MERA BHARAT MAHAN

Embittered by the sight of money flowing freely during the Trust vote three weeks prior to the 61st anniversary of Independence, one wondered whether our freedom was in the maws of some endless midnight after all. Passions have quitened down since then, - as they always do! My editor and I wondered during the last few days whether India was indeed as badly off as we had thought her to be around the 22nd of July.

When we were young Indian youths were in the ever-tightening coils of the python of unemployment, it was only the much trodden path of acquiring practically useless stereotyped academic degrees that was open before us. New avenues, - there were none! Dr. Manmohan Singh, a former Finance Minister and Narasimha Rao definitely walked into Indian history by infecting the old, elephantine economy with rejuvenating liberalization. That brought about a wave of change which the Nehruvian Socialism or Indira Gandhian nationalization of financial institutions had failed to achieve. The I.T. industry has grown by leaps and bounds. Bangalore and Hyderabad are the cyber cities of a new look India which is a ‘happening’ nation today as compared to the poverty-stricken tottering country of the past.

Economic liberalization has opened up avenues unknown in the years of yore.There was a time when there were people but no jobs; the scenario today is that there are jobs galore in various fields but often no takers,as people are not quite ready yet for these new challenges. Hotel management and its hundreds of other associated activities, animation, tourism industry, print and electronic media, fruit and food processing industries and many other such areas are in need of experts and hands that they find  difficult to get. Computer wizards, chartered accountants and other IIM and IIT products are highly on demand. They have a dream gala run unimaginable even a decade ago. Out sourcing from other countries and our ever-expanding business world have given a tremendous boost to the call centres and B.P.Os mushrooming all over the country. India Today is crying for professionals in every sphere. Recent inflationary trends and recession in the American economy have brought down the economic growth rate from 8 to 6 percent. But this in all probability is an aberration in an otherwise upward moving upbeat economy. A healthy economy always ensures a vibrant market for jobs and economic activities. Some of our business tycoons have come to be counted among the richest people in the world. Despite more than a twelve and half percent rise in inflation, the milling crowds at Mega Marts and Malls indicate that the purchasing power among the urban middle class has not gone down drastically. It appears that conditions in villages too are not as bad as they were at the beginning of this year with peasants still taking their own lives. If international reaction is any index of India’s economic condition then one has to deem it as quite healthy in view of the American remark that prices of oil and food have gone up in the global market simply because India and China are consuming both the items much more than ever before! Inflation has not quite taken the sheen off from the growing Indian economy. If India is not yet shining; she is definitely twinkling away! One hopes that the benign winter, when prices of things usually go down, will bring a spring time smile to every face.

A surprise Christmas gift this winter, both for our beleaguered Prime Minister and the country, could come from the west in the shape of the Civil nuclear deal between the U.S.A and India. Notwithstanding its rough ride just now at the N.S.G. get together; India can surely rely on Uncle Sam to administer the right fuel of compromise to lead the deal to its happy and expected destination. Once the deal comes through, our neighbouring rivals will turn green with envy while the same colour would symbolize our prosperity in the decades to come. With atomic fuel lighting our houses and cooking our food, it would be nothing short of a Utopian existence for the poor millions in India. The deal, - once it comes through, - would also end India’s three decade old isolation from the international nuclear family. With the nuclear deal in her kitty, India would draw closer to the U.S.A. and the other prosperous countries of the world ensuring for her not only nuclear fuel but greater economic interaction together with possible protection from China, which definitely harbours territorial and other ambitions in this part of the globe. India has her concerns about curtailment of freedom as regards future nuclear tests, but, then, one must be ready to pay the price for a possible atomic cake during the coming Christmas!

Even as I write this, the curtain is being drawn on the Beijing Olympics, while India is playing the third ODI with Sri Lanka how has India been faring at the Olympics? With the golden era of Indian hockey a matter of the distant past, - this time the hockey eleven could not even make it to the Olympics, - India had to taste the gall of not winning even a single medal at three consecutive Olympics Games. Last time Rajyabardhan Rathore had won a medal for us at rifle shooting. That was our lone medal then.But Abhinav Bindra has gone one better than the Rathore of the last time. He has won the first ever Indian gold medal at individual Olympic events!

If misfortune comes in a heap, then good news too follows at least in a team. Bindra’s sterling performance was followed hard on its heels by bronze medal winning efforts on the part of Sushil Kumar in Wrestling and Vijender Singh in boxing. Sushil’s climb to the Olympic podium was a story of perseverance and sheer grit. Everybody knew that morning that Sushil was no longer in the reckoning. But the rule books disclosed that he had the chance of landing a medal if he could win three rounds in a row with three different competitors! And that’s exactly what he did! The team of boxers from Bhiwani in Haryana has fired the imagination of the Indian sports lovers. There was a day when the news of India’s victory in the Second ODI occupied the second spot in sports news with our boxers and wrestlers snatching the limelight. One can only hope that this augurs well for Indian sports in the days to come. Three Olympic medals were something that one could not even dream of at the beginning of the Beijing Olympics.

In cricket, - that ‘Religion’ for the Indian people, - Sachin ‘God’ Tendulkar is on the verge of making history yet again. He is now less than a century away from Brian Lara’s world record of the highest runs in test cricket! It was only recently that Mahi’s men won the first T20 competition that brought for M.S. Dhoni the coveted Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award shared only by Tendulkar in cricket.

How is India coping with what is sports for the terrorists? In a recent e-mail message promising mayhem in Mumbai between the 25th and the 28th of August, the terrorists have displayed a wry sense of humor by describing motor cars as their toys! The Central Government quotes statistics to show that incidence of terrorism has gone down over the past four years. It believes in a policy of inclusion which is described by the detractors as the politics of appeasement. Let’s hope that this policy or politics would have an effect that is good for the country. Let’s hope that the policy of inclusion does not become such an obsession that it turns into an axe of exclusion. That would only invite social churning and turmoil. This brings us to what has been happening in Jammu and Kashmir for several months now. It only shows that even as long a period as sixty years is not enough for a problem to die out or resentments to get buried. The divide between Jammu and Kashmir has perhaps its silver lining, amidst the dark clouds of anger. Things will perhaps reach a head now and that hopefully brings about some solution good for everyone.

This country of the young and the old, of the educated and the pre-literate, of the very rich and the very poor, is blessed at last with choices in the field of politics. For decades we had differed from the T.N.A. or ‘there is no alternative syndrome both at the centre and in the states. Local interests spawned regional parties as well as a number of smaller states. People thus have made their choices known in unequivocal terms. The pan Indian politics of the last decade or so has thrown us at least two options, - if not three or four, - for our people. Today we can go for the U.P.A. or the N.D.A. and even perhaps for a U.N.P.A. in the making. This ensures that no single formation can cling to the chair of power for donkey’s years, or deny accountability. Let ‘Bharat’ march towards a democracy of the people and for the people in that misty future which would gradually unfold itself, Jai Hind.

Pinaki Prasad Dhar