What’s Puzzling Indians — Part 1?
No, it’s not the number of COVID cases or the number of bodies floating down the Ganges. It’s not what Biden says, what WHO declares or what Xinping thinks. And, it’s certainly not how many times Imran Khan intends to marry or if Prince William and Harry will patch up or by the way, if Sacred Games and Mirzapur will have another season. And, No… it’s also not if the whole population of India (18% of the world) can be vaccinated in record time. None of these bother Indians as much as the recent silence of the Indian Government. Die hard supporters of the BJP and Prime Minster Modi are feeling let down by the perceived inaction of the government. Some of the perceptions have been successfully created while some have existed for a while. This once in a century kind of emergency has tapped the government on the wrong shoulder.
Social Puzzles.
The list of questions asked by the people are long: Why did the government give such a long leash to anti-CAA protestors and then the anti-farm law protestors. What was it trying to achieve in the hope that these protests would fizzle out. What happened to the various cases against Robert Vadra, Chidambaram, Rahul and Sonia Gandhi? What happened to the cases of Umar Khalid and Akbaruddin Owaisi? How could rabidly communal and anti-national motor mouth politicians go scott free and get re-elected again, again and again. So, slow has been the action on Vazegate, Rose Valley, Narada, Sarada, 2G, 3G, CWG, Vyapam and PNB scams that people have stopped scratching their heads. The list of corruption cases with no or slow progress is endless. Nothing has moved. It seems all court cases are used to negotiate with opponents and bring them to their knees. Also, why do we still see a Twitter and a variety of internal and external media scar India’s reputation by selling stories which border on gossip, rumours and innuendos. Where is the implementation of NPR and NRC? How many illegal migrants have been identified and deported? Where are the changes to the IPC (Indian Penal Code)? How many rapists and murderers have been shown the door to hell? Why do we still have gang rapes? When will there be uniform civil code and most importantly a national anti-conversion law? When will the RSS-BJP-Modi leadership make sweeping societal changes? Indians who expect these changes are losing patience. They are pointing to what Charles Pickering said, “A healthy democracy requires a decent society; it requires that we are honourable, generous, tolerant and respectful”. Indians feel our democracy has been used to subjugate us.
Foreign Policy Puzzles.
On the foreign policy front, why does India wait for China to attack and play the wolf-warrior diplomacy? What is India’s own brand of diplomacy? Having such a powerful army, air force and navy; why are we still quietly suffering leftist insurgency in pockets of the Indian state? Why have we been unable to dismantle it? To weaken it, is not the answer? To dismantle it, is the answer. Why is the progress on QUAD slow and diabolical? Why can’t India take a pole position on Afghanistan? What has happened with our overtures to Iran — a failure? Why can’t we call a friend, a friend and that is Israel? Many questions abound.
Economic Puzzles.
On the economy front, people are asking: where are the jobs. Where is the growth? With COVID playing spoilsport, is it still possible to hit the $5trillion mark in terms of economy. Can the government achieve its disinvestment targets? What is the finance minister doing — buying bhaji (vegetables)? Where is a cogent population policy to handle the challenges of the future? Where is the investment in education, health and child welfare? Farm and labour law changes, when can they be fully implemented? Crux is people are asking, where is the “Change on Ground, where is it”? They can’t make the “trees for the forest”.
So, what’s really happening?
Indians are thinking: we gave the government 300+ seats and they have a way in the Upper House but where is the action. Where is the strict action? Where are the strict laws and stricter implementation? “Kaam kab karoge (When will you work?)”. Unknowingly, more and more people are agreeing to what Tsai Ing-wen says, “Democracy is not just an election, it is our daily life”. So, the question is: when will our daily life improve?
Can the real Indian Tiger please stand up? Can the real Indian Peacock fly for a change? Can the Air India Maharaja be shunted? Can the real India be the blooming Lotus? When will Shiva open his third eye? Has it come to that?
But, is it so simple? What could be really happening? What could be the strategy? (Read Part -2 of the same article next week to find out more).
