Author: Swapan Dasgupta
Publication: Outlook
Date: January 15, 2007
URL: http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20070115&fname=ASwapanDasgupta&sid=1
Introduction: I would rather look back on
2006 as the year the UPA government finally came into its own, showed off
its myopia and exposed its talons.
If journalism, as has been unwisely suggested,
is instant history, a year is a woefully short period to arrive at considered
conclusions. It is entirely possible that 2006 will go down in history as
just another hum-drum blip-at best the year the US Congress passed legislation
exclusively centred on India, the year the judiciary decided it was the boss
and the year Arundhati Roy discovered a sinister inhouse conspiracy behind
the attack on Parliament five years ago.
However, since history also lives in the eyes
of the beholder, a paid-up member of the reactionary, politically incorrect
right-wing brigade like me would rather look back on 2006 as the year the
UPA government finally came into its own, showed off its myopia and exposed
its talons.
It was a year when progress blended with decay,
and a year in which the stupendous energies of the post-socialist, liberated
India were sought to be stifled by a government caught in a monstrous time-warp.
It was also the year the most cynical and
devious of the land decided that the road to political glory lay in making
national fragmentation the mantra of governance.
For me, 2006 has been a depressing year broken
by the occasional moments of hope. Indian enterprise,
having dramatically gatecrashed into global reckoning, was sprinting along,
famously offering opportunities denied to the Midnight's Children, when it
was hit by a thunderbolt. First Sonia Gandhi, in her self-image as Lady Bountiful,
decided that the gains of economic resurgence must be dissipated in the name
of equity. The Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, which was enacted in the
budget session at a stupendous cost to the national and state exchequers,
was the brainchild of economists and NGOs who have no real stake in India
as a global power. It blended the most simplistic facets of Keynesian economics-dig
a hole and fill it up again-with the insatiable greed of small-time political
functionaries. Destined to be mired in waste and corruption, the REGs will
divert resources from what India needs most-infrastructure, education and
meaningful employment.
As if this celebration of wasteful fantasy
wasn't enough, factions of the Congress decided this was the year to hit India
where it hurts the most. The extension of reservations in education to the
50 per cent mark was dictated by the spurious egalitarianism which has been
tried and discarded elsewhere. Founded on anti-elitism, actually a euphemism
for outlander envy, its consequences are certain to be baneful. First, there
is certain to be a levelling-down of standards in the "centres of excellence".
Secondly, it is calculated to revive the brain drain to the West and Southeast
Asia. Finally, it may end up blunting India's competitive edge in the global
knowledge economy.
Arjun Singh always had a slightly perverse
view of India's history. I suppose it is logical that he has now fulfilled
a subliminal desire to be the modern-day Mahmud of Ghazni-the iconoclastic
wrecker of the other temples of modern India.
Singling out the HRD minister for opprobrium
may yet be unfair. What has marked the UPA's innings in 2006 is a single-minded
determination to break India into sectarian fragments. The private sector
has been told that in the coming days it may no longer be in a position to
decide who it wants to employ. That right will be circumscribed by considerations
of birth-suitability be damned.
The government is scraping the bottom of the
barrel for newer and newer categories of exceptional treatment.The Rajindar
Sachar Committee shed copious tears for a community that till 150 years ago
perceived itself as India's ruling class. After reading the report, Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh, instinctively a gentleman and a chameleon, proclaimed
that minorities, but particularly Muslims, must have the first call on the
nation's resources. Encouraged by this bout of self-flagellation, a cross-party
group of Muslim MPs has demanded the establishment of Muslim IITs, IIMs and
medical colleges.
The journey from the sublime to the dangerous
has been egged on by a wanton disregard for national security. Nearly 200
people died in serial blasts on Mumbai's commuter trains and powerful bombs
killed worshippers in Varanasi and Malegaon. The National Security Advisor
pointed an accusing finger at the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba; the Mumbai
police commissioner disclosed that interrogation of local jehadis indicated
a Pakistan connection. The prime minister responded by saying that Pakistan
is as much a victim of terrorism as India. To cap it all, the poacher was
elevated to gamekeeper in a joint Indo-Pakistan complaints centre.
Why blame a proxy prime minister? Caligula
is, after all, remembered for appointing his horse as the pro-consul!
A decade ago, during the dark Gowda-Gujral
interregnum, I wrote a despondent article: "Time to grieve, time to leave."
It was about emigration. Should I pass it on to my 16-year-old son?
