I had a dream, a dream for myself, indeed, for only that big was my horizon; then I had dreams, for I was living induced with the charms of a materialistic modern civilization, and now that very boundary that very fence that restricted my dreams started feeding on my bagful of childish dreams, here i am , emptied again…free to dream again for the boundary is no more and now I feel I can, I shall, dream & build a serene Bharat of my people, a vibrant Hindustan for my countrymen & India of our dreams with an indefatigable appetite to make every Indian believe.. Yes he can.. Yes I can.. Yes together We can do it…. realize our dream for this country.
For whatever the GDP meter has to say the Bharat part is lagging behind the not so vibrant India if I may call it.. for we have the largest skilled work force in the world & the largest cattle population in the world too. The prior is showered with tax holidays, fat salaries & what not and the latter still shares his verandah with his cattle.. sinister indeed… India is home to one of the largest no. of billionaires in the world , yet half of the worlds’ poor reside in Bharat..
Take another, we are the largest rail network in the world but we area also amongst the dirtiest (due to absence of suction technology in place) & the slowest (due to rail axle wheels mfg. reserved for SSI’s which cant match the hi-tech rolling stock made elsewhere), so our super fast trains run @ chilling speed of 135 kmph
Or for that matter take this.. no other country is so much blessed with such vast network of rivers gushing down from the Himalayas as ours .. but inland navigation system which comes & operates @ minimal costs as exists in France (Rhine-Rhone waterway), Denmark (Kiel canal)- ..remember they also have their super fast trains too which are the fastest in the world… is nowhere seen in the near future in India. may be because we will be ever busy with our poverty eradication programs. Yesterday only bill Gates announced that he will not give any portion of his wealth to his off springs show me any such remote example in India .. …
The pundits predict that by 2025 the Indian economy will be larger than many gargantuans of today.. I wonder what would that give us ??.. Growth or Development??
Take for example Himachal Pradesh the least industrialized state in the Indian union (Yes, I have the right data ).. Almost nil source of revenue generation till very recently even leaving behind the likes of Arunachals Tripuras & Nagalands.. still ranks among the best states in primary health(rank-3), investment environment(3), primary education(1), macro economy(3), consumer market(2), law & order(5), etc among all states and we still run after economic development & investment…
It teaches us one.. industrialization in not inevitable for good quality of life or development, meeting the basic needs is, and two.. no source of revenue income/generation does not mean poor state of finances always for a state of a union.. The central grants if used properly without corruption can bring development & prosperity (not growth or GDP/Sensex rise) for what use is growth in number terms if there is no development… the model today is pulling us to the growth poles & not the development poles…
Lets take another look.. we would be overtaking China very shortly in nothing else but our numbers.. we would also have the largest vehicle population by that time.. I read about a girl being born without limbs over the internet sometime back.. but we brood over the traffic being very heavy in cities .. .. Are we really sure about our priorities, we hardly know what to worry about…
Well.. this all was not finger pointing.. or blame game being played but we need to work on our strengths.. keeping in mind our disquieting & nefarious handicaps crippling our world and set our priorities right to make a headway so that our own life improves, leave alone the coming generation …
“Kuch to bat rahi hogi .. Jo hasti mit-ti nahi hamari” ever since the decline of the Ashoka empire India has been under the foreign rule until very recently but kudos to our culture ours is still one of the strongest cultures which refuses to fade a pixel even in the face of such menacing adversities…
We are capable.. we are industrious.. we have the resources.. we have the power … then where is the problem??? Well we are too many but too few. Too many to produce many more, too many to talk endlessly, too many to brood and criticize but too less to stand & deliver too less to take a pledge too little to make an impact…
Thank you but no thanks… that is not the end but the beginning of the problem… in fact the beginning .. the tip of the iceberg.. we may not have a housing bubble beginning to burst in our economy but we have our own little Laxmi bombs (read-female infanticide, dowry deaths, rapes etc), the Alu bombs (read-the mass hunger), the fooljharis (read- the developing chain of red naxalism), the Atom bombs (read-social stigmas like.. untouchability, night soil picking etc) also we have the ravanas in each society namely- social & caste classification, religious fundamentalism & most vile of them all the militant extremism..
India of my dreams would be free from mass hunger, free from any kind of untouchability, from religious biasing, free from reservations on caste. It would be the most delicious mix of all communities, religions, castes, classes living in harmony , every citizen a responsible, rational economic man, where every man would realize the small family happy family slogan, where each child realizes the importance of not littering in public, where every parent feels the responsibility & obligation of making his child a responsible citizen of tomorrow, where my country is a super power not in military terms but moral cultural & ethical terms.. Where nobody sleeps hungry, where every body contributes and there would be opportunities in plenty…
Take this: NSG was formed in 1974 as a part of angry reaction specifically against India for making the Buddha smile.. could any one guess that after another set of smiles in 1998 the Uncle Sam’s and affiliates would sit together to appreciate Indias non proliferation history and unanimously give a thumping waiver to enter in the Nuclear club. This is India’s hidden might India’s strength.. So there remains a question.. why cant we attain the utopian targets we very often visualize today..??
