56th Anniversary of the Indian Republic: DEVELOPED NATION IT IS NOT, BUT IT WILL BE!
/RAJ MISHRA
On the eve of the 57th Republic Day on January 25, 2006, Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, President of India, delivered a televised address where he asserted:
"We are well on our way on the path of development and transforming India into a developed nation before 2020."
With this assertion, he elaborated on his next mission:
"To protect our progress and further sustain the earning capacity of individuals and people" we need "to promote ethical values in all walks of life which will enable creation of synergy between establishments for realizing our dream of seeing the smiles on the billion faces".
But for the tragic situation faced by hundreds of millions of Indians who continue to live below poverty line and the hundreds more urban and rural masses who are being forced into destitution as the privatization and liberalization agenda of India takes its toll, the above assertion and the agenda would be comical. Any assertion that India is well on its way to a developed nation flies in the face of any and every accepted social-economic index by which the world community measures development.
If this is in deed the verdict of the Indian government and the State, it is not only cruel and inhumane for the deprived and the oppressed but an affront to the sensibilities of the thinking men and women of India. It is a declaration that the big business houses and their government and State fully intend to build their imperial dreams by turning their back on the poor and the oppressed of India. It is a clarion call to all the conscientious women and men of India, all those dissatisfied with the status quo and fighting for progress of India that they must rise to the occasion and block the juggernaut of this imperial India.
The assertion that "developed India is on the rise" and strengthening certain "ethical values" are the need of the hour to put "smile on the billion faces" is not a mere slip on the part of the Head of the State. Facts suggest that it is a conscious act, a continuation of the now discredited “Shining India” slogan. Indian government has been working overtime to present itself as a major power in the world stage.
Using the multiparty parliamentary system and nuclear-armed military as the foundation of this pretension, it has embarked upon a reckless economic privatization program of handing out vast amounts of public resources to private hands to build a thoroughly capitalist economy, including the agrarian sector that even the World Bank is reluctant to embrace. It is on a mission to overhaul many of the anachronistic colonial institutions to inject modernity to its state apparatus. Even communal violence, the bullwork of Indian state terrorism for past six decades, is being given a facelift by firing a central mister following Nannavati commission report on Delhi massacre of Sikhs in 1984. Even an attempt is being made to provide 100 days of work to the unemployed rural families as if a year has only 100 days!
The long line of foreign bankers and investors lining up to open shop in India and the increasing number of foreign acquisitions by Indian businesses are the backdrop to the assertion that India's "Vision 2020" is already a fait accompli. Opinion makers in India must believe that repeating a lie many times over could make it the truth!
India needs development and Indian people will make that development happen. But that development will be social and human development in the first place. Such development will follow empowerment of the people. What the President of India calls development is nothing but capitalist growth. Its essence is the GROWTH OF PRIVATE PROFITS which is taking place on the basis of strengthening the ownership of all productive property in private hands under state supervision. It is the opposite of what constitutes HUMAN AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT.
At a time when all aspects of life are becoming more and more social, when production and distribution of all goods and services are becoming more and more social, the use of the state machine and state institutions to facilitate the growth of private profits and simultaneously cut back social services is the very anti-thesis of human development. Yet this is the process that has been let loose in India and worldwide. Time and again, global statistics is showing human indices of development and social indices of development to be declining across the globe in the post cold war period and the poverty index for India and South Asia remaining at the top the list. Yet the Indian government and Indian businesses have embraced wholeheartedly the discredited theory of “growth” and "trickle down".
Proliferation of cell phones, combat aircrafts and bottled water are not the barometers of development but a sign of uneven development of capitalist growth. Privatizing healthcare, education, water supply and so on, scaling back social services and making everyone look after oneself etc. do not point to a society that is lifting itself up. To confuse these features of India with human development where goods and services are produced and circulated to meet the rising needs of a cultured population and where all for one and one for all is the motto is to practice deception and public fraud. When this is done by those holding positions of power, it violates every ethical norm - ancient Indian or modern.
