India, the emerging super power seems to be all but
a farce. The great Indian democracy appears strong but is all void from within.
Unethical practices and indiscipline have made inroads into the political
system with a large number of politicians coming from a criminal background.
The Parliament and state assemblies are marred with defections and horse
trading. Most of those elected seem to be self-serving and money-servants
rather than public servants.
India has enough and more resources to
meet her needs. However, under utilization and an obvious lack of political
will to do the right thing at the right
time leaves us still among the 3rd world. Take for instance the case
of food grains being rotten in our godowns while thousands of people starved to
death! The storage losses of food grains in 2009-10 amounted to Rs 228.39 crore
and transit losses another Rs 182.46 crore. Surprisingly, some of these loses
are engineered by the government machinery who wants to make big money from the
rich breweries. To top it all, often there is a tie up with the big time
merchants to create artificial shortage of grains in the market which would then
fetch higher revenues for the merchants and commissions for the babus. The incredible India!
Indian bureaucratic apathy is a worldwide known
phenomenon. Even with over 1.2 billion people around, India cannot find the best
team to run its affairs. A recent news about a 40-year-old housemaid who
was stranded at the Muscat airport is a case in point. Though the airport
officials informed the Indian embassy, even after five days no one from the
embassy came to her rescue and the stress and uncertainty at the Muscat
terminal was too much for the poor woman, who died of a heart stroke.
Of course, politicians and beaurocracts are not the only
people at fault here. Sadly, we Indians have never fully embraced the values embodied
in our Constitution. Be the change that
you would like to see. On 12 March 1930, at the Sabarmati Ashram
in Gujarat, 79 men went for a walk. For 23 days they marched, covering four
districts, 48 villages, 400 kilometres. On the way they attracted thousands of
other ordinary people, animated by a cause so much bigger than themselves.
Then, on 6 April, by the sea at the coastal village of Dandi, Mahatma Gandhi
picked up a handful of salty earth and said, “With this, I am shaking the
foundations of the British Empire.” The empire shook.
Shake off the callousness and apathy to become a conscientious
Indian to build a new and prosperous India. As an unknown saying goes, "A dream is not something that happens when you are
sleeping; a dream is something that does not let you sleep!" Wake up
India!
