India "Shining"

India's GDP growth rate is 9.4% for the fiscal year 2006-07 making it the second fastest growing economy in the world or the fastest growing free market democracy !!

Sensex is almost reaching 18k and has even zoomed ahead of Nikkei of Japan for the first time in September 2007

Team India's win in the recent T20 World Cup made analysts and pundits to declare ascendance of young and confident new generation, rising from far-flung small towns of India ,free of pedigree and customs

After Wills India Fashion Week in Pragati Maidan,Delhi within few weeks we have Lakme India Fashion Week in Mumbai

Movie Industry is upbeat with movie Sivaji , starring Rajnikanth made with an estimated budget of 96 crores.

Mukesh Ambani the richest resident Indian building a house as big as regular 60-storied residential block

No wonder even foreign newspapers and channels are covering this Great Indian Resurgence.Pundits and analysts have hailed India as an example for all developing countries to emulate.India with free market and largest democracy has destroyed the long held belief that Democracy doesn't work in poor,diverse countries.Now everything mentioned above is true but the question is what percentage of India does this growth story portray??

It seems we Indians not just love Bollywood movies but live in Bollywoodland too.Media with its explicit capacity to educate and implicit capacity to form political opinions has stooped to the level of tabloid journalism.Write or Show that which sells has been the motto of these newspapers or channels.In the recent Wills India Fashion Week journalists and TV crew were "fighting" for space alongside Politicians,Babus,Foreign Buyers.Same media were not so keen in reporting 3 million people displaced in eastern India due to floods in August.In a country where less than 0.2 percent of people sport designer clothes and per capita consumption of textile is less than world average media should get its priorities correct.Sensex maybe booming and investors are thrilled but its happening in a country where 70% people don't have bank accounts and thousands of farmers die every year unable to pay debt.Recently Wheat imported from Australia meant to be distributed under various welfare schemes meant for the poor and tribal is said to be used as animal fodder in Australia.

The fastest growing sector in India is nor IT,BT,Automobiles it is inequality.In the last decade the gap is just widening.Poor man's plight is seen as solely their own making. Walter Bagehot an editor with Economist wrote "Poverty is an anomaly to rich people.It is very difficult to make out why people who want dinner do not ring the bell".It is in these past few years India has slipped from rank 124 to 127 in the Human Development Index of the United Nations Development Programme. The Human Development Index (HDI) is a comparative measure of life expectancy, literacy, education, and standards of living for countries worldwide.It shows that you are better off being poor in Botswana, El Salvador, Guatemala or the Occupied Territories of the Palestine - than in India.

The orgy of celebration over elite consumption in recent years is dangerous.In this age of Mall Culture,McDonald's,Theme Restaurants its surprising to learn India accounts for half of the malnourished children in the world.While rest of the world is battling obesity among their teens we are yet to highlight malnourishment prevalent among our children.While its difficult for people in villages to access basic health care we can see "weight-loss" clinics,"skin shine" clinics,spa and fitness centres on every road in urban India.A cappuccino at CCD,Bangalore-Mysore highway may cost 30 rupees but a peasant family working on the land behind may toil whole day to earn the same in a day.In villages while people are finding it difficult to afford ceremony for marriage in urban India teeming with Industrialists,Businessmen,IT honchos theme marriages with Tajmahal,Flower garden as backdrop are becoming norm.All the while salaries have been shining.Dhirubhai Ambani's last salary was 9 crores which is 30,000 times that of what a poor cotton farmer in Vidarbha can earn.While most rural folk walk miles to get few buckets of water in the Shining India there are 24 amusement and water parks in and around Mumbai alone using 50 billion litres of water for entertainment. In a bid to present rosy picture to foreign clients and probably help relax the hardworking minds of Businessmen,IT people lush green lawns,Golf courses are built and maintained which consume enough water which would suffice annual requirement of a dozen villages.Blindly imitating west by having lush green lawns in a tropical and semi-arid areas defies logic.In a bid to boost image of India we plan to bring F1 to Delhi where as most rural folk in outskirts still use bullocks to till their lands.

