New Delhi, Aug 5: Union Home Minister Amit Shah Friday launched a mega serial ‘Swaraj – Bharat Ke Swatantrata Sangram Ki Samagra Gatha’ produced by Doordarshan to mark the 75th anniversary of independence, and also watched the screening of its first episode on Rani Abbakka.
An official spokesman in a statement issued here quoted Shah as saying that under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India was celebrating the Amrit Mahotsav to pay tributes to the sacrifices of lakhs of known and unknown freedom fighters.
“India is set to take a giant leap in the 75th year of its Independence and nobody will be able to stop it from becoming a great nation,” Shah said. “If the future of the country is to be made great, then the pride of India’s great history needs to be told to the present generation.”
He said that the foreign powers could keep India under their rule as they succeeded in creating an inferiority complex amongst Indians which should be uprooted to achieve independence in its truest sense.
“India cannot claim to achieve the true ideals of Swaraj if it fails to protect its languages, culture, and history as it marches towards the centenary of independence,” Shah said.
He said that the 75-episode mega show chronicles lesser-known tales about Indian history and would be telecast from August 14 on Doordarshan in Hindi and regional languages.
Hailing the Doordarshan and Akashvani, Shah said only All India Radio and Doordarshan could express the feeling of India.
“The real meaning of Swaraj means to run India the way Indians want it to be run. It includes our languages, our religion, our culture, and also our arts,” he said. “If we can’t protect our languages in the centenary year, then would we have achieved the real aim of Swaraj?”
Shah said that the Indian civilisation had progressed for several thousand years and there was no need for any NGO to educate the country about its culture.
“Those who ruled us destroyed our best systems. They knew that they could rule us only if they succeeded in creating an inferiority complex within us because we were ahead of them in every aspect,” he said. “These people created a myth that we were illiterate. The country that gave Geeta and the Vedas to the world, the country that gave the world ‘zero’, the country that gave the world astronomy, how can it be illiterate?”
Shah expressed hope that the television serial ‘Swaraj’ would help the country get rid of its inferiority complex and make the youth take pride in the country’s history.
In his address, Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports, Anurag Thakur lauded Shah as a master strategist and a modern-day ‘Chanakya’ who fulfilled the long-standing demand of getting rid of Article 370 and Article 35-A and taking steps to strengthen national security.
“We have heard that Sardar Patel had unified India. I see a reflection of Sardar Patel in Amit Shah. Patel unified the country, Amit Shah is making it stronger,” he said.