"Parties are
continually changing. The men of today give place to the men of tomorrow, and
the idols which one set worship, the next destroy."
—John Tyler (American,
1790-1862)
Word for the day
Sabulous (adj)
Sandy; Gritty
Malice towards none
Could Times of India group
explain why they always keep posted near nude pictures of famous women on the
front page of Times of India website?
First random thought this morning
Watching the Indian cricketing talent in IPL matches, one wonders
should BCCI consider more than one national team for India.
There are many very young players who appear talented enough to
aim for the heights once scaled by likes of Kapil Dev, Tendulkar, Dravid,
Kumble etc. But to achieve that they need to get into Indian squad immediately.
Otherwise the talents like Nayar, Shaw, Gil, Mavi will have to wait for one of
the existing national players to retire or go out of selectors' favor. Besides,
proven talents like Jadeja and Ashwin are also being wasted.
The best would be to have a separate board competing with BCCI.
Four years of Modi rule - 4
In past five days, a large number
of people have offered their views and opinion on the performance of the
incumbent government.
Thankfully, a large number of
readers agree with the line of argument I am taking. They are interested in an
objective evaluation of performance. They particularly want to assess the Alfa
value of PM Modi. Meaning, if Narendra Modi was not the prime minister or fails
to be reelected as prime minister in 2019, how the process of development and
socio-economic evolution of Indian economy will get impacted.
Nonetheless, a sizable number
seems to be interested in evaluation of performance taking the development
during 1947-2014 as the base. Their parochial, and mostly ridiculous, argument
is that the present government led by PM Modi has delivered much more than the
all previous governments put together. They like to make it 70yrs vs. 4yrs
monologue.
I find it pertinent to address
this segment briefly, before continuing with my line of arguments.
A company was awarded a large
piece of land to develop a huge building. The given land was rocky and uneven,
having numerous deep craters, garbage dumps, bushy lands, etc. Many extremely
poor occupants were living on that piece of land and needed to be rehabilitated
before any construction work could be commenced. Besides, there were numerous
people who claimed ownership of various small patches of the land and were
historically at war with each other for control of the land. Moreover, almost
all stakeholders differed on the plans to develop the land. There was acute
shortage of skilled workers and material to commence the construction.
The company started the work in
right earnest. Brought all stakeholders on the same page with great persuasion.
Rehabilitated the poor and homeless. Worked hard on leveling the ground,
establishing basic facilities necessary for undertaking the construction work.
Digged the ground deep and commenced laying a strong foundation that will take
the load of the colossal building that would be built.
In the meantime there were many
problems in the management of the company itself. Rival groups fought with each
other for control. Some joined the rival companies and attempted to destabilize
the company. For some period of time they were successful too. In this period,
the execution of building project was handled by the rival companies.
With great effort of many decades,
the company was able to construct a strong foundation for the building, complete
the basic structure of the building and even commence the interior work for
lower floors.
At this stage the management of
the company lost control over it and rival group took over the rein of the
company and this ambitious project as well.
The new management worked hard for
couple of years and completed few floors for occupation. Few thousand people
started living in the building, while the construction work on upper floor
continued.
The management then audaciously
claimed that the previous management could not give accommodation to even a
single person in so many decades, whereas we took only four years to provide
accommodation to thousands of people. We are therefore much superior to the
previous management.
The people who want the past 4yrs to
be compared with the preceding 67yrs, need to answer the following, for
example—
(a) Have millions of refugees from East Pakistan and West Punjab been
adequately rehabilitated or not? Do any of millions of refugees ever felt like
an alien in the country, the way they are treated in Pakistan?
(b) Have deeply fragmented princely states been cohesively integrated
to form a political union or not? Is there any material threat to the
sovereignty and integrated of the Union of India?
(c) Have we became self reliant in food, textile, construction,
transport, space technology, etc. or not?
(d) Do we have a strong and vibrant democratic system, matched only by
the most developed countries of the world?
(e) Whether any political party (extreme left to extreme right) has
ever shown an iota of hesitation in transferring power if mandated by election
results, even if the elections are suspected to be rigged?
(f) Have basic infrastructure and skill set for industry, trade,
commerce, agriculture been put in place to enable people and businesses to
develop advance facilities and skills to compete in global markets?
(g) Is India recognized as a super power in ITeS? Could these skills
be developed in 5-10years?
(h) How long does it take to light a bulb in the remotest village of
Manipur? Could it be done in four years?
There is no denying that at micro
level India still remains a society fragmented by caste and religion. But trust
me, nothing has been done in past four years to bridge this gap. If at all, the
segments of the present ruling party have worked hard to widen the abyss.
The statistics on kilometers of
road completed, number of villages electrified, new tax assesses added, MUDRA
loan disbursed may be better boasted about by a Municipal Commissioner,
District Magistrate, or a local corporator. When prime minister of a large
country aspiring to become a global power wants his performance to be evaluated
in these mundane statistical terms, it does not inspire confidence.
I may clarify, I hold brief for no
political party and always vote for a person not party. Nonetheless, I am aware
politically, and can't be bullied down by useless jokers wasting time on social
media.
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