India celebrates 60th anniversary

By Elizabeth Roche
Agence France-Presse
Last updated 03:04pm (Mla time) 08/15/2007

NEW DELHI -- India celebrated on Wednesday six decades as an independent nation, but
the prime minister warned against over-confidence from the booming economy and laid
out tough challenges ahead.

In a speech from the ramparts of the capital's 17th-century Red Fort, Singh lauded India's
democracy as its greatest achievement.

"The success of a secular democracy in a nation of a billion people with such diversity is
viewed with admiration," he said from behind a bullet-proof shield and a tight security
cordon.

"The best is yet to come," Singh predicted, riding a wave of optimism that India is on the
threshold of becoming a superpower.

"However, we must not be over-confident," he said. "We have a long a march ahead."

Despite the economy growing at nine percent, the prime minister pointed to poverty, the
"national shame" of malnutrition, unemployment, agrarian strife, civil unrest and
sectarian divide.

"We need at least a decade of hard work and of sustained growth to realize our dreams.
We have to bridge the many divides in our society and work with a unity of purpose,"
Singh said.

To bolster the ailing agriculture sector, he confirmed six billion dollars would be invested
in agriculture.

India's rain-dependent agriculture sector is growing at less than a quarter the pace of the
overall economy. It contributes a fifth of economic output and provides a livelihood for
two-thirds of the population.

Singh also called for a revolution in education and pledged to set up a pension scheme
and improve health care. Some 6,000 new schools would be set up, he said.

"Poverty eradication is now a feasible goal," Singh said, adding that rapid
industrialization was the most effective means to create new jobs.
Some of his views were echoed by young urban Indians in an opinion poll for The
Hindustan Times.

Some 52 percent of the 1,247 respondents between the ages of 16-25 said they were
proud of India's democracy.

"Young and rocking -- this is the popular image of India as it begins celebrating its 60th
birthday as a free nation," the daily said in an editorial.

The Times of India splashed on its front page that India was "60 and getting sexier."

"There's plenty to look forward to. The next 60 years hopefully will be better than the
last," the daily said.

The anniversary was marked by tight security with aircraft, combat troops and tens of
thousands of security forces deployed after threats by Al-Qaeda and separatist rebels.

In the capital, some 70,000 police and paramilitary troops were on duty.

With insurgencies raging from Kashmir to Assam, Singh promised stern action against
"hatred and extremism."

He urged Indians to unite against "these anti-democratic, anti-social and anti-national

forces."

In restive Kashmir, a strike called by the state's separatist alliance cleared the streets of
the summer capital Srinagar and shut all shops and businesses.

Kashmiri militants mark independence as a "black day". Britain's withdrawal from the
sub-continent led to the partition of India, the birth of Pakistan and the division of
Kashmir between them.

Police said troops Tuesday shot dead two militants in northern Kashmir's Bandipora
town, a day after a grenade killed three people and wounded 19 in the market there.

Police also defused a bomb attached to an Indian flag in southern Banihal town.

Four explosions rocked northeastern Assam state on Wednesday, police said but no one
was reported hurt.

A wave of separatist attacks in Assam has left 36 people dead in the past week.