Seventy has a sacred meaning in the Bible, as it is made up of the factors of two perfect numbers, seven (representing perfection) and ten (representing completeness). As such, it symbolises perfect order and a period of judgment.
The timing of the current issue of Tehelka (August 1-15) that is in your hands now has a special significance as India would be celebrating its 70th Independence Day. It is time to do some introspection into India’s growth story — India after independence till 1991 and the period after launch of reforms. When India attained independence, it was marred by poverty, illiteracy, lack of inclusive growth and widespread corruption.
Seventy years later, the scars of Partition live on in the public memory. Two wars and an emergency mark the later period. In 1975, a state of internal emergency was declared in the country by the then president of India Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, on the advice of then prime minister Indira Gandhi. That single order granted full power and authority to Indira Gandhi to rule by decree. In independent India’s history, this period was the most despicable, considered as a blot on democracy and a black day in Indian history. Unemployment, corruption, illiteracy, lack of social security, brain drain, terrorism, scattered development, tardy agriculture growth marked the period from 1947 to 1991.
Before 1991 and later
The period after 1991 is marked by swift reforms. In his maiden speech as the union finance minister, Singh quoted one of France’s the greatest writers, Victor Hugo: No power on earth can stop an idea whose time has come. About 25 years later, India is among the world’s fastest economies and an emerging third world leader. There still are issues like poverty, corruption, unemployment, lack of social security, gender inequality but there are positives like a growing middle class, gradual phasing away of subsidies and a burgeoning economy that is the envy of developed nations. India has emerged as a potential superpower, the only Asian power that can overtake mighty China in the 21st century.
Little doubt that today the US ensured India’s entry into the nuclear club. Not only that, the US-backed India to the hilt for a permanent seat in the UN Security Council. India in 2016 is a member of G20, the group of most powerful nations in the world. However, when India’s journey for globalisation began in 1991, our country was a member of G77, a group of developing countries. A line of credit of $10 billion to Africa, $2 billion to Bangladesh shows how Indian economy is shaping up. Remittances from NRIs total $73 billion a year, and foreign direct and portfolio investment often exceed $60 billion per year. Commercial loans exceed $35 billion. Its per capita income has shot up from $375 in 2011 to $1,700 today, taking it from low-income to middle-income status. India is now the third-largest economy in the world after China and the US. The best part is that India’s growth rate has exceeded that of all European economies and Japan.
Between 1991 and 2016, a record 138 million Indians were raised above the poverty line. The journey is poised to be faster after 2016 in view of the current pace of growth. China was earlier hailed for raising 220 million people above the poverty line between 1978 and 2002. However, India’s rate of poverty reduction was much faster. Before 1991, India begged for food aid if the monsoon failed. When it suffered two successive droughts in 1965 and 1966, mass starvation was avoided only by US food aid. The Green Revolution changed that, and private seed production further improved productivity after 1991.
India suffered two successive droughts in 2014 and 2015. Yet this time, it remained a net food exporter. It became the world’s largest rice exporter in 2014. Post independence till 1991, it took years to get a telephone landline connection. With the mobile phone revolution, India by now has reached the level of the third largest smartphone market in the world. Significantly, India has the triple distinction- over a billion cellphones, instant availability coupled with cheapest telecom rates in the world. Even people below the poverty line have mobile phones. By 1991 only 20 percent of Indians had a TV set. Now two-thirds do. In 1991, Doordarshan had a TV monopoly. Today, the country has close to 1,000 TV channels.
India is set to experience a dynamic transformation as the population explosion would not be a liability but an asset turning into a demographic dividend. Women’s empowerment has added to its strength
NaMo wave
Now to mark two years of the Narendra Modi government, the Centre for Media Studies conducted a survey which suggested that Modi’s performance as the Prime Minister was liked by a vast majority (62 percent) and a big majority (70 percent) wished him to continue as the Prime Minister for another five-year term. Modi’s initiatives to improve administration and country’s image globally have received big thumbs ups from a majority of people. The survey encompassed 15 states and covered both the rural and urban population. Public perception of the Modi government is of corruption-free governance, a successful cleanliness drive named Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan and an excellent global rapport and a positive dialogue with Pakistan.