But for that to happen we need to explicitly describe the roadmap to be followed rather than to brood over the roadblocks all the time. An immediate shot of a few life infusing changes need to be administered into our system through both an up-down and bottom-up approach..
1. More autonomy to Police & anti corruption agencies.. at the same time checking the almost infinite powers of MP/MLA’s by virtue of defining their roles & responsibilities through a constitutional amendment.
2. Increase the competition in the welfare sector. The best model is the one where the service providers in education , health, public utility services etc would compete to give the best , the cheapest, the fastest and hassle free world class service..
3. Target the individual & not the system or the program as is suggested by Mr. Amartya Sen. Say, introduce the education tokens to children & let them decide the best school for themselves, this would allow the schools to compete for the best standards and quality.
4. Move towards the roll back of the state & introduce competition & co-existance between the public the private sector. So that when the private sector fails , as in the case of financial crisis the public sector can take over and when the private sector performs good the state can lie dormant and focus on other arenas..
5. Planting trees on every inch of suitable piece of land available.. I don’t think I need to elaborate..
6. The Bharat Nirman project should not only be about putting concrete in the country side but to understand where not to put concrete and give priority to more profound human needs.
7. Harnessing the inland navigation potential, tidal power, more wind farms, solar ponds, nuclear plants, should be the focus.
8. RTI in more broader spectrum.. say sharing local knowledge globally and global knowledge/information locally to make a more inclusive civilization..
9. Strengthening the civil society to make it more vocal, more involved, more powerful, more participative in governance & decision making.
10. Though last on the list but equally important... empowerment of the women.. history is witness to the fact that every civilization which gave high position to women has known no boundaries and the others have no history to tell…
Every Indian is united in the time of war.. ready to make sacrifices ..and to show the highest of the gallant to win the war.. but isn’t peace more important than war..? Then why are we not ready to work, commit & sacrifice ourselves for peace and development of the country. India may or may not be the biggest economy by 2025, but if we are ready for strong and bold action in our mind first and then elsewhere.. then there is no doubt that even before 2025 people in Bharat, Hindustan & India would be one & where every Indian would believe that yes he can, Yes I can & Yes together we can realize our dream of a great nation…
For whatever the GDP meter has to say the Bharat part is lagging behind the not so vibrant India if I may call it.. for we have the largest skilled work force in the world & the largest cattle population in the world too. The prior is showered with tax holidays, fat salaries & what not and the latter still shares his verandah with his cattle.. sinister indeed… India is home to one of the largest no. of billionaires in the world , yet half of the worlds’ poor reside in Bharat..
Take another, we are the largest rail network in the world but we area also amongst the dirtiest (due to absence of suction technology in place) & the slowest (due to rail axle wheels mfg. reserved for SSI’s which cant match the hi-tech rolling stock made elsewhere), so our super fast trains run @ chilling speed of 135 kmph
Or for that matter take this.. no other country is so much blessed with such vast network of rivers gushing down from the Himalayas as ours .. but inland navigation system which comes & operates @ minimal costs as exists in France (Rhine-Rhone waterway), Denmark (Kiel canal)- ..remember they also have their super fast trains too which are the fastest in the world… is nowhere seen in the near future in India. may be because we will be ever busy with our poverty eradication programs. Yesterday only bill Gates announced that he will not give any portion of his wealth to his off springs show me any such remote example in India .. …
The pundits predict that by 2025 the Indian economy will be larger than many gargantuans of today.. I wonder what would that give us ??.. Growth or Development??
