High Growth, Low Development

While Indian stock markets are on a sharp upward trajectory and the economy is accelerating at an annual GDP growth rate of 9%, there comes the depressing news of India being ranked 128 in the Human Development Index of the United Nations Development Program. To put it in perspective, this puts India in the bottom 50 of the 177 nations that the UNDP human report looks at.

The index seeks to capture three dimensions of human development : a long and health life (measured by life expectancy at birth), education (literacy rate and enrollment in primary, secondary and tertiary education) and third GDP per capita measured in US dollars at Purchasing Power Parity. Some of the statistics produced by the the Human Development Report which contains this index, should ring alarm bells for our executive and our legislature bodies. In Sierra Leone, ranked at 177, rock bottom of the Human Development Index, 23% of the children are below average weight at birth. In comparison the number for India is as high as 30%. In India 47% of the children below the age of 5, are underweight. The corresponding figures for Sierra Leone and countries like Ethopia is 27% & 38% respectively.

It is shocking how small African nations - decidedly third world - perform much better than India -an emerging economic superpower- in important social and development parameters. In contrast to India's dismal performance in terms of the Human Development Index, it has steadily climbed up the rankings when it comes to housing the number of dollar billionaires. India is currently ranked 4 in the Forbes list of countries having the maximum number of billionaires. This points to the stark inequality that exists in India today. On one hand we have people who are not able to ensure the proper health of their children and on the other hand we also have amongst us men and women who's individual wealth is sometimes more than the entire wealth of certain countries.

The Indian polity has been voicing the need for an inclusive growth for sometime. It is now time for the Indian law makers to act on a war footing to achieve a widespread pattern of inclusive growth. The draft eleventh five year plan proposes 75% of the total expenditure for the education, agriculture, health care and infrastructure sectors compared to the corresponding figure of 55% for the tenth five year plan. This is certainly a move in the right direction but much more needs to be done and done consistently. Also we all know making laws is one thing and executing on them is another.

But...if anyone doubted India's nuclear intentions, they would do well to understand that a nuclear India in terms of warfare, is just a deterrent against similarly equipped nations. It's intent is not nuclear armament but nuclear energy. If India says it wont 'first use' the nuclear weapons, other countries should treat it as a fact --as good as the fact that the sun rises from the east.

If India were so hungry to develop its nuclear arsenal, it would have lapped up the American nuclear deal, like many other nations would have, given the chance. And ironically the deal got a green light from the US senate, US congress, EU, IAEA, France, Australia --most almost welcomed it...even the current Indian government agreed to it, yet the Indian democratic/parliamentary system stopped it. And if the world watched carefully, the US nuclear offer while debated vigorously even by illiterates of the country, it never did get out of the Indian parliament. What i mean to say is that the armed forces didn't play a role in deciding the fate of the deal.

Personally, I am happy the deal stalled. If a certain monkey looking president of a certain supposed super power goes in one direction, I would rather run in the opposite direction. Bush seemed just too interested in seeing this deal through and that made me uncomfortable.

Increasingly I don't identify with 'India'. The root cause is the Indian obsession with the name Gandhi, the Sikh riots of 1984 and the continued partisan attitude that exists in this country. To be sure I don't align myself with another country too. Its kinda funny situation and one that would be surely not comprehensible to another person of this country.

Also if I don't identify with India, it doesn't mean I am against it or possess qualities of an anti national. Its just that I am indifferent to it.

To sum up my situation. In the recently concluded India England cricket series....I found myself rooting for the lovely Monty Panesar against all Indian players.

How things change.

There's a small town located in the eastern part of India, which was once my choice for the best place in the world. It remained that way for years together. The place had nothing to boast off, except for a steel plant which made losses. It used to have power cuts for 7-8 hours everyday in sweltering summers. There were times when there would be no electricity for the whole night. It had no good places to see, visit or talk about. Yet it was the place I longed to visit, where my heart resided permanently and every year, for a month and a half in the scorching sun I would run away to its shade.

Today its just another congested, dirty, east Indian city for me. I just cant imagine liking the place. Even more i cant understand why would people stay in such a place. After all it has no multiplexes, no shopping malls, no roads, no proper place to dine out. But even if it does have all these in the future, I wouldn't care, as I realise I went there, for my grandparents called it home once. And now, that they are no more, I fail to see the value.

Loving grandparents are easily life's greatest treasure, for they are governed by a single emotion and that is love. They have all the time in the world for you and each minute of that short time is filled with sixty seconds worth of unadulterated love. I was so lucky.

If I were to wish something for every newbie that comes to this world, I would wish they have the same grandparents as I did.

The news channels these day are celebrating India's 60 years of Independence. And no celebration and national jingoism is complete without Mohanlal or Das or whatever Gandhi's picture. And every time I see it, my hatred for him doubles. What a good for nothing naked womanizer and a shrewd politician he was.