Youngest country
India at 70 is looking towards its young population with hope. Every third person in India today is a youth. Behold, in the next seven years, the average age of individuals in India would be 29 years. That would make India the youngest country in the world. In fact, India is set to experience a dynamic transformation as the population explosion would not be a liability but an asset turning into a demographic dividend. Women’s empowerment has added to the strength of India.
On the infrastructure front, the Indian road network has become one of the largest in the world, with the total road length increasing from 0.399 million km in 1951 to 4.24 million km now. Moreover, the total length of the country’s national highways has increased from 24,000 km (1947-69) to 92,851 km. After seven decades of Independence, India has emerged as the third largest producer of electricity in Asia. It has increased its electricity generation capacity from 1,362 MW in 1947 to 1,13,506 MW.
Parliament has made elementary education a fundamental right for children in the age-group of 6-14 years. At independence, India’s literacy rate was a paltry 12.2 percent, which increased to 74.04 percent, as per Census 2011. A decrease in death rates is considered one of the major achievements that came India’s way in this sector. While life expectancy was around 37 years in 1951, it almost doubled to 65 years by 2011. After a long-drawn struggle, India has finally been declared a polio-free country. Independent India has taken confident strides in its road to scientific development which began with the launch of its first satellite Aryabhatta in 1975. Its first mission to Mars was launched in November 2013, which successfully reached the planet’s orbit on 24 September 2014. India is also aggressively pursuing both nuclear and missile programmes. India@70 is looking at a total transformation in all spheres. India is changing radically and it can be observed in attitudes, aspirations and ambitions of its people. Old orders have broken down and new worlds are being created.
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Hit hard by India’s decision to pull out of the SAARC summit slated to be held in November, Pakistan has suddenly raised a demand for inclusion of China and Iran in the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, fully well knowing that these two countries are not from South Asia. The SAARC is the South Asian countries association and currently includes India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nepal, Maldives and Bhutan. Has Pakistan forgotten history that a proposal had been mooted by Bangladesh in 1970 for creation of an exclusive block of South Asian countries? The idea was to look for development of human resources, agriculture and science and technology to improve health and hygiene conditions in the member countries. Almost 11 years later, the proposal was accepted in 1981 and in August 1983, SAARC was formed with seven countries,while Afghanistan joined this block in year 2005.
As the curtains come down on the Rio Olympics and the Tokyo gears up to host the biggest sports jamboree in 2020, it’s time to take stock of India’s performance and what’s wrong with Indian sport! Indians have a habit of hero worship, which is why, when PV Sindhu and Sakshi Malik saved India from the disgrace of not figuring in the medals tally, a grateful nation spontaneously erupted in joy. Dipa Karmakar missed the medal by a whisker though her execution of the highly risky Produnova vault won her global applause.
'The Comedy of Errors' may nip AAP in the bud
Like William Shakespeare’s early play The Comedy of Errors, touted as one of the most farcical comedies, the Aam Aadmi Party — which until last month had been the party to watch — has rendered itself as a party of comedians! Gurpreet Ghuggi, well-known comedian-turned-politician, has been made its convener and Bhagwant Mann, comedian-turned-MP, has become the poster boy for Punjab, that goes to polls in early 2017.
AAP’s pitch for power had strengthened with the induction of former resident editor, Indian Express and Hindustan Times Kanwar Sandhu, Congress leaders, Sukhpal Singh Khaira and Aman Arora, while hopes hinged on former BJP MP Navjot Singh Sidhu coming on board. Today, AAP is not only left with comedian-turned-leaders (with due respect to Arvind Kejriwal, national convener and Delhi Chief Minister who is also known for his antics) at the helm of affairs but it faces an imminent split that threatens to derail its ambitions for the forthcoming election in Punjab.
The party is amidst a political upheaval following removal of Punjab AAP convener Sucha Singh Chhotepur on the basis of a sting into his corrupt deals. Ever since, Chhotepur has been up in arms against the AAP leadership and fomenting a revolt within the Punjab unit and outside. Five of AAP’s 13 zonal coordinators belonging to the politically sensitive districts of Amritsar, Bathinda, Gurdaspur and Jalandhar had served an ultimatum on AAP demanding immediate reinstatement of Chhotepur as AAP convener in Punjab. The later assembly of AAP volunteers at Golden Temple in Amritsar on 3 September reposed full faith in the ousted leader. Support for Chhotepur got further momentum at a ‘Punjab Parivartan’ rally organised in Gurdaspur, which was nothing short of a revolt against the leadership of Kejriwal.
