India is
a land of complexities – with more
people joining the working age population every month. But this was to be expected - at least to some extent – back in 1947,
when India was born – many critics highlighted the issues of population and the
widespread poverty. Neither of those revolutionary nationalist policies addressed
these issues in the short run, but they permanently altered the landscape of
imagined possibilities in which the shape of the future was forged – long run
vision was considered supreme. The pioneering effort of then policy makers to
convert a theoretical weakness into a structured strength is commendable –
advent of clear focus for educational excellence in the form of IITs, non-polarized
approach in regard to foreign policy, infrastructure development for basic
necessities.
There are always two sides to a story – India, emerging from
bitter experiences of the past followed a socialist model to ensure national
interests, up until 1990s when Indian economy hit rock-bottom with reserves
enough to cater for 17 days and not beyond. The growth rate up until then was
marginal and reflected the lack of short run objectives of then policy makers –
few ill informed scholars termed it as Hindu rate of growth. Indian Economy
opened up in early 1990s – credit for which is with no sensible reason given to
then finance minister alone and the real visionary, then prime minister was
suitable forgotten.
India grew through the last decade of 20th century at
an improved pace – policies can be largely termed as confused capitalistic
approaches, resulting from emergence of coalition politics. India lost her
visionary leaders – few ill informed and loyal servants of high command (not
necessarily democratically elected, but assumed to represent Indian interests
so far) scaled up through the ranks to drive policy for the country.
Similarly, social movements which played a leading role earlier to
preserve the sanctity of any policy measure have lost their integrity through
selfish leaders along with redefined politicking proficiencies of few dynamic national
leaders. Early 1990s saw India consciously move from taking a socialistic
approach to a pseudo dialectical materialist approach with gradually
social movements losing their integrity because of few leaders with political
ambitions – race, caste, gender, environment, women rights have come to be few of the abused
topics for personal gains.
Come 2000, India lost most of her
intellectual sons/daughters because of brain drain – aided by intellectually
retarded leaders who felt selfishness is a prerequisite for any policy decision.
Unlike the revolutionaries before them, these leaders lived in a world of
ignorance and arrogance. – And citizens were left to hope that things will
change. Media with their commercial interests and sold souls supported leaders
who did not think twice to hit under the belt – unfortunate Times
The working class – general citizenry were motivated by promises
made and broken - and this is what has mostly dominated the remainder of this
century up until now. The policy paralysis and lack of any action aiding
development, social movements fanning public anger along with advent of social
tools for better communication exposed the usual ways of conducting political
business – multiple scams were discovered, few “I am sorry, I have sold my soul”
media houses and their up-until-then respected editors/journalists were exposed
– few attempting a doctored peer review procedure to get over it. This sowed
the seed, in comparison to the past – now Indians want answers. The working
class as Karl Marx puts it has started the inter-class struggle. This will lead
to a new class order. A more pro-active vision, drawing on a wider range of dreams,
will begin to emerge, most distinctly, facebook generation's continuing
struggle for democratic self-governance and new forms of organization will lead
to ethical capitalism.
If this nationwide revolutionary
wave is to reshape how policy making process is structured in India over the
course of decades, it will need to shift much more decisively into nurturing,
developing, and working out the implications of a whole new set of dreams and
aspirations that simply cannot fit within the confines of the pre-informed
world and eliminate such channels which propagate and support any possibility
otherwise.
