i n d i a on the move [being serialized on scribd] serial 01.doc

7/27/2019 I N D I A ON THE MOVE [being serialized on scribd] serial 01.doc

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I N D I A

on the

MOVE

Being presented in a series

Serial - 01

V K Sharma


2/18

It is already becoming clear that a chapter which had

a western beginning, will have to have an Indian ending,

if it is not to end in self-destruction of the human race.

At this supremely dangerous moment in human history,

the only way of salvation for mankind is the Indian Way.

[Dr Arnold. Joseph Toynbee, British Historian , 1889-1975]

The idea of India is not homogeneous and univocal.

In fact, no single idea can possibly hope to capture the

many energies, angers and hopes of one billion Indians.

One purpose of my book, is to excavate the conception that

provided

the intellectual and practical understanding of modern India,

that gave it its distinctive identity, over the past half-century,

and that kept it , unlike so many other new states, democratic

tolerant and open-minded. It is the only one that can enable

other ideas to emerge, and allow them to learn to live alongside one

another.

[ Sunil Khilnani, in The Idea of India May 01, 2003]


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Dedicated to

A Liberal &

Democratic India


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Preface

A book is a very useful means to share one's thoughts, feelings, concerns

with others, with a view to either just sharing some knowledge that may be of use

to others or to aim to influence others opinions and views in a certain direction, to

the extent possible. And the beauty is that what you jot down in a book is likely to

be seen by many, hopefully - not only today but perhaps for many years to come.

The drive to pen down some thoughts, some concerns of mine in this book,

'India on the Move' arose from a very serious concern in my mind about the

fascination our young well educated friends seem to be developing for the way

things are done in China, the way things are run in China, without fully

appreciating the beauty and historically established utility of the democratic

system.

Yes, during the last few decades China has many achievements to its credit,

not only in the economic sphere, but also in terms of better literacy levels, better

infrastructure , better nutrition levels among the population and the like.

At the same time it cannot be forgotten that though any autocratic set up

can take fast decisions, can implement those decisions fast; but some times that

one fast decision can be a horrendously wrong decision, like for example the

one during the Great Leap Forward relating to agriculture leading to death of

millions in China. And that is due to there being no adequate checks and

balances built in the system.

The danger of such an attraction of things happening faster influencing our

young is particularly high, who did not have the opportunity to live in the pre-

partition India and thereafter and experience the kind of journey that has been

traversed.

Yes, I do hope that some of my young friends would enjoy reading through not

only my views, but also many historically relevant episodes jotted down along


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with and draw their own conclusions. We are an intelligent set of people and I

feel sure that those conclusions drawn by many should be in the right direction.

CONTENTS

1. Introduction 1

2. Some Interesting Snippets of Indian History 12

3. Empire Building Strategies 14

4. Our Population 24Average Life ExpectancyDemographic DividendCommunity based breakup of population

5. Our Economic Performance 30Our Growth RateOur Foreign Exchange ReservesOur Fiscal DeficitFinished Steel OutputPower Generation in IndiaSome Other interesting indicators

A silent TransformationMy Village On the MoveTATA The biggest manufacturer in Britain

5. Revival of Socialistic Thinking A Danger Signal for India 50

6. India and China - a journey begun together 57

7. Our Corruption Problem 65

8. We the People 73

9. Our Education System 89

10. Our Democracy 92

11. Way Forward 103

12. In conclusion 122

Bibliography 131


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INDEX of TABLES and GRAPHS

Table Our Population 24

Graph Average Life Expectancy in India 26

Table Community based Break up of Population 28

Graph Our GDP %age 31

Graph Our Foreign Exchange Reserves 33

Table Our Fiscal Deficit 34

Graph Our Finished Steel Output 36

Graph Installed Capacity of Power Generation in India 39

Table Some other interesting Indicators 41

Table My Village Journey of 60 years 45

Table Comparison of 26 centuries of History of

India and China 58

Table Relative share of World Manufacturing output 96


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Introduction

In November 2009, Shri Gurcharan Das, a retired business executive of repute,

a well known author and an independent thinker, painted the following optimistic

picture about India, in one power point presentation :

India is now the 4th largest economy.

125 of the 500 Fortune companies have R & D bases in India.

