Author: Swapan Dasgupta
Publication: The Free Press Journal
Date: November 12, 2003
In almost every conceivable discipline
there is an unending tussle between the theorists and the practitioners.
The media too has experienced this tug-of-war. For many decades, India's
editors were subjected to sermons from both politicians and pundits about
the debilitating effects of highlighting the trivialities of politics at
the expense of an elusive commodity called "development". Salivating over
the factional intrigues of the leaders, they were told, meant that insufficient
attention was paid to the concerns of the Man from Matunga. The new HYV
seed introduced in, say, Gurudaspur district, was infinitely more important
than marking the latest turn in the perennial bickering involving Prakash
Singh Badal and G.S. Tohra.
Fortunately, the bores were ignored
and the media grew and grew to the point that wary politicians now talk
of the national agenda being Made in Media. At the same time, a curious
inversion has taken place. Increasingly, the media is shifting tack from
the bland coverage of Parliament and political parties to drooling over
the latest Bentley limousines to hit the National Quadrilateral. The hierarchy
of news has been redefined and the consumers seem to love it.
Yet the gripes persist. Now the
media is being accused of trivialisation by the same people who were agitated
by the over-emphasis on politics two decades ago. Are the latest ringtones
that can be downloaded, ask the custodians of taste, more important than
the travails of Kerala's fishermen? Are cocktail parties as important as
political parties? These are worthwhile questions. But sanctimoniousness
misses the larger point of the new optimism that is the talk of the town.
Moreover, it is an optimism that seems to be cutting across generations.
Switching on the TV last Monday, I was pleasantly surprised to hear the
otherwise ascetic Deputy Prime Minister talk of spreading the feel-good
factor.
"If it is good news", he told a
gathering at the ET Awards function in Mumbai, "it must be India 2003."
To roti, kapda and makan, Advani said, and not entirely in jest, has been
added the ubiquitous mobile phone. For a change, development news is connecting
with the reservoirs of energy and entrepreneurship in India. But it is
development news that is no longer riddled with angst.
There is an infectious optimism
in the air and a sudden realisation that maybe India can make it and in
our lifetime too. It helps that the Sensex has pierced the 5,000 barrier,
that housing loans are cheaper than ever before, that we don't have to
scrounge around for dollars and that we can walk into a shop and get a
telephone at an affordable price.
Yes, India has finally moved out
of the debilitating orbit of man-made shortages. We have not moved into
the stage of super-abundance but we are nearing a point when consumption
levels are nearing a stage of respectability, at least for the middle classes.
There are critics who alert us to the dangers of moving from family-based
consumption to individual hedonism. That may be a possible long-term danger
but for the moment arguing that India can do without a surplus of consumer
goods sounds rather contrived. We are at a stage when the bicycle owner
is dreaming of a scooter, when the scooter owner is contemplating a second-hand
Maruti 800 and the second-hand car owner is seriously thinking of a small,
new car with a reasonably-priced loan from a bank. To my mind, that is
real progress and something to celebrate.
Last month, the merchant banker
Goldman Sachs released a report suggesting that by 2050 Brazil, Russia,
India and China the BRICs economies in short-will be in a position to collectively
overtake the G-6. The report argues that the BRICs growth rate will be
most dramatic in the next 30 years and the currency of these countries
may appreciate by as much as 300 per cent against the US dollar in the
next 50 years. India, it says, "has the potential to show the fastest growth
over the next 30 and 50 years. "The Indian economy, it says, could become
the third largest in the world, after the US and China, in 30 years". This
can only happen "if things go right."
That is obvious. The economists
at Goldman Sachs have based their projections on things indeed going right.
In real life things don't always happen that way. Some things go horribly
wrong and others go more right than expected. What the report says can
be taken as a reassuring indication of what India is capable of achieving
and a measure of its potential. Fortunately, the political rhetoric
of the day seems to be corresponding with the popular mood. When
the President of India talks of his vision 2020, he is not at odds with
the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister who propagate the necessity
of removing the tag of "developing country" for India by 2020. This is
why the media's espousal of development as fun need not be decried. Earlier,
development consisted of government- dictated road maps that were both
dreary and doctrinaire. Now the government shies away from telling us what
to do. It encourages us to just do it and, most important, enjoy the experience.
It is a heartening shift that puts the onus of development on the individual
and society and away from the state.
Atal Behari Vajpayee's most enduring
achievement is that he has brought laughter and hope back into the life
of India. The sentiment is not universal but it is the dominant theme in
a diverse country. The media is merely mirroring this age of happiness.
It is talking up a country that is already on a high. India still
has a long way to go but at least it is on the right track.
