Sunday, December 11, 2011

Two Long Years

A quote from Brahma Chellaney on Twitter, which I quote below:
Thanks to its aging and scandal-marred leadership, India has gone in just two years from being a country of great promise to a nation adrift 
And then a Facebook update, by Bhavik, earlier this afternoon
depressing!! depression!! depressed!! state of the nation, state of the economy (2 come), state of v the people??
prompted this update today. What's happening? It's almost like we seem to be a country that can be compared to a deer on the highway stunned by the headlights of a large truck approaching it; or a huge ship thats just headed directionless.

The woes we have of a flip-flop government, that I blogged about a few days back, are just not attributed to the jhingoism, but are really ironical, and if I could call it, at best, lip service to development! Speak about our renowned economist, Montek Singh Ahluwalia's take and then anti-take on the daily sustainance (, and he was one of the economists we really adored during our education days), or the recent and much hyped FDI story, that made the markets swing close to 5% (who made all that money, is anyone's guess?); and then today a $9 billion incorrect calculation that came to fore today (maybe, it's actual human error).

But, what image are we showcasing to the outside world? That we do not know where we are headed? What's the long term vision or short term operational basis of this country? How are policies in this country decided? Are we exposing ourselves to the outside, already dying economies of the world and still letting them have a strong hold? And more importantly, what foundation are we laying for the years to come? What are the pillars of our economy? Oh, the 50 million traders, the 30 million employed in the organised sector, the 200 million micro and small enterprises, they'll resolve it all. Time enough! Time enough we showed a spine and did our bit.

Bit of what? Our bit in doing what is right. Saada haq!! Each of us knows what is right, and neither am I going to wax eloquent about it. So maybe time enough for us to do what our heart says is right. And to give an example, what better, but an example of Baroda's greatest rules, Sir Sayajirao Gaekwad III, and here's one of the ways he did the right thing, by doing what is right!

May the force be with us!

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