How can it be said that the need of the hour is to promote ethical values such as "lead an honest life free from all corruption", "truth in thinking and action" and "honesty, sincerity and tolerance in our day-to-day living" to maintain the momentum for developed India before 2020? How can it be concluded that compulsory NCC training will usher in "disciplined politics, business, judiciary, bureaucracy, scientific pursuits and sports and games" in India and propel India to developed nation status? Is not this a fact that ancient Indians had all these ethics and even a bulk of the society subscribed to them at one point of time? What happened? Why did those values fail the Indian people when foreign invaders and colonialism deployed overwhelming force, introduced wholesale public corruption and extolled capitalist greed? If it would have ever been the case that Indian people lacked ethics and values and one billion Indian faces will smile if those ethics are brought to the forefront, Indian society would have become the paradise. No. such is not the case. Putting smiles on one billion faces will not be the result of the "developed India" of "Vision 2020". Nor administering ethical "oaths" to the youth to "lead an honest life free from corruption" will create the "developed India" which has little to offer to the majority of India's 540 million youth. Developed India will be created by hard work of two billion hands and one billion minds when one single mission to affirm the human dignity of all Indians will become the goal. The requirements for that developed India are to put back more into the economy than what is taken out, to expand social sectors and stop handing out public wealth to private profiteers; not preaching ethical values to the masses while stuffing money in the pockets of millionairs and billionairs.
The State of India, whose raison d'etre is to perpetuate the colonial and pre-colonial arrangements in the economic, political and social spheres and nurture them within the conditions of market economy and militarism can only dream of a developed India with modern weapons, modern entertainment and modern amenities at the service of the wealthy minority. People of India also have a vision for development and in that vision, human development and social development take center stage. The precondition for that development is for the people to become their own masters, own decision makers in a way fundamentally different from the existing corrupt parliamentary system where wealth makes decisions. Wealth has an upper hand today but people are not out. History is on their side to build a developed India. How soon that will happen now depends on how soon the billion minds converge on a conscious program to affirm their right to govern themselves.
On the eve of the 57th Republic Day on January 25, 2006, Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, President of India, delivered a televised address where he asserted:
"We are well on our way on the path of development and transforming India into a developed nation before 2020."
With this assertion, he elaborated on his next mission:
"To protect our progress and further sustain the earning capacity of individuals and people" we need "to promote ethical values in all walks of life which will enable creation of synergy between establishments for realizing our dream of seeing the smiles on the billion faces".
But for the tragic situation faced by hundreds of millions of Indians who continue to live below poverty line and the hundreds more urban and rural masses who are being forced into destitution as the privatization and liberalization agenda of India takes its toll, the above assertion and the agenda would be comical. Any assertion that India is well on its way to a developed nation flies in the face of any and every accepted social-economic index by which the world community measures development.
If this is in deed the verdict of the Indian government and the State, it is not only cruel and inhumane for the deprived and the oppressed but an affront to the sensibilities of the thinking men and women of India. It is a declaration that the big business houses and their government and State fully intend to build their imperial dreams by turning their back on the poor and the oppressed of India. It is a clarion call to all the conscientious women and men of India, all those dissatisfied with the status quo and fighting for progress of India that they must rise to the occasion and block the juggernaut of this imperial India.
The assertion that "developed India is on the rise" and strengthening certain "ethical values" are the need of the hour to put "smile on the billion faces" is not a mere slip on the part of the Head of the State. Facts suggest that it is a conscious act, a continuation of the now discredited “Shining India” slogan. Indian government has been working overtime to present itself as a major power in the world stage.
Using the multiparty parliamentary system and nuclear-armed military as the foundation of this pretension, it has embarked upon a reckless economic privatization program of handing out vast amounts of public resources to private hands to build a thoroughly capitalist economy, including the agrarian sector that even the World Bank is reluctant to embrace. It is on a mission to overhaul many of the anachronistic colonial institutions to inject modernity to its state apparatus. Even communal violence, the bullwork of Indian state terrorism for past six decades, is being given a facelift by firing a central mister following Nannavati commission report on Delhi massacre of Sikhs in 1984. Even an attempt is being made to provide 100 days of work to the unemployed rural families as if a year has only 100 days!