390 of the 500 Fortune companies have outsourced software development to India.

2% bad loans in Indian banks vs. 20 % in China.

Poverty has declined from 46 % in 1980 to 26 % in 2000 and expected to be 16 % in

2010.

India got Democracy before Capitalism and that has made all the difference.

India will become 50% middle-class by 2020 - west of Kanpur and by 2040 east of

Kanpur.

We have waited 3000 years for this moment.

Mr Das, while painting above optimistic picture of India was not blind to our

weak spots . He clearly pointed out, for example, that :

1 out of 4 school teachers remains absent in a government school

2 out of 5 doctors remain absent in a primary health centre,

Poor Governance, and the like.

But these appeared to be challenges that he appeared confident that we would

meet sooner than later.

However, in his latest in-depth scholarly treatise India grows at Night , the

optimism is tempered with a serious concern for a flailing state , and a very convincing

case has been built for a stronger state, not an oppressive state, but a state that is, an

effective state with a more robust rule of law and greater accountability, .[1]

This is hitting the nail on the head there is no doubt that such a change must

come about for Indias potential to be realized. He has also painstakingly demonstrated

as to how historically, Indian state has been weak, which background presents its own

challenges. The hope is evident from the following paragraph:

Twenty years of capitalist growth has stimulated a broad transformation of

society in India, resulting in the rapid rise of the middle class. Mobility and


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urbanization are contributing to the weakening of old kinship bonds of the village ; Indias

traditional society is gradually changing into a more vocal civil society.

-2-

Supported by a strapping and independent media , it has begun to hold the state

more accountable. [1]

These again have been highly desirable developments. My chief concern,

however, relates to the interface between these three organs of our society the

state, the civil society and the media. After all the participants in all the three

wings are people form the same society of ours, with certain pluses and

minuses . They have not come from three different streams. This aspect is beingdiscussed in the chapter entitled, We the People with a thrust that until certain

changes come about in us as individual citizens or in traditional groupings, these

organ of society are not likely to change positively at a speed desirable. The

state is weak and must reform in a desirable direction, is no doubt a priority.

Of the trinity, let us take up the role of media today, to start with.

It must be conceded that in number of cases our independent media has , by and

large, served the society well, for example in rousing the public sentiment and

forcing the state & the judiciary to reconsider in the case of Jessica Lals murder,

unraveling / highlighting corruption at high levels of society and few other such

instances.

However, Today when our growth rate has dipped to around 5%, for

various reasons domestic & external and many high profile corruption cases

have been highlighted, some people going to jail, some getting investigated and

in some cases court proceedings being in progress; it seems as if nothing is

right with India. As if it is a sinking ship.

And our media has played a prominent role in moulding opinion of the

urban elite towards a highly cynical perception of India. One of the interesting

meaning of the word cynical in the Webster dictionary is - those men who say

that democracy cannot be honest and efficient F D Roosevelt. We will have


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a little more detailed look at F D Roosevelts achievements and his views on

democracy.

-3-

One comes across wide spectrum of our middle class today who have become

very cynical of our present and are highly impressed with the Chinese way of doing

things. As Shri Das has pointed out China is a model of state controlled capitalism, with

little individual liberty. If I remember right on one occasion in the recent past while

celebrating some anniversary in Beijing , the public was barred from stepping out of the

houses and they were expected to enjoy the fun from within the premises or on their TV

sets. Do we wish to move in that direction?

The title of a 2005 book by Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen, The Argumentative

Indian is self explanatory. We as a people do like and enjoy arguments. He quotes Raja

Ram Mohun Roy at one stage as follows :

Just consider how terrible the day of your death will be,

Others will go on speaking, and you will not be able to argue back [2]

I agree with Shri Sen that that this trait is healthy for our democracy. However,

my concern is limited to the extent that in most day-to-day discussions / argumentsamong people, our focus tends to be mostly to run ourselves down. It is seen as some

kind of a macho exercise as to who can do this fault finding to a greater degree, who

can shout the shrillest denunciation on the TV debates on whatever subject, generating

a general climate of gloom and cynicism all-round. It seems as if people are scared to

be perceived as soft & weak if they gave expression to some positive aspects of the

subject under discussion.