I think the Gandhi name is a curse and a burden for the nation that is India. Its a bubble which is being propagated. Today Rajiv Gandhi of all people is being hailed as a hero. And our coming generation- my little sister and brother type generation, considers him so. Why?, because they have been told that he was a great PM who was assassinated. His photo is there on their textbooks and textbooks only talk about his good qualities as a leader. So these children have only one view of him and the fact that he was the leader of this country and had such good qualities...they start to think of him as the ideal leader and when they compare him to muck around them, their respect for him only grows. But the fact is, he was a human and a very ordinary one. He became a leader but a very sorry one. He may have done good deeds but I remember the bad ones more.

Because I was alive and was able to comprehend some of his actions when Rajiv was alive I attach no more a tag to him than that of an ordinary human being. But because the current generation are presented a distorted view of him through textbooks and through national awards, buildings, events being named in his respect, and because they compare this view to muck around them and because they will never be able to see the real man and because he had a name tag suffixed to his name and because of that no body in this coward India has the guts to tell the real story--- the next generation will always have a distorted view of Rajiv Gandhi.

I hold the same thoughts for M. Gandhi. He has become an icon due to efforts of a particular political party, and I would add a particular community and propagated and propagated well through the channels of human irrationality. Gandhi too was as ordinary a man as you can come along. One has to ask why the Britishers 'respected' Gandhi but hated fighters like Bhagat Singh? Well for a start Bhagat Singh was a pain in their arse while Gandhi was as good a licker of the behind as they could get. Bhagat Singh and Gandhi were seemingly fighting for India's freedom. But no. One fought for it and died while fighting for it but the other played politics and was busy pleasing everyone.

Even otherwise, India has been largely devoid of heroes . Well to be true it has had the fortune of some, but it ignored them. They lie waste or have been wasted. But the proportion of such heroes has been rather very small. So to hide its collective butt, India and Indians of a particular, but larger majority have made Gandhi into a hero and for the last so many years this country has been hiding behind his naked torso which is shamelessly covered only by a vulgar dhoti and a shawl- not made so much from khadi but from dirty politics.

Its a world of scams! Ferrarigate, jelly beans, Haneef trial and the farcial 'tour de france'. Amidst all this there is another scam of sorts doing round in my work place. Its about my team lead. He has some how mustered his way into our group, without having the required qualifications and work experience. He has no idea on how to go about the assignment he is leading presently. And worst even me and the third and the last member of the team are in the same boat. But, the fact that we are clueless about the assignment was well known and this lead was specifically recruited to not only lead the execution but to also train us in the process.

Two months into a year long exercise and we are all marooned. Though the thing is, the lead has somehow managed to manage the expectations of the client. But for how long can this be sustained is the question. I have become very weary about the whole thing and have lost all confidence in my lead. At certain levels I feel, I now, know the working methodologies better than him. I have started to question each and every activity of his and he knows I suspect every action of his. There is total mistrust between us and we have started to wage a war against each other in our own way. The coming few weeks look interesting to me. Somethings gonna give way.

In other news, and while I didnt update the blog as frequently as i would have wanted, Real Madrid were crowned Spanish champions, as was predicted by me in this very blog last year. Though this season the fight to the top would be even more difficult, what with Barcelona now possessing arguably the deadliest strike force in the game....Henry, Ronaldinho, Eto, Messi, Deco !! This is going to be one hell of a football season. Here are my predictions again:

Spanish League : Real Madrid
English league: Chelsea
European Champions: Barcelona/Real Madrid.

Why such a hue and cry is being raised about Glasgow bomber being highly educated. Osama is a civil engineer. If anything, as these facts come to the open, the west should only hasten a review of its attitude towards the muslim world. Because, all things aside...this bit of news tells me that someone hurt somebody bad. I'll explain my view point.

1984.
The Indian Army rolled tanks and marched soldiers inside the most sacred place to the sikhs- The Golden Temple in Amritsar. The sikhs may have deserved it or the Indian government led by an egoistic prime minister worth her weight in gutter may have made a gigantic folly. I dont know. For the facts remain concealed from me. All I know is that it takes two to tango.

But even so after nearly 23 years, and without having any memory of the incident for I was a toddler...there remain a pent up anger in me. I am still hurt. A part of me still seeks revenge. And I am a moderate sikh. And I am the so called elite educated Indian. And if you ask my friends and relatives they will say that I am the most harmless person on earth.

Why am I still hurt? Because somebody bruised my ego..my soul..somewhere. And they attacked where it hurt the most. Religion is something that we are told when we born, that it is the ultimate truth. That we should bow in front of it. We should follow it. When we bow in front of it, we are willingly sacrificing all our ego's in front of it. I cant explain how powerful this emotion or feature is. And when somebody attacks it, we are not only hurt, but our very basis...our foundation is wrecked.

I myself claim that our view of religion is distorted. It is and there are no two ways about it. But this view is also hardwired in me like every other person. It is the one thing which we consider pure and seek help from and put it above oneself. It is something which defines our existence. It is us. We can probably stand most attacks but not an attack on our religion. And this fire of rage which is ignited when we feel our religion is being attacked, it is only fueled more when the party attacking it, is the mightier one or the larger one.

If you now look at the whole, standoff...the battle drills down to between us and them. There are huge egos involved and still further egos. And in such a scenario, its only logical that people who are educated - who can do something, who can inspire, who can assimilate, understand and act- will come into the foreground and lead...even if the act is of 'terrorism'.