A DAY as usual begins differently with the patriotic songs played on loudspeakers making a statement that there is something special -- Republic Day. Soon, crowds of genuinely happy and patriotic schoolchildren move out with older, mostly exhibitionist, patriots. By afternoon, some enthusiastic individuals degenerate into miscreants. They misuse the national tricolour mounted on motorcycles or fourwheelers as a license to jump traffic signals, ride triple-seat on two-wheelers, ride or drive wrong-side. More unfortunately, these hoodlums proudly flaunt the photos, stenciled images, and signatures of the great men of India while failing to follow simple norms of public decency, decorum, and discipline. Their failure, in a way, amounts to insulting the great men whose photos, images, signatures they so proudly carry on motorcycles or cars. This is the case on the Independence Day as well as on the Republic Day or when the country wins matches or medals in international sporting events. Why does this happen? Because, no matter what they flaunt, such people do not have a sense of pride for India, its laws, its Constitution, and ownself!

 

Harsh, it may sound. But, reality it is! They are, no doubt, part of the Republic of India, but do not represent the spirit of it. They are the people who, day in and day out, belittle every great value represented by all the great men and women together. They have not earned their place as a citizen of the country. They happen to be known as residents of this great country only because they are born here. And, for those who know better, there is a fine difference between a ‘citizen’ and a ‘resident’. The word ‘citizen’ signifies a sense of responsibility towards oneself, one’s family, one’s society, one’s surroundings, and one’s fellow countrymen.

 

This responsibility is visible when one abides by the law of the land, when one focusses more on sorting out a matter through discussion than resorting to violence, when one carefully becomes the architect of one’s inner constitution! Inner Constitution? Yes! As India celebrates the 75 years of becoming a Republic, it is essential to not only internalise the Constitution of India but also to internalise the values this great document enshrines. Political leaders may use the concepts of the Constitution or the Republic for their own petty gains. But, the people of India, who did ‘adopt, enact, and give’ to themselves this great Constitution, have a bigger responsibility on their shoulders to keep the Constitutional values at a safe distance from divisive rhetorics of caste, language, politics. Only those persons can play this role effectively who qualify as citizens.

 

And, that qualification comes with inherent openness to acquire goodness of thought and action. For that openness to be a part of personality, one has to rise above the conditions one is born in. One has to equip oneself with a strong, apolitical character through pursuit of excellence. No doubt, it is the hard way. There may be difficulties of being good, but only the person who passes the tests emerges stronger in the end. The success of the Indian Republic or the Constitution of India can never be assessed on the narrow parameters of who shouts which slogan louder. Rather, it can be assessed in behaviour of the people in private, and in public. So, in this 75th anniversary of the Constitution and the 76th Republic Day, may the nation collectively build a strong and solid ‘inner constitution’. Let us not be just ‘residents’ of India, but evolve into ‘citizens’ of this great nation. Jai Hind!