75 YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE: SUCCESSIVE INDIAN GOVTS FAIL TO COME OUT WITH ALL-INCLUSIVE POLICY TO UPLIFT POOR, DOWNTRODDEN
In India, the poor are nearly half the population and even after 75 years of independence are lacking the essentials of a civilized existence- food, potable water, education, health and a dignified existence, writes former IAS officer V S Pandey Keynes writing about the future in 1930, had presciently stated that "For at least another hundred years, we must pretend to ourselves and to everyone that fair is foul and foul is fair; for foul is useful and fair is not." Keynes found his most ardent champion in governments across the globe, which irrespective of their variegated colors blindly followed his dictum. We also totally negated the moral imperative ,which was the foundational bedrock of our society and culture .The Gandhian talisman was also disavowed , ‘' I will give you a talisman. Whenever you are in doubt, or when the self becomes too much with you, apply the following test. Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man whom you may have seen, and ask yourself if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him. Will he gain anything by it ?Will it restore him to a control over his own life and destiny ?In other words, will it lead to swaraj for the hungry and spiritually starving millions.'' We junked that and instead embarked on a vicious aggressive quest to flourish by exploiting and dominating the vulnerable. Our cultural heritage which emphasized that the very purpose of life is to recognize the essential oneness of existence, the higher aspect of the individual self ,known as the Atman, which is a part of everyone else's self as well as the One Soul/Mind – which pervades all humanity was negated . Self enrichment ,fulfilment of ones own needs at any cost was adopted selfishly and blindly as our economic mantra . How then can we advance at the cost of our brethren, our own unified consciences, and follow a system whose economics is advocating the belligerently pursuing of our individual self-interest to ensure optimum outcomes. Its failure was inevitable and disastrous. In India, the poor are nearly half the population and even after seventy five years of independence are lacking the essentials of a civilized existence -food ,potable water, education ,health and a dignified existence. Hence governments, who are still regarded as our maibaap sarkar – need to focus on first ameliorating their problems. But the economic policy followed in our country for decades seems loaded towards the haves. We are one of the most iniquitous nations on this planet and the gap between the rich and the poor is constantly increasing . In a democracy, each one has only one vote and hence the rich and the poor are equal stakeholders. The have nots constitute the largest chunk of voters hence governance just cannot afford to ignore their interest any more. From the very beginning , we as a nation failed to come up with an economic policy suited to our ethos, our cultural traditions meshed with our rich tradition of contentment. We looked at the outside world and tried to import their alien economic traditions- first the socialist mode of centralized planned development, and after nineties we followed the privatization, globalization, liberalization mantra and began aping the capitalist culture. We are at the crossroads now. We were the sixth biggest economy in 1950 and currently also we rank sixth . Similarly in per capita income terms we are stagnating where we were in 1950. Unfortunately we are known as one of the most corrupt countries in the world where it is next to impossible to get rightful work done without sifarish or bribe. We still have crores and crores of people who are illiterate and unskilled and they toil hard on a daily basis somehow eking out a wretched existence.