BADRI RAINA | Caravan Daily
Think that on this day
Of the remembrance of freedom
Nothing should be free;
From the holding of an opinion
To the choice of a meal,
Our wills are in jeopardy
Those who were not in the fight,
Outfacing guilt and shame with
Brazen guile, today claim
Proprietorial right to proclaim
With murderous passion who
Does or does not belong to the nation.
Those whose loyalty to the flag
And the anthem remained in doubt
For disingenuous decades
Have set up shop to pronounce
What true loyalty is about.
But the old remember, and the
Young, befuddled by the forked
Tongues of false prophets, had
Better know as well if the fruits
Of the sacrifice of millions of
Great and small men and women
That we now encash in illiterate
Greed are to last some long spell.
In field and factory, street
And bylane, in temple, church
And mosque, how as Indians
They conjointly carried forward
The task of liberation to forge
A secular and democratic nation,
One in adversity and joyous
In diversity. It is that yield of
Freedom we celebrate, not
One language, one culture, one faith, one date.
And we remember the promise
That was made to spread the
Fruits of labour evenly. We
Ask that that our fatcats disgorge
What they have stolen, because
Should that promise remain cheated,
The Republic will never be truly free.
