It is after a very long time that
I am writing again for the blog and I wish to write on a subject that is latent and waiting to explode, which is, India on the brink. The signs of mess are all over
the place for everyone to see. People responsible for the mess are still hoping that things will work out, finally, somehow. However the
seriousness of this dormant disaster is neither
getting heard, nor getting discussed by the calm and intelligent brains. We do have
political bigwigs shouting at the top of their voices, half of them about the
precariousness of the problems and the other half assuaging fears of any
devastating fallout, but today very sadly the voice of the politicians is
discounted one hundred percent.
The decision non-making enmeshment
crafted and perfected by the present government at the center has hurt the
manufacturing, mining and infrastructure sector very badly. The pitiable condition
of these industries can be best seen from the non-performing assets (NPA) list
of the public sector banks. The Finance Minister raises a hue and cry about
willful defaulters but not a word is uttered about the defaulters who are
victims of gross governmental economic mismanagement. Truly the willful
defaulters amongst the NPA lists are much lesser compared to the huge other
list.
Businessmen are a breed apart,
those who are willing to take a financial risk on the expectation of earning
wealth in the future. If it was so simple, then everyone could have easily
become a businessman. But the majority of people wish to live on a riskless yet
certain monthly remuneration. The businessmen also like to restrict their
uncertain factors to the minimum but when their uncertainty increases
exponentially and goes beyond his capacity of tolerance, and then they give up.
To add to their woes the political establishment questions their audacity,
their fight to survive, their pricing policies, and calling for unprecedented
audits. Today all businessmen who have become victims of colossal governmental
bungling are on the verge of giving up.
That brings us to the immediate
next problem, that of the public sector banks. If the domestic industry unable
to bear any further harassment decides to throw its hands up, the banks would
face an extraordinary dent in their Balance Sheet assets. Such a dent can only
be covered by the central government who is the owner or the public depositors
of the banks. Either ways it will be the citizens of this country who will take
a hit on their past and future earnings. The imagination of the catastrophe if
it really unfolds is enough to turn my stomach inside out. Yet I don’t hear
anybody on this.
Next is inflation. The Reserve
Bank is working overtime to make bank funds availability scarce and the costs
of such funds disproportionate, in a general manner and due to which all
sectors of the economy are feeling the pinch irrespective of whether they are
contributing to the inflation or not. The government on the other hand has over
the years increased all wages, increased the minimum procurement prices and
distributed cash in rural regions through social projects like NREGS. Now if
these two are not working at cross purposes, please call me a fool. The
consumer price and the wholesale price index are both high because people are
able to afford, they have the purchasing power and the willingness to spend.
The deficit of the government is bound to exceed the budgeted specifications by
the year end. But for this we the people of the country are also to share the
blame because of huge domestic demand for gold, petrol and diesel that we have
to import. The lack of a unified concerted action by all governing bodies is
going to cost us dearly. By the time the
elections are held, the international rating agencies are going to call India
non-investment grade and we in one voice are going to crib. Unfortunately that
is all that we can do.
The question that comes to my
mind is why we have brought ourselves into this situation. Is it that we are
governed by fools? I think barring the political class every other sector
whether it is the bureaucracy, the industry, the judiciary, all select people
based on their talent and mind power. Only the profession of politics gives
preference to money power over the power of the mind. And that exactly has been
our weakest link, our failure as a nation. Our political system is rotten and beyond
repair. It makes no difference whether the Congress or the BJP is in power.
Both are of identical mindset, indistinguishable twins. The past five years,
BJP has disrupted parliamentary proceedings. In case they win the next
elections, then it will be the turn of Congress to disrupt the working of the
parliament. I don’t know who wins in this bargain but definitely the nation
loses. Supposing no single group or party gets an absolute majority in the next
election which incidentally is the most likely scenario, then we are in for
another period of chaos, of non-governance, of a definite downward spiral.
However blaming the politicians is too
simplistic. As citizens of this once great country, we the people have become increasingly
narrow minded, fearful and intolerant. Everybody has started having such strong
opinions that we have become intolerant of any dissenting views. We have become
so parochial territorially as well as through customs that we have bounded
ourselves into small groups and distrust every such other group. We have become
so fragmented that practically we don’t see ourselves as a single country, we
don’t want to share our local resources even for a common good cause. We have
become a bunch of short tempered and fearful individuals, unsure and insecure
about our own lives and living conditions, that corruption has become a
reasonable and real option. Historically we never were one nation and therefore
today in this difficult times find it impossible to define and identify
ourselves as Indians except in the field of cricket. The real meaning of the
word Hindu and Hinduism has been lost and buried deep under multiple layers of
false teachings that today even if anyone criticized these false teachings we
are offended. Today any glib talking god-man
can fool all of us and take all of us for a ride and we most usually blame him
rather than our own gullibility. Over the years anyone with the means and the
ability has had the desires to deport and stay put in a developed country to
live far away from the pitiful situation over here. Our urban cities have become too costly yet
pathetically lacking in good living conditions. Yet while we yearn for the
simple rural landscape at the same time do not have the desire to live there.
It’s time that we see ourselves as what we have
made ourselves into. Let us stop blaming others. Let us accept our own mistakes
and work together towards a better tomorrow. Greed and selfishness has brought
us here today but broadmindedness and intelligent work can set us back on the
road to the common development. The immediate future looks difficult but with
perseverance we can most certainly overcome them.
