Vijay Kumar Gaba

It would be fair to assume that most students will leave the answer sheets blank and leave the examination hall, distraught. Some may try to test their ingenuity and offer random literary solutions to complicated problems, still hoping to score zilch. A few audacious ones may contend that being literature students, they are naturally the only genius around. These few would offer detailed literary explanations which may not make any sense to the conventional students of physics or literature and still insist that the solutions offered by them are the best. Hoping to pass with distinction, they might also take this opportunity to ridicule the students of physics and celebrate their superiority. The last category mostly includes politicians, and often politically motivated bureaucrats.

I am inclined to view the present-day global economy as the examination hall described above. Only a few of the participants (economists, bankers, administrators, politicians, regulators, traders, borrowers, lenders, consumers, producers, et. al.) seem to have much clue about what is happening around them; and only a few of them actually have a decent understanding of the problems. These people, having an understanding of the problem, unfortunately, are too busy popularizing the problem; sometimes in a hushed sound; but mostly raising the decibel to the maximum; sometimes in the secret chambers and sometimes in front of the mammoth crowds; sometimes with audacity and sometimes with jitters in their spine. They are not offering any solution; often waiting for the problems to get resolved on their own.

What matters today is to make an effort to find solutions, howsoever radical or unassimilated these may seem. We need to administer a sense of calm to the stressed nerves of the common people, who are finding the current conditions unfairly severe to them.

Finding solutions

“For indeed any city, however small, is in fact divided into two, one the city of the poor, the other of the rich; these are at war with one another; and in either there are many smaller divisions, and you would be altogether beside the mark if you treated them all as a single State.”

In my view, most of the problems being presently highlighted may just be the symptom of the problem and not the problem in itself. In finding solutions, we would need to focus on the underlying problems and not merely the manifest symptoms.

For example, in an electoral democracy, the child of a politician contesting and winning an election should not be a problem. After all, it is the people who have elected such a child to public office, just like anyone else. Especially when no one is complaining about poll rigging etc. The true problem here is unequal opportunity. And this problem is not limited to politics but to every sphere of life - education, law, medicine, art, business, religion, etc.

All those complaining about the dynasty in politics fail to provide a solution because they are scared of addressing the underlying problem, which pervades deep into our personal and social lives.

In the past 10-11 years, I have made multiple attempts to understand the problems that have been ailing Indian society and therefore the Indian economy. From the experience I gained through wandering across the vast landscapes and meeting thousands of common people in the hinterlands, I have earned some understanding of the problems, I mean rhetoric apart. Moreover, since I enjoy the advantage of not being a formal student of economics, statistics, finance, politics, or sociology - I enjoy the liberty to assess the problems from a commonsense viewpoint and devise solutions that do not necessarily conform to the established conventions.

Since I have written on these issues frequently and consistently, my old readers may find the presentation that follows in the next few days repetitive. However, I still find this exercise worth doing as it reinforces my commitment and faith in the great India story.

I must emphasize that this is to initiate a larger debate on the desirable social, political, and economic order for the country. I have been accumulating thoughts on this for the past ten years. The readers may pick whatever they like, debate it, improve it, and introduce it back in the stream. It is important to clarify that I do not claim any proprietary rights over these thoughts. I claim to have liberally and unabashedly plagiarized the thoughts of various common and eminent people; published wisdom; and my own experiences.

…to continue

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Battle Ground 2024 – The Problems