From those famed ramparts of Red Fort, for the fifth consecutive year, our prime minister spoke to our nation on August 15. He announced that his government was launching various schemes and plans for the 'development' of the country.Such poetic exuberance!
You've tuned out already, haven't you? Waved it off with the cynicism that years of listening to promises like these from ministers like these has bred in us, right? We know how hollow those promises are.
That's the phones. What do I tell you about the roads? I don't believe there has been a monsoon season in the last decade when I haven't thought, as I feel my bones rattle in my body: "The roads are in worse shape this year than they have ever been!"In a recent harrowing article in the Economic & Political Weekly ('India, Myron Weiner and the Political Science of Development,' July 20 2002), Paul Brass writes that 'development,' as we have pursued it,
[has] failed to transform India into the modern, industrial state of its elite's imaginings, [has] failed at the same time to provide for the basic minimum needs of its peoples.
The ranting of an anti-Indian foreigner? If you like easy answers to troubling questions, sure, dismiss Brass like that.
'India is not heading towards catastrophe,' writes Paul Brass. 'India is a living catastrophe and its people, including its intellectuals, know it.'We may know it. What will it take to admit it?
[Excerpted from Living the catastrophe, Dilip D'Souza, Rediff, August 2002]
Saturday, June 30, 2007
When it rains in .....
9 comments:
Only tough n pachyderms can sustain their existence in India, whether or not they are capable of entertain poetic exuberance. The remaining fragile skins release strings of words from some corner of the world, condescendingly. and patronizingly (appreciate the wink, I assert!)
Jyo
You will also see the self-same people who wade through knee=deep water every monsoon, for the last three years, vote the same monumentally incompetent uncaring Congress-led/manipulated formation into power. It's happened in Goa, so can Maharashtra be far behind? The Congress is back at its brazen best. Witness the sort of statements that non-entities like PR DasMunshi have been making re Pratibha Patil. Witness our Oxbridge educated "scholar-PM" dubbing publication of the RBI reports on the mismanagement of PP's coop bank - mudslinging. This is the true face of the Congress - a cabal of feudals, served by dishonest 'intellectuals' hangerson, and ministered to by commies and communalists. When the West Madurai electorate votes the Congress into power (last week) after party members of its ally the DMK (Azhagiri led goons mostly) have indulged in arson can you have any respect for these self-same people? This has happened before. The people of West Bengal have voted in the commies for 30 years witha clown like Jyoti Basu at the helm. The people of India have kept the Congress in power for years. And it looks like it will continue that way. Which politician will fear for accountability when the people themselves aren't bothered? Are you seeing Bombayites gheaoing their MPs and MLAs for twiddling their thumbs for three years and doing nothing about preparing the city for the monsoon? Why is Sharad Pawar lobbying for the top position of the ICC when Bombay is submerged in the rain?
I wouldn't call that arson. As far as I can tell deliberately roasting three human beings alive is high crime that should automatically attract the death penalty.
Barb
I agree with the ineptitude of BMC and other parties regarding the flooding of Bombay every year and how they do nothing. But why the link to DDS'z article. Sorry for asking - but do you want to indicate his biases ? The goof-up of the President was hilarious. Also add to that way Narayanan was eulogised.
Narayanan had some good points - but to put him on the same level as Rajaji (wrongly) or Radhakrishnan - corrected - it is too much
You might want to read the linked article to find out what it was about and what was the cause of such poetic flourish.
This seems to be his usual way of writing - with the talent of drawing so many correlations. Sorry to impose on you - but anything more significant than the usual ramblings?
Well, BarbarIndian,
The roads are much more worse than they were in August 2002. No such poetic flourish is forthcoming from tripleD this time.
From that article, some lighter moments -
>> How is it that MTNL has still not hit upon a way to keep its cables dry?
>> Yet through most of that dry month, MTNL did not care to, or could not, repair the cable fault.
>> And when my phones did come to life, I could not help feeling it had happened only after the dozens of calls I made -- at my expense, of course -- to their 'complaint' numbers, shunted from one to another in true public-sector style.
Is this really triple D ??? LOLzz..
Ok. I get the gist now. Sorry but my mind is working slower these days.
In the shadows
His favorite party ( nay family ) is in power now - rather via remote control - so will not see any poetic flourishes
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