Peeyush Uniyal. It is easy for anyone to sit in judgement and put the blame elsewhere, however let’s try to look at the India situation in a larger perspective and attempt to take an all-around look.
Background
Glory of ancient Bharat, the land of open minded tolerant people, started losing its luster withthe advent of Invaders. Although the barbarian invaders restricted their business to forcefulconversions, destroying temples and looting wealth, they could not damage the will of the Indian people. With the rise of the Rajput and Marathas the Mughals lost most of their gains and were completely marginalized.
Then comes the British raj, the damaged Indus civilization descends further into abase, although good planners and pundits themselves, they fell prey to Macaulay’s planned education system that filled our minds with imported philosophy and foreign value systems.
At the time of British leaving India, they in collusion with our own leaders partitioned the country on religious grounds yet keeping the policy of appeasement intact which worsened over time. This created two immediate problems for newly independent India, 1) Created a hostile neighbor at our borders, 2) Kept the internal divisionary pot simmering that was responsible for partition in the first place.
Modi Government’s Inheritance
We, the people, the fragmented shellfish population, are always asking – ‘What Nation can do for me instead of asking what I can do for the nation’. We the people, the products of the Macaulay’s education system, have lost all sense of pride in our own heritage and are left to be critical of anything Indian, always looking for foreign approval before appreciating and adopting our own culture and knowledge such as Yoga, Astronomy, Number System, Ayurveda, Bhagwat Geeta etc.
A divided society, on language, caste and religious grounds. Our founding visionary governments and governments thereafter did not make any attempts in patching the divide, instead focused on further divisions to maintain power, following the British legacy of divide and rule.
Damaged Self-confidence as a nation, a copy-pasted British constitution, confused judiciary, incapable and corrupt bureaucracy, immature opposition, lopsided media, are some of the other things Modi Government inherited.
It appears that the Central government is trying to control a chariot in which many of the horses are pulling in opposite directions. For now the center seems to be weak in front of some of the opposition state governments.
These state governments have shown total disregard for the constitution and governance. The center should learn some lessons from Indira Gandhi or even Manmohan’s UPA government in abolishing or taming the nonperforming, failed state governments, may be in the letter if not in the spirit, the spirit cannot be argued as well intended in case of Indira or Manmohan.
There is a laundry list of setbacks the nation has suffered due to mis governing states, here are few leading examples.
West Bengal – Industrial hub of yesteryears lost to communism, and due to illegal infiltration has become a communal and anti-progress society.
Maharashtra – Financial HUB of India is ailing under incapable, vindictive, corrupt mishmash party rule currently.
Delhi – Policy Hub, ailing under incapable, corrupt, appeasement promoting Government. Anarchists have taken over this very important semi-state. Tamilnadu – Drowning in regionalism, casteism etc.
Geo Politics and foreign mischief targeting India
Chinese and Pakistani nexus have been acting against Indian interests right from independence. Indian attempts to appease China by virtually handing them their own UN security council’s permanent seat, could not persuade China away from its imperialistic designs.
World’s greed has made China the world’s factory, and also strengthened this hostile neighbor of India financially and technologically.
Our own politicians undermined our national interest by pushing Nepal towards communism (there is known Rajiv & Sonia’s hand in it). Not to mention Nehru’s refusal to the request by Nepal to merge with India.
Sri Lankan alienation can also be attributed to our failed foreign policies. TN state governments also undermined the national interest in this regard.
In the current scenario the creator of Chinese virus seems to be getting away without any reprehension as the world leaders including the US are weakening the QUAD charter.
US policies against Russia have been pushing it in Chinese lap further, making China strong. US keeps irritating its own allies like India (recent freedom of navigation issue), South Korea etc.
WHO seems to be dancing on Chinese tunes, EU starts China’s Sinovac COVID vaccine review. The perpetrator becomes the savior.
Some of the recent incidents reported against India, after COVID infestation, were suspected to have Chinese and local hand; 1) Power grid failure in Maharashtra, 2) Fire in the Serum Institute of India, the COVID vaccine mfg. plant, 3) Apple iPhone manufacturer Wistron ‘s factory vandalized in Bangalore.
Twitter, FB etc. running FOE riot with their twisted policies, there is a selective curb on FOE imposed on people who do not fit the agenda.
Some far reaching achievements of the Modi government.
Despite the above mentioned handicaps, the odds against which the current dispensation is working, let’s look at some of the significant and foresightful achievements made by the Modi government.
Major development schemes implemented in a true spirit of “Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas” without discrimination on religion or cast lines are; Swachh Bharat, Ujjvala yojna, 100% electrification, One Rank one Pay, infrastructure push, Abolition of tipple Tallak, removal of article 370, GST, Digitization etc.
Taught lessons to advisories like Pakistan and China.
Bolsters country defenses by procurements like Rafale, Chinook, Drones, Nuclear submarines etc.
Major push for self-reliance under Atmnirbhar Bharat.
First time India stood neck to neck with world powers in developing COVID vaccine.
Major drags to Indian Progress
Many of these things can be attributed to the corrosion in Indian Governance and society right from independence, and is snowballing ever since. The Modi government has not shown much progress in this front and in many cases has shown a lackluster approach. Some of the pillars of society that needs immediate reforms are
Bureaucracy – India is still run by lackluster bureaucrats, who don’t have motivation other than increasing their own wealth and power. At the start of his first term as PM, Modi had a heart to heart dialog with the top bureaucrats with a mindset that “it’s not the person; it’s the system that makes a person corrupt”. Well, Modi tried to give a corruption free system from the Top – Down, we all know it has not percolated down to the bureaucrats. Instead they became even more incapable and are proving to be hindrance in governance and the government is proving incapable of dealing with bad apples.
Judiciary – Can’t say much about the Judiciary without invoking contempt of Courts, but will leave with an observation that they are inconsistent in interpreting the law. They are easily influenced by outside pressure and are always seen in an activist role rather than upholding the law.
Media – Lacks any morality, focus is on running an agenda rather than informative stories. Unfortunately most of the major media houses run a corrupt opposition agenda as they owe their loyalty to them as being part of an ecosystem created by long rule by opposition parties in the past.
Bollywood Movies – Works on a particular set of narratives and agenda. Not many movies promoted positivity or harmony in the society. Their messaging has been divisive and has helped in confusing the society further. In recent times this Bollywood’s downfall has accelerated. Movie personalities are openly using their influence in society to support a particular agenda, writing open letters in support of a particular political party, criticizing government policies with an agenda without understanding them. It’s becoming a wild-wild west. Open drug abuse has become the source of their creativity nowadays.
Education – India is a society where many don’t know about their own glorious past, even the official history books are full of false narratives rather than describing the events as it is. As they say “History is written by the conqueror”, puts a doubt on Indian independence struggle, was our independence fought? Or was it just a transfer of power to a few select individuals so that Brits leave behind a friendly nation? As a result Indian population is largely confused, lacking selfconfidence, critical of their own values, indulges in self-loathing, always looking for foreign approval. It’s difficult to come across individuals who know and feel proud of India’s various gifts to the world in science, mathematics, health, astronomy, philosophy, spiritualism etc. Yes, you will often encounter people criticizing their own society about caste, corruption, rituals etc., without understanding the context and adulterations brought upon us by invaders, occupiers
and agenda politicians.
Peeyush Uniyal
A well wishing NRI