The long line of foreign bankers and investors lining up to open shop in India and the increasing number of foreign acquisitions by Indian businesses are the backdrop to the assertion that India's "Vision 2020" is already a fait accompli. Opinion makers in India must believe that repeating a lie many times over could make it the truth!
India needs development and Indian people will make that development happen. But that development will be social and human development in the first place. Such development will follow empowerment of the people. What the President of India calls development is nothing but capitalist growth. Its essence is the GROWTH OF PRIVATE PROFITS which is taking place on the basis of strengthening the ownership of all productive property in private hands under state supervision. It is the opposite of what constitutes HUMAN AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT.
At a time when all aspects of life are becoming more and more social, when production and distribution of all goods and services are becoming more and more social, the use of the state machine and state institutions to facilitate the growth of private profits and simultaneously cut back social services is the very anti-thesis of human development. Yet this is the process that has been let loose in India and worldwide. Time and again, global statistics is showing human indices of development and social indices of development to be declining across the globe in the post cold war period and the poverty index for India and South Asia remaining at the top the list. Yet the Indian government and Indian businesses have embraced wholeheartedly the discredited theory of “growth” and "trickle down".
Proliferation of cell phones, combat aircrafts and bottled water are not the barometers of development but a sign of uneven development of capitalist growth. Privatizing healthcare, education, water supply and so on, scaling back social services and making everyone look after oneself etc. do not point to a society that is lifting itself up. To confuse these features of India with human development where goods and services are produced and circulated to meet the rising needs of a cultured population and where all for one and one for all is the motto is to practice deception and public fraud. When this is done by those holding positions of power, it violates every ethical norm - ancient Indian or modern.
How can it be said that the need of the hour is to promote ethical values such as "lead an honest life free from all corruption", "truth in thinking and action" and "honesty, sincerity and tolerance in our day-to-day living" to maintain the momentum for developed India before 2020? How can it be concluded that compulsory NCC training will usher in "disciplined politics, business, judiciary, bureaucracy, scientific pursuits and sports and games" in India and propel India to developed nation status? Is not this a fact that ancient Indians had all these ethics and even a bulk of the society subscribed to them at one point of time? What happened? Why did those values fail the Indian people when foreign invaders and colonialism deployed overwhelming force, introduced wholesale public corruption and extolled capitalist greed? If it would have ever been the case that Indian people lacked ethics and values and one billion Indian faces will smile if those ethics are brought to the forefront, Indian society would have become the paradise. No. such is not the case. Putting smiles on one billion faces will not be the result of the "developed India" of "Vision 2020". Nor administering ethical "oaths" to the youth to "lead an honest life free from corruption" will create the "developed India" which has little to offer to the majority of India's 540 million youth. Developed India will be created by hard work of two billion hands and one billion minds when one single mission to affirm the human dignity of all Indians will become the goal. The requirements for that developed India are to put back more into the economy than what is taken out, to expand social sectors and stop handing out public wealth to private profiteers; not preaching ethical values to the masses while stuffing money in the pockets of millionairs and billionairs.
The State of India, whose raison d'etre is to perpetuate the colonial and pre-colonial arrangements in the economic, political and social spheres and nurture them within the conditions of market economy and militarism can only dream of a developed India with modern weapons, modern entertainment and modern amenities at the service of the wealthy minority. People of India also have a vision for development and in that vision, human development and social development take center stage. The precondition for that development is for the people to become their own masters, own decision makers in a way fundamentally different from the existing corrupt parliamentary system where wealth makes decisions. Wealth has an upper hand today but people are not out. History is on their side to build a developed India. How soon that will happen now depends on how soon the billion minds converge on a conscious program to affirm their right to govern themselves.
posted by charcha-editor at 18:57
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