Couldn’t think of a better subject for the first article of my blog. With a leading media brand of our country carrying out an “India Poised” campaign through its newspaper and television channel, not to mention the “Rising India” campaign by a competitor channel, I thought it was really worth dicussing the topic. What is India poised for? Or, is India really rising?
“The economy of a country is an indicator of the growth of that nation”. Well, if that is the case, then we sure are rising. With the Sensex hovering around the 14K mark, and threatening to soar even higher and Indian business houses trying to go global and making some significant acquisitions in the global market, the Indian economy is definitely at its best, and is expected to do even better in 2007.
However, in a country as diverse as India, I strongly believe that economy cannot be the sole indicator of growth. There are several other factors that determine how well the nation is doing. Of course, besides our economy doing well, we indeed have had several incidents and achievements in the last few years that make us proud to be Indians. For a start, we probably have two of the world’s most highly educated politicians in the form of our President and our Prime Minister. We have had an Indian almost end up as the UN Secretary General, only to pull out of the race at the last moment. Indian authors have continued to do well in the global market, except for the Kaavya Viswanathan fiasco. The performance of Indian sportspersons at the international level has greatly improved and we can now boast of world class players like Saina Nehwal, Jeev Mikha Singh, Pankaj Advani and Parimarjan Negi. Even Indian mainstream Bollywood movies are winning international recognition with films like Lage Raho Munnabhai, Omkara and Rang De Basanti getting critical acclaim in other countries.
However, do all these imply India is really rising? Or, that India is poised for a great 2007? Let us not forget, this is the same country where we still have women being killed in the interiors of Bihar and West Bengal, accused of practicing witchcraft! Witchcraft, in the 21st century!! This is the same nation, where a case of defacing of a statue somewhere in Uttar Pradesh can actually lead to violence and riots in a place as far as Maharashtra! We still have hundreds of farmers in the Vidarbha region committing suicide every year. And, not to forget, almost half the population of this country is illiterate still! We still have a government that tells the people of the nation what to watch on television, and how to write a blog on the Internet! We still have reservations in the educational institutions and corporate organizations of this nation, reservations based on, not financial status, but on caste!! The fact that we still can’t forget our castes, even in this new millennium, is both shocking and ridiculous.
And we say India is rising? India is poised for great things? Well, financially, may be yes. But is that enough? Does that make all Indians happy? It doesn’t. We still need to do a hell lot of work, in varied areas and fields, if we are to really stand up and say, “Dum duma dum India, Zor laga do India”.