This is where India Shining meets India Burning.The absolute amount of per capita food availability for the year 2002-03 was lower than during the time of the Bengal famine.What sort of society can endure such inequality?Even President of India K.R Narayanan said in a Republic Day speech "It seems, in the social realm, some kind of a counter revolution is taking place... As a society, we are becoming increasingly insensitive and callous...The unabashed vulgar indulgence in conspicuous consumption by the noveau riche has left the underclass seething".This inequality has lead to revolutions in the form of Naxalism.If we look at the map showing districts affected by Naxalite movement it tells the story.They are active in 160 of the 604 administrative districts.Although their violent means to achieve their revolutionary goals needs to be condemned we must also evaluate the reasons behind birth of such groups.Continuous social and economic inequality breeds dissent and this dissent may turn into armed uprising.Even Manmohan Singh had stressed the need to address the basic causes for alienation of the people and the lack of development.In the inaugural CII meeting reformist PM made a socialist call for inclusive growth.He spoke about industry dedicating to workers’ welfare,extended affirmative action, warned against cartelisation, said employment growth is necessary to spread the benefits of high GDP growth rates, depreciate high profits, reduce excessive management remunerations and vulgar display of wealth and ostentatious expenditures, called for people investment and higher R&D and innovation investments, and slammed corruption. He ended up with plea for industry to promote socially responsible media and finance socially responsible advertising.However the Industry slammed him saying it was not practical and more importantly not their job !!

We need a socio-economic system in which there is fair distribution of wealth across all sections of society.We need to negate economic disparity and make development inclusive before reality bites.

"The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles" - Karl Marx

Who am I?

In recently concluded Indian Idol contest both finalists Prashant Tamang and Amit Paul became countrywide heartthrobs. It was good that they were from long neglected north-eastern part of India. With this event the whole region came into limelight and made people in those regions happy and contented. Although it is quite possible that these guys made it to the finals as part Government of India's "Look East" policy let us discount that and discuss the issues concerning this gala event.

Prashant a Nepali by origin from Darjeeling had fan base in Darjeeling, Indian Police Force and Nepalese origin people in India. Amit a Bengali speaking singer from Meghalaya had fan base in Meghalaya, Bengali and Khasi communities elsewhere. Astute Politicians in the respective regions supported them in Public and even had PCO’s setup in their constituency to enable people to vote for their regional heroes. Soon after Prashant’s coronation as the Indian Idol there were clashes in Meghalaya and Silguri, WB. Fans of the respective singers fought pitched battles and destroyed public property all in the name of loyalty to their idol/regions.

It is unfortunate that we had to witness Parochialism. It is obvious that Prashant and Amit made it to finals for reasons beyond their singing abilities. Media and Mobile companies made crores of rupees not because of people's interest in singing competition but interest in ensuring their local boy win the competition. In this rat race to grab TRP ratings and SMS earnings it seems making money is the sole aim for these companies. One cannot entirely blame companies, as it is people who nurture them. Indian Idol was meant to be a talent hunt to find fresh talents from remote parts of India. However it has exposed one of the biggest problems we currently face in India. There is an Identity crisis. People identify themselves with their caste, religion and region. Even educated youth when it comes to marriage want to marry spouses from their own caste, religion. People fight over sharing of water between two states. They fight over their religious notions. It is this lack of national identity that makes country vulnerable. World's sole superpower for over 5000 years has been relegated to third world country in last few centuries. It is this lack of common Identity that led to invasions from Persians, Macedonians, Greeks, Scythians, Parthians, Tajiks, Turks, Central asian hordes, Portuguese, Dutch, French and finally British. Had Ambhi, King of Taxila not sided with Alexander in Battle of Hydaspes , had Jaichandra and other Rajput kings supported Prithviraj in Battle of Tarain, had Mir Jafar not defected to British in Battle of Plassey , India would have been different country. One can commend that India has remained culturally intact after all these invasions and has come up with truly diversified culture by incorporating other cultures in the mainstream. One must also repent at lessons not being learnt all the while.It is the lack of unity which makes us vulnerable. We all clap, whistle when SRK talks about country first in his pep talk to Chak De girls but when it comes to our life’s we don’t implement it. We still have apprehensions about other religions, about other castes, while we slammed Jade Goody and championed for the cause of a victim Shilpa Shetty. Hypocrisy is that we are racists to the core and like to call a South Indian "Madrasi", a northeast guy "Chinki". A SC/ST is still frowned upon and warrior caste people still chest thump about their ancestor's valour in battles. It is OK to feel nice about our pedigree or region but totally unacceptable to have wet dreams that ours is the best.

