Phiphty-phiphty nation

What can we not celebrate? We most certainly cannot celebrate the end of poverty. Indira Gandhi coined the phrase ‘Garibi Hatao’ some 37 years ago. Her party has been in power for 28 years since then and is currently in power. There simply is no sign of eliminating poverty. At every traffic light in imperious Delhi (our political capital) stock-market-inebriated Mumbai (our financial capital) and software-obsessed Bangalore (our information capital) there are barefoot children seeking attention by begging on behalf of unseen gangsters who control them. And remember that by the statistics of the commissars of Yojana Bhavan these children probably have a per capita income higher than the national average and most certainly higher than the bottom quartile.

What can we celebrate? We can talk. We can write. This paper can publish this article. Its venerable founder, Ramnath Goenka, was certainly harassed. But he survived and triumphed to die in bed, not in a prison cell. We have the most vigorous and fastest-growing newspaper, magazine and TV industries in the world. The other day as I was channel-surfing and jumping from Udaya to Jaya, from Sun to Saptagiri, from ETV to Neosports, I suddenly morphed into a fit of nostalgia, longing for the days when there was only one Doordarshan with its predictable Chaaya Geet, Chitrahaar, Amchi Maati Amchi Maandsa and Buniyaad. Only for a moment, let me assure you! Multiple choices in multiple languages certainly beats the endless repetitive inflictions of our solemn socialist government.

What can we not celebrate? Our freedoms are in danger. M.F. Husain, Salman Rushdie, Taslima Nasreen, Khushboo are all persecuted to varying degrees. Like many other afflictions of ours, we have come to acquiesce in these persecutions simply because we frequently run out of energy and lapse into dangerous apathy and lassitude. We remember these individuals in our prayers, but will not do much to help them.

What can we celebrate? We can and should celebrate the spectacular failure of Sanjay Gandhi’s forcible sterilisation campaign. We would be another prematurely ageing China with a fraction of the vigour that we have as a nation. Our young (born after 1977 when Sanjay was halted in his tracks) are easily the most heart-warming and hope-inducing factor in India today. They have come of age after the collapse of the permit-licence raj and they are confident, enthusiastic and full of the energy that every visitor conspicuously notices. They are working hard (be it as in-city couriers or call centre workers, retail shop assistants, insurance salespersons or software programmers); they are starting businesses (hi-tech, bottom-of-the-pyramid, media, finance — you name it); they are even playing decent cricket!

What can we not celebrate? Our health as a country simply sucks. We have children dying needlessly and millions who survive stay malnourished; we misuse modern technology to kill baby girls before they are born; we have unacceptable levels of malaria and TB. And as if these afflictions of poverty were not enough, we are burdened with the illnesses of the affluent also; we have rising asthma from urban pollution and more and more heart attacks from so-called stress.

What can we celebrate? Our education system works. Luckily, we have insisted on learning by rote and on our students passing impossibly difficult examinations. Not for us the soft, permissive easy-going educational systems of some other countries. Learning algebra and biology, accounting and calculus takes precedence over discussions on gestalt. Thank God for that. Our engineers and doctors, our accountants and MBAs continue to be some of the best in the world.

What can we not celebrate? Paradoxically, it is an education system that simply does not work. The unionised teachers in our government schools rarely turn up to work in schools that rarely have sufficient blackboards and almost never have clean toilets. We waste the talents and energies of our children making them doubly underprivileged. This is both profoundly immoral and has consequences that are detrimental to our economy.

Net-net, as our resident historian Ramachandra Guha told us in one of last year’s best-read books, our country can at best be proud of a phiphty–phiphty performance. The intriguing question to ask as we head towards our 60th birthday as a republic, is whether we can tip the balance over to siksty-phorty. I suspect that if we do that, the sky will be the limit and we can hope to meet our headiest aspirations. A tiny tipping over is all that we require. Will we have the national will and grit to pull it off?

The writer is a student and observer of contemporary India jerry.rao@expressindia.com