This is my last column for 2011. I had not intended to write on India until a week ago. My work brought me here again and, what I saw in the print and visual media was so appalling that I decided to ask my country-men in exasperation: “Where are we heading? Where is the India that Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru ‘discovered'? Are the life-long efforts and sacrifices of our greatest patriots in vain?”

These are questions that need to be asked irrespective of who will answer them.

A devastating hospital fire; spurious liquor tragedy; horrible death of babes-in-arms, falling into open gutters and bore wells; utter lack of professionalism and ethics among doctors and lawyers; water wars between two states; sexual escapades of Ministers; and not to speak of mining plunder and unbridled  monetary inflation — all such news packed into just one week.

Factor into this the Lokpal issue and it seems the Indian cup of woe is brimming already. The Lokpal debate in Parliament promises to be intimidatory and hostile. If the ruling party is not afraid of corruption of the past, present, or the future, why would it seek escape routes within the proposed law? And, the Opposition is no ‘sacred cow' either. The present situation points only to one thing — utter lack of governance. With decision-making coming to a standstill.

Decision-making is not about making right or wrong decisions. It is taking decisions in earnestness and sincerity. Time will tell if they were right or wrong.

No time to lose

There is an urgent need to rebuild our political structure. It is time to put the nation first in our thoughts, words and actions. National interests should be the priority, not regional or sectoral. First, we should survive as a nation. A nation that is secular, pluralistic, founded on Dharma, non-violence, patriotism, and above all, the will to ‘walk together, talk together, find a consensus on matters of broad policies.' Or else, we can only sink together and too soon. Our leaders, some alumni of Cambridge, Oxford, Harvard or other Ivy League institutions, ought to think with their hearts also, not with their heads only. What is good economics need not always be good politics.

With a federal system having plurality of religions, languages and, cultures, it is all the more  important that the Prime Minister and his cabinet ministers, the political leaders, all need to be pro-active and perceived as friends of the people at large, genuinely interested in their welfare.

Elections to five States, just announced, might be a pointer to the people's mood. I can only wish that the recent events across the country are only a passing phase.

But given such events, it would be wishful thinking to imagine that India would be among the five biggest economies in the world in 2020.

Our leaders at the Centre and States need to realise that indecision and inactivity are scaring off much needed foreign investment and weakening our national solidity.

The situation we find ourselves in calls for integrity, impartial concern for public good and the best of statesmanship — not petty politics or blame-trading. The destiny of this nation lies in the hands of a privileged few. They must act now. After all, to whom much is given, much is expected.

(The author is a former Europe Director, CII and lives in Cologne, Germany. blfeedback@thehindu.co.in )

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