Well it has been close to 8 months since I blogged, after coming back to India, I took to liking in spending weekends doing mundane things. Nothing concrete, but the new definition of being lazy is, doing totally pointless things under the name of being busy. Finally I kicked myself out of this laziness, just to check whether i still have it in me to journal my thoughts rather than just thinking about it and letting it go after I snap out of it.
Being Oct 2, the TV channels are overwhelmed with special programs and brand new movies. But note, none of these have got any relevance to the reason behind this holiday, it just another day off for people to sit back at home and while away their time in front of the the idiot box and I am no different. But as expected, the staple Richard Attenborough's Gandhi was in one of the channels when I landed on the scene where Gandhi comes down to an indigo farmer's house to understand their cause of concern, the farmer cries about greedy landlords, indifferent government and no one person to really understand the basic needs of the people/farmer, end result, people suffer and have nothing they can do but toil their life out in pain. This got me into thinking, have we really progressed on our own home role in the last six decades? Beyond the regular media hype on 'India Shining' or 'new India' or articles on how we are really the next big economy, I seriously believe these all exist only on paper. The working class and service class are still finding it tough to meet their ends and the state or the central government is still doling out one populist scheme after another to just win the election and no agenda whatsoever on the future. The serious lack of good thinking leaders and lack of ideas on the direction to take is really killing the nation from the inside. When the Congress came to power again in 2009, against rational thinking, I was happy to have an economist PM continue under the hope he will drive India forward in a time when whispers of depression and double dip recession were making rounds. But "coalition dharma" and alliance politics made India take 3 steps backward for every progressive step, there were slight glimmers of hope in the form of Gujurat and Bihar, but again nothing that could make the nation move forward.
The main culprit is not just the ruling Congress government, the blame should also lie with the opposition party BJP which boasts of reformist and progressive mindset. As I had mentioned in one of my earlier posts, BJP should shed its "oppose anything the govt proposes" mentality and grow up to support the government on any critical reform to help the nation's progress. The burgeoning educated middle class will definitely understand BJP's intention and willingness to support reforms and of course will help them capture power in the 2014 elections (not that the middle class alone represents the Indian electorate, but still is a significant number). Ofcourse the opposition's move to ensure the scams and money plundering doesn't go unnoticed, it is the right way to ensure that every move by the government is always being watched by the media and other political parties, but again, that alone will not ensure BJP is doing things right.
So with the nation heading nowhere and no clear leader emerging from the motley of regional parties, I think there is very little hope things are going to change in 2014 or if there is an mid term elections in 2013. There are intense debates in the 24/7 news channels on the pros and cons of the FDI reforms and at the end of day, it leaves the Indian electorate more confused than ever. As Arvind Kejriwal drama unfolds at one end, the Mamata's party to pressure the centre to roll back everything progressive while WB reels under mismanagement hogs the headlines at the other end. With Modi harbouring PM ambitions while the other NDA allies strictly against it, the 2014 elections will be a giant circus with the nation being the biggest loser. At the end of day it really pains to see such gross mismanagement and squandering of public money with use to no one while a part of the nation is without basic needs of food, electricity and water. A nation always on the tipping point on communal front (Assam), regional front (Telengana), infrastructure developments (Kudunkulam) is really a heavy machinery to move forward with so many rigid and leaking ends, but again to use those detrimental factors to personal gain and cheap politics is absolute disservice to a country with so many eager minds and expectant citizens waiting for a change.
The movie dialogue from Gandhi in a meeting with the British viceroy, "I beg you to accept that there is no people on Earth who would not prefer their own bad government to the good government of an alien power", was really thought provoking, but may be we took the thought a bit too seriously and never realized there can also be a home grown good government too!!
Being Oct 2, the TV channels are overwhelmed with special programs and brand new movies. But note, none of these have got any relevance to the reason behind this holiday, it just another day off for people to sit back at home and while away their time in front of the the idiot box and I am no different. But as expected, the staple Richard Attenborough's Gandhi was in one of the channels when I landed on the scene where Gandhi comes down to an indigo farmer's house to understand their cause of concern, the farmer cries about greedy landlords, indifferent government and no one person to really understand the basic needs of the people/farmer, end result, people suffer and have nothing they can do but toil their life out in pain. This got me into thinking, have we really progressed on our own home role in the last six decades? Beyond the regular media hype on 'India Shining' or 'new India' or articles on how we are really the next big economy, I seriously believe these all exist only on paper. The working class and service class are still finding it tough to meet their ends and the state or the central government is still doling out one populist scheme after another to just win the election and no agenda whatsoever on the future. The serious lack of good thinking leaders and lack of ideas on the direction to take is really killing the nation from the inside. When the Congress came to power again in 2009, against rational thinking, I was happy to have an economist PM continue under the hope he will drive India forward in a time when whispers of depression and double dip recession were making rounds. But "coalition dharma" and alliance politics made India take 3 steps backward for every progressive step, there were slight glimmers of hope in the form of Gujurat and Bihar, but again nothing that could make the nation move forward.
The main culprit is not just the ruling Congress government, the blame should also lie with the opposition party BJP which boasts of reformist and progressive mindset. As I had mentioned in one of my earlier posts, BJP should shed its "oppose anything the govt proposes" mentality and grow up to support the government on any critical reform to help the nation's progress. The burgeoning educated middle class will definitely understand BJP's intention and willingness to support reforms and of course will help them capture power in the 2014 elections (not that the middle class alone represents the Indian electorate, but still is a significant number). Ofcourse the opposition's move to ensure the scams and money plundering doesn't go unnoticed, it is the right way to ensure that every move by the government is always being watched by the media and other political parties, but again, that alone will not ensure BJP is doing things right.
So with the nation heading nowhere and no clear leader emerging from the motley of regional parties, I think there is very little hope things are going to change in 2014 or if there is an mid term elections in 2013. There are intense debates in the 24/7 news channels on the pros and cons of the FDI reforms and at the end of day, it leaves the Indian electorate more confused than ever. As Arvind Kejriwal drama unfolds at one end, the Mamata's party to pressure the centre to roll back everything progressive while WB reels under mismanagement hogs the headlines at the other end. With Modi harbouring PM ambitions while the other NDA allies strictly against it, the 2014 elections will be a giant circus with the nation being the biggest loser. At the end of day it really pains to see such gross mismanagement and squandering of public money with use to no one while a part of the nation is without basic needs of food, electricity and water. A nation always on the tipping point on communal front (Assam), regional front (Telengana), infrastructure developments (Kudunkulam) is really a heavy machinery to move forward with so many rigid and leaking ends, but again to use those detrimental factors to personal gain and cheap politics is absolute disservice to a country with so many eager minds and expectant citizens waiting for a change.
The movie dialogue from Gandhi in a meeting with the British viceroy, "I beg you to accept that there is no people on Earth who would not prefer their own bad government to the good government of an alien power", was really thought provoking, but may be we took the thought a bit too seriously and never realized there can also be a home grown good government too!!
