Why the world is so complicated?
We seem to be living in a civilised and yet a contradictory world!
Everywhere, from USA to China. Rulers are doing things that don’t seem to make s sense!
Why China is antagonising large parts of the world? In Hong Kong, Taiwan and South China sea?
As these lines are being typed there is tension and flare-up on the India-China border in the Ladakh area. And the minds of Indians and, even in the outside world must be disturbed. Are we living in a civilised world? Are we living in the 21st century or in some primitive times?
Only we have read in the histories of the Greek and Roman World we have read about the invasions. Of “Barbarians”, the term applied by the Greeks for all foreigners and only these later barbarians finally succeeded and the Roman Empire got weakened. And fell apart in the 7th century and the world went through a dark age. But today, the world is very civilised, yes, we live in a civilised world and we see a new type of barbarians seems to have still occupied with the minds of some regimes and some parts of the world.
Luckily, we live in a globalising world, the economies and communications and much else seem to have integrated the world and the large extent of the territories breathing easy in a fairly democratising socio-political and cultural International world.
In this time and historic point it is really galling to see some dictators. Are still indulging this luxury of indulging in territorial aggression!
Territorial aggression today’s world is perhaps the most uncivilised conduct. Yet you see what is happening in Ukraine and Belarus and in the middle eastern countries.
There is no other way in which we can find out how still some parts of the world suffers from such uncivilised conduct. And every day, we see in the news channels, TV screens are bloodied by violence and much tragedies and civilised people are forced to the streets and in spite of the knowledge and awareness people have to shed tears and cry to live in a more open world and open societies. India, next to China, ironically or otherwise carry the world’s largest populations, China with 1.44 billions and India 1.36 billions and yet the Chinese regime known for its finicky sensitivities don’t care for dialogue and exchange of views and learn to resolve disputes in a civilised manner. To come to underhand deals is not diplomacy and it is this underhand deals seem to have led to the latest flare-up.
Now, turning to the domestic scene there are issues and issues arising out of our day to day events. One the economy seems to be caught in a bind. The finances are in shambles and the Finance Minister is not seen in public and the banks are also in a difficult position. The industrial scenario is mixed. Auto sales seem to be picking up somewhat.
But it seems a long journey. As for agriculture, there is good news. The agri scene is upbeat, the extent of the Kharif sowing is picking up, thanks to improved rains. There is the very positive sales of tractors, the three major tractor making firms have reported almost doubling of units sold compared to last year and this must boost the spirits of the policy makers. However, that we like to draw attention is that the spirits at the grassroots are still confused, jobs are not coming along too soon and we need definite policy articulations that must enthuse the general public.
Yes, there has been good rains and much farming activity. But what about the generation of employment beyond the one scheme, the 100 days employment guarantee scheme?
The future of the cities in terms of governance and expansion are still vague. The Covid has proven that the urban density in the absence of real estate moving towards the suburbs is going to create more problems that solve future urban issues.
May be the need to get the mayors of the bigger cities must be elected directly by the city dwellers instead of the present day councillors methods so that the mayors might have more powers to spend the resources and also become more accountable to the urban citizens.
Also the future cities must be more widely disbursed with the current expansion of urban transport, with more and longer metro services so that there is enough space for people in the cities and the inevitable growth of slums are not going to disfigure our future cities. Much more important is the sort of society, we visualise in the future growth of cities.
Also the quality of governance is very much tied to the larger question of civil society participation in urban governance. We have seen recently many videos of European cities, the urban scene there is very different, very opitimistic and very open and we see a happy urban population going through their daily routines. There are so vast pedestrian spaces, all urban lines, both trains and trams seem to have been taken underground so that there is lot of space over ground and the parks are vast and green.
May be our planners must have toured the Western cities and have seen the very fantastic new architecture that makes some of these cities a delight and so much fulfilling !
The contrast between these cities and ours here is so striking. Where are our enlightened, public spirited citizens? Where is our new generation educated enlightened public spirited elite?
Here the sort of people who enter politics is anything but enlightened. You have to see some of the more well-governed States that have fallen into a rut.
How to expect the villages, the small communities, the minorities to fell secure and self-reliant.Self reliance country would emerge only where there is an air of freedom and democratic governing institutions. So, what we are advocating is a honest self-introspection and not feeling complacent and defending blindly all our mistakes in governance. Let us do many new radical changes in our rural governance.
Our plea is that the Indian elite must learn to live in this contradictory world!
We, the people, must become more committed and learn to live more courageously and Independent mindedly!