26th January 2009

A proud moment for me , and the nation as a whole! India celebrates her 60th Republic day . 1950, on the very day, India declared complete sovereignty and it meant more to us than just getting independence, it meant we were governing ourselves, a President was elected and hence the marvelous journey of the worlds largest democracy started and every year on this day, we the proud citizens of the nation of a Billion and more, forget our differences, unite and hail our Nation and remember those, the fore fathers of the Country, who gave their yesterday for purpose of our today!

This day, we forget all the failures of democracy, we've witnessed thru our eyes and think not of the corrupt Politicians who trade their portfolio for exchange of Rupees.We forget about those leaders who could not stand up to expectations and shamefully came back after every 5 years to beg for vote and would never show up for the next 5! We forget the Great Political mistakes, foreign policy or the steps taken for eradication of illiteracy and poverty . We forget about all those good for nothing criminals who are waiting to get out of the bars thru a bail plea and are sketching to stand in the next election. We forget about the regional and religious bias and all the reasons behind it .We forget about many things which make us feel ashamed if it were not 26th of jan or 15th of aug and come together as one nation , one unit which does not repent on the past mistakes but celebrates the success in grandeur and solace .. parading the 3 fronts of defense, The Army , The Navy ,The Air Force . We leave no leaf unturned for us to feel proud about ourselves, our great nation!


But , India in the recent past has been under attack by foreign forces , and the matter of greater concern is the mode of attacking and more importantly the frequency of it!!

Our country, a Super Power in the making , is too much to bear for few of our neighboring countries, so they are apparently waging a proxy war on our country to divert the attention of the govt and reduce the growth rate of India.One can imagine the level of desperateness, by seeing the strikes on Bangalore ,Tata Institute and more recently , and more seriously , Mumbai, The Financial Capital

I came across news yesterday, that 2 Terrorists were killed in an encounter , near Noida . They were traveling towards New Delhi , and heavy ammunition like 2 Ak 47 , 1Kg of Rdx , Hand ful of grenades and detonators were recovered...I came to know that it was a joint operation of ATS and Noida Police .. 3Cheers to them!!!.... But , I cant stop to think that there is more to it than what meets the eye , were these 2 Terrorists a part of a bigger team ? were more than these 2 ppl traveling towards our Country's capital? is there a chance of an attack tom also?

I believe , thousands of police and army men like the NSG , etc are on standby and in full alert for any kind of mischief played by insane terrorists, having said this , we got to be pro active and not spare even a shadow of doubt and make sure that Country is not embarrassed at least on this day ! i say this with a great sense of insecurity to be frank , as it seems improbable to seal off all the loopholes we have created ourselves , and of course, i wont be over optimistic as we are a nation of enormous land mass! but still have faith in Country's defense to counter attack.

Traditionally, 26th has been a Favorite day for all the terrorists to vage an attack , and this 26th we have to extra bit care ful to make sure that we dont have to look down upon ourselves atleast today, the day we celebrate our Democracy!!

Wishing you a Great Republic Day ,
Hoping to see a better Future

Varun Deshpande