The view from outside

When I first started my blog, I had a guideline for myself: keep it strictly domestic, but as I continue writing the blog, I am finding it increasingly difficult to keep myself within the national borders.

A lot probably has to do with the fact that I am in America, and from here, I can see a different picture of daily events than I would 've seen had I been in India. Which is good, in a way, because it has opened my mind to a wide gamut of issues which I don't think really mattered to me much before. For example, the inter-religious relations, interstate relations, and the biggest of all, India's relation with the outside world.

Let me say I am an optimist. There have been times, particularly after I read certain news that make my blood boil and I just throw my hands up in exasperation and say India will never get anywhere. But I can say that during the majority of my day, I will be an optimistic who dreams big for his country, and hopes he will be a big part of it.

Coming back to my theme for this post, that of my need to write about what goes on outside the borders of India, India is a growing player now in the actual sense. For decades in the 20th century we were heralded to be the next big thing, but that spark never existed. Myopic policies of our leaders have always stopped us from achieving our potential, and I can't think of any sector, any field where active government participation actually furthered its progress.

Perhaps I am sounding too cynical, but for the most part, it is true. Our short-sighted leaders have chained our armed forces from effectively dealing with external threats. India's law enforcement is now a joke. Police is used to guard the homes of every puny little neta, and escort them on their tours, or rather their political rallies. I mean think about it, the IT sector is growing only because the government saw it was bringing them money and they decided to leave it alone.

Hence, I think there is a deep sense of imbalance between our growing international aspirations and our own domestic chaos. I mean, we have great ad campaigns about the Indian fairy tale, but our own basics are so weak that sometimes even I am too skeptical of our claims.

I think our priorities are totally wrong at this point. Self-serving policies still seem to cloud the minds of most of our politicians. Arjun Singh wants to raise the quotas in our top institutions, and I have no doubt in my mind that he is so vocal in his campaign because he has support from the high command, read, the Supreme Commander, Mrs. Gandhi. Anyways, thats unsubstantiated, but my point is, when was the last time we had an education minister who got the post and his first public annoucement was, "okay, we had seen enough bullshit, and I promise you all I will be all substance. My aim is to rise the literacy rate of India to 85% by the time i step down from this post." I mean when was the last time we had politicians who worked for the country, and not for their parties and themselves?

Again, I knew how incompetent most of our ministers are when I was in India, so why am I so fixated with them right now? I think it may be because the international media, controlled by the western developed world, loves to focus on the weaknesses of others. Even stories covering India's successes will contain that one little paragraph that aim to reaffirm the universal notions that everyone has about India, that there are millions of poor and homeless, that we are still fighting with Pakistan and that there are still cows on the streets. And I don't care about what them readers think, but I am pissed that India is not playing this great marketing game. I am pissed that the Indian English media plays right into the hands of its western counterparts. Our national media has no identity of its own, except that it is trying to look as western as possible. Their sense of nationalism is really low, and for some reason, they love to focus on depressing politics and bad news. Sometimes I feel they still have the "Brown Sahib" mentality in them.

Thus when my only source of information is the internet, and when I only see depressing and political news on Indian media sites, it doesn't leave me a lot to think and write about. I mean, I can't go about writing every post about Indian politics, because I know I will basically end on the same note, abusing and cursing the wretched politician. Thus, I prefer to read about India's foreign relations, basically convincing myself of the fact that yes, India probably has a bigger role here than being a pushover. For example, I would like to think we are playing a subtle yet important role in Afghanistan, and I am hopeful that country will come out as a strong Indian ally. Earlier this evening I read the news that an Indian engineer was beheaded by the Taliban there, the second Indian slaying in the country.

Then theres the uneasy India-China relationship. Two big countries, going in the same economic direction till a few decades ago, similar history of western exploitation, are scouted as the leaders of tomorrow. Of course China is miles ahead of India economically, and they are a veto member of an ineffective UN, but to think, we would probably in a strong position today with respect to them had Pandit Nehru played his cards right. I mean, he gave up the offer for the UNSC veto power right? And additionally said that China should be given that privilege. Oh fudging excellent!

Anyways, so yea, as the people of India lead the fight within our borders, I will continue to write about our pusillanimous governments, politicians, their pawns, and other such ineffective, scheming elites. Because the thing is, the game just got a lot bigger, and the stakes just got a lot higher.