By Tanmay Naik
India – a country of of 1.30 billion has handled the pandemic far better than supposedly developed nations. Whether in going in for an early lockdown that saved lives or leading the way in creative acknowledgements of health care workers. To bringing back lakhs of Indians home through the Vande Bharat and Samudra Setu missions. And then #VaccineMaitri. Saving lives and winning hearts across the globe. Narendra Modi ensured that we did not spend the year merely responding to the pandemic. India made strides in developing it’s infrastructure, amending laws, attracting investment. This is #NewIndia that marches ahead no matter what challenges arise.
The global world order has changed. War is no longer something that happens only at the borders of a nation. It is waged on many fronts. A rising India has many entities working to show India in a poor light – within India and internationally.
Every nation has days and places it considers special. 26 Jan is our Republic Day. A day we celebrate our nation and our armed forces. Across India and the world millions of Indians tune in to witness the celebrations. The Red Fort has significance for every Indian. Even for those who haven’t visited it yet.
On 26 Jan 2021 a group of paid goons masquerading as farmers did the unthinkable. They ran amok on the streets of Delhi. And then tried to do everything possible to provoke the Delhi Police who then did the unimaginable. They responded with courage and restraint. In doing so they defused the elaborate plan of a conscienceless global cabal to malign India.
This inspired Savitha Rao, Founder of India Positive Citizen to communicate appreciation to the brave men and women of Delhi Police. She got cloth banners made on which citizens from Mumbai wrote their #MannKiBaat. People from other cities and countries sent in their messages of appreciation. Which were hand written on cloth by volunteers. The end result was a range of vibrant, colorful banners with messages of Indians from every walk of life. Serving soldiers, veterans, senior citizens, students, professionals, homemakers – all shared their thoughts on cloth. There were messages in English, Hindi and Gujarati. Some citizens composed poems. A serving soldier wrote “ With love from Olive Green to Khaki”. Indians from India, USA, Middle East, Japan, UK , Germany, South America shared messaged. It was a wonderful experience for the citizens who were happy to participate in this first of its kind initiative. I am pleased to share that I was among them.
India Positive Citizen is itself a first of its kind movement. The vision is to invite every Indian to do one action, once a week, every week. One person can do 52 actions in a year. One crore of us can potentially do 52 crore actions in a year. Transforming our community and country with mindful actions.
The Delhi Police was deeply appreciative of this historic and entirely unexpected gesture from citizens.
Bharat Mata ki Jai.