INDIA – DARK PRESENT BUT GLORIOUS PAST & BRIGHT FUTURE
Dark Present
Looking at the present state of India, it will be difficult to convince Indian about her glorious past and awaiting bright future. Such a rotten state of affair of the country in every sphere of life make people cynic and loose faith about future , even to Almighty , if there is one. When an associate of legendary Che’ Guevara , who was a catholic priest , was asked why a man of religion like you had taken path of violence , he replied “ Had there been Jesus he would have also taken to arms. Swami Vivekananda said “ God , God who cannot give me bread in this life will give me eternal bliss in next life , I do not need such God “.
Since liberalization and globalization of economy early 1990’s by Narsimha Rao’s Government , when Dr. Manmohan Singh was at the helm of country’s finance, India has made enormous progress to improve country’s financial condition. GDP of the country has grown at the rate of 8-9% per annum, Foreign exchange reserve has gone up tremendously from a bankrupt stage in early 1990’s and India is on the path of world economic power. Industry, trades, banking all are flourishing.
But the basic social problems remain unsolved. Huge population suffering under poverty – we have coined a special term” BPL”- who do not get even two times a day food. Forget about roof on head, drinking water, any kind of medical facility, education – in single word “not a human life”. However rich are getting richer after this so called “liberalization”. We are boasting about number of Indian billionaire in Forbes list. And the “rich” have all power, they flout all rules & laws openly – police , govt , judiciary – all are subservient to these “rich” people.
With GDP & economic growth enter all related evils - Fraud & Scam, Corruption, sacrificing of Ethics in all spheres of life, sex & violence. Under the glamour of ”India,” weeping “Bharat” is suffering. All form of media is hammering relentlessly about “Consumerism” & “Materialism” and urging so-called middle class (which is estimated at 250 million by all vested interest groups ) for purchase these goods informing about availability of “hire purchase” & “credit facility”. Thus limited financial strength of such “middle class” is stretched and fund needed for more important matter like education, health etc. is put under pressure.
Morality , Ethics, Dharma are no more part of normal life. Soon these will vanish from dictionary. Scam, Fraud, Corruption are the only happenings in the country which are continuously flashed by all form of media. Seeing the magnitude of corruption our senses are becoming numb and cursing us on our helplessness. Considering the magnitude of scam & fraud (CWG - Rs.60,000 Crore , 2G / 3 G Spectrum – Rs. 1.76 Lac Crore (as per CAG report), Hassan Ali Khan Black money (tax evasion Rs.1.0 Lac Crore ) (Liechtenstein, German, Swiss Bank), Radia Tape , Bofors Scam - USD 400 million (in 1980), Madhu Koda- ex-Jharkhand Chief Minister (1800 bank account world over ), Ms. Mayawati , UP CM- USD 44 million Taj Corridor scam, Jain Hawala scandal –USD 18 million, Bellary Mines – Reddy brothers illegal iron ore mining scam, ex-Chief Justice of India, Supreme Court, Chief Justice Kolkata High Court , function of Allahabad High Court commented by Supreme Court, hattrick by consecutive three CM of Maharastra – Adarsh Scam, involvement with loan shark & clearance of P.J. Thomas – palm oil case, Lalu Prasad – Chara ghotala case, Yeddyurappa , CM Karnataka – allotment of land & property to son & relatives – list is endless. Estimate of deposits in safe heavens is alleged to be USD 1.4 Trillion.
Corruption do not stop at loot of money only. India now is witnessing not mere corruption but national plunder ( Brahma Challeny , The Hindu , 6 Dec., 2010 ). Transparency International scales India’s Corruption perception index at 3.3, measured in a scale of 0-10 (cleanest ).
Corruption has spread to every sphere of life – Police, arguably the most organized corrupt dept., is well known for inactivity for public’s matter (murder, rape, dacoity, harassment & so on ), CBI dance to the tune of masters than going seriously to punish the culprit. Even judiciary is not free from this malice – cases of immediate past Chief Justice of Supreme Court, High Court judges of Kolkata, Chandigarh, Uttara Khand, Sikkim, observation of Supreme Court about functioning of Allahabad High Court, recent judgment by Mumbai lower Court granting bail to Hassan Ali. Ray of hope – new Chief Justice of India and Supreme Court started acting on certain cases of corruption ( 2G / 3 G, CVC, Hassan Ali etc.) which otherwise would have gone under the carpet.
Major concern for the country is non-governance. It is free for all. PM does not act, neither Govt. Departments. Allover indiscipline make life of common man hell. Any group simply disrupt Rail and Road operation at will & on any pretext over many days causing serious inconvenience to public and huge loss to nation. Government does not act for long and does not take any action because of vote bank theory.
Something is rotten in our “Democracy”. Is India becoming a “Banana Republic”? Is the Government / Nation in a coma ?
Repeated remarks of Supreme Court judges in very recent past clearly indicates Govt. inaction and non-governance in all important matters.
“What the hell is going on in this country ? Why had no custodial interrogation taken place so far ( of Hassan Ali ) – Justice Sudershan B Reddy.
