India in the new millennium

THE BEGINNING of new millennium was seen by Indians as an emergence of new opportunities, new hopes, new realities and above all better governance. We did witness sparks of everything but without any stability. There is less than two years when we would complete the first decade of the new millennium with hopes, opportunities and realities shattering.

Political opportunism has reached its nadir and all political parties are mute to people’s aspirations and frustrations. None of the political leaders, irrespective of party affiliation, has appeared to be sane in his thinking process that could help in nation building, thereby, meeting aspirations of the people at large. What we have witnessed in the recent past is that every political party has more respect for its party flag than the national tricolour. Else, we would have not found streets full of blood, be it in Ahmedabad or Jammu or Srinagar.

The so-called Indian growth story was so contagious that we did not know that it would soon culminate in price hike of foodgrains, fuel, fruits and vegetables. When an average Indian is burdened with meeting his ends, taking care of his family and health, our political masters draw strategies as how to win the impending elections by dividing the nation by resorting to every dirty trick they have in their kitty. And we, who take pride in identifying ourselves as the elite citizens of the third largest democracy watch helplessly. A few thousand politicians, bureaucrats, businessmen, journalists, musclemen and power fixers control the democracy in the name of Republic of India.

There has been no efforts on the part of political leaders to bring an element of people’s participation in the nation building process where the entire system agrees not to politicise a few issues that would give fillip to national development by rising above regional compulsions.

Could there be a way LK Advani, Sonia Gandhi, Lalu Prasad Yadav, Prakash Karat, Mulayam Singh Yadav, N Chandrababu Naidu, Ram Vilas Paswan, Mayawati, Jayalalitha and M Karunanidhi, where all of them would agree on just five issues that can be in the interest of the people of India? At least, let the new decade not go waste in putting the nation into the orbit of real people-oriented growth where no one throws a spanner.