Historic hoisting ofNational tricolour

Another Independence Day is not far away (15 August 2010), and there will be another historic hoisting of the flag from the ramparts of the Red Fort, by Dr Manmohan Singh, for the 6th consecutive time, and another address couched in Cambridge Economic style of economic virtues, achievements attained and expected futuristic activities. Both Indian and foreign media will applaud, editorials will be written with a prediction that India is nearing to the super power tag which it will achieve by 2020.
It is worth recalling here, the ambitions and challenges that a triumphant nationalist spoke with incisiveness and passion on that midnight of 14th August 1947 addressing the Constituent Assembly (famously known as the ‘tryst with destiny speech of Shri Jawaharlal Nehru, Prime Minister) “ …. At the stroke of midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes which comes rarely in history, when we step out from the old to new, an age ends….” Pandit Nehru was a great historian studied at Harrow, Cambridge, and authored the ‘Glimpses of the World History’. That great man’s usage that the whole world sleeps, how could it be true, even in England it was 6.30 p.m. and because of the time zones, more than half the world were awake, when India’s first Prime Minister made these memorable words. Pandit Nehru continued, “The ambition of the greatest man of our generation has been to wipe every tear from every eye…” Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was the prime Minister of this Country until 1974 (23 years), followed by Shri Lal Bahadhur Shastri (1 year), Smt Indira Gandhi, Mr Nehru’s daughter ( 1966-67, 67-71,1971-76,1980-84), Mr Morarji Desai (1977-79), Mr Charan Singh (1979-80), Mr Rajiv Gandhi, Mr Nehru’s grandson ( 1984-85,1985-90), Mr Vishwanath Pratap Singh ( 1990), Shri Chandrasekhar (1991), Shri V P Narasihma Rao (1991-96), Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee(1997-13 days), Shri H D Dave Gowda (1997), I K Gujral (1998), Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee (1999-2004), Dr Manmohan Singh (2004-9, 2009-). The great man of our generation advised the then Congress leaders to disband the Congress Organization which they never did, his daughter promulgamated internal emergency, and two body guards shot her to death. Her son followed her footsteps. Shri P V Narasihma Rao reversed the Congress culture from the Socialistic Pattern of Society (Avadi Congress 1956) to globalization, liberalization. This change developed industrial growth, direct FDI inflow, Multinationals set up base in India, India went global. This economic trend continues.
But the bane of Indian economy has been high incidence of poverty, deplorable conditions of rural areas, lack of education for vast masses, high level of corruption, high disparity between the haves and have nots, high density in slums and the ambition of the greatest man of India remains unfulfilled.
There are economists who feel that India’s economic glitz is just artificial. Citing India and China as countries that are going ahead with an economic revamp, US president Barack Obama, in his State of the Union address, said the US cannot accept a “second place”, and should get serious about fixing its problems, since the worst of the financial crisis was over. “Washington has been telling us to wait for decades, even as the problems have grown worse. Meanwhile, China's not waiting to revamp its economy. Germany's not waiting. India's not waiting,” he said. Our growth is a typical pyramid of medulla oblongata, which has both the open and close parts. Demography of our country is opposite to that of Japan and other European nations, as 50% of India’s population of 1.2 billion is less than 25 years of age. Though we have huge exports of US $ 185 billion, we are not exclusively dependent on exports for our growth. 50% of GDP comes from Services with agriculture and manufacturing contributing 25% each. If we can maintain a growth rate of 10% in each of these sectors for the next 10 years, we can become a super power. In the pessimistic scenario, even if we can cap a growth of 6% Growth, we will be able to achieve our grandiose vision by 2020/2025. India produces technologically superior products which have competitive edge in developed economies, India’s expertise in IT, Pharma, heavy engineering, has been accepted globally. These sectors will drive future growth.
Octavio Paz, who got Nobel Prize in 1990 said in his acceptance speech, said that the market economy can not be simply a cause for joy. As a mechanism, the market is efficient, but like all mechanism, it lacks both conscience and compassion. We must find a way of integrating it into society so that it expresses the social contact and become an instrument for justice and fairness. India has to do that if it has to take care of its huge masses, whose tears have become dry due to hunger, poverty and wealth.
But to wipe out tear from every eye, which was a grandiose vision of our Father of the Nation, we have a long way to go, cross many milestones, and create a level playing field in education so that many rural poor folks can get higher education. Let the Prime Minister see the moist eyes of the people from all over India when he rises to the ramparts to deliver this year’s address. Let it be real, from his heart.

India lives in her villages

India lives in her villages. It is the rural population who suffer the miseries of the socio-economic-political adventures of the urbanites. The rural villages are beseeched by problems, the basic being illiteracy, lack of knowledge(ignorance) in upbringing children, unrestricted growth of the family, non availability of nutrious food, uncared expectant mothers, absence of protein, deficient food for pregnant woman, infant mortality growth, etc.

