India celebrates its 76th Independence Day yesterday, marking the day they freed themselves from the shackles of British Colonial rule and where its leaders decided to reshape their destiny.

Yesterday, at the Indian High Commission, Indian High Commissioner to Fiji, Palanyswamy Subramanyam Karthigeyan, read out the President of India Mrs Droupadi Murmu’s impassioned speech.

“As all of us celebrates the anniversary of that day, we bow to all those men and women who made enormous sacrifices to make it possible for us to live in a free India,” he said.

“When India won independence, there were many international leaders and experts who were skeptical about the success of democratic form of India.”

He said that India had its reasons to be doubtful and in those days democracy was limited to economically advanced nations.

“India, after so many years of exploitation at the hands of foreign rulers, was marked by poverty and illiteracy, but they (India) proved them wrong,” he said.

“Glorious freedom of struggle was waged bravely across the vast territory of India.”

“Many great freedom fighters did their duty and passed on the torch of awakening, leaving trace of their heroic deeds.”

The government of India made a decision to observe the 15th November as ‘Janajatiya Gaurav Divas’ in their nation, as their tribal heroes were not merely local or regional icons but they inspired the entire nation.

“The world has seen a new India rising in recent years, after the outbreak of COVID-19, where their response to the pandemic has been appreciated everywhere,” he continued.

“We launched the biggest vaccination drive in human history with vaccines manufactured in the country itself and last month we crossed the 200-core mark in cumulative vaccine coverage.”

“India’s’ start-up eco-system ranks high in the world and the success in their country, especially the growing number of unicorns is a shining example of their industrial progress.”

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