A stage has been reached when you prefer to switch on to Door Darshan

channel for listening to the news of the day and their old format of reading out newslooks much more attractive now than the sansani format of the private channels..

The fact that many crores of our citizens have been helped to come out of

extreme poverty , the fact that many crores have entered the middle class segment of

our society, the fact that many new state-of-the-art airports have been constructed the

three at Hyderabad, New Delhi & Bangalore being among the top 100 of the world, the


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fact that 400,000 kms of rural roads have been made / upgraded, the fact that under the

ambitious Golden Quadrilateral project 5,846 kms of national highways [less

-4-

110 metres as of May 08, 2013]have been completed , the fact that many cities are working

to set up metro rail network like the one in Delhi, the fact that the capital of India , city of

Delhi has almost been transformed better roads, better street lighting, better

signboards, smoother traffic movement in spite of about 65 lac vehicles in the city, with

1000 being added daily, from 5.6 lac vehicles in 1981 [ am glad to see now our school

teachers driving around in new cars & living in new flats] , many foot-over-bridges fitted

with lifts / escalators at both ends and found still working after more than two years,

modern buses many air conditioned ones for the general public for the first time , rarely

finds mention in our discussions / arguments.

The media of course has a vested interest in painting a gloomy picture, since by

definition some thing going wrong is news ; some thing going right is not news.

With their pursuit of TRP ratings in competition, the fine line of balance and

ultimate objective gets blurred often. Look at this latest hot topic on our media :

News channels are singing the tune of jingoism, again. The cost of media

jingoism is now clearly visible , with a tit-for-tat attack on Pakistani prisoner Sanaullah in

Kot Bhalwal jail. Jammu. [reference is to Sarbajit being attacked in a Pakistani jail and

his dead body arriving in India and his native village] .

[Indian Express, May 04,2013 by

Pratik Kanjilal]

Medias contribution to the lack of informed debate in the parliaments of the

world, may be glanced from the following observation of, a well known author Mr Al

Gore. It is an indictment of the power of media for good or evil : The senate was silent on the eve of war [Iraq War], because the senators do not

feel that what they say on the floor of the senate really matters that much any more - not

to other senators , who are almost never present when their colleagues speak and not

certainly to the voter , because news media seldom report on the senate speeches any

more.


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Modern television campaigns were beginning to create high levels of demand for

products that consumers never knew they wanted, much less needed.

-5-

With growing importance of visual rhetoric and body language over logic and

reason our democracy is in danger of being hollowed out. Opinions of voters

are sometimes, in effect being purchased - just as demand for new products is

artificially created

After a long & detailed review of all the polling information and careful

testing of potential of T V commercials, the anticipated response from my

opponents campaign, my campaign advisers made a recommendation and aprediction that surprised me

with its specificity. It said, if you run this ad. at this many points ( a measure of

the size of the advertising buy) and his response as we anticipate ; and then we

purchase that many points to air our own response, the net result of 3 weeks will

be an increase of 8.5% in your lead in the polls.

I authorized the plan and was astonished when 3 weeks later my

lead had increased by exactly 8.5%. Though pleased, I had a sense of

foreboding for what this reveals about our democracy. Clearly, to some degree,

the consent of the governed was becoming a commodity to be purchase by the

highest bidder.

[Assault on Reason by Mr Al Gore who fought election for President of USA against George W

Bush] [3]

Why I quit media

Liberalization reforms in 1991 unleashed a new India with money to

spend and immediate desires to gratify. Today the Indian media has

unapologetic clarity about the nature of its business: it sells the media platform

to commercial clients, not news to readers. No longer in the news business,

but news is unavoidable : after all you do need something to fill the space

between the ads So news to day is sleight of hand: paid news by


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politicians, private treaties with advertisers, celebrity coverage for a fee, PR

feeds masquerading as reportage, the businessstory slanted to serve the stock

market the deserving story not done. [4]

-6-

Incidentally, only yesterday, May 06, 2013 in an interview to one of the TV channels,

Nobel Lauretae, Shri Amartya Sen commented some thing to the effect that the focus of

our media discussions / debates remains narrow on, upper class glitter.

