International Herald TribuneTUESDAY, AUGUST 22, 2006
NEW DELHI: As India entered its 60th year of independence this week, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh might have been forgiven for indulging in a short bout of self-congratulation.
The nation's economy is growing rapidly, analysts cast India as an emerging superpower, and every day newspaper editorials here exude breathy triumphalism about the country's booming prospects.
Outside Old Delhi's Red Fort, on the morning of Aug. 15, the stage was set for the traditional burst of nationalistic pride. Hundreds of children, dressed in green, white and saffron, lined up in stripes to form a vast Indian flag. Crowds waving plastic banners had been waiting since dawn for the prime minister to pour forth the usual cocktail of hyperbole and patriotism in the annual Independence Day address to the nation.
Instead, Singh chose to accentuate the negative.
Recalling Jawaharlal Nehru's Tryst with Destiny speech, delivered 59 years ago, Singh reminded listeners that India's first prime minister had warned of several major challenges facing free India: the urgent need to end "poverty and ignorance and disease and inequality of opportunity."(more...)
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