India will survive

Obviously fired by patriotic fervour, most of what he said went over my head. But the names Gandhi and Nehru lingered in my consciousness, creating a larger-than-life image.
I came to believe that they had sacrificed a lot for winning freedom for India from alien rule. In a milieu when the spirit of freedom was infectious, the teacher managed to instill in me some pride of being Indian, an emotion that I cherish even to this day. When Nehru visited a nearby college, I trekked eight kilometres to have a glimpse of the great man, only to witness his motorcade whizz past. It took years for me to get over the frustration of not being able to see him in flesh and blood.

Our generation had the unique privilege of watching from a vantage point the fledgling nation taking confident strides in diverse fields. We then believed that within a few years India will usher in a classless, free and happy society as the founding fathers of our Constitution had envisioned. Rapid industrialisation powered by indigenous technology was also the talking point. Self-sufficiency was the watch-word. We also hoped that India would regain the pride of place on international stage. The idealism of initial years started ebbing soon. The news of drubbing that India received at Chinese hands in 1962 was a rude awakening. I felt that our leaders had let us down and Nehru’s image etched in my heart cracked.

After six decades, it is a sense of betrayal that assails me. Independent India’s is a history of missed opportunities. The democratic system that has taken root is now under unprecedented threat. Fissiparous tendencies, self-seeking politicians with money and muscle power, growing climate of intolerance and social inequality are ominous. The leaders in whom we have reposed our faith have feet of clay. No effective reforms in governance to check gargantuan level of corruption and misrule are in sight. The rulers give scant respect to social commitments enshrined in the Constitution. We have failed to enforce the basic norms of accountability by powers-that-be. After sixty three years of freedom, India remains a land of poverty and pestilence. Islands of progress and advent of new billionaires have not made any dent in India’s poverty.

Question of pride

Have we lost our sense of national pride? When our VIPs are routinely subjected to humiliating body searches at US airports, they choose to ignore it. A former defence minister keeping quiet after being strip-searched by US airport security staff is a classic example. Remember the virginity tests that Indian girls willingly underwent to get eligibility for UK visa some years ago. Many Indians don’t hesitate to stoop to any level for a US visa. A Green Card seems the ultimate goal. A few years ago, I was shocked to see hordes of bright young boys and girls waiting endlessly, braving the sun, before the US Consulate in Chennai for visas.

I had a promising journalist colleague whose only aim in life was to emigrate to the US. After years of dogged pursuit, she succeeded by selling her ancestral property in Jayanagar, leaving her widowed mother to fend for herself. She is believed to have become an insurance agent in the US. That she would have risen well in her career here is a different matter. In another case, an assistant editor in a leading daily ended up as a lift operator in the US.

Why does the lure of dollar entice the brightest of young Indians? No serious efforts have been made to check the brain drain. We spend the taxpayers’ money to create human resource pool for transnational corporations. We are producing technical and management graduates in select institutions who can compete with the very best in the world. But the great majority who pass out are without employable skills.

At one level, we have failed to reform our education system to suit Indian needs and at another level, students are losing faith in our system. This has created a generation with confused identity.

Neglect of primary education and commercialisation have created different classes of students. Growing privatisation has attracted carpet-baggers who want to make a fast buck.

Now there are two Indias – one that of beneficiaries of spectacular economic growth, the well-heeled, westernised, globe-trotting who swear by globalisation and talk condescendingly of anything Indian, the other of the marginalised majority who do not have a clue from where their next morsel will come. In a severe indictment of the growth model adopted by India, the Global Hunger Index 2010 ranks India 67th, much lower than China, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Nepal. The report says that unlike in China (ranked ninth), the higher growth rate in India has not led to hunger reduction. Exceptionally, high level of child malnutrition is a blot on our society. All our seeming advantage of a young population is a mirage as the growth of undernourished children will be stunted and they will end up as school dropouts, uneducated and unemployable. Poor healthcare facilities compound their misery.

I feel the gravest threat to our polity comes from corruption that has spread its tentacles to every segment of our society. The failure to punish the high and mighty, accused of malfeasance and self-aggrandisement gives a wrong signal to honest law-abiding citizens. At least some sections of the urban middle class have started envying the corrupt. This portends disaster for the nation. I am an incorrigible optimist. All is not lost.
I have faith in the youth of the nation to rise to the occasion and initiate a cleansing process by consigning to dustbins of history the thugs and pindaris who rained misery on us by masquerading as our leaders. Then, every Indian can hold his/ her head high. Kalmadis and Rajas will come and go, but India will survive.