We have doomsday economists, and now, frequently we come across doomsday
columnists.
Have been reading TS for a while now - and its always henny, penny, the
sky's falling, and this gets tedious after a while.
There is nothing wrong in her pointing out the obvious deficiencies of
Indian governance or of the chief executive's apparent disconnect with the
masses. What is missing is the fact that one has yet to come across a column
from her showing if anything actually works in India.
Obviously its her choice to to stick to one particular genre, but its always
pleasant to read columnists who are able to look at both the pros & cons,
and delve deeper into problems & solutions (practical ones if possible).
--Ram
On 11/27/06, Chan Mahanta <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
CONTEXT!
And contradictions:
>It is very easy to write an article on what is very obvious and make a
living >out of it,
versus
>She should continue to point out the deficiencies.
Well? If it is very easy, and everyone is already aware, then why should
she continue ?
> but her observations do not have to rule.
*** Meaning? That what she points out should be ignored? Brushed aside
like APJAK did to those who raised questions of more fundamental needs than
his
virtual-this and tele-that while there was no power to run the computers?
>---should India not develop in other areas where it finds easier to do
so?
*** I missed that part in the article entirely. That damned English
language again :-).
>I don't want to take anything away from Tavleen Singh.
*** That is reassuring.
>It is a mixed bag in India and it will continue to be so for many years
to >come.
*** So she ought not to remind the President his disconnect with the
realities fifty kilometers away from the People's President's secure
fortress on Raisena Hill ?
The IRONY! It is the IRONY of it all.
At 7:08 PM -0800 11/27/06, Dilip/Dil Deka wrote:
It is very easy to write an article on what is very obvious and make a
living out of it, like Tavleen Singh and some others do. Rural development
and uplifting the living standard of the rural people are important (make no
mistake about it) but just because that development is slow due to whatever
reason, should India not develop in other areas where it finds easier to do
so? Why should gloom and doom reign when the weather forecast calls for
mixed weather?
I don't want to take anything away from Tavleen Singh. She should continue
to point out the deficiencies but her observations do not have to rule. It
is a mixed bag in India and it will continue to be so for many years to
come.
Dilip
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*Rajen & Ajanta Barua <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>* wrote:
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A bit of philosophy for a change!!!
Nice writing!!
However I failed to see what exactly the writer is trying to depict. Is he
trying to show that the native rulers are the problem (which actually
means the native people in general) or is the President of India in
particular APJ Abdul Kalam is the problem.
Indian civilization is known for its love of the chaos in general. Our
great leaders are known for their complete disregard of the order, Gandhi
included. In India, things are just supposed to happen without anybody
taking action. Indian masses keep themselves clean by spitting everywhere
with complete disregard for public cleanliness. It is no wonder that India
has been described by various writers as a 'functioning anarchy' (Galbraith)
to 'the functioning madness' (Yann Martel). But all these goes to show the
reality of the Indoos.
Under the circumstances, what the writer has written as news is no news at
all.
But as Marx said, the point is not to philosophize what is history, the
point is to change it.
From the writing, I have no clue to know if the writer knows where the
problem is, why the Indoos (ie the people of South Asia in general) love
chaos, and how to change the system.
Rajen Barua
----- Original Message -----
*From:* Chan Mahanta <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
*To:* [email protected] ; [EMAIL PROTECTED] ; SANDIP DUTTA<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
*Sent:* Monday, November 27, 2006 11:08 AM
*Subject:* [Assam] From the Sentinel
*** A dose of reality !
cm
India from Raisena Hill
ON THE SPOT
Tavleen Singh
No Indian city is as removed from the realities
of India than New Delhi and last week I was
reminded of this in the most surreal way. By New
Delhi I mean not the old Moghul city that lies
on the edge of the Red Fort or the new suburbs
that sprawl in ugly disorder towards the borders
of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan but that
part of the city that Edwin Lutyens built in the
dying days of the British Raj. Lutyens was
building an imperial capital worthy of the
British empire, so at its heart, on a high hill,
he built a sandstone palace fit for a Viceroy,
distant from the squalid realities of native
Indian life.
