"OUR COUNTRY INDIA LOOKS DIRTY "
FOR
HAL VIDYALAYA
ABHIMANYU NANDI
Respected chairperson, ma'am / sir, Honorable members of jury, teacher and friends. I am here to speak for the motion of today's debate.
Friends as the saying goes “Cleanliness is next to godliness”. But it is contrary for a country like ours. Our nation enjoys a rich and varied cultural heritage, is also addressed as land of gods- Dev Bhoomi. In the lap of the mighty Himalayas are situated the holy shrines where people from all parts of the nation and abroad visit in large numbers. In spite of these facts, one can't acknowledge even those places as clean. The fifth and the garbage lying all around pose a big challenge to the environment.
The question is – should I call my surroundings and the vast mass of land and hills and rivers which is my India –dirty or should I close my eyes to all the defacing that has been done to my beautiful country and call it beautiful. We can safely say India can be represented by both the metropolitan cities and the huge rural sector. The metropolitan cities like Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and Delhi have the state of the art technology as part of the daily life. Beautiful five star hotels, well kept lawns, water parks, beaches all very beautiful neat and classy.
But Ladies and Gentleman, even though they represent the progressive face of my motherland, they also house the biggest slums and the biggest leper colonies in Asia . They also have an old city segment which is historical no doubt but densely populated and with a complete break down of sanitation, supply of potable water and miserable civic conditions. This is where the real India lies and this certainly looks dirty.
Chairperson, Sir/M'am, I ask my worthy opponents what should I admire? The five star hotel which caters only to miniscule few or should I look at the massive slums, mounds of garbage, open drains which are also part and parcel of these beautiful cities and if these eyesores can not be swept under the carpet, then I can say in all confidence that even though my country is beautiful, it certainly looks dirty. If the Red Fort and beautiful Taj Mahal symbolize our glorious past, the narrow lanes with open drains immediately outside the vicinity represent the present dirty looks of our nation.
Ladies and Gentleman, we can not deny the fact that the scenic Dal Lake is choking with red algae. The Taj is turning yellow courtesy to Mathura refinery. The rivers are holy but fast turning into sewage drains with high BOD, the cities shine by night but dogs and pigs swim by day. The parks are green but people relieve themselves in public and if all this makes my beautiful country look dirty – what can be done?
Thanks