Day 227 - Mera Bharat Mahaan!

It was interesting reading Chetan Bhagat's column in this morning's newspaper.  This little piece of prose was about a conversation between the Prime Minister and his speech writer to discuss the content of the PM's Independence Day speech from the Red Fort in New Delhi.  It was a funny take on the apparent lack of focus of the PM and his government to deal with the real issues and only wait for the instructions from 'you know who'!

Jokes apart, on the eve of India's 63rd Independence Day, as is the custom every year, there is a multitude of material written with the intent of analysing India's progress in the 63 years that we have had to define our destiny as a country.  There are umpteen number of television shows on the same subject in this period as well.  Obviously, patriotism, and more importantly, the criticism of how we have progressed as a country after our independence in 1947, is big business and makes good newsprint.

I have a slightly differing view.  I think, as a nation, we have progressed wonderfully well in the last 63 years!  True, we haven't done as well as a Singapore or a Thailand, but the fact of the matter is, that these countries have not had to work on such a vast and complex landscape, that India has had to.  A country where there is a multitude of religions, castes and creed, a country where the dialect of the various languages spoken changes every 500 kms, a country which is large enough to have all the natural resources, a country which has many rivers, mountain ranges and deserts, a country where the difference between the rich and the poor is large that it cannot be bridged ever, a country where there is complete freedom of speech and a country where there are the resultant large number of political parties and their definitions of progress!

I think we have done very well in most sectors; agriculture, manufacturing, technology and services being at the forefront.  We have had lop-sided development in some of the socially relevant sectors such as education, health and sanitation.  Nonetheless, we have still moved forward.  Some of the sectors have received attention a little late; infrastructure being the best example.

The one sector that we probably have not been able to progress much has been the 'mindset' sector.  Majority of the populace of this nation seem to be plagued by a disease called inferiority complex.  For example, even today, the fairer your skin, the more respect you are likely to command!  We have a long way to go to be able to respect ourselves as an able nation, have the confidence to be the best in the world, able and willing to participate, collaborate and lead.  This is the sector which I intend to track our progress on.  I think this is what will expedite our progress in all the other sectors in the years to come.

Happy Independence Day!  Take care.