They need good food, clothing and shelter. The Directive Principles of the State Policy envisage providing basic education, for which Anganvadi Schools can be used, lower primary schools be set up, adult education to the elders be provided through NGOs, vocational classes for womenfolk through volunteers, training for men be provided so that they can take up skill jobs according to their orientation and Hospitals for giving medical care. The villagers must be educated to maintain a clean environment. The Cultural department must organize talent finding camps so that the youth should be encouraged to bring out his latent talents. Mobile dispensaries need to be opened wherein medicines and tablets must be made available to the poor, sick, needy and distressed. Encourage starting of tiny, mini industries to bolster their incomes.

Mahatma Gandhi, whom we quote at the slightest pretext, advocated starting of village industries as a panacea to solve the problem of unemployment at the rural level. He, the fantast that he was, limnered his arguments that the spider web of our economy had its foundations in the grass root village economy. Most often, in spite of the hard work put in by the villagers, the villager is in a limbo because the so called rural employment programmes and dozens of Schemes chalked out by the KVIC and rural department of GoI seldom reach them; they are only in paper. He cannot, like the ‘limpet’ cry hoarse and crescendo for higher wages, in the guise of collective bargaining by the militant white collared comrades of the urban areas, who are never satisfied with their pay and demand more and more. His task of making both ends meet is gargantuan. Let us take perishable goods like vegetables. The farmer sells tomato during seasons at Bellary (Karnataka) at Rs 1.60 per Kg. But the price for same commodity at a distance of 100 Kms is Rs 12/-. If a net work of marketing in the form of community service is available to him, the farmer could beget a higher price and the consumer for 50% of the existing rates. The warehouses of Agricultural departments must ensure that they collect these produces at a fair value and transport it to the final market for disposal. These Marketing agencies should collect, pool all their collections at the manufacturing point and routed to various destinations where there is demand. Bellary (Karnataka) has a poultry cluster, where one egg costs 0.80 paise, while it sells at Rs 3.00 at Mangalore and Rs 4/- at Karwar (These figures were compiled by me in 1980 for the Government from central and coastal Karnataka). A little planning and coming together of a cluster of farmers could reap rich dividends for them.

The Zilla parishads, and Village panchayats along with District Rural Development Societies, should bring together a group of people in every village, and create a voluntary group of people who could be trained to take up marketing so that they can pass on their expertise at the village. A dedicated band of young men, who would help ligament the various sections, should be formed so that it will inure them to responsibilities from their wayward fanfaronade.

The labour skills of the villagers have not been tapped properly. A good artisan with deft fingers at Ankola (Kumta taluk) hardly gets Rs 60 per day; he is idle for the 6 months of the year; the same is the case with a diva, or a pastiche or a Conti writer. Their talents garnish the village and their lives syncopate leading them to misery.

With a little amount of training, exposure and right fora experience, many of the rural folk, can put up commendable performance in art, craft, cultural programmes, sport etc. The Heggodu experiment (Magasasy award winner Heggde’s School of Drama) have shown how far the hidden rural talents can be brought about through the medium of dramas. Establishment of rural theaters, film criticism/appreciation courses, School of drama and dance, vocational guidance training camps for spotting talents in Sports, people with the gift of the gab chosen through elocution and essay competitions will boost the rural children’s appetitive to perform well in the Competitions enabling spotlighting talents. The Pople’s Action for Development (PADI), Ford Foundation, UNICEF and a hoard of Organizations have manifold Schemes aimed at providing training to the rural folk.

The Anganvadi Schools can start as vehicles of thought and learning to the tiny tots. Good nutrious food can make them healthy. Cleanliness should be inculcated at this level itself. This will make them seek School education, so that literacy can be gradually increased.

For the elder village folk, recreation facilities should be provided. Community halls, parks, recreation centers must be part of the social milieu in the village. The shyness of the rural folks can be overcome through exposure. They do not perform or show their talents in urban platforms for fear of inferiority. It has become modish to say that rural areas are backward yet a few fantasts come forward.

The Rural electrification programme, providing irrigation facilities to a wide command area, planting trees, growing vegetations, can be done in the rural areas with the support of the people. Pure drinking water can be made available by constructing storage tanks, at least one in a village. But poor villages continue to remain poor due to scanty facilities. Basic facilities, how far they are provided is a hundred dollar question. The artificial comforts of urban towns or Cities may be ditty in the rural. The urbanite loathes rural areas, its settings and environment. But the natural rural environment and the rural demizes, would more than allegro compensate the shortfalls of rural conditions. Any takers?