India: On the 75th year of India’s Independence, UNO comes to India and proclaims that ‘India is now a global powerhouse”. It is a significant achievement that every Indian living in the country and abroad will take pride of. Gone are the days, when India was projected as a poor country, underdeveloped, undernourished and ruled by a coterie of corrupt politicians who never cared for the nation and its citizens and the deplorable plight of the ‘Country of golden sparrows” was owing to those parasites.
The Secretary General UNO Antonio Guterres, on his recent visit to India publically announced that after 75 years of Independence, “India is finally a global powerhouse”. It notably accentuates India’s rising geopolitical importance. The UN Secretary General, in his address applauded the commendable contribution of the country towards achieving sustainable development goals. Antonio Guterres claimed that India’s recent development journey is characterized by high impact programmes while citing the example of world largest food-based social protection scheme and the massive expansion of access to sanitation services, hygiene and potable water.
India is the biggest provider of military and police personnel to UN missions with the first all-women UN police contingent for a peacekeeping mission. More than 200,000 Indian men and women had served in 49 peacekeeping missions’ since1948. The UN Chief eulogized India’s contribution towards global peace-keeping while acclaiming the astounding progress in other segments.
India also has a vibrant legal tradition. Indian courts are slow but they are not dominated by the political elite. Unlike the US where judicial appointments are a game of political equations, the Supreme Court Collegiums have complete autonomy to appoint judges to India’s highest court. The Prime Minister or the Parliament has no say. This is unimaginable in most countries where the political elites appoint judges. Unlike American Presidents, Indian Prime Ministers have never appointed a single judge.
Also Read – International Indigenous day 2022: Everything You Need To Know
India upholds human rights of its citizens resolutely. Are there abuses? Of course. No country with over 1.3 billion with so many religions, ethnicities, languages, castes and communities can avoid some incidents. Yet it is in the US that one in three black men “today can expect to go to prison in his lifetime, as can one of every six Latino boys — compared with one of every 17 white boys.” The American Civil Liberties Union also observes that, since 1970, “the number of incarcerated people has increased sevenfold to 2.3 million in jail and prison today, far outpacing population growth and crime.” India does a lot better in protecting rights of Muslims, Christians, Sikhs and all other minorities than the US.
The UNO Chief eloquently praised various efforts undertaken by the Government of India and have made great progress in improving the rights and plight of women. The government banned the practice of Triple Talaaq, a historic move that has improved the lot of over 80 million Muslim women while ensuring their human rights. “India is on the greatest toilet-building spree in human history.” In 2018, it reported that, since Prime Minister Narendra Modi took over in 2014, his government built an estimated 80 million toilets. By now, the number has crossed over 110 million. This means that women do not have to go out into the fields to defecate or urinate. Their health, welfare and dignity have dramatically improved.
India also vaccinated hundreds of millions against COVID-19 for free. It distributed vaccines to citizens regardless of class, caste, religion, gender or any other discriminating factor. It fed the poorest sections of the population during the pandemic too. India as Good Samaritan even sent 50,000 tons of wheat to Taliban-ruled Afghanistan when millions faced hunger and starvation after the US abandoned this tragic country to its grim fate.
The latest eulogy from highest International Body comes at a time when India has successfully emerged as a vibrant global economy, a powerful geopolitical country with strong clout across nations and an independent foreign policy. All these coupled together augurs well for the country in the days to come.
Keep watching our YouTube Channel ‘DNP INDIA’. Also, please subscribe and follow us on FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM, and TWITTER.