Nagpur: We saw young crowd of Nagpur celebrating Republic Day at Futala. Team Nagpur Today interacted with the crowd and asked some basic questions like – what is the difference between Independence Day and Republic Day? Apart from the difference of date, not one person we spoke to could give a lucid and correct reply. We got many hilarious answers in fact, which was quite tragic-comic.
Who to blame we wonder ? Schools, parents… or citizens themselves!
Nationalism has boiled down to playing loud songs on dj systems and dancing on the roads, but we really need to know the significance of the two days since Independence comes with responsibilities and those who do not understand this, do not really deserve to be Free Indians!
( So what is the difference? We state it here briefly: India became free of British rule on the stroke of midnight on the intervening night of 14th and 15th August 1947.
Power was handed over to our first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, who then, along with his Parliament had to decide on how the nation was to be run; what kind of governments, what laws, what policies, what ideological doctrines etc. So a constitutional Assembly was formed which drafted our Constitution which is the most detailed and longest in the world.
Our constitution was ready and began being implemented on January 26, 1950, so that is our Republic Day. In the true sense we became a sovereign, independent Republic that day and that is why we light up our Parliament and State Assemblies on this day.)
