Reflections on the year gone by

After a decade a mixed achievements it is time to look forward for a period of faster growth and more even spread of prosperity in the country. India has done well to hold on to its own during the two significant downturns in the decade (the dotcom burst in the early 2000’s and the more recent 2008/09 recession). It has received all round praise for its Macroeconomic policies and the growth rate it is clocking year on year. We have won a war in Kargil but did not do as well in handling internal strife’s Maoists, Kashmir and Northeast. Poverty is in general declining but we are nowhere in the human development index (119th rank out of 169). India ranks 84/180in the corruption perception index, we have to go back to the drawing board on how to tackle this cancer in the system (In the government as well as the society).

With all the above we can take comfort in the fact we are still the largest democracy in the world and the most stable one in the south East Asian region. Democratic institutions see to work with all the limitations.

However the recent events CWG, 2G, Justice Balakrishnan, and Adarsh etc should be a serious cause of concern and puts a big question mark on our faith in the overall governance and the institutions.

Serial scams are draining the citizens’ belief that the country is in the right hands. The Prime Minister is an honorable man and no doubt the cleanest public figure in the country today, but what is the use if his men are stealing the wealth of the nation.

30,000 crores spent on the CWG games and no one is sure how much was spent usefully. As per UN estimates we could have built 2 crore or more toilets in a country where >70% of the population do not have access to toilets.

The 2G scam is even more scandalous, the related Radia tapes show the depth of collusion between Politicians, Journalists and the Industry. Popular Journalists passing off as defenders of truth in public life where shown to have feet of clay.
I am not confident that anything substantial will happen in either of the above cases since the independence and integrity of the agency probing is itself under serious question. CBI creates big news conducting raids and then goes dead silent for years. As I write this the IT appellate tribunal has spelt that Win Chadha and Ottavio Quattorcchi have indeed been paid bribes by AB Bofors while the same CBI is trying to close the case against Quattrocchi. So we know where the CWG and 2G investigations will go.

It is a bitter end to the year 2010 with a whole lot of scams and a lot of questions in our minds. Let us hope that this decade will see more constructive politics and continued prosperity in the country.