The 79th anniversary of india’s independence from almost 200 years of debilitating British rule has come and gone. From the ramparts of Delhi’s iconic Red Fort, Prime Minister Narendra Modi dutifully delivered his 12th Independence Day address to the nation.

Undoubtedly the carefully choreographed annual August 15 celebrations following Republic Day which includes a military parade with contingents of the army, navy and air force followed by civilian tableaux of states of the Indian Union marching past the President’s podium, is an emotions- arousing display of national unity amid diversity. But for aware citizens it also represents window dressing, concealing crushed aspirations and dreams of more than 1 billion citizens obliged to eke out desperate lives even as political leaders repeatedly make extravagant promises practised more in the breach than observance. 

The plain, unvarnished truth is that for the great majority of independent India’s citizens, life is nasty, brutish and too long. The centrally planned, inorganic socialist economic development model ill-advisedly adopted by newly independent India seven decades ago killed the subcontinent’s native spirit of free enterprise. As a result, 79 years later, high-potential India which was expected to lead other newly independent nations of the Third World towards peace and prosperity, is ranked among the world’s poorest (per capita income: $2,600 cf. America’s $85,000 and neighbouring China’s $13,300) and most illiterate countries (over 45 percent of class VII children in 1.10 million public schools can’t read class II textbooks in any language), worldwide.

Several other policy wrong turns and missed opportunities generate anguish and anger on Independence Day. Failure of pampered PSEs (public sector enterprises) to generate the promised surpluses for investment in public health, education, law and order and justice systems has crippled independent India’s social infrastructure. Simultaneously diplomatic failure to settle inherited boundary demarcation issues with neighbour nations has prompted heavy annual defence outlays (5 percent of GDP).

Coterminously, sustained control and command of private sector business, industry and commerce even after liberalization in 1991, has disheartened India’s 430 million productive middle and elite classes who are exiting the country in droves.

For over 25 years your editors have been continuously advancing the proposition that root and branch reform of India’s education system — from preschool to Ph D — is the magic formula to calm the sea of troubles submerging the general populace.

Strong universal foundational education followed by robust primary-secondary education spared government over-regulation, and autonomous higher education institutions led by academics selected on merit, is the golden key for unlocking the potential of an inherently talented populace to rise again and realise the unfulfilled promises of Independence Day.