Republic Day Parade: Atmanirbhar Bharat overlays pride of the world

Swami Vivekanand has wisely quoted, "Believe in yourself and the world will be at your feet" and directed India long time ago, to believe in our own strengths and walk the way to become 'Atmanirbhar'. It took us more than 70 years to establish ourselves in the world as an Atmanirbhar nation but what India has earned today by turning the challenges ahead into opportunities and controlling our dependability on others, has made India grab the attention of the entire world.

 

Being a developing nation, that too during a challenging period like that of the pandemic, along with major border issues at various fronts, India reaching closer to the dream of 'self reliant' India, that was conceived by several Indian leaders from the past, has set an example in front of the world. On Jan 26, 2021 India is celebrating its 72nd Republic Day and the Republic Day Parade at Rajpath is going to be a proud moment for all Indians since the number of indigenous artifacts has already outnumbered the imported ones, that the parade is to showcase in a grand manner. 

 

 

 

India immediately after the independence has been largely occupied with establishing stronger international relations with the western countries. However, India's pro western approach in the foreign policy was definitely a package of its kind, with opportunities as well as shortcomings for the coming years. Soon after independence, India was trying hard to find place between the third world nations and establish closer bonds with the nations. But the superpowers had their own plans and conveniently, to safeguard their personal interests, USA never stood firmly by India's side during any of the Indo-Pak conflicts. All through the while, India has fought all her battles valiantly on her own. Therefore, even after independence it took time for India to establish itself in the global scenario. Today's success of Atmanirbharta definitely gets a bit from every predecessor Indian Prime Ministers and policy makers, who have raised the standards of India's expectancy from itself.

 

 

The underlining fact over here definitely remains to be the same that the current Modi govt has been a vital motivating factor in the realizing the dream that India had dreamed of years ago. During the challenging time like that of the pandemic, with the territorial sovereignty of the country being threatened by even the smallest of our neighboring countries, the Prime Minister's timely communication with the entire nation through 'Mann ki Baat' made the masses of the country stay in the touch with the spirit that was needed to fight back strongly. PM Modi's call for turning calamities into opportunities gave a huge boost to the process of becoming a self reliant country. May it be space, defence, or even the MSMEs, no sector has remained untouched from the sphere of influence that was created bring in action the plan of Atmanirbharta. Therefore, the journey of Atmanirbhar Bharat that is to be experienced at Rajpath on the occasion of 72nd Republic Day is an outcome of India's persistent efforts, ever since independence.

 

 

As it was observed during the dressed rehearsal of the Republic Day, the military might remains to be the special emphasis of the entire occasion. According to the tradition, one of the main functions of the Republic Day Parade is to pay tribute to the martyrs who have sacrificed their lives for the country and to confer bravery awards on military persons, citizenry and children for showing courage in the face of adversity. Therefore, the military might has always been focus of the parade. But the grandeur of the 2021 parade is definitely going to be a memorable one for a long time ahead. The foremost reason for this is the display of indigenously developed military weapons.

 

 

The implementation of Atmanirbhar Bharat was effectively executed in the defence sector. India, on the military front has largely lacked behind in developing the forces as well as the armaments, since the policies of most of the Congress Prime Ministers were not really aimed to strengthen the Indian military but more inclined towards the welfare schemes of the people.

 

After Indira Gandhi, it was directly during the term of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpeyee, when Indian military experienced the firm backing from the Centre. The period between 1998 and 2004 proved to be huge relief evidently because of the developments that include Pokhran II and the Kargil war. The period also witnessed Operation Parakram, which turned out to be an eye opener about the position of our country in terms of the military might. Even after that, it was only during the term of Narendra Modi govt in 2014, when India again shifted its focus on indigenously developing and strengthening the Indian armed forces.