If anything, Time magazine missed the whole picture by calling one person ‘underachiever’ and not everyone.
Left, Right
Who shouldn’t be spared that label in India? When I look into my life of over four decades, the first to force underachievement were the Left parties. They unshackled Kerala’s society delivering great social indices. But they crippled its economy. Young people left in droves earning a reputation for hard work elsewhere in India and West Asia.
Is Kerala an isolated case of underachievement that the rest of India can laugh at? Or is all of India laughable? Notwithstanding elections won by the Hindutva brigade, I still haven’t fathomed how the Ayodhya incident strengthens modern India and improves our future. What I do know is that such acts have the same negative impact on sense of long term future as the misdeeds of unchecked Left politics and moneyed Congress politics. Not to mention that apolitical perennial problem — population.
Years ago I witnessed people escape to West Asia and South East Asia to build the life denied them. Later, destinations became more global – US, UK and other places. But we were still leaving India, not staying back. If India was achieving, why were we leaving? And if everyone stayed back would India achieve or slip into logjam?
Everyone
In the 1990s, the IT sector began booming. IT meant well qualified, well paid person who travelled and hopefully lived abroad. The aspiration contrasted our country knotted up in tradition, feudalism and short sighted politics. Over time in what is apt example of unchanging country, even the decline of India’s IT capital started despite the leading figures of its IT industry warning. Currently not one day passes by without Karnataka’s murky politics in the news. Does this politics address Bangalore’s needs or what Bangalore means?
All Indian cities have their private demons. Industrially stable Chennai never outgrows its brand of regional politics. Hyderabad hovers between modernity and feudalism, slipping frequently to the latter. Kolkata earned itself much needed change and then became synonymous with mercurial politics. Mumbai has become intellectually dull. A mix of money, real-estate and routine prevails. Capital city, Delhi got the best infrastructure. But it’s a long way from being role model for other cities in thought and conduct. Investment friendly Gujarat hasn’t finished explaining what happened during the communal riots.
If we monetise the impact of our disruptive politics and dismal social practices they would be among our biggest liabilities. It should have been us improving our house keeping. Instead, we face the ignominy of doing so under compulsion from creditors and rating agencies.
And Household
Like the God particle, our problems have small building blocks. Through India’s economic ascent of the 1990s, our households welcomed the new economics but remained wary of social change. If you recall, we knew we would never change. What else was Ayodhya or other crazy obsessions in every religion? What else was the spectre of Mumbai crumbling under its aggressive, corrupt politics? What else were our massive, show-off weddings? Courtesy such hypocrisy we reached today’s gridlock wherein the ground reality and expectations of our lives have become biggest challenge to enterprise and change.
Corruption is somebody’s household income. The dirty picture seen from the outside enrages us. But our condition betrays the impasse and our Prime Minister merited the cover of Time magazine. We should start unclogging India. Else we can continue treating this crowded underachieving country as real-estate investment and achieve personally, elsewhere.
(The author is a freelance journalist based in Mumbai.)