India is 76 today.

It’s a day for patriotic sayings, Bharat Mata-honoring songs, flag-waving, lighting up popular structures with the tiranga, and saluting as the Indian flag rises. But are we truly content with being 76 today? Remember, thousands of people fought and sacrificed their lives for freedom. But today, all we see is fear, misery and hatred. Who and what have we become into today?

On August 15, 1947, India presented itself with a daunting challenge. We fantasized about a place where people’s minds and hearts would be unrestricted. Even while we created our Constitution in 1950, we were debating this intellectual foundation. But after the seven decades that followed, right now we are standing at the edge of the cliff where any chance of those aspirations coming to pass is getting gradually destroyed. The country is struggling with its underperformance in many of global indices in recent years.

India dropped from 101st to 107th place in the Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2022, among 121 nations. In 2020, India has the largest number of impoverished people in the world (228.9 million), according to the Multidimensional Poverty Index study. India slipped to rank 40 among 60 countries in the Global Economic Competitiveness Index published by the World Economic Forum. We frequently hear about how excellent and affordable India’s digital network is. Unmentioned is the fact that India leads the globe in Internet shutdowns and that this “mother of democracy” is where more than half of all government-enforced Internet restrictions occur.

India is in the 77^th position in the Rule of Law Index, which is not surprising to us considering what is going on all around us, including the ongoing misuse of the investigative agencies, the increasing frequency of lynching of minorities, the regularity with which police from BJP-ruled states attack Opposition leaders in other states, and the indefinite detention without bail of activists and dissenters. Despite all the sacred rhetoric about our right to free speech and expression, Twitter has received thousands of demands from India for takedowns and bans. This is due to the fact that anything critical of the government, especially of the Prime Minister, is now impermissible in the world’s largest democracy. The 2023 Index of Economic Freedom gave India a total score of 59.8 out of 100, which is its lowest in six years. In the Index, India is placed at the 121st spot out of 184 nations. The country slipped 11 places to 161st rank in the World Press Freedom Index, 2023 which highlights a worrisome situation in India’s media and reveals the vulnerabilities and biases of our democratic system and political leadership.

According to the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), India’s unemployment rate, which reached a 45-year high of 6.1% in 2017 just three years after the Modi-led government took office, is at 8.11% as of April 2023. Despite India’s large educated young population that enters the labor force each year, the current government has presided over the reduction of the workforce. India’s ranking in the Gender Gap Index is 127 out of 146 countries. The increasing number of crimes against women and disrespectful mentality towards women has become the face of the nation. India’s poor ranking of 132 in Human Development index which measures the life expectancy, health, literacy etc. demonstrates how the nation’s resources are not effectively utilized to improve the welfare and quality of life for its citizens.

The narrative of the nation is experiencing the biggest change now three-quarters of a century later since its independence. The secular, liberal founders of India and the country’s freedom fighters are being forgotten about and blamed for the tragedy of Partition. The Modi administration aims to make India into a more Hindu, assertive nation where minorities and Dalits are not tolerated and are expected to be thankful and obedient. The BJP sponsored violence in Manipur where the Union government turned a blind eye to the cultural conflicts, caste and race atrocities is the recent example to this. On the other side the feeders of the country- the farmers- are struggling for their life under the current regime. The debt-ridden suicides and cruel negligence and attack towards farmers’ protest and their demands are exposing the lie behind “Sabka saath, Sabka vikas”. The attempts to bring the unconstitutional CAA-NRC which  clearly discriminates people on the basis of religion convey the bitter truth that Indians are not free and independent inside their so called-democratic independent country. In that same country the citizens’  rights and autonomy are forcefully snatched without their consent that we witnessed in the abrogation of Article 370. In fact, four years without Article 370 has done little to benefit the people of J&K. The ongoing agenda to implement Uniform Civil Code is another deliberate attack on the constitutional protections of marginalized communities of India which are religious minorities and cultural groups such as tribes.

India’s governing philosophy and what the “idea of India” means today have altered throughout the nine years the BJP-RSS association has been in power. It has changed from being a multifaceted society that values diversity to a majoritarian one that fears and wants to oppress its minority. Muslims have been lynched by Hindus after they were thought to have possessed meat. Human rights advocates- Christians, Muslims and Dalits- who were working for the underprivileged, have been detained by the central government under national security legislation, frequently without being charged and without being granted bail.  Bulldozers are used to raze the homes of Muslims who have opposed the regime. In addition to criminals awaiting trial, dissident human rights activists, journalists, authors, and other people whose voices a previous India would have honoured are housed in Indian prisons.

Yet, under these deteriorating conditions where the question of true independence is raised constantly, the authority is busy with celebrating Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav and performing Har Ghar Tiranga. Don’t they appear as performative and commercial and a mere effort to get attention? It clearly shows the intention of the right government to utilize the occasion as an opportunity to rewrite and distort the history of the epic fight of the Indian people for freedom from British oppression. In fact, today’s India under BJP-regime is a reiteration of British oppressive laws which is arrayed in a different propaganda language.  In order to carry on the tradition of our freedom fight with all Indians advancing towards more equality, justice, and fraternity as guaranteed by the Indian Constitution, this demonic propaganda of changing the character of the Indian Independence must be opposed and defeated at its roots. Independence, Democracy and Socialism must prevail!