Swachh Bharat Abhiyan: It's Not Possible Without You

I certainly believe that 2014 has come as the turning point for India as new government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken up the challenge to take the country to the next level. Whether you support him or not, you have to go with the flow and that is that the whole nation is backing him up. There is a lot of hope riding on his shoulders and millions across the nation believe that he and his government will deliver and make India better. I believe in that as well, but I believe in something more than just that. I believe that he and his government alone cannot do things, if the country does not back him up. In fact, no leader in the world can lead until there is a support system that works in the background. India certainly lack leaders that can push the country on a different level economically and socially. The country has already been through a lot and its time that people start thinking that it is they that also makes a difference in many small ways.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi Taking the Initiative

The all new Swachh Bharat Abhiyan also known as Clean India Campaign is a national level campaign started by the Government of India under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. To give it the right kind of started, the Prime Minister himself wielded broom and cleaned a road. Not just that, he made sure that this becomes the biggest cleanliness drive in the country and therefore included 3 million government employees, school and college students in it. There is little doubt that this initiative by Mr. Narendra Modi is beyond politics and something that other Prime Ministers failed to do.

Bollywood or the Hindi film industry has been influential in starting up certain trends in the country and to back up this noble cause many top celebrities came forward and ensured that they pick up a broom and participate in this cleanliness drive. Public figures like Anil Ambani, Salman Khan, Kamal Hassan and even Aamir Khan joined the drive urging the people to clean India. While I appreciate all the efforts taken to make India cleaner, I seriously don’t like many things that are happening in the country, so I am venting it all out here whether you like it or not, agree or disagree and label me anything you want.

While I appreciate that many people have taken a stance to elect the right leader to lead the country, they also need support their leader in many small ways. It is time that Indians should get rid of their We-Have-Done-Our-Job attitude and contribute to their society. Going all the way to the election booth and voting for the right leader is not just where it all ends. Every leader needs a support system that works in the background while he/she executes visionary plans. I mean come on what do you expect? You expect the Prime Minister to come to your place on a daily basis and sweep your street? I can understand that many would argue that we EXPECT the civic bodies to do their job and to keep the city clean and they have constantly failed to live up to our expectations, we already know that. However, that does not give us the liberty to mess up the already dirty streets, does it? Yes, it is THEIR JOB to keep the city clean and fill up those potholes, but rather than blaming it on them it’s time we do our bit.

Bollywood Celebrity Hritik Roshan Wielding the Broom

Probably for the first time ever, I have seen celebrities taking to the streets with a broom ensuring that their streets are clean. Now, I can debate on both sides of it. On one hand, I can see that celebrities are making a great publicity out of this because they want their pictures get clicked on some of the country’s leading newspapers and websites and even social media sites. The media on the other hand, get the right content that can help them sell more newspapers and get more online traffic. They just do this for one day for few minutes and then they disappear into their own space. But for a moment, let’s us not question their patriotism and their love for the city and their effort and commitment towards the city and believe that they are doing the right thing. While all this certainly puts them in a great light, in some way it also implicates that we are so reactive that we need celebrities to tell us to keep our city or country clean. The same city that we call our home. Imagine this, some superstar knocks your door, walks in and tells you that you haven’t cleaned your home in years so let’s do it together and only then you realize, Oh! Yes, he is right. You wake up from your slumber and start cleaning. As if he hadn’t come to your home, you would’ve conveniently stayed in that same dirt for years, because it didn’t bother you at all.

I certainly have lot of faith in the young generation that is going to shape the future of India probably in the next decade and after that. We, not just as Mumbaikars, but as Indians need to put our country ahead of everything else. It is surprising to see that when Indians travel abroad, we follow rules and regulations of that foreign land, we don’t spit on the road, don’t urinate in the open and we don’t throw trash on the road, but we do that here in our own country, our home. Why? because we have the freedom. The freedom to piss on the roadsides, freedom to spit anywhere we want, freedom to throw waste out of the running car and the same freedom that we celebrate every year on the Independence Day without realizing that independence is not a gift to us from our freedom fighters and martyrs, its a responsibility. So, stop littering and let's make India a BETTER place to live because it's NOT POSSIBLE WITHOUT YOU.