I-Day attendance shouldn't be forced

Pride, like love, can be encouraged, but not imposed. So, when the Cabinet secretary reportedly sends out a directive to GoI secretaries that they ensure all invited officials attend the forthcoming Independence Day celebration at Lal Qila 'without fail' - adding that a 'serious view' will be taken if they're absent - one wonders how our statutory authorities view something that's supposed to be as unprompted as feelings of national pride.

Such an official letter smacks of a school notice ensuring total attendance of all students at a function. While the intention is well-meant - to fill up seats when the national flag is raised on August 15 at Red Fort and the elected head of government makes his customary address to the nation - as far as messaging goes, the directive seems to underline the continuing 'mai-baap' nature of the Indian state circa 2024. Responding to the notice in a news report, a government official stated without noticing the irony in his words, 'Officials should take pride in attending the national event.'

This push-turned-to-shove notice points to a larger picture of how the Indian state, in rather Soviet fashion, still expects Independence Day - and other national celebratory events - to be celebrated. The spontaneous happy outbursts of a July 14 Bastille Day in France, or a July 4 Independence Day in the US, are, indeed, mirrored in India every August 15. So, instead of making such an occasion onerous by making attendance at state function compulsory, why doesn't the state do what it has done all this while? That is, leave it to fellow citizens to decide how to observe I-Day, and whether or not to attend statutory events out of a sense of duty - something that's different from a sense of pride.