Our country has entered the Amrit Kaal: Indian President

By Droupadi Murmu President of India

My heartiest greetings to all of you on our 77th Independence Day!

It is a glorious and auspicious occasion for all of us.

I am overjoyed to see that festivity is in the air. It is a matter of delight as well as pride for us to see how everyone – children, youth and the elderly, in cities and villages, everywhere in India – are excited and preparing to celebrate this festival of our freedom.

The people have been celebrating ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’ with great enthusiasm. Independence Day celebrations also remind me of my childhood days.

We could not contain our excitement of participating in the Independence Day celebrations in our village school. When the tricolour was hoisted, we felt an electrifying energy pass through us.

With our hearts full of patriotic pride, we saluted the national flag and sang the national anthem. Sweets were distributed and patriotic songs were sung, which kept playing in our minds for many days.

I was fortunate in having an opportunity to re-live these experiences when I became a school teacher.

When we grow up, we may not remain as expressive of our joy as children are, but I am sure that the intensity of the patriotic feeling associated with the celebration of national festivals is not diminished at all.

Independence Day reminds us that we are not merely individuals, but we are part of a great community of people.

It happens to be the biggest and t h e greatest community of its kind.

It is the community of the citizens of the world’s largest democracy. What we celebrate on Independence Day is the fact that we are part of a great democracy.

Each of us has many identities – apart from caste, creed, language and region, we are also identified with our families and professions – but there is one identity that is above all.

That is our identity as citizens of India. Each one of us is an equal citizen; each one of us has an equal opportunity, equal rights and equal duties, in this land.

But it was not always so. India is the Mother of Democracy and since ancient times we had democratic institutions functioning at the grassroots.

But long years of colonial rule wiped them out. On 15th August 1947, the nation woke up to a new dawn.

We not only won freedom from foreign rule, but also the freedom to rewrite our destiny. With our Independence began the era of foreign rulers withdrawing from many colonies and colonialism drew close to its end.

What is special about our freedom struggle is not only the fact that its objective was achieved, but also how it was fought. Under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi and a galaxy of extraordinary visionary leaders, our national movement was animated by a unique set of ideals. Gandhiji and others re-kindled the soul of India and helped the nation rediscover its civilisational values.

Following India’s shining example, ‘truth and non-violence’, the cornerstone of our resistance, has been successfully employed in many political struggles around the world.

The aspirations of the new India have infinite dimensions.

The Indian Space Research Organisation keeps scaling new heights and setting higher benchmarks of excellence.

This year, ISRO launched Chandrayaan-3, and its lander named ‘Vikram’ and its rover named ‘Pragyan’ are slated to land on the moon in the next few days.

It will be a proud moment for all of us and I look forward to it. But the mission to the moon is only a stepping stone for our future space programmes. We have to go far ahead.

Our country has entered the ‘Amrit Kaal’ with new resolutions and we are moving forward towards making India an inclusive and developed nation by the year 2047.

Let us all take a pledge to perform our fundamental duty to strive towards excellence in all spheres of individual and collective activity so that the nation constantly rises to higher levels of endeavour and achievement.

On the eve of Independence Day, I once again extend my greetings to you, specially to our soldiers guarding the borders, jawans of the forces and the police providing internal security and to the members of our diaspora living in every part of the world. I convey my best wishes to you all.

Thank you.

Jai Hind! Jai Bharat!