Time out — The human factor

So much has been achieved, but surely we could have done much better. Partition is largely responsible for the fact that so many Indians are still illiterate. Money has to be spent on military hardware instead of schools and colleges. Parkinson’s Law also took its toll and we soon needed about a hundred Secretaries, and many hundred Additional and Joints, to run a government which had, until about 1940, been run by six people. Dams and massive infrastructure were considered necessary. No one had heard of the term ecology’. That’s modernisation and progress! Small wonder that a full treasury and massive sterling balances disappeared, leaving us bankrupt and begging.

On the credit side, we can be proud that we are still a democracy — free lungis and booth capturing notwithstanding. One has so often heard the puzzling words spiritual values of the East’. If they ever existed, where have they gone? Money reigns supreme, with lust for power coming a close second. Those who govern us are well aware of this. Most of them are in the game precisely to acquire these useful commodities. Are we now reduced to a nation with a surfeit of religion and yatras sans ethics?Those in the top league have their ill-gotten gains safely tucked away in offshore havens. The amount of Indian money lying in Swiss vaults cannot be estimated and, as Bhure Lal recently said, "It is really a situation of rich India contributing to poor Europe!" The applicability of the law is determined by show me the person and I’ll show you the law’.

The industries of the West are finding a foothold in India, but perhaps they will not stay long. How many Indians can buy Reeboks and Raybans? And for how long? They may have over-estimated our purchasing power and perhaps they will go home, leaving us to the good old ways of the good old days.

The Green Revolution is something we can be very proud of. Unfortunately, its fruits are eaten up by the fruits of copulation. For reproduction, we have few equals. The pound sterling was once worth Rs 13. With full convertibility, we are closing on Rs 60. The cost of living soars.

So, 50 years on, where are we? Government by avaricious men on the make, a burgeoning population, ongoing hostility with our neighbour, illiteracy and unemployment soaring as fast as inflation. People still die of malnutrition.Please, Gujralji, do read what Nehru said from the ramparts of the Red Fort on August 15, 1950: "We have to progress in many directions… for we have to make up rapidly for lost time and lost opportunity… But behind it lies the human factor, the character of the nation, and if this goes wrong, then all else is of little worth. I have noticed a process of deterioration and disintegration and faction and little-mindedness asserting itself from day to day and affecting all our national activities. The major problem, therefore, is how to deal with this deadening process…" And finally, Mr PM, in your speech, would you tell the nation what you are going to do for the VOP — the Very Ordinary Person? Will he go into the 21st century with a fractured limp or a triumphant leap?