"Only on the edge of the grave can man conclude anything."
—Henry Adams (American,
1838-1918)
Word
for the day
Excoriate (v)
To denounce or berate severely; flay verbally:
to strip off or remove the skin from, e.g., Her palms were excoriated by the hard labor of shoveling.
Malice
towards none
Recent newspaper reports
have frequently proclaimed that Yamuna is dead and Ganga is good only for
walking on Ghats, and dangerous if you take a dip.
I did not see anyone's blood
boiling over this.
Neither self claimed protectors
of Hindu interests; nor the custodians of Ganga-Yamuni tehjeeb; nor any
politician; and nor those NGOs who have gulped billions in the name of cleaning
the two rivers.
First random
thought this morning
Nowadays everything happening or not happening is seen as a
referendum on PM Modi.
The AIDMK crisis in Tamil Nadu, Assembly elections in various
states, Municipal elections in Maharashtra, tax collection under various
disclosure schemes, economic growth, farmers' suicide, employment generation,
etc. etc. - for everything PM Modi is directly accountable and responsible. So
much so that the incumbent chief minister of UP is accusing PM of not creating
enough jobs in his state.
At first it seems ridiculous. How a single person could be held
accountable for all things happening (or not happening) in a country of India's
size. But then you realize, it's actually his doing. He centralized everything
to PMO and started proclaiming "I did that" and "I did
this".
In rush for gold, don't leave the family behind
In past few days, I have written
about my views about the problems with the current development paradigm of the
country. Some readers have objected to my views, as being overly cynical. Some
have gone to the extent of terming my views nearly Maoist. I do not want to
waste my time and energy in offering them any clarification or justification.
I may however make it very clear that I firmly and unconditionally
believe in free markets. I strongly oppose the crony socialism as well crony
capitalism.
The point I have tried to raise in my recent posts is that the
quasi colonial model of development, that our successive governments have
adopted, is not desirable. Considering the diversity of our country, and
character of our democracy, we need to follow a participative model of development,
where the local communities are made equal partner in the process of
development. The focus of development should be people and not markets.
I may cite two simple examples (there are 100 others) to elucidate
my point.
(1) Most of the highways in
the country appear to have been planned without consulting the people whose
life shall be affected by these highways. They are just informed about the
decision taken by government authorities. These people are also not engaged in
the construction process.
I am not getting into the question of land acquisition here.
The highway planning is totally market oriented. It mostly ignores
people. The authorities plan how much people will gain from highways in terms
of better market access. But they seldom consider that highway will not only
take the produce and people out of one place. It also will bring in people and
goods from outside. And this inflow of people and goods could affect the life
of people tremendously, through immense social, economic and cultural impact.
In many cases to the extent of trauma.
(2) A few months ago,
reports suggested (see
here) that Niti Ayog has made a strategy to win 50 medals in 2024 Olympics.
A government obsessing so much about Olympic medal sounds
inappropriate (for lack of a proper word) to me. In my view, the government
should focus on the integrated growth policy for the country's children. This
policy should, inter alia, deal with issues like basic education, health,
character building, vocational skill & training and building advanced
infrastructure for promoting excellence in various fields. It must be ensured
that all children engage in some physical activities to stay healthy and
develop good habits like team spirit, punctuality and discipline. If some child
has the ability he/she will compete and win medals. But this cannot be a policy
objective.
The government has three ministries - Sports and Youth Affairs
(implying that sports is only for youth); Child and women welfare (implying
child is responsibility of only mother and has nothing to do with sports); and
HRD (implying sports has nothing to do with human resource development). This
explains the point I am trying to make.
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