India celebrates its 71st independence day today. It’s been seventy years since the British left our country, but today marks the 71st time the occasion is being celebrated, hence it’s the 71st I-Day (there are actually people who scratch their heads over this, year after year!).

What does Independence Day mean to me? It reminds me of the functions at school, singing the National anthem, taking part in patriotic plays, lining up to collect the toffees that were handed out, and later, A.R. Rahman’s Vande Mataram. It being a holiday, it also meant an extra day to spend with the family. Back in my school days, we didn’t have a cable TV subscription, so the state-run Doordarshan was the only TV channel, and it would play movies like Roja, 1947: A love story, or Tiranga; there were only a small handful of movies, and these would see screening each year, on either August 15 (Independence Day), January 26 (Republic Day), or October 2 (Gandhi Jayanti). I must have watched these movies dozens of times over those years, and always on Doordarshan, aka DD1.

My grandfather was often cynical of these special days, and often mentioned that things were better under the British, but I suppose it’s no longer considered just cynical, but actually treasonous to harbor such feelings. I can’t help but think of Rousseau who said “Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.” In today’s polarized and hypernationalism-driven society, freedom comes with additional riders. Evelyn Beatrice Hall said “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” We don’t seem to have this tolerance towards differing opinions anymore; if what I say is not friendly to the establishment, I’m automatically labeled a traitor and anti-national.

The freedom of speech has never been absolute (as it shouldn’t be), and it indeed doesn’t absolve the speaker from legal consequences, but today, more than legal consequences, one has to fear lynch mobs and online trolls, both of whom go about their work with a brazen boldness, confident in the knowledge that they are blessed by the highest powers that be, and are therefore untouchable by even the fabled long arm of the law. We are seeing unprecedented levels of polarization these days, where everybody is expected to fall into two clear categories; where you are either with them, or against them, and by against them, you are not just a person with a different bent of mind, but an undesirable individual who must be dealt with harshly, either by the unfair use of official machinery, or by the use of outright thuggery.

What do I wish for India, today? I wish the state of Indian politics changes for the better. I wish the Congress party grows beyond their sycophantic worshipping of members of the Nehru family, and learn to look across the board for able leadership; it’s not that there are no promising prospects, but just that they are unable to see them currently. Why is the fate of the Congress party so vital to a better India? Irrespective of who the ruling party is, it’s vital to have a stable and strong opposition, as it’s the fundamental cornerstone for a successful and thriving constitutional democracy, and today, the state of the opposition is truly toothless and spineless. Without a strong opposition, even the best of people tend to get complacent and overbearing, and that is definitely not in the interests of the country.