Ashoka Chakra.....

India is celebrating its 64^th Republic Day today with tricolor flags waving everywhere evoking a sense of patriotism and a proud feel to be an Indian.

The tricolor with blue Ashoka Chakra – 24 spoke wheel in the center, today truly represents the distinct four societies emerging in our country. 

Saffron may be attributed to the handful of wealthy people with access to global wealth and power of getting things done, who are already leading or going to lead global platforms, be it industry, be it politics or be it sports. White, in the middle, may represent the upper middle class who has got access to global education, global technology and global workforce contributing to the global knowledge power. The green at the bottom may represent the lower middle class, struggling educated mass working hard to live a life of decent quality, dreaming to be a part of global workforce with their acquired skill and expertise.

And thanks to all these entrepreneurs, knowledge workers, artists, writers and also farmers; ‘poor’ India is now ‘respected’ India in the world. In the lingo of economists, India is poised to become the largest economy in the world surpassing China and America by 2050 leveraging its youth power where more than 65% of population is below the age of 35.

All that is fine, but the tricolor has no meaning without the blue Ashoka Chakra. And the blue Ashoka Chakra represents the poor Indians- almost 60% of its population that live on less than $2 per day. India with its large terrain and with a large heart houses almost 15% of world’s population and hence in absolute terms the number of people in this society is huge and no doubt the statisticians mention that one third of world’s poor live in India.

World is still round as the Ashoka Chakra and not flat at all for these folks.

True growth of India does not lie in erudite statistics, it lies in the very structure of the fabric of the nation, it lies in the culture that is being shared and cared by all. While we are proud of our rich heritage glorified with history, we should be cognizant of the fact that we can’t continue to reminisce about the past; we need to create a history and a culture of pride for the posterity.

Until unless we include the folks being represented by the Ashoka Chakra, in our endeavor to grow in terms of education, health reforms, food supply, construction, industry, job creation; our growth story does not reflect a homogeneous one, our culture does not represent an unified one with Indian-ness. Rather there is every chance that this poor mass will be further relegated and isolated from the mainstream and soon become an impediment to the growth story that is being trumpeted.

Let us vow on this day to spare some time in our busy life visiting these poor folks in their villages showing that we do care for them, spending some time with them making them aware of living a healthy life, adopting a child or a home or a village to provide means of education acquiring skills.

Let us include them in our life and in our growth charter. Jai Ho!