Roughly a decade ago one of my highly ambitious friend claimed that at the rate of India economic growth, decent jobs in Western world would dry up. India was shining, is a often repeated slogan. A new word Chindia was coined to represent the two super fast economies of the world. In one of the surveys, Indians were rated the happiest people in the world. The word pessimism was not in dictionary. During one of my trips to India, the sings are clearly visible. Specially, the young generation was sounding very optimistic and confident. A few stories like a 22 year old buying car and then gifting to her father, who worked all his life hard and remained a middle class retiree caught my attention. It was incredible, as the social mobility appeared like a cat walk.
FII's the ghost entities of Western world were scripting all the great stories. The prediction was BSE Sensex would touch 50000. The flow of dolllar funds were unabated. The poster boys for Economic Times were ubiquitous. India was soon predicted to over take most of the Western Economies with the exception of US.
All that was going well under sunshine changed abruptly, post Vajpayee era. The good omen and promise of sustained momentum under Manmohan Singh rapidly faded. In a short span of two or three years, India lost it's direction. In a nutshell the clumsy politics punctured the growth engine and since then, India went deep into the crisis as days, weeks and months passed by. Scams and corruption scandals ejected out the development. Some of the poster boys along with good number of political companions landed in the iconic Tihar jail.
As the nation lacked vision and direction myopic politicians with no credible public record took the front seat. Almost a modern day story evolved on the lines of the Indian classic Mahabharata. The people with moral authority remained blind and dumb. There is no Governance as such with regional issues ranging from Telangana or political compulsions or brickbats taking front seat while nation and it's citizens were left to their own fate.
India today tops list of suicides in the world. More alarmingly, the the highest concentration of these numbers are in the age group 15-29, who were the most confident and ambitious a decade ago.Nepotism is now, the twin cousin of the corruption in India. It is mandatory and unwritten criteria that next generation Politicians, Businessmen, Film actors, Media moguls must come from the same families. Social mobility is severely restricted at this juncture than any time in past 60 odd years.
If the issues are so gigantic in nature, then why our Finance Minister and his mediocre performance matters? By the admission of Congress, Pranab Mukherjee is the intellect, brilliant, sharp and great performer. His yeoman services both to the Congress Party and nation are unparalleled. If this is the view of Congress Party, the main concern is what will happen to nation from tomorrow? The Government will be left orphaned without a trouble shooter (glorified Spin Doctor).
The FM simply not presided over an anemic economy but, a consistently going down the hill GDP without any policy support. With high inflation making life of 99%'s India's hell, this is the FM who defined Rs26 / day earning is above poverty line. The FM presided over an economy, that by all the consensus is derailed as reported by FII and Credit rating agencies. The same Institutions whom they referenced constantly, during the sunshine years are now condemned for their views on the economy. While service sector and manufacturing are bearing the burnt of the policy, Technology sector may survive thanks to fast depreciating rupee. After 20 years baton came back to Manmohan Singh who often been claimed as architect of Indian economic reforms. Under the current circumstances, not even Dr Singh expect much to deliver.
If I fail to perform at work, I will be demoted or shown exit door. However, the FM who delivered worst economic figures has been promoted and sent to Rastrapthi Bhavan.
Incredible India!
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