Re: Loveable Nation INDIA

[rjr@vsnl.com]

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I fully agree with the observations of Rahul Mittal and MV on the email
of Zabarbad. It is possible that Zabarbad himself was the author of the
Message 2 of his email.

I read with interest the three visions (Freedom, Development and India
standing up to the world) and the four milestones of Kalam, one of our
great Bharat Ratnas.

Kalam's first vision reads as follows:
In 3000 years of our history people from all over the world have come
and invaded us, captured our lands, conquered our minds. From Alexander
onwards. The Greeks, the Turks, the Moguls, the Portuguese, the British,

the French, the Dutch, all of them came and looted us, took over what
was ours. Yet we have not done this to any other nation. We have not
conquered  anyone. We have not grabbed their land, their culture, their
history and tried to enforce our way of life on them. Why? Because we
respect the freedom of others. That is why my first vision is that of
FREEDOM. I believe that India got its first vision of this in 1857, when

we started the war of independence. It is this freedom that we must
protect and nurture and build on. If we are not free, no one will
respect us.

My comments:
Indian history tells us that people of India pursued caste-based
occupations and produced abundant wealth in the form of food grains and
material goods through individual skills passed on from one generation
to other. Use of abundant bonded labor by untouchables (dalits) aided
the production of this wealth substantially. The ruling class then was
represented by petty kings who spent most of their time in fighting with

one another and in enjoying the lighter things of life rather than
organize big armies as was done by Ghenghis Khan or Alexander. When our
rulers couldn't conquer and rule even our whole country for long, the
question of our country conquering other countries never arose. We
cannot boast of our
weakness as virtue. Knowing well the riches of our country and the
weaknesses of our ruling class, foreigners invaded our country to
exploit our wealth. Thanks to the long British rule, there was national
integration with the emergence of India and Pakistan in 1947. Except for

losing some land of ours during early wars with China and Pakistan, we
could however protect most of our land from enemy invasion.

Kalam's second vision reads as follows:
My second vision for India is DEVELOPMENT. For fifty years we have been
a developing nation. It is time we see ourselves as a developed nation.
We are among the top 5 nations of the world in terms of GDP. We have 10
percent growth rate in most areas. Our poverty levels are falling. Our
achievements are being globally recognized today. Yet we lack the
self-confidence to see ourselves as a developed nation, self- reliant
and self-assured. Isn't this incorrect?

My comments:
I don't think any subscriber to this debate agrees with the above claim
that all is well with our government and India has transformed from the
level of a developing nation to that of a developed nation during the
last 54 years after independence. Our country may stand fifth in the
world in terms of GDP and there may not be reported cases of starvation
deaths. Most of the benefits of our development have gone to a small
minority of people. There is no doubt that those working with the
organized sector get most of the benefits, while the vast majority of
people are unemployed, under-employed or working in the unorganized
sector with meager benefits and little security. Failure to provide
employment and closing avenues for self-employment made the educated
jobless indulging in antisocial and illegal activities such as dacoity,
naxalism, promotion of terrorism and
destruction of public property, smuggling of goods, and secessionist
activities. There is an urgent need for a Gandhi to be born to bring
order to the present mess and see that benefits provided by the
government percolate to all sections of the population.

Kalam's third vision reads as follows:
I have a THIRD vision. India must stand up to the world. Because I
believe that unless India stands up to the world, no one will respect
us. Only strength respects strength. We must be strong not only as a
military power but also as an economic power. Both must go hand-in-hand.

My comments:
Everyone agrees with the need to achieve this vision. We cannot say that

we have become strong as a military power by just possessing a few
nuclear arms and guided missiles. The entire world's economy including
that of USA was shaken with the incidents engineered in New York and
Washington on 11th September by some terrorists having no military
power. No amount of military might can save us from similar terrorism.
Poverty and lack of equal opportunities are the root causes of terrorism

prevailing particularly in India. India spends so much on defense, staff

salaries and disaster relief works that there is little money left for
any development. We look for international
assistance for taking up development works and our nuclear might made
USA and Japan to impose sanctions for providing such economic
assistance for some time. Apart from that, wrong policies and
corruption have further disallowed our country to become strong as
an economic power.

Kalam's four milestones:
Kalam's first three milestones refer to his long association with the
ISRO, DRDO and the Dept. of Atomic Energy, which helped the world to
know that India can also make nuclear weapons and guided missiles. His
contention that because of these achievements we should treat our
country a developed country cannot be accepted. His fourth milestone,
which is by far the most important, refers to the use of the light
material called carbon-carbon, a component of the guided missiles, for
providing 0.3-kg  calipers in the place of 3-kg calipers to some
physically-handicapped children of the Nizam Institute of Medical
Sciences (NIMS) at Hyderabad. I would consider this achievement great if

only such light-weight calipers could be manufactured on a mass scale to

provide them to all the physically handicapped patients
of India needing them.

Kalam's comments that the Indian press gives emphasis to bad news rather

than to success stories is not correct. Press anywhere, whether in
Israel or India, gives sensational news in the front page. Even our
press gives good news in the front page if it is really important.
Whenever a satellite was launched and a nuclear bomb/guided missile was
tested and whenever a person was awarded Bharat Ratna, the news appeared

in big print in the front page
itself. If we take into account our country's size and population, we
cannot boast of our present level of production of milk, wheat and rice.

Although we should no doubt be proud of being number one in remote
sensing satellites, we are not really getting adequate benefits from
them in harnessing our natural resources. In any case, sensational good
news comes so rarely, that the Indian press had to be content with only
sensational bad news in the front page.

Kalam's comments on craze for foreign goods is again not correct. The
success achieved by our Indian Space Program is because of successful
integration of components made in India and abroad. When we have a
choice, we like to get the best that is available in the world rather
than compromise with the best that is made in India. As pointed out
rightly by MV, people who can afford send their children to schools
imparting best education, while those who cannot afford go to free
schools where quality of teaching is generally poor.

Like the little girl who told Kalam that she wanted to live in a
developed India, we all want to live in a developed India. We cannot
deceive ourselves by visualizing the present India as a highly developed

nation. Kalam is no doubt a great scientist and a great dreamer. We are
all proud of him. He was lucky to have worked in organizations in India
where employees had good amenities and time-bound promotions and have no

dearth for money and equipment to carry out good work. Only when
everybody in India gets the same opportunities which Kalam had, we can
then agree that India is a highly developed nation.

R. Jagadiswara Rao



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