A BEGGAR looking at a graph depicting an upward trend in India’s progress would react with a sigh looking at his empty begging bowl. No amount of cajoling can cheer him up. Some such feelings bother me when I read the names of Mukesh Ambani or Laxmi Mittal in the list of the world’s richest persons.
The news of some MNCs offering extremely good pay packages to Indian graduates also doesn’t cheer me up. But the candidates who are offered these packages too have some similar feelings and have displayed the spirit and guts to turn down such offers. They are convinced of their potential to do bigger things than these packages can afford. These candidates view the situation unconventionally and are sure to break new grounds and become pioneers in their fields.
Our educational policies require total overhauling. Education should not be turned into a begging bowl. It should afford the opportunities to the youth with potential to blossom, flower and come to fruition. Indian doctors abroad make their mark in their field but are victims of apartheid and get occasional reminders of being considered as belonging to second rate category. Indians contribute positively to overall progress of the country in which they live but still their full potential seldom finds play.
Technologically we are making bold advances and could certainly pat ourselves on the back for our achievements. Our projected plan to reach the moon and the mars are welcome. But we would have been happier if these plans had come earlier. All classes of people have a bigger purchasing power but not as big as it could have been. This line of assessment is correlative and would tell the same story about other fields.
The world’s largest democracy happens to be large not only because of the number of the votes cast but also because of the population, number two after China. What matters is the ratio between the number of the people and the statistics of progress. Obviously the progress is not as good as it should have been. Whatever well meaning schemes the government. implements, are but a drop in the ocean. Yes, India has progressed but this progress is just like purple patches on a bleak background or oasis in a desert. India should be a great oasis in the desert of the world around, undaunted, and steadily marching.
Some component of human nature has always been corrupt and crime prone. Crime has existed since the dawn of human history but it was simple and nothing like the sophisticated crime of the present day. The cheats known as Thugs of Benares were very cruel and strangulated their gullible victims but the monsters of Nithari in UP must practice cannibalism. Incest may or may not have existed in the past but now we frequently read or witness it. Murders, kidnapping and killing of innocent men, women and children are common. Organized crime frightens the public. Criminals are armed to the teeth with the latest weapons and daunt the ill-equipped police. Veerappans can hold governments to ransom. Criminals operate from their cells in jails and harass and get people killed with immunity. Drug Mafia has a free hand.
Social mores have no values. Fundamentalism has raised its ugly head in the nonviolent India of the Buddha and Gandhi. Governments are terrorized. The height of our heaven measures the depth of our hell. Modern man is an intellectual giant but a moral dwarf. Sexual permissiveness is playing havoc with the fragile social fabric. Obscenity is given fancy names. Media make certain undesirables look very prestigious.
We are ourselves responsible for bringing the country to this state of affairs. But politicians obviously top the list. The first rate, dedicated, sincere and honest leaders made sacrifices and won India freedom but the modern leaders had it offered to them on a platter. Anything that comes easily has almost no value.
Politics to a large number of people is looked upon as a very good business where clever calculations can do miracles. There are very few honest politicians whom circumstances forced into this business and they have to carry along this burden round the neck. Others, who consciously opted for this, find it a rarity in the jungle of an unprincipled mob. They are in such a minority that their effectiveness has been compromised.
We have some prominent personalities doing well in this business. Then who can decide how to choose the leaders? There is little choice because whether you select Xs or Ys, they are just the two sides of the same coin. Many families have started enlisting their progeny into this lucrative business to force leaders on the hapless masses.
Degeneration is fast and corruption is increasing. The chair gets precedence over the good of the people. The masses have been robbed of the freedom of will. They have been conditioned to act according to the whims of the leaders lording over them. The politics of good ethical value is unknown to the upcoming generation, as they have been growing in this polluted political atmosphere. They cannot afford to read the records of the fight for freedom and the sacrifices offered by the lakhs. Strangely our age breeds and rears a class of hypocrites who spare no pains in hammering into our heads their non-existent virtues. The corrupt leadership raises corruption to the status of legality in the eyes of the vulnerable masses.
But India is surely not destined to sustain her existence on these conditions. Her greatness has deep roots in centuries of glorious past that has sustained her through many an upheaval. Let the leadership be what it is, but the people would never give up so easily. They will react, rise and put the train back onto the rails.
What we need to regain the position of the greatest nation
A committed leadership, both in power and in opposition, is required.
Educated electorate with the discretion to comprehend their responsibility to themselves and the motherland is necessary.
Radical change in the perspective and thinking of the youth, the nation builders of tomorrow is needed.
Gandhiji made people shed the fear of oppression by the British, now there must be someone with the stature to command respect of the nation and who could infuse new life in the declining forbearance of the masses.
A spiritual revolution to give strength to the people who tend to compromise their rights as citizens in a free land is needed.
Lord William Slim, a General in the British army, has said,”The grown ups can be taught to be courageous only through a shock treatment.” Hence the nation might need a shock to rekindle into the hearts of the people a new quest for freedom from the oppression at the hands of the unscrupulous politicians.
An honest and unbiased media is extremely essential. But unfortunately unknown to them, arrogance pervades their ranks and they are gradually insinuating themselves into earning contempt of the people.
Price rise must be controlled to save the people from losing all hope in governance. They wouldn’t bother of what form the government should be as long as they have enough to eat, a roof over their heads and other basic amenities of life. If this attitude develops, it will be a setback to democracies everywhere. “For forms of government let fools contest. Whatever is best administered is the best.” says Pope the famous English poet.
Conditions should be created for scientists and other professionals to fully exploit their potential in India so that they don’t go abroad looking for conditions conducive to the fulfillment of their dreams. Salaries should be commensurate with their qualifications and ambitions. India can do this but can’t afford to perpetually lose them.
The nation should evolve a mechanism through which the voice of sanity can be heard in all circumstances.
The silent majority should be given an opportunity to have their say.
Naturally a total social transformation is the need of the hour. One would feel the intelligent consciously or unconsciously keep themselves aloof from the humdrum of the national political and social life. But this is not their proper role. The nation expects a better deal from them.
Unfortunately the intelligent are divided into two categories:
Those actively using the press and the TV to propound their views. They are big names and get a lot of space for their expression.
The silent majority who have much to say but either it too remains aloof or do not get the opportunity to have their say. More forums like merinews can fill this gap and afford them opportunity to express themselves properly so that a collective opinion emerges for the nation.
This aspect may need the intervention of the anthropologists and sociologists. But then do they have the time and will to participate in this nation building initiative?
There is tremendous global influence to counter. The satellite technology has snatched away from a country’s local cultural and moral moderating mechanism from the people whose job it was to step in and correct the lopsided developments. India is no exception. Every nation is affected by this new development. Hence let us accept it gracefully but correction by effective voices shouldn’t be given up. At least the need of a radical change in the national thinking must be acknowledged. We simply cannot afford to be complacent.
By Prof M S Verma was a lecturer in Kabul University and is currently professor at an engineering college in Sonepat, Haryana
Source: http://www.merinews.com/
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