The reactive Indian

We have always identified our country as mother India. We have historically been a country bestowed with feminine attributes of peace, non-violence and tolerance. Even in modern Independent India we have not been able to escape that blessing or anathema, whatever one may call it. But that has instilled in Indian psyche an attribute of being reactive to the circumstances. The identity of being peace loving and tolerant has made the ordinary Indian too tolerant and accommodative.(yaha sab chalta hai). An Indian today is happy and satisfied, with corruption, with hunger and with delayed justice. He only wakes up when the last straw has been cast and the situation has become terribly unbearable to the limits of life and death.
The economic reforms of 1991, LPG as we might call them, changed the economic landscape of our nation and paved the way for us to become the second fastest growing economy of the world. But was it like that we suddenly came to terms with the economics of liberalization in 1991? No. It wasn’t the case. In fact the fastest growing economy in the world today i.e. China reformed its economy 24 years before 1991 in 1967, when it opened up its economy and dropped tariff boundaries. So, why did it take a huge BOP crisis to do those reforms in India? Why did it take something of such a large scale that we had to pledge 67 tons of our gold to the Union Bank of Switzerland and Bank of England to get a bailout deal from the IMF? The answer is simple. India is a democracy and in a democracy the majority opinion has to be reflected in the acts of the leaders, however competent, qualified and good intentioned they are. And the general psyche of an Indian does not permit him to act until and unless his daily bread and butter is not at stake.
We also have more recent examples to corroborate this observation. If India were given one single wish which could be fulfilled by a genie, there can be no doubt what India would opt for. Yes. We all want the corruption to go. We’ve always wanted the corruption to go. We’ve always wanted that genie. And well some might argue (including me) that we have got that genie now in the form of Anna Hazare who is going to lead us to become a corruption free country. But what did it take ? It took a 1.76 lakh crore 2 G spectrum scandal, 70,000 crore commonwealth scam, an adarsh housing society scam and a potential antrix deal scam for the good intentioned men of our country to say that they’ve had enough, and the people who have done these scams are going down. But then, is corruption new to India? Were these 2 G spectrum and CWG scams the first cases of corruption in the history of India. The answer is indeed no. But it took obscene proportions of scams to finally wake our good men up from their slumber.
We have always been aware of the presence of tainted people in Indian politics. This is not limited to any single political party. There can hardly be any party which can claim that no cases have been framed against any of its MPs or MLAs. In 2010, 11 MPs were caught in a sting operation on camera accepting bribes for asking questions in the parliament, of which 6 were from the BJP, 3 were from the BSP and one each from congress and RJD. We’ve had people like Pappu Yadav, who were accused of murder, contesting and winning elections until they were finally convicted and debarred. So what about the electoral reforms? That is still not on our list of upcoming legislations for the winter session. How long are we going to wait for that? Are we waiting for the day when there would be nobody to sit in the parliament and all our leaders will be behind bars, accused and waiting conviction?
An average Indian who is mainly concerned for his “roti, kapda and makan” can hardly be sympathetic to the airlines which are portending bankruptcy. But still that does not reduce the magnitude of the problem. All our public and private airlines have piled up huge debts, which has been a result of regressive aviation policies of the government. The aviation fuel prices, the airport parking charges and also the taxes on the aviation fuel are among the highest in the world, and which is crippling our airlines. But we might have to wait for a major collapse of a major airline, either public or private, to finally make our politicians to act.
So is it all doom for us? Is there no hope? Well fortunately there is. In this age of interconnected and globalized world where information flows freely, our young generation have showed first signs of activism. It was this activism which made the Anna Hazare movement such a huge success. It is this activism which now makes the government uneasy over every single piece of paper leaked form government offices because it knows that the young India is not going to take this anymore. Finally the first signs of a shift are visible from a passive and reactive India to an active and proactive India. And this opportunity should not be lost. This opportunity cannot be lost. We, the young generation, have to persist and not accept. We will not accommodate anything anymore. (yahaan kuch nahi chalta)