Take for example Himachal Pradesh the least industrialized state in the Indian union (Yes, I have the right data ).. Almost nil source of revenue generation till very recently even leaving behind the likes of Arunachals Tripuras & Nagalands.. still ranks among the best states in primary health(rank-3), investment environment(3), primary education(1), macro economy(3), consumer market(2), law & order(5), etc among all states and we still run after economic development & investment…
It teaches us one.. industrialization in not inevitable for good quality of life or development, meeting the basic needs is, and two.. no source of revenue income/generation does not mean poor state of finances always for a state of a union.. The central grants if used properly without corruption can bring development & prosperity (not growth or GDP/Sensex rise) for what use is growth in number terms if there is no development… the model today is pulling us to the growth poles & not the development poles…
Lets take another look.. we would be overtaking China very shortly in nothing else but our numbers.. we would also have the largest vehicle population by that time.. I read about a girl being born without limbs over the internet sometime back.. but we brood over the traffic being very heavy in cities .. .. Are we really sure about our priorities, we hardly know what to worry about…
Well.. this all was not finger pointing.. or blame game being played but we need to work on our strengths.. keeping in mind our disquieting & nefarious handicaps crippling our world and set our priorities right to make a headway so that our own life improves, leave alone the coming generation …
“Kuch to bat rahi hogi .. Jo hasti mit-ti nahi hamari” ever since the decline of the Ashoka empire India has been under the foreign rule until very recently but kudos to our culture ours is still one of the strongest cultures which refuses to fade a pixel even in the face of such menacing adversities…
We are capable.. we are industrious.. we have the resources.. we have the power … then where is the problem??? Well we are too many but too few. Too many to produce many more, too many to talk endlessly, too many to brood and criticize but too less to stand & deliver too less to take a pledge too little to make an impact…
Thank you but no thanks… that is not the end but the beginning of the problem… in fact the beginning .. the tip of the iceberg.. we may not have a housing bubble beginning to burst in our economy but we have our own little Laxmi bombs (read-female infanticide, dowry deaths, rapes etc), the Alu bombs (read-the mass hunger), the fooljharis (read- the developing chain of red naxalism), the Atom bombs (read-social stigmas like.. untouchability, night soil picking etc) also we have the ravanas in each society namely- social & caste classification, religious fundamentalism & most vile of them all the militant extremism..
India of my dreams would be free from mass hunger, free from any kind of untouchability, from religious biasing, free from reservations on caste. It would be the most delicious mix of all communities, religions, castes, classes living in harmony , every citizen a responsible, rational economic man, where every man would realize the small family happy family slogan, where each child realizes the importance of not littering in public, where every parent feels the responsibility & obligation of making his child a responsible citizen of tomorrow, where my country is a super power not in military terms but moral cultural & ethical terms.. Where nobody sleeps hungry, where every body contributes and there would be opportunities in plenty…
Take this: NSG was formed in 1974 as a part of angry reaction specifically against India for making the Buddha smile.. could any one guess that after another set of smiles in 1998 the Uncle Sam’s and affiliates would sit together to appreciate Indias non proliferation history and unanimously give a thumping waiver to enter in the Nuclear club. This is India’s hidden might India’s strength.. So there remains a question.. why cant we attain the utopian targets we very often visualize today..??
But for that to happen we need to explicitly describe the roadmap to be followed rather than to brood over the roadblocks all the time. An immediate shot of a few life infusing changes need to be administered into our system through both an up-down and bottom-up approach..
1. More autonomy to Police & anti corruption agencies.. at the same time checking the almost infinite powers of MP/MLA’s by virtue of defining their roles & responsibilities through a constitutional amendment.
2. Increase the competition in the welfare sector. The best model is the one where the service providers in education , health, public utility services etc would compete to give the best , the cheapest, the fastest and hassle free world class service..
3. Target the individual & not the system or the program as is suggested by Mr. Amartya Sen. Say, introduce the education tokens to children & let them decide the best school for themselves, this would allow the schools to compete for the best standards and quality.
4. Move towards the roll back of the state & introduce competition & co-existance between the public the private sector. So that when the private sector fails , as in the case of financial crisis the public sector can take over and when the private sector performs good the state can lie dormant and focus on other arenas..
5. Planting trees on every inch of suitable piece of land available.. I don’t think I need to elaborate..
6. The Bharat Nirman project should not only be about putting concrete in the country side but to understand where not to put concrete and give priority to more profound human needs.
7. Harnessing the inland navigation potential, tidal power, more wind farms, solar ponds, nuclear plants, should be the focus.
8. RTI in more broader spectrum.. say sharing local knowledge globally and global knowledge/information locally to make a more inclusive civilization..
9. Strengthening the civil society to make it more vocal, more involved, more powerful, more participative in governance & decision making.
10. Though last on the list but equally important... empowerment of the women.. history is witness to the fact that every civilization which gave high position to women has known no boundaries and the others have no history to tell…
Every Indian is united in the time of war.. ready to make sacrifices ..and to show the highest of the gallant to win the war.. but isn’t peace more important than war..? Then why are we not ready to work, commit & sacrifice ourselves for peace and development of the country. India may or may not be the biggest economy by 2025, but if we are ready for strong and bold action in our mind first and then elsewhere.. then there is no doubt that even before 2025 people in Bharat, Hindustan & India would be one & where every Indian would believe that yes he can, Yes I can & Yes together we can realize our dream of a great nation…
Really excellent and informative blog
ReplyDelete