Common wealth games

3rd of October, 2010 was undoubtedly the most enjoyable day of my life. We

boarded the very first run of the metro rail from Faridabad side straight to the J L N

Stadium, coming across fool proof but courteous security , the helpful guides, a very

impressive renovation of the stadium and above all the solid 75,000 crowd enjoying

thoroughly every moment of a very well orchestrated opening ceremony of the

Commonwealth games. The chief honcho, if I remember right , of the Olympics games

commented something like, India seems ready to host the Olympics.

The media coverage to this was surprisingly weak. Their passion was devoted to

uncovering the corruption related to CWG. No doubt they did a good job of it, which

needed to be done. However, what would have been lost if they waited just for about 60

days till after the conclusion of the games to avoid washing our dirty linen before the

world, to the extent of jeopardizing the whole event. A news item later said that UK at

one point was seriously considering cancellation of their contingent participating in the

games, which might have prompted few others to follow suit..

There was a constant roar of why such a huge sum of 900 crores was spent on

renovating the J L N stadium. I wonder if the wise anchor of the TV channel had even

had a look at the renovated stadium to assess personally, howsoever approximately, if

the criticism was justified.

Chinese Incursion

In April May, 2013 the news came, supported by visuals on our TV screens

showing Chinese incursion of about 19 kms across the LAC [line of actual control] and

our TV Channels were organizing debates on the issue. The debates were full of shrill


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jingoism day after day demanding immediate action. The TV anchors were being quite

provocative to goad the participants into displaying angry reactions.

-7-

And yesterday, May 5th , 2013 when the issue had been resolved, the

news on the TV screens became a footnote

Power of media

I wonder if we realise how powerful the media are. Do we realise that so

much of what we think, feel, believe or how we anticipate and then react to

events is conditioned by the television channels we see and the newspapers weread? They convey images, paint portraits, pronounce judgments and, unless we

are on our guard , we accept them or , at least make them part of our thinking.

No matter how fiercely independent-minded we strive to be , we've all been

influenced, indeed in some cases, conditioned by the media. If they're not careful

some could end up creatures of the box or some broadsheet.

[ Karan Thapar on page 14 of HIndustan Times of , Sep

18,2011]

Independence of Media

In 26/11 episode, when TV media behaved a little irresponsibly showing

commandos slithering down from the helicopters on to the roof of the building in

Mumbai where the terrorists were playing havoc and the video shots were being

used by the controllers of the terrorists inside to guide them; it is learnt that the

Indian bureaucracy had drafted a bill to tame the media. It was Dr Man Mohan

Singh who scotched the draft bill, it was reported. Thus the thing to do by all

of us is to be vigilant and not let Independence of media be diluted. It must be

protected.

However, the media must learn to regulate itself on its own,

ensure effective self-regulation, other wise chances of external


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regulation being imposed remain high which would certainly not be

good for the country. During the unfortunate , though brief

emergency regime , 1975-1977, certain excesses would not have

occurred if the media had not been put under censure and bulk of the

media had not by & large caved in.

-8-

. Since the media, with all its pluses and minuses, is concerned

primarily with today and yesterday, the short run, apart from

competition for the TRP ratings, a balanced perspective among the

viewers is seriously jeopardized.

Lot of us live life, reacting to events as they occur, essentially living in a

micro world, without having the time or inclination to look at a broader macro

view of the happenings.

This book aims at examining the situation on the ground at a macro level

an objective , fact based assessment irrespective of which political party did

what. The focus is India.

When we talk of fact-based assessment, we need to distinguish between

a fact, hearsay and a guesstimate by some one. At the same time

remembering that what was said by some one is a fact that he / she said it

how much factual credence we ascribe to it is our judgment.

Being an Engineer and a Manager by profession, and not an expert on the

subjects under discussion, I do hope that I am able to convey my serious

concerns on the subject of India on the Move.


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Therefore, what follows is based on living through the experience over

more than seven decades, observation, learning from others and some

commonsense thinking.

Trust that it would touch a chord or two with you.

-9-

Introduction to the author

Some snippets of memories over a span of few decades, we thought,

would be an appropriate introduction to the author..

1942

I proceeded in a line of boy scouts inside the huge tent erected in the

Chowgan [A large green lawn] of Chamba. Then suddenly I get boxed from behind.