“Catch the big fish in the case ( 2 G ). We have a large number of persons who think that they are a law unto themselves. The 2G scam has put all other scams to shame” – Justice GS Singhvi.
There is something rotten in Allahabad High Court. Everybody knows which judge is honest and which judge is corrupt………” – Justice Markandey Katju.
“Government cannot be trusted that is why we divide its power into separate organs” – Justice Dalveer Bhandari.
“I personally believe that if you follow the constitution, you do not need to practice any religion on earth” (on PJ Thomas as the CVC) – Chief Justice SH Kapadia.
Political parties are devoid of ideology and are thoroughly corrupt. They have narrow interest of capturing power by hook & crook , misleading public to serve their purpose and fishing in troubled water. Talk of nationalism & welfare for common man is only for vote catching. Politicians have sold their soul to Mephistopheles. Equally perverted & corrupted are the religious Gurus, so called God men , who have nothing to do with “Dharma”.
Who will guide the society & people ? Who will lead the country ? Big question – no answer. It is necessary to develop Indian identity – not region, religion, cast, fragmented narrow ideology but identify as Indian first.
Even after so much talk about high GDP growth for last quite a few years and “ India Shining “, 80% of India lives on less that USD 2 / day. Nearly 100 million Indians live in slums, how many lives on road in the open – no data available. Such a wide contrast between rich & poor. On one side Hassan Ali & likes loot in lacs of Crore rupees and on the other side very large number of population do not get two meals a day. Lack of development helping Maoist growth & insurgency. Loots are linked to Terrorism, internal & external security of the nation.
When “ Satyam “ fraud came out in the open, it was thought to be the mother of all “Scam” or “Fraud”. However, compared to latest “ 2G / 3 G” and “CWG” and “Hassan Ali” scams, “Satyam” lost it’s luster. Series of fraud over the last decade – “ Harshad Mehta – share market manipulation, Dinesh Dalmia – DSQ Software”, Ketan Parekh – Share price rigging “, “ C.R. Bhansali – CRB Capital, “ Uday Goyal – Arrow Global – Cheating investor, “Abdul Karim Telgi – fake Stamp Paper” “ The UTI Scam” have been surfacing regularly showing that governance control had been always wanting in this direction.
Against this back drop of loot what is the condition of common man and society. Still a huge population lives in below poverty level, millions go hungry to bed every night, housing / drinking water / health & medical facility, education etc. are dream for a very large section of society. Every 15 seconds one child dies in India, more than 4 lakh newborns die every year within a day of birth, 1/5th of children dying in the world are Indian, 1 in 3 undernourished children worldwide are Indian.
And still shamelessly we say “ India shining “.
Quote from Times of India dt.28 March , 2011 , Delhi edition
Commonwealth Games in Delhi saw over Rs.1,000 Crore being squandered as estimated by CAG. This money would have been enough to set up 5,000 state-of-the art or 10,000 basic primary schools across the country and could have taken care of the education of 1 million child labourers. It would have taught them to earn their bread in a more dignified manner.
Education, especially at the primary level, had an interesting journey since the Constitution came in to force on January 26, 1950. Articles 24, 39 and 45 together guaranteed children a stress-free childhood and felt they must get free and compulsory education till the age of 14 years. The importance of this quote – “Give a man a fish, you have fed him for today; Teach a man to fish, and you have fed him for a lifetime.”
The promise remained unfulfilled and the Union government in 1968 came out with a National Policy of Education. Nothing changed dramatically on the primary education front for 18 years. Rajiv Gandhi government felt the need to formulate the National Education policy , 1986.
A disturbed Supreme Court ruled in Mohini Jain vs State of Karnataka (1992 (3) SCC 666) that every citizen has a right to education under the Constitution and the state was under an obligation to establish educational institutions to enable citizens to enjoy the said right.
More assertive direction by the court in 1993 in Unni Krishnan judgment. It said, “Citizens have a fundamental right to education and it flows from right to life guaranteed under Article 21. Every child/citizen has a right to free education until he completes the age of 14 years. “The promise by successive governments and the SC rulings failed to provide education to all children.
But what is the reality ? Nearly 80 lakh children are still out of school of which 1.3 lakh children are in Delhi. The 2007 estimate of government puts the child labour population at 10.7 million. The dropout rate of children from primary school is 25%.
References
1. Rewriting Indian History – Francois Gautier
Indian Research Press, 2003
2. Code name God – Mani Bhaumik
Penguin Books, 2005
3. A Critical Survey of Indian Philosophy – Chandradhar Sharma
Motilal Banarasidass , 2003
4. India – Historical Beginnings and the concept of Aryan
National Book Trust, 2007
5. In search of the Cradle of Civilization – George Feure Stein, Subhash Kak David Frawley
Motilal Banarasidass , 2008
6. Ancient India – R.C. Majumdar
Motilal Banarasidass , 2003
7. Indian Philosophy and Text Science – Edited by T.Wada
Motilal Banarasidass , 2010.
8. The Foundations of India Culture – Sri Aurobindo
Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry , 1996.
9. Times of India, New Delhi – Monday, March 28, 2011