Besides being plagued by charges of corruption, AAP made a goof-up on the cover page of its manifesto, showing a picture of the party’s broom in the backdrop of the Golden Temple. This irked the community and evoked strong protests. However, the mother of all controversies ensued when Chhotepur protested against two lists of AAP candidates for the elections slated in February 2017. Not finding his chosen candidates in the first list released by the party, Chhotepur boycotted the event where party leader Sanjay Singh announced the names. The last nail in the coffin was the announcement of 13 more names which again did not have a single candidate of his choice. The protest against candidates has actually not only been restricted to Chhotepur but out of 32 nominees, 25 have faced protests from different volunteers to the extent of burning effigies of the candidates, including Baljinder Kaur, AAP’s women’s wing president, nominated from Talwandi Sabo.
As if all this were not enough, an audio sting surfaced on social media. Hardip Singh Kingra, who quit AAP after not getting the ticket from Faridkot, showed a sting clip in which a person allegedly close to Durgesh Pathak (AAP’s national executive member) demanded Rs 5 lakh from a volunteer for fixing a meeting with him.Kingra also accused Sanjay Singh of pocketing Rs 5 lakh out of Rs 30 lakh collected from volunteers during the Maghi Mela early this year. Pathak and Singh are observer and Punjab in-charge for AAP respectively.
Later, in a video uploaded on social media, Kejriwal commented, “I am sad that a number of leaders of my party have been found involved in corruption or moral turpitude. It is not acceptable. AAP was not founded to protect such persons. If tomorrow Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia or anyone else, including me, is found indulging in corruption, he will face immediate removal.”
Amid the controversies, AAP made a major faux pas by inducting Harmail Singh Tohra, son-in-law of veteran Shiromani Akali Dal leader Gurcharan Singh Tohra. It sparked fresh dissent, with Kanwar Sandhu expressing his displeasure on Facebook. Little doubt that the party is not only facing a split but is staring at rebellion at several places where it has declared candidates. The party is also undergoing a leadership crisis. Till now it has failed to find a Sikh leader of stature to be its face in Punjab, which has traditionally been run by Sikh chief ministers. Kejriwal’s reported efforts to bring former Rajya Sabha MP Navjot Singh Sidhu to AAP fold did not work. The bitter cricketer-turned-politician, then went a step further and announced his own Awaaz-e-Punjab front, taking Kejriwal head-on.
The party’s popular face in Punjab, Bhagwant Mann, too has proved to be a liability as he first got into trouble for making a video of Parliament functioning and more recently was booked for insulting mediapersons during a rally at Bassi Pathana in Fatehgarh Sahib. Not only that, the indecisiveness on AAP’s part in not projecting a CM face is also going against the party. The delay has led the Opposition to claim that Kejriwal himself is eyeing the top position, giving the Opposition a slogan on a platter to reject Delhi CM, being an outsider.
Faced with such a situation, at a make or break rally, Arvind Kejriwal rolled out the party’s farmers’ manifesto at Baghapurana in Moga on 11 September. The large crowds that this rally attracted might help the party check the slide in its fortunes. If the aim of the rally was to mobilise crowds for a “show of strength” to bring the party back in the game, then the purpose has partly been met. The 31-point ‘Kisan Manifesto’ — promising to make farmers debt free by December 2018, re-enacting Sir Chhotu Ram Act of 1934 (Moneylenders’ Debt) under which the sum of interest payable would not be allowed to exceed the principal amount, full implementation of Swaminathan Commission Report on crop pricing by December 2020 — seems to be a desperate attempt to woo farmers, who account for a majority of voters.
The party has painfully discovered that masses may be willing to experiment with it, but whims and fancies of its leaders have to resonate with the people. Today, the party that rose like phoenix on the slogan of corruption-free governance and being run by volunteers, finds both its tenets under attack. To again quote from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, it’s like “that one may smile and smile and be a villain”. The Aam Aadmi Party has to act fast to live up to the expectations that it had aroused amongst common people before it is too late!
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