Delhi always heaves a sigh of relief with the onset of winter only because life and living takes on the semblance of mild civilisation! The weather is not tortuous and allows for the mind to breathe and the senses to smile. But this year there is a pervasive mood of despondency, a mood that signals hopeless despair.
This has to do with the dreadful politics around us, the lies and hypocrisy of the many local events that unfold with each passing day, the corruption of those who are supposed to be the protectors of the law and the basic norms of life, and the desperate fact that India is stuck in a frame that is so old and unacceptable to its new and lively generation. That frame must be broken into smithereens along with the mindset of those who nurture the redundant mould.
China has moved way ahead, and we should compare ourselves to China, not to Malaysia! They wake up one morning, virtually, and discard the baggage of decades in one fell sweep because they know they have to take their people forward. The transition is bound to be painful as most such changes are. A sitting leader hands over to a younger more energetic and dynamic one.
In India this kind of sane political behaviour would be unheard of. We would be propagating and enunciating the failed positions of the past, distributing the soiled baggage couched in predictable rhetoric hailing a leadership that is old and doddering and who know no better. And with this we lead our people deeper into the quagmire of backwardness and indignity.
We are bankrupt both financially and intellectually. Therefore our leaders tend to wallow in populism and they put aside the real decisive action that is required for any real change. We waver on every difficult decision. We speak in two voices and we put our lack of cohesion and commitment to the fact that we happen to be a democracy. A rather easy and silly excuse because within the democratic framework much can be done if there is a will.
The real problem is that there is no will and there is no attempt at generating new formulae based on new ideas to grapple with the age old problems that besiege the subcontinent. There is no country across the world that is resisting change like we are. Our politicians are today immune to all the criticisms that are hurled at them. They no longer care about their reputations. A callous arrogance has enveloped them. It is an arrogance that comes when the end is round the corner.
Bill Gates was here this week having made a hefty donation for the AIDS programme in India. In contrast we heard the histrionics of our health minister, angry that some insinuations had been made about the number of infected people today and the spread in the future. Why do these ministers not change their boring ole tactics? Why do they not deliver results that are dramatic and which can be lauded? Why do they react like juveniles who have been reprimanded? Why do we respond in this pathetic manner? Why are we never embarrassed by our silly and stupid retaliations? When will the politician become a stalwart with an energetic mind, one that shows the way?
Even the fresh incumbents have adopted the strange archaic stances of those who are in their seventies. The energy of India is outside of politics, it is in the public domain but the tragedy is that the all pervasive government machinery does not allow growth, new ideas and change. They are terrified of the competition that a new ethos will bring in its wake and therefore they continue, relentlessly, to pull this country down. The politician turns a deaf ear and a blind eye to this terrible illness that India is trying to grapple with. It is all consuming like TB and AIDS.
There is a deafening anger in the people regardless of caste and creed. They all believe they have been exploited and let down. We all know that the constituents in our country allow themselves to be taken for granted but, so-much-and-no-more, prevails when leaders cross the Laxman Rekha. There is bound to be an upheaval in the next general elections.