We welcomed the dawn of independence with visions of Rama Rajya-of a country flowing with milk and honey, a country where poverty, scarcity and famine were unknown; a country where truth and dharma reigned; where women and the learned were respected; and honoured; where no distinctions of caste or religion were made; where all were treated equally and with dignity; where values were held high, and where fairness and justice ruled the day. These were my dreams on August 15, 1947 of what India should be in the ensuing years.
Two score and fifteen years later, I have scaled down my expectations to the negative - what the country should not have.
I want the country freed of deceit and corruption; of greed and fraud; of selfish opportunists feathering their nests at the expense of the nation; of genre who have no vision, no statesmanship, no innovative intelligence. I will be satisfied if these negative elements are obliterated or at least arrested. The Divine will then look after the progress.

—T. L. Viswanatha Iyer