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Most of you know that this is where I work, for the rest here is our website:
Hope you find it interesting enough to support , visit, encourage and recommend.
You’ve always been my most ardent fan – not the googly eyed variety, but the serious kind -the kind that can and most inevitably will give sharp feedback when warranted.
There were a few sharp reactions to this tweet-o-mine, as might be naturally expected when you solve a centuries old problem in the space of 140 characters. The one reaction that I remember came from a dear old friend of mine Prabhu Narasimhan.His take on this was that education & healthcare are fine but what India really needs is a mature and clean Polity first and foremost.Now this chap, has and remains, in my short life, the most difficult person to win an argument against , and therefore I was pretty happy at his reaction because on this I feel I have a winnable argument.
To state my case:
Is an honest and mature Polity likely to solve all of India’s problems ? That’s too loaded a statement to merit a serious answer, because while clearly there can only be an affirmative answer to this question, it automatically begs the question -how do we put in place a mature and honest Polity?
My bet is that an honest and mature polity can never really come about as a result of a lone crusade led by a JP or an Anna Hazare. It comes about gradually :-
All of this takes time, and more importantly, it takes an educated electorate to react consistently over a period of time to bunglers, cheats and lazy bureaucrats/politicians. It’s only after these bunglers/cheats/indolents realize that the electorate won’t reward them any further for shabby and slipshod work willl they be prodded to change themselves, And this is why I feel that without a redoubled effort to educate our masses on their civil responsibilities and duties; on the rights conferred to them by our constitution; we can never (not in the distant future , not decades from now, not in a rosy scenario a few years down the line, but NEVER!) arrive at a day when we have an honest and Mature Polity in place.
That’s my education angle.
The healthcare angle is something I feel even more strongly about. India can never catapult itself into its glory days without addressing its severe lack of effort in the healthcare space. Having stayed for more than three years in Sub-Saharan Africa , I feel entitled to my opinion that Indians deserve better healthcare than they have access to today. I feel this way because we have access to better doctors than sub-Saharan Africans have access to, and yet, our average healthcare facilities are at best at par with facilities there and in most cases – shame on us – worse than theirs. Oh yes, the best healthcare facilities we Indians have access to is definitely slightly better than the best facilities sub-Saharan Africans have access to , but that isn’t much to be proud of !
Also, in a couple of years from now, given our tendency to gloat when we shouldn’t, I wouldn’t even bet on this last scenario being true anymore.
That’s my healhtcare angle.
Let’s just get these two things right, because frankly no one has even bothered to do anything on these issues till date.
Today’s commemorating Freddie mercury is possibly one of their best ever…
check it out HERE now, before they archive it!
[Aside] Time was when I used to recommend reading ToI Editorials as a good starting point to improve one’s English, those days are gone as there were no less than 15 uncapitalized “i”s in this particular editorial. IMHO this smacks of a casual attitude of the ToI editorial staff rather than on Dr. Bedi . I think Times of India needs to wake up, smell the coffee and hire at least one proof reader [/Aside]
Just a few months ago I think the silent Singh had transformed his public image from a toothless follower of Madam Sonia’s diktats and had slowly but surely clawed his way to being counted amongst India’s most successful PMs on most parameters. That today he is back to square one must rest largely on his disappointingly silent demeanour on the unfolding CWG and 2G scams.
I had crossed swords with Indian Mainstream Media (as had most of Indian twitterati worldwide) when the 2G spectrum story was almost with disdainful ease killed by the Indian Media. That the 2G case might well ring a death knell for UPA-2 is comforting if only from the perspective that voices outside of Government and Mainstream Media still can and do make themselves heard in India. This was obvious a few months ago when Anna Hazare inspired thousands (if not millions) to question the current government’s record on anti-corruption.
However, I think Dr. Bedi makes some strikingly telling points when she insists that Dr. Singh must not remain silent any longer. You, Dr. Manmohan Singh, must apologize to the nation , take stock of their displeasure, outline a time-bound game plan for the balance 600 days or so that remain of your tenure, AND for God’s sake be the face of your government for the rest of your term because, much as I admire Pranab Mukherjee, P.Chidamabaram , Kapil Sibal, Manish Tiwari and gang for their erudition , they do not have your stature and therefore they cannot substitute the effectiveness of a message that comes directly from your mouth.
Also Dr. Singh, I think that you must do this quickly before your stature drops below their’s, and quite frankly, If you don’t have anything to say to us of note this 15th August , you would, as they say, have missed the bus.
Jai Hind!!
[Aside]Have been wearingly busy these last few days trying to cap a crucial month close, and what with a planned fly-by-wire trip to India to perform my Mom’s (peace be upon her) Shraadh ceremony[/Aside]
Today,at lunchtime, I got a call from a junior at IIFT, Archit Tiwari – absolutely ecstatic at having made it through to Olam in the lateral placements and , boy, did that take me right back to the same moment almost three years back !!
I remember that: