Being away from Delhi brings many issues into perspective and makes one feel far more optimistic about the changes that are happening in India. Unfortunately, most decision makers have taken to flying at 30,000 feet rather than driving across this country and as a result have no clue about the reality on the ground, both positive and negative. Driving through Rajasthan, at the end of June, from Jaipur to Ajmer to Jodhpur to Pali and then to Mt Abu, proved that Ashok Gehlot has ensured that his state has very good roads that link all the cities and towns. A great first step!
The prosperity you see is quite staggering in comparison to two years ago, along the same route. It shows that there is a marked improvement. And, most important for us Delhiites, those horrible Ambassador cars with hideous red lights flashing ? accompanied by gunmen ? are few and far between. In fact, they are not visible. The only intrusion of the undignified Delhi culture was a sign at the toll gate on the national highway done under the aegis of the central government that said, ?cars with VIP symbols are exempt?! What is that supposed to mean? It is scandalous that babus and politicians are the ones who do not have to pay for the services that they get, at the cost of the real VIP, the citizen.
This is a disease that needs to be killed once and for all. It needs severe chemotherapy and those inflicted with the illness should be segregated in cages so that the population of India does not get infected any more. A newspaper report this morning said that since the highway to the international airport will take two years to complete, all VIPs will probably be choppered there for their sojourns abroad. It is sick, to say the least. Fare-paying travellers will have to struggle to get to the airport, people who are using their hard-earned money legitimately, but those who travel free at the tax payers? expense will now get additional free transportation by helicopter to Indira Gandhi International Airport! Only when those choppers begin to crash with abandon, will these exalted men and women realise how they have destroyed the values and ethics of our country.
Yet again there was a train accident. The regularity of these mishaps has become a taken and the only reason, I presume, that the average Indians travelling on the trains have not lynched the management of the railways is because we believe in fate and the possibility of another life! Nitish Kumar carries on in his ?post?, often smiling for the cameras as he spouts his explanations. Citizens can die as long as the ?rulers? are protected. The attack on our Parliament was a heinous crime but the mismanagement of the railways is acceptable ineptitude. To turn a corner when there is VIP movement is a punishable act, but when a red light car breaks a traffic rule it is adherence to law. Wah wah! India was never ever like this. It is tragic that an ancient and cultured civilisation like ours has reduced itself to undignified acts in our everyday lives. We can indulge in all manner of rhetoric but the reality is there…we all see it, live with it and many of us shall die with these horrors around us.
Increasingly the shenanigans in India have become a farce and we are those billions who are being taken for a ride by a minuscule number of people. That is how we are perceived across this country and the world. Talk to anyone in a chai shop anywhere and they all mock the politicians and the babus. This is a common belief amongst the citizenry regardless of caste, creed and language. It is the one belief that unites India and it requires a leader to galvanise the people to fight this insufferable and demeaning disease.
Therefore, the hope of change rests in the states, decentralised and away from the core illness. With less Central interference and a change of many redundant ?laws? that are imposed on the states, the action and growth will be away from this fake centre of power. Delhi will be inconsequential soon and the signs are all there…it is fast becoming the crime capital of the world.