We all are Indians first and unless we break these centuries’ old shackles of caste ism, religious fundamentalism and regionalism it is difficult to reclaim past glory.

Hey,Ram

History they say repeats itself.In late 80s and early 90s a small and inconsequential BJP gained publicity and secure votebank by championing for the Ayodhya Ram Temple Cause.Now again an oppurtunity has come before the dishevelled BJP suffering from leadership crisis.Well Its not about BJP or Congress but its about learned and informed people's response. Many good projects envisioned offlate with lot of foresight like Quota for SC/ST and Minorities,Creation of SEZ have been hijacked by politicians to derive mileage out of it.Add to this Gen Next inspired by RDB often come on roads demanding ban on them without really understanding and/or appreciating the foresight behind the projects.We should think beyond what is obvious and think about long term benefits.

Sethusamudram Project, an ambitious project linking Arabian Sea to Bay of Bengal via Palk Straight has hit the mother of all road blocks.Hardliners,Hindu Nationalists and a section of general public are upset with the project calling it a "Blasphemy" against Hindu Culture and belief.Whole issue became nationwide debate when DMK supremo Karunanidhi made a remark questioning existence of Ram and his engineering credentials.Though he is an atheist being in a responsible post he should have spoken by taking into account , beliefs of millions of people.He probably was alarmed at project being hijacked with relgious sentiments and hence made those remarks.One may wonder person who is supposed to have an authority on Valmiki Ramayana made such a statement.Though it looked distasteful he did try to make a point.One of the reasons behind DMK's inception was to counter the growing dominance of Brahmin ruled centre.The people in TN have Tamil Identity and follow non-Brahmin Hinduism.For them Ramayana is a story of prevalence of north over south and there is nothing divine in that.One must realize that there are many views and schools of Hinduism.Ill probably talk about it in my next blog entry !!

Now coming back to merits and demerits of this in-news project.For starters this canal is envisioned to be "Suez of the east".It has immense potential for economic and industrial growth in the coastal region of Tamilnadu and war-torn underdeveloped part of Srilanka.However critics have raised concerns on the canal's environmental impact,economic viability and lastly religious beliefs.One must realize that apart from economics it has an important stategic role to play.It would increase the traffic along the narrow waterway and would virtually end illegal infiltration from Srilanka.During crisis situations like war,Tsunami Indian Naval ships can move from western theatre to eastern theatre or vice-versa without having to make an arduos round trip around Srilanka.At the end like reason for most of the events happening in the world its all about Oil !!

China and India are vying to control the Oil transit route which originates from Straights of Hormuz in Persian Gulf through Indian ocean to South China Sea.China took lead in this strategic planning and already has a base in Bandar Abbas south of Iran,Gwadar port in Pakistan,a base in Maldives,a base in Great Coco island which is in Andaman Archipelago.China is trying its best to secure its Oil route and also to encircle India.Once the strategic thinkers in Delhi realized whats happening they took some steps to counter it.India now is developing a port in Chah Bahar with Iran,has airbase in Tajikistan,is Coaxing and Courting Maldivies Govt,has set up base in Andaman and is investing heavily in bluewater navy capability.Its not just India even US is worried with chinese "String of Pearls" strategy which is posing security concerns for Oil Transit routes.Recent massive 5 nation naval wargames held off the coast fo Andaman was a message for China not to make any agressive moves in "Indian Ocean".India is even plannning to join US grand plan of 1000 ship flotilla which will police the international waters from rogue states and pirates.With all these only missing chunk in this puzzle is Srilanka.Now India wants to make Sethusamudram Canal as transit point for oil tankers.By ensuring this India can be assured of energy security and control on the Oil transit route.Now if India builds this canal and makes it as a transit hub it will act as strategic counterweight to Chinese ambition.

A committe should be formed to relook and address the econmic viability and ecological concern.Politicians should think beyond getting mileage out of this and should work for a secure and strong India.People should think beyond personal beliefs and start accomodating others beliefs too.Lastly People should think about the "Greater Good"

On a lighter note Vanars built the bridge for a purpose and that purpose is served long back.Now there is a new purpose to build this canal !!

I would like to conclude with this quote by British Officer Philip Chetwode

"The safety, honour and welfare of your country comes first, always and every time.

The honour, welfare and comfort of the men you command, come next.

Your own ease, comfort and safety come last, always and every time."