Sixty years after it made its tryst with destiny at the stroke of midnight, India observed another Independence Day on Wednesday with the usual speeches and pronouncements in a backdrop of terror threats, some cynicism but also a distinct sense of pride and the promise of a better tomorrow.

“Long years ago, we made a tryst with destiny...” India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru intoned from Parliament at the midnight hour August 15, 1947. Six decades later, that sense of history was intact when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh addressed the nation from the ramparts of the 17th century Red Fort here, outlining the achievements of his government and laying out the roadmap of the future.

Some made it to the tightly guarded venue, others around the country, and the world watched him on television. Those who did not holidayed at home, but with the sense of occasion intact — many giving into sentimentality by buying a tricolour, putting on a CD of patriotic songs, flying kites and wearing saffron, white or, if not and, green.
The sense of oneness was inescapable, and transcended borders as many Indians away from home in foreign lands made it a point to attend the celebrations at Indian missions abroad and grab at that chance to sing the national anthem aloud.

Future plan
At the official front, August 15 is the time to lay out the plan for the future, make announcements and for governments to declare their pluses to the people.

In his 35-minute speech, his fourth since becoming Prime Minister in 2004, Manmohan Singh touched on the essence of duality that is India when he vowed to focus in the coming years on crisis-hit agriculture but insisted that industrialisation was critical to progress and employment.

He devoted much of his speech to agriculture, promising a Rs 250 billion package to boost farm output.

Agro sector
But the economist-turned-politician made it clear that there were limits to how much income agriculture alone can generate, given the large population dependent on farming and the small size of farms in the country.

“India cannot become a nation with island of high growth and vast areas untouched by development, where the benefits of growth accrue only to a few,” he said. “This is good neither for our society nor for our polity.

Therefore, it is essential that we create new employment opportunities outside of agriculture. There is no developed country today anywhere in the world that is not an industrial economy. Industrialisation is critical for progress.”

The wide-ranging speech touched on a range of issues — from environment to the Right to Information Act, the necessity to maintain “the best of relations” with other countries, the need for political parties not to split Indians on sectarian issues and education.

He announced that the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act that guarantees at least 100 working days in the countryside would now be extended to the entire country.

It was also an opportunity for state chief ministers to make announcements, which many called populist.
In Punjab, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal used the occasion to launch the much-awaited ‘atta-dal’ (wheat and pulses) scheme for the poor. He also handed bags of wheat and pulses to select beneficiaries of the scheme on the occasion, prompting the Opposition Congress leaders to attack it as populist.

In Rajasthan, Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje announced plans to bring in the Narmada river in order to overcome a severe water crisis plaguing the desert state and said there would be sweet water in Barmer by 2008.

Other chief ministers dwelt on the serious crises of insurgency and terrorism confronting their states.
Raman Singh, chief minister of violence wracked Chhattisgarh where Maoist guerrillas control many districts, said they must shun the talk of bullets and join the ballot because they will never succeed in crushing democracy.
And in troubled Jammu and Kashmir, Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said the biggest gift of the peace process between India and Pakistan was calm borders. “This had brought a tremendous change and relief into the lives of the people who live close to the borders.”

But the biggest news from the state — and indeed of India’s 60th Independence Day - was that it went off peacefully.

Despite the ready threat of violence, Azad unfurled the national flag at Srinagar’s Bakshi stadium even as the rest of the city wore a deserted look due to a shutdown call by the separatists.
Reports from other parts of the Valley also said official functions to mark the country’s independence day passed off peacefully.

If there was any violence it was in the country’s edgy north-east where a paramilitary trooper was killed and another wounded in an ambush by separatists in Tripura while a string of explosions rocked Gauripur and Bongaigaon in Assam.

There were no other casualties thankfully and people in Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Manipur defied a six-hour general strike called by separatist rebels to boycott Wednesday’s Independence Day by joining the celebrations.

And that was perhaps the greatest triumph of the day — people venturing out to do what they wanted to, braving terror threats and security paranoia. Whether it was going to watch the prime minister, or attend the Independence Day celebrations in their city or just travelling across town to be with friends to fly kites.

Whatever, the stirrings of patriotism were felt all over; itself proof that India’s 60th Independence Day was not just another public holiday.