REPUBLIC DAY SPEECH

By: Muhammadullah Khalili Qasmi

First of all, I would like to greet our respected Principal, our respected teachers, and my fellow classmates with a very good morning. I’m delighted to have the privilege to share some words regarding Republic day of our glorious nation. I would like to take this opportunity to greet all of you a very Happy Republic Day.

Dear audience!

It is an auspicious day of our life that we celebrate 26 January. The Constitution of India came into force on this day in 1950.

Republic Day is our national festival day. We celebrate this day as an Indian and feel proud to be a citizen of India. The Constitution is the living spirit of our democracy. The Constitution is the backbone of the country. The Constitution gives all India equal rights and privileges. The Constitution guarantees freedom to all Indians. The Constitution promotes equality and justice to all individuals, irrespective of their caste, colour and creed.

At this occasion, I would like to read out the Preamble to the Constitution. The preamble very clearly outlines the great Idea of India that binds us together. It reads:

WE, THE PEOPLE OF INDIA,
Having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a
SOVEREIGN SOCIALIST SECULAR DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC
And to secure to all its citizens
JUSTICE, social, economic and political;
LIBERTY of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship;
EQUALITY of status and of opportunity; and to promote among them all
FRATERNITY assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity and integrity of the Nation;

Our beloved country achieved independence from British on 15 August 1947 following the long freedom movement. We must not forget architects of this freedom and the builders our nations. They held aloft the torch of freedom and lighted up the darkness that once surrounded us. We must not the countless unknown volunteers and soldiers of freedom who, without praise or reward, have served India even unto death.

The best complements we can pay to these freedom fighters is to protect our Constitution. The best homage we can pay to them is to safeguard the true spirit of the democracy. The best memorial is to them to protect the idea of India that they dreamed of. An India that embraces its arms to each and every citizen of the country. An India that wants to all its children flourishing and prospering. An India that is full of justice, equality and fraternity.

At the end, I repeat the words of Jawaharlal Nehru which he spoke on the eve of India's Independence, he said:

“We are citizens of a great country, and we have to live up to that high standard. All of us, to whatever religion we may belong, are equally the children of India with equal rights, privileges and obligations. We cannot encourage communalism or narrow-mindedness, for no nation can be great whose people are narrow in thought or in action. …… And to India, our much-loved motherland, the ancient, the eternal and the ever-new, we pay our reverent homage and we bind ourselves afresh to her service. Jai Hind.”
 

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