Feb 4, 1998
Someone commented about the recent news of the Herbal Gasoline discovery(?) in India -
>
> drama hota hai wahan. Gasoline ki need hi kya hai. $ print karne
> ki press khol lein to desh ka kalyan ho jaye
>
I have seen many ( including me ) not feeling very happy with the state our country is in. It happened that at a desi gathering someone made fun of India ( one of our brethern ). There was a girl there who immediately launched a full scale offensive and which actually set me thinking -
we are not in such a bad state after all - So what if every politician seems to be corrupt, they are being rooted out, aren't they ? Actually the fast changes in govt. seems to have been for the good since people will try to dig out cases against the opposition and whatever their motives maybe the truth about every guy comes out in turn. Look at what happened in T.N. and at the center.
For a country with such huge population we have done relatively well. I am not capable of discussing whether socialistic policies were good or not but still we are good at lots of things. So what if we are not so good at sports, winning a medal at the Olympics is important but so is winning medals at the math olympiad. Our education system beats even the best in the world. Personally I feel really happy with what I have got. I spent minimal amount for my education in school and all my post high school education has been free with govt. aid. The guy next to me in my hostel at IITD was a guy from a small village next to the border in Haryana, he describes it as a place where "you do everything in the open" while looking out for stray army guys. If a guy from such a place can get such education at IIT it speaks volumes of our system. If its not sufficient then it just means we need to work harder.
Some of you might refer to China which has similar population and is doing well. My answer is look at Tiananmen and todays (Sept 9th) newspaper. China has blocked access to a host of internet sites by squeezing at the routers. Given a choice I wonder which country you would choose ?
Our judicial system is strong enough to summon an ex-prime minister and high level political leaders to the courts. True there are long lists of unheard cases at the courts but there are cases !! India could actually do things like they did in Korea where they hung one ex-P.M and incarcerated another.
The Fourth Estate in India has real freedom. If you could read biting articles by Krishnamoorthy, Arun Shourie or Khushwant Singh, Investigative journalism like the Reliance fiasco in 1989, Bofors , and a bunch of others it does mean something, doesn't it ? If you can berate the guys who are at the highest echelons of power without any repression then you do have some weapon against all wrong.
As for the religious aspects, there are communal riots and I actually come from Hyderabad which is notorious for them. But I used to live in an area called Moula-Ali and as you can guess there was a big religious mix there. But I have not seen any of the groups saying one word of hatred against another. It was common knowledge that some guys for reasons of their own instigate such riots. Me and my muslim friends used to discuss it after our cricket game everyday.
There is a problem I concede but its not unsolvable ! Things are not going to happen in a moment. Rather than worrying that there is a problem and blaming the people who created it maybe a solution could be found. I am not questioning the patriotism of guys who actually belittle our country but its just that whenever you praise your country you are stared at. Cribbing against the system is "phashion" !!
Flames Welcome,