Is it Happy Independence Day - I wonder?

I have received a number of mails in my mailbox mentioning our 65th Independence Day.

Should we be celebrating this Independence Day?

I wonder and ask myself.

Is it worth celebrating?

We seem to have replaced one set of thugs with another set.

The earlier ones looted and took away the wealth to the British Isles.

The present sets keep the loot in the country and a few of them take it to Swiss banks.

While earlier, criminals in Britain like Lord Clive were sent over to rule, now we have indigenous criminals like Kalamadi, Bansal, Raja, Lalu and a horde of others rule over us.

What is the difference?

Yes, earlier, foreigners were torturing us, now our own countrymen are torturing us.

After 65 years, we are unable to give our country an honest government and people have resigned to their fate and accept that this will happen.

It cannot change.

But why should we accept?

Why cannot it be changed?

I have a sister living in Singapore and my own son has gone to USA with his family.

My daughter-in-law is surprised with how smoothly people live their lives there and the level of honesty.

It is not that they are 100% honest.

We have had the President of USA, Nixon had to resign because of Watergate scam.

In India scams are hi-lighted every fortnight and our shameless governments at both the centre and in the states brazen it out. Why?

Because, they know that during elections they have to give a few freebies, send a few musclemen to threaten the voters and with just 20% votes they can be declared winners.

Mamata Banerjee won a substantial number of seats in the last panchayat elections in West Bengal as she did not allow the opposition candidates to file their nomination papers.

Is this the Independence for which our freedom fighters laid their lives?

In today’s edition Times of India, three Freedom Fighters Sudhangsu Jivon Ganguly, Sudhindra Chandra Maitra and Benoyendra Mohan Banerjee have given their views on the state of our nation, 65 years after Independence which is not at all flattering.

The Judiciary, the election commission, the CAG and Civil Society are doing their utmost to cleanse the system but the executive, made up of all political parties keep dragging their feet. They just do not want to give a clean government to the nation.

At present about 30 % of the elected representatives have criminal records. A day will soon come when that percentage may increase to 70% and we shall have people like Lalu Yadav, Suresh Kalamadi or A Raja becoming Prime Ministers of India.

History is now giving all of us a chance to change all that.

The Aam Aadmi Party gives you a one point agenda – to provide an honest government, If we save the money our country loses in graft, we could finance all our other expenses whether it be education, infrastructure, health and food and water.

We have all tried the Congress, BJP and other parties at different points in our lives.

Let us now give a chance to AAP to give us what they promise.