats in the legislature/ parliament. No doubt India is largest democracy in the world but being role model for many countries, it should be ensured by the system in the country that entry of such people is blocked. We can not expect justice and Good system of Governance when we will send such elements at the place where laws are enacted for the people and responsibility to run the system is accorded. A weak leadership is leading the country at present and the people are not happy with this. There is restlessness and strong resentment among the people. We have lost moral values. Morally, we have gone down and turned as unhappy nation. Many countries even the smaller ones like Singapore are better than us. This is very serious issue.
Again, there is no proper check on the population. Resources in the country are depleting. Forest cover gradually decreasing and threat to the environment increasing. We have failed to ensure basic facilities to the people even after six decades. Corruption has reached alarming level. There is no accountability, transparency and discipline and nobody is punished even after big scams. The top criminals and even those committing heinous crimes go scot free and the public is also losing faith in the judicial system. These are the big challenges before the country and it is collective responsibility of all Indians to go for self-introspection and pull the country towards actual peace, prosperity, era of economic development.
Former Chief Secretary and a Member of the Upper House of J&K Legislature, Vijay Bakaya feels that there is need of a strong Central authority/Government. Confidence keeps a Federal structure intact. It is very important to restore confidence and credibility of State institutions and to check their erosion. Country should emerge as a super power and not as soft state. It needs to have a strong foreign policy vis-à-vis neighbouring States. It would certainly help in resolving some issues.
A strong and responsive Government is must for tacking the major challenges like insurgency, communalism and Naxalism. There is a need of restoration of respect for the rule of law and the judicial process and harnessing the energy of the youth and providing them a vision of productive and constructive future. He stressed the need of improving education, power and healthcare sector by investing larger amount of money, especially from the private sector for economic growth. It is necessary to take urgent measures to improve the capital flow in the country to give boost to economy and arrest the sliding in rupee besides simplifying procedures for the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and restore confidence of investors, Mr Bakaya added.
Y V Sharma, president Jammu Chamber of Commerce and Industry pointed out that there is degradation, rather erosion of moral values in every field. We only say that politics is religion or other name of service to the people but on ground level there are only good slogans of some politicians. We claim to be followers of the Gandhian philosophy and his principles but it is not true. We have deviated from our prime objective and are only trying to drag the country towards the crisis and major challenges.
We are largest democracy in the world and may be role models for many. Parliamentarians are enacting many laws but unfortunately they are not implemented properly. There is no accountability and rule of law. Criminals are making entry to the Parliament and cream of the society does not wish to occupy seats in the Parliament. Corruption has crossed all the limits and rising prices of the essentials have made life of the people miserable. He said poverty, inadequate power supply, poor healthcare facilities, rural connectivity, sanitation, quality food and education are some of the challenges before the country even today after 66 years of `Azadi’.
We are still unable to compete with many countries in terms of trade and industry. China has emerged as a strong economy in last few decades and is posing threat to the Indian economy. This new challenge is also needed to be handled by taking necessary measures. Country’s people are feeling insecure due to poor implementation of law and order. Criminals go unpunished with the political influence. Internal and external security has also disturbed the economy of the country. Such issues are needed to be handled properly on priority.
Former Vice Chancellor of Jammu University, Prof Y R Malhotra pointed out that there are many issues even today before the country which were about 60 years ago. He pointed out that country has failed to achieve 100 % literacy rate even after six decades. Population has increased manifold but the country planners lack a viable policy on education and achieving total literacy. We are still far behind many countries in this field even today.
According to Mr Malhotra, unemployment is another major challenge before the nation. He said the country rulers are unable to contain increasing unemployment and formulating a proper policy for it. Today the country youth is frustrated even after getting higher education. There is a strong need to tackle this issue by those sitting at the top in the country. There is growing discontent among the educated youth of the country.
The former VC pointed out that unbalanced development is yet another cause of concern. Rural areas becoming more rural and urban more urban and over-crowded with massive migration from the villages. Due to lack of facilities in the villages, poor monitoring of funds meant for developmental schemes and brewing feeling of neglect among the villagers, the people from such pockets continued to rush towards cities and towns. The pollution level is increasing in the cities and it has also become a major challenge before the country. The planners should focus on the issue and take appropriate measures to revevrse this phenomenon.
A strong economy is must for the overall development of the nation. The country should learn lesson from China which has emerged as big economic power. He further pointed out that in early 50s or 60s there was no corruption but with the passage of time and coming of new schemes for the public, the corruption also went on increasing. It has spread its tentacles all around and affected development. The Central funds meant for the public are not reaching up to the grass root level for the people for whom the schemes are devised. Internal and external security are yet other major challenges today before the country, Mr Malhotra maintained.
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