In the days leading up to yet another August 15, I found myself reminiscing about my favorite memories associated with the day. As a schoolgirl, I remember Independence Day as a festive occasion for one and all. There was something in the air that particular day that evoked a sense of pride at the sight of the tricolor. The elaborate preparations would begin weeks in advance - after-school rehearsals for plays and marching drills. Having a hard taskmaster as the PE teacher made the Parade rehearsals somewhat dreadful. However, I must admit that since coming to America, India's Independence Day evokes just a semblance of the excitement of years past. Amid our busy lives, all the once-familiar sights and sounds of the day return only as memories. Although we have left India in pursuit of the great American dream, for many of us, our roots remain seeped in saffron, white and green. The most we can do is mark the day by attending the local India Day Parades led by visiting Indian film stars and beauty queens. No tribute seems to have been paid in the Prime Minister’s speech either to the ‘Captains of Indian Industry’ who until the beginning of the 1990’s despite bad governance kept plodding to move India forward economically. Once released from the stifling gridlock of governmental controls and permit-rule by late Prime Minister Rao the Indian industry under the dynamic leadership of its industrialists and businessmen surged forward to achieve sustained rates of economic growth of 7-8%. It also strikes the mind rather painfully, that while India’s economic progress is reaching dizzy heights, India’s political progress in terms of the quality of her political governance, political values of the political leaders and the polity and political integrity have shown no commensurate progress. In fact India’s polity is sliding down into what one may call a total irrelevance eventually in a dynamic India on the move. India’s political leadership cutting across the entire...