Letter from the Editor-in-Chief

Dear Readers,

It is a matter of great pleasure and delight for us that with your cooperation, we have successfully completed 30 years of our publication. The copy of ‘Eastern Panorama’ which is in your hand is our 30^th Anniversary Special Issue. We have, in this issue, looked back at the events that defines India’s journey since 1947.

India was ruled by the British for 89 years. Prior to this, there were Mughals and Muslims who also ruled the country. British though came as Traders but managed to capture a large part of the Indian Sub-continent through divide and rule policy. Unfortunately, the day India got independence, Indian leaders continued to play the policy of divide and rule. The partition of India was also a part of the same strategy. Our politicians till date of all political parties, divide people on the basis of caste, creed, religion and gender. In the process, we have seen many upset scenarios in our country, such as Sikh Riots of 1984, Bhagalpur Riots of 1989, Godhra Riots of 2002 etc. However, in spite of this divide and rule policy, our country has made remarkable progress in various fields. Food is the basic necessity of human being. India was having insufficient food production till 1960 and was heavily dependent on the USA who used to dictate his terms. Under the leadership of the then Prime Minister of India Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri, re-revolution was started and today India is having surplus food production. Similarly, India has made significant development in space programme, nuclear power, sports, economic reforms etc. The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act of 2005 is one of the biggest Livelihood Security Programme of the Government of India which guarantees right to work. The programme has been well appreciated throughout the world. During the period, we have seen a lot of scams, but at the same time, the government introduced an act which checks the corruption. The one is Right to Information Act 2005 (RTI). During the last 75 years, India also fought war with China in 1962 in which India was defeated. But in 1965 and 1971 with Pakistan, India made huge victory against Pakistan and taught them a lesson so that they don’t dare to attack India again. Unfortunately, Pakistan continues to play dirty tricks through proxy wars by infiltrating in Jammu and Kashmir border to terrorize people of Kashmir.

Political power, by and large, were in the hands of Nehru family and the Congress Party. There was no fully non-congress government, except for a short period of Janata Party Government Rule. A fully non-congress government was formed by Mr. Narendra Modi of BJP in 2014. His performance was repeated with more seats in 2019. Many bold steps were taken by the BJP government like de-monetization of Indian currency, abrogation of Article 370, surgical strike by entering into the territory of Pakistan and killing terrorist in their territory and abrogation of Article 370. The historic dispute between Hindu and Muslims on Ram Janmabhoomi Temple at Ayodhya was settled through the court. The Narendra government is also being praised for handling the COVID 19 pandemic. Though in the economic front, the middle income groups are suffering a lot due to high price of essential goods and cooking gas.

India is going to be the world power sooner or later. Our cover story this month defines 30 events that touched the lives of the people of India since 1947. The article has been researched and investigated by Team Eastern Panorama under the leadership of its Deputy Editor Rashmi Mizar. Hope this will be a good insight for our youth. We also take the opportunity to thank all our readers, advertisers, contributors and well wishers for their support without which this publication would not have been possible.

Dr. K.K.Jhunjhunwala