Better Script Needed

A special Oscar this year should have gone to Smriti Irani, Union Minister of Human Resource Development. (Why was the rather innocent word “education” abandoned and for whom are the youth trained as “resources”?)

There was much talk of nationalism in Parliament in the past few weeks. Our nationalist forefathers fought hard for swaraj, but it was not gained in full measure, as Pandit Nehru himself pointed out in his famous “Tryst with destiny” address to the nation on the eve of independence. Since then, successive governments have been unable, or unwilling, to give the people poorna swaraj (complete freedom) which in common understanding has meant swaraj, azaadi, or freedom from hunger, joblessness, dire poverty, disease, and social and economic oppression by the powerful. The vast masses of the poor have been systemically denied access to economic means by which they may achieve poorna swaraj, and bring growth and prosperity to the nation.