32 I KAMAL SANDESH I 16-31 JULY, 2019
hen Emergency was imposed on the country,
resistance against it was not limited to the
political arena or politicians; the movement
was not curtailed to the confines of prison cells. There
was an outrage in the conscience of one and all. The
collective torment on the loss of democracy was
evident. Day and night, when one gets to eat food
on time, one doesn’t realize what hunger pangs are.
Similarly, in day to day life, it is difficult to savour the
joy of democratic rights, unless they are snatched
away. During Emergency, every citizen of the country
had started getting the feeling that something that
belonged to him had been snatched away. If what
was snatched had never been enjoyed by that
person, ever, it had to eventually precipitate into a
painful inner agony. And it was not just on account of
the fact that the constitution of India has made certain
provisions that enabled Democracy to blossom. Of
course, in order to ensure smooth conduct of the
social order, a constitution is required... laws & rules
are necessary, rights and duties should be part of
due discourse. But, India can proudly proclaim that
for us, beyond laws & rules, Democracy is embedded
in our sanskar; Democracy is our culture. Democracy
is our heritage; ......And the country had witnessed
one such Election in ’77. Just recently, our country
celebrated a mega festival of democracy, a mammoth
Election Campaign, from the rich to the poor, all were
happily eager in this festival to decide the fate of their
country.
- In the 2019 Loksabha Election, India saw over 61
crore voters exercising their franchise... yes 61
crores. We can think of this figure as one ordinary
but if I place it in a global perspective, if you
exclude China, the number of people who voted in
India exceeds the population of any other country
in the world. The number of people who voted
in the 2019 Lok Sabha Election is more than the
entire population of America, close to double the
figure. The total number of voters in India exceeds
the entire population of Europe. This stands for the
sheer size & spread of our Democracy.- Another encouraging fact is that, today, there are
a record 78 women Members of Parliament. I
congratulate the Election Commission and every
let’s start a mass movement
for water conservatIon: pm
Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi addressed the country men in his first ‘Mann Ki Baat 2.0’
on June 30 after taking oath for second term. In his address he asked the people to make water
conservation a mass movement like cleanliness drive. He also talked about importance of
book reading-habit. Here, we are giving highlights of the address:‘mann Ki Baat 2.0’