In the course of my endless and mindless pursuits in the evening yesterday, I seem to have glanced up from my laptop towards an India map on the wall as Prabhu Chawla was trying to allow one of his guests to speak, forget who!!! And I was staring at that map, a lil thought crossed my mind...... If I were to draw a line beginning from somewhere near and in the whereabouts of Varanasi and extend it diagonally across UP, through Jharkhand and into the Arabian Sea, I would have single handedly ensured India's GDP growth at 12 - 13% instead of the 8% we are at now!!! I somehow saw 2 Indias on there.
On the one side which I shall henceforth call the front side (for some strange reason), you had pretty high literacy rates, pretty decent mortality rates, pretty good growth numbers etc as compared to the national average. On the other side, which I shall call the backside (for obvious reasons) you had dismally low literacy rates, abysmal levels of mortality and growth numbers better not shared in a public forum.....
If you have agreed with me so far, then will it be too far from the truth if I said that 30% of India is pulling back 70% of India from realising its true potential... (Pareto Zindabad!!)
Because whether u agree or not, it is true!!!! States like UP, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal (yes, West Bengal) are pulling India back to the Hindu Rate of growth days. Well, we all know UP, Bihar, Jharkhand et al but West Bengal must be shocking to you...... Even if it is, please do not call a bandh..... pleeaasssssseeeee.....
When did you last hear a news that read, 'New factory comes up in West bengal', or 'Bengal top state for FDI in India'. Well, I have never heard any. I somehow cant relate West Bengal and development. I dont think anybody can. It is very saddening to note that Bengal was once the seat of Imperial power in India. But the problem started when Bengal never came to terms with the fact that the British had left.... Sad but true..... In a lot of other places, Mumbai for example, the Gateway of India was a hisorical monument and a place worth seeing, so was Victoria Terminus. Today, people still go to see these two monuments but what they also go and see is the Bandra Kurla complex (BKC)... Well, my great grandfather's greatest memory about Bengal was Victoria memorial and my greatest memory about Bengal....Victoria Memorial... That is sad...
And to add to that, we have a group of nincompoops in power sitting on their nest laying eggs of wisdom which nobody wants!!! Ever wondered why they are called the left.... not because of their ideology, but I think they are called more so because they are never right!!!! Cos I am a 100% confident that Karl Marx did not see it this way....Whatever little was there to grow and develop on the left made sure it never reached the right places at the right time.... The idiots!!! They then come in at the Centre and make sure they screw things up for everybody....
It is not that Bengal lacks opportunities. The opportunities are there...loads of them.... If it lacks anything, it is the will to succeed and for that will to come to the forefront, Bengal will have to come out of its mummified exterior and realise that it is the 21st Century and things work differently... It cannot afford one more Singur or Nandigram..... What also needs to happen is that the lefts need to be thrown out and thrown out in such a way that they do not dare to contest again...... I think the logic of using the left to clean sh** is in our way of life.... but hey the left is itself in so much sh** and 2 lefts will never help!!!
To continue from where I left off, if Bengal were to improve its GDP growth to atleast around the national average, it would help us as a nation.....
Analysis of other states in the BIMARU to come soon.....
Eminence signing off!!!!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Isn't this what every other economist crying out in India these days - why single out Bengal? And why don't the leaders of the "progressive" block share the blame ! they were sitting in the esteemed house too?? Unequal growth is a failure of the nation of failed policies of the Central Govt -singling out population already separated by language and culture in a diverse nation like ours sets a dangerous precedent!
@AP - Thanks for the comments... First of all, I am not singling out Bengal. I am just trying to clear some things here and adding to BIMARU. Dont yu think its a bit too much to ask the progressive states to take the blame given the fact that the growth is coming due to some efforts that they are putting towards investments and social factors?
And lastly, my feeling that the start of growth would be only once there is a realisation that something is wrong..... And it is time for this realisation to happen....
nicely written...agrre to this to an extent...but then, isn't this what a democracy is all about...a single cohesive entity, with each unit making it's contribution,big & small...Thankfully, Bengal is still a democracy, nonwithstanding Nandigram...change just takes a bit more time in Bengal...hopefully, your kids will like something else than Victoria Memorial :)
Post a Comment