Turning back with surprise , I see our scouts master shouting at me, 'Sala Chal,

ruk kyon Gaya? (Move, why have you stopped ?)

I realised that I was so wonder struck by the grandeur I suddenly saw

inside the huge tent that I had stopped with open mouth to watch it wonder

struck. We then proceeded to stand behind the throne of Maharaja Lakshman

Singh of Chamba's annual Durbar held in style. .

- Chamba, Himachal Pradesh

1943

A group of us, young boys and girls clapped along with many elders as a

contingent of army jawans passed marching smartly to the tunes of the highlypolished instruments of the army band. It soon passed under the Chamba town

gate and disappeared down the steep downhill incline.

- Reinforcements contributed by the Maharaja of Chamba to the British forces in the 2nd world war


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1945

One evening all of us , a dozen youngsters of the joint family , rushed out to

watch two huge jets of water in the chowgan forming the letter V and turning

round saw a large display of electric bulbs glowing in front of the Maharaja's

palace again forming the letter V. It was explained to us that V stands for victory

of the British in the War.

Next day morning we joined many other people sitting in row after row at

the upper end of the chowgan. On the empty dias in front was placed a huge

shining brass cannon. While wondering in anticipation what was afoot, comes out

of the

-10-

British Resident's bungalow a six footer white person along with the Resident

and our Maharaja. After a guard of Honour by the Maharaja's army contingent,

the gun was

ceremoniously presented to the Maharaja by the representative of the Viceroy for

services rendered in the war.

1954In the Punjab Engineering college, Chandigarh there was one African

student studying with us. He was well behaved and good at studies. I still havent

overcome a sense of shame when some of us would call him a habshi [negro] on

his face , in spite of being requested not to do so by some of us.

1957

One evening in a get together in the Russian hostel, I was telling Vitaly

Shishkov, the turbine engineer whom I was assisting in erecting &

commissioning, a turbo-alternator set, that there are many Russian words that

were similar to Hindi words, for example Ogon of Russian meant Agni in

Hindi. Prompt came the response, For me the Agni right now is in that corner,


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can you see that beautiful Russian girl?

- Bhilai Steel Plant.

1960

On the P&O liner from London to Bombay, we were all sun bathing on the

deck. Two interesting comments on the same topic :

The Egyptian friend asked wondering : Why do the Indian ladies display

their bare back and front in a saree. It does not look decent.

An English friend who was proceeding to India for the first time :

There must be shortage of tailors in your country, that the ladies have to wrap a

piece of cloth round them.

- returning home after six months in Britain learning steel making on behalf of Hindustan Steel (now

SAIL)

-11-

1977

On a Sunday afternoon in 1977, two of us proceeded from Faridabad to

the bungalow of the Deputy Commissioner in Gurgaon, seeking his help on an

industrial relations situation , when the previous day the workers of the factory in

Faridabad had gheraoed [not allowed to move outside a small circle] us for many hours,

until a perfectly legal

notice announcing yearly bonus as per provisions of the payment of Bonus Act,

was withdrawn under-coercion.

His advice : ' You know that the new Janta government has just taken over at

the centre. The situation is highly fluid. I cannot do anything to help you. Better

buy peace' . We had no option , so bought peace.

-May 1977

1989

' But for your having covered all the workers in a training programme , we

would not have succeeded in signing a productivity based settlement with the

union' said the chief negotiator from the management team in a JK group factory

in Rajasthan.' The union frankly admitted that until the concept of productivity

had been understood by most of the workers, we would not have dared to sign

such an agreement.' J K Tyre Plant in Rajasthan


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2011

We drove 35 Km's out of Madurai town and met a gathering of about one

hundred plus village ladies, who were undergoing Adult Literacy programme in

four centres. I asked my local guide to ask in Tamil a lady of 50 years plus, as to

why has she joined these classes at this age? The response from her was

accompanied with a wide grin , perhaps indicating, ' what a foolish question' , ' I

can now tell where the bus is going.'

We talk of many facets of empowerment. It left me wondering , being no

longer dependant on others in this matter, was perhaps a very solid

empowerment for her.

- while coordinating the J K Group Adult Literacy programme all over India.

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