When native rulers took over the reins of
governance from the Viceroy they must have
realized that the palace on the hill was
inappropriate accommodation for a socialist
Prime Minister, so it was used instead to house a
more ceremonial personage, the President, and
renamed Rashtrapati Bhawan. Last Tuesday, at the
request of The Indian Express newspaper, the
President of India came down from his palace to
the lesser Taj Palace hotel to address a select
group of invitees on 'empowering' India.
To listen to the President we gathered early.
Security is always a nightmare. After being metal
detected, body searched and having bags checked
for dangerous objects and mobile phones tested
for bombs, we waited an hour for the man many
regard as the most popular President ever, the
'people's President,' which is why it came as
such a surprise that he should be as removed
from the realities of India as the Viceroy may
once have been.
The President used a computer to give us a power
point presentation of his idea of an empowered
India which would be a knowledge society linked
by the 'grids' of knowledge, e-governance and
society. With the eagerness of Alice in
Wonderland he took us through an India that does
not exist. Listen to a small sample.
''Societal grid consists of Knowledge Grid
inter-connecting universities with
socio-economic institutions, industries and R &D
organizations; Health Care Grid,
inter-connecting the health care institutions of
government, corporate and super specialty
hospitals, research institutions, educational
institutions and pharma R & D institutions;
E-governance Grid, interconnecting the central
government and state governments and district
and block level officesŠ..''
It was not President APJ Abdul Kalam's confused
jargon that was disconcerting so much as his
total disconnect with Indian realities. Is he
aware that computers need electricity to work?
*Is he aware that the average Indian is lucky if
he can get a couple of hours of electricity a*
*day?* Is he aware that the knowledge society is
fueled by electricity and that one of India's
biggest problems is that we have been unable to
generate even enough for every Indian home to
have a light bulb and a fan?
The President talked of 'virtual universities'
and 'tele-medicine' as if he were living in some
advanced Western country and when at the end of
his Alice in Wonderland address some members of
the audience tried asking him real questions he
brushed them away. A doctor rose to point out
that tele-medicine could hardly be a replacement
for basic healthcare and he launched into a
convoluted description of his 'health grid'.
*In the audience were the parents of Manjunath,
the official who was killed for his honesty by
corrupt petrol pump owners, and they asked what
plans he had to stop honest officials being*
*killed for being honest. He said he was aware
that Manjunath was a righteous man who came from
a righteous family and we must strive to make*
*more righteous families. Great! But, how?*
The President seemed not to have noticed last
week's Star News sting on MPs making lakhs of
rupees out of every contract they handed out
under their local area development scheme.
Corruption was a problem, of course, but we must
not allow a 'problem' to become 'captain' of our
lives we must be the captain of the problem.
After finishing his 'interactive session' the
President drove off in his cavalcade of
limousines and I set off towards Haryana in
pursuit of a story. I drove past Gurgaon with its
glittering glass offices and salubrious suburban
apartment blocks and watched plump, middle-class
children play in parks filled with trees and
ornamental ponds and then suddenly the landscape
changed. The real India reappeared.
*Wide roads gave way to dirt tracks that led to
villages of open drains and air so polluted that
even the trees seemed coated with sludge. I saw
people eating at restaurants built by stagnant
ponds in which barefoot children and mangy dogs
played. I drove past private clinics and
government healthcare facilities that were
primitive by today's standards and towns that
looked like slums. Haryana is one of India's rich*
*states.*
*The landscape I describe is less than fifty*
*kilometers from Rashtrapati Bhawan.* I recommend
that before the 'people's President' makes his
next speech about empowering India he take a
short drive without his cavalcade. He could
discover that neither Bharat nor India are ready
for his wondrous plans.
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