Country for few men
B S Murthy
Twitter – @murthybs
The country’s journey from world’s biggest democracy to a country for few men has taken less than a decade. The remarkable speed with which the enabling of “few men” to control the fate of this nation has been baffling . Nowhere in last three decades we have seen a big country / nation moving towards anarchy like India , which will be a serious concern for the entire world . No where rights of farmers , workmen, tribal’s & minorities has been annihilated like it has been done in India through laws & courts. The deadly cocktail of executive & judiciary working on a larger plan has reduced this fast growing nation into a nation staring @ economic collapse , death of rights & deep social unrest for the next decade .
Nations today have a better clarity of their goals , resources , talent & opportunities like never before. The internet , the monetary system , global trade opportunities have helped billions come out of poverty & look up to a future full of peace and opportunities . India should have been a guiding light for poorer nations to build a workable model of governance and resource optimization to follow & get the growth opportunity for one and all .
The journey from 2004 – 2014 will remain as its golden period since the dawn of 2000. It was only India which lifted 250 million people out of poverty , virtually a unbeatable record & proved we have the economic model to lift another 200 million in about a decade.
A new world dawned post 2014, a India where starting from civil rights , tribal rights , farmers rights were thrown out by new laws , ordinances and courts looked the other way . The primary role of wealth creation for larger masses are now a wealth creation engine for few men through the crony route . Never before the administration & PMO has come under the spell of few men close to prime minister than ever, every institution under the union is compromised and works for these few men today with absolute impunity & scant regard for rule book or law. This has enabled robbing of people’s wealth to select individuals @ super speed & has created this neo billionaire raj , which owes its success to the connections and cronyism & nothing else . The monumental scale of corruption in Airports operations lease , lucrative defence contracts , infrastructure contracts , PSU sale & sale of distressed assets belonging to people are given @ throw away rates to these cronies . Key PSU’s are deliberately chocked to bleed to enable the cronies to buy @ fire sale. The wealth transfer from people to cronies run into hundreds of billions of dollars & has shaken the faith of investment communities worldwide as they see India as a crony state like Russia today .
The few men looks like are in total control of the narrative of the nation today , redefining its core ideology, ethos, character , outlook , culture & future of India for next decade . The media including social media have helped set the narrative for them & continuous the stranglehold as on date. The media has been in cahoots with the few men & what we see today is the distrust with mainstream media is lowest since the birth of this great nation . By aligning with cronies , we have lost a precious decade of opportunity to further the growth & bring peace & opportunity for all . This has set us back by a decade at least , it is unsure today how we can regain & bring back equity & justice. The current government lacks thought leadership & basic morality of what is right & wrong , big policy failures are showcased as success , military conquests from a belligerent china is shown as success by spin doctors , if there is a global award for spinning failure as mega success , our PM will win it year after year. Scarier part is they are getting away from all of it , be it demonetization , GST hurdles, bad economy & recently handling of corona epidemic.
More than political parties vying for mind space of people , it is now a battle of ideas and ideals which will define who we will be & what we will be as a nation . The idea of a working democracy , equity & secular values hold very little water as a big part of the people have shown a disdain for anything democratic. The relentless psych operations of BJP via all available media ‘s & an unlimited resources has pushed the people to believe that we don’t need democracy anymore .
The future of India is now a battle for the mind of the young, the millennial with exposure to social media & highly expressive in nature. If allowed to rampage for another few years by BJP , there will be none left to defend anything of India’s ethos. Ideas need to fought with ideas & India badly needs a fresh ideation across the length & breadth to once again define who we are & what we want & what we represent . The same social media gives us the opportunity to engage & give the young a fresh perspective of what we can be .
Challenging & opposition through protests & dharna’s are an ongoing phenomenon in any nations life , psychologist Carl Jung contended that “what you resist not only persists, but will grow in size. The protests alone will not take us anywhere , we have seen it in the last six years , The need of the hour is fresh ideas, new engagements & believing we can bring in change . It always starts with a small number of people & has to start from our colleges with equal participation of our boys & girls.
The country’s water , power & education is still in people’s control, It’s time to act now else there will be nothing left in few years for us to regain , the few men will begin to believe that they can now own the state than just control narrative & resources. Still there is a lot left in India which they have not laid their hands on , we need a groundswell of organic positive ideas to emerge & connect . Let these ideas belong to the fresh young minds , as they need to take this narrative ahead . The country is waiting for a platform to express itself , do not forget for every bigot, there is a free spirit who can tide over the narrative. The need now is a nationwide ideation & identity engagement , INC should offer this narrative coming from its ground workers rather than leaders. This is the one way to beat the normalization of bigotry, communal hate , crony capitalism & fake news & civil rights & regain the idea of India. We need a new India & global messaging strategy , the war is now fought on key words & messages more than in battlefield. We need to engage the creative , finest minds to reconquer the minds of our people.