The widespread publicity received by the CWG mess has drawn equally diverse responses from across the globe. A common emerging thread seems to be the loss of national pride even among those who otherwise consider nationalism a dirty word. As if it were not quaint enough, there is a palpable--though hitherto non-existent--sense of embarrassment and shame at the way soiled linens from the CWG complex were splashed across the web.
Such curiously misplaced sense of national honor and public dignity is quite baffling. Though several facile excuses have been served to reclaim spent glory, the CWG rot being a function of birth pangs seems to possess most takers. Sadly, even those more restrained and detached from the "Yippee" exuberance are nonetheless tarred by this phenomenon. Once international interest subsides and foreign teams return, court historians and Delhi sultanate's mandarins will declare victory and head home--TV studios and broadsheet pages that is. It is precisely why there now is a serious urgency to decouple national pride from the success or failure of CWG.
While the perceptive causes are 'Jugaad' and 'chalta hai,' themselves a bastard progeny of the protectionist era, the root cause is Nehruvian socialism, the lifeblood of protectionist tendencies. The dynasty's patriarch bequeathed the country with a deadly ideology and a moribund culture that wiped out the dignity attached to responsibility and enterprise. In pandering to the lowest common denominator of a newly unshackled populace, it offered a numbingly false sense of security that rested in continuation of a stolid status quo. With mediocrity thus metastasized, and then duly lionized by his daughter Indira, it was only a matter of time before the bills came due. That inception has now engulfed the nation, and will perhaps consume it, if it hasn't already.
Whatever the outside chance for salvation, lies within. The culture of grievance and sleaze will need to make way for a public hunger for merit, accomplishment, and recognition. Whoever manages to fire the imagination of a sulking public in some such way will have a wonderful job waiting for him...or her.
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5 comments:
socal,
Wow! I have read a few posts on this blog. Most have had generous elements of sarcasm and satire. This came, so to say, "straight from the heart". You have identified a grave problem among Indians - that of acceptance of mediocrity - as if it is the nitrogen in atmosphere and cannot be helped.
But in our society what is the incentive for striving for efficiency? Perhaps, that there is no incentive for efficiency & merit, in itself is a problem created by us, the common people.
I have no doubt the Nehru-Gandhi family had a great role in enshrining this mediocrity in matters of administration, but I do not think they were so influential so as to make mediocrity trickle down all the aspects of our life.
Usually, I'm quite pessimistic about India, but somehow your post made me see these things in great clarity.
The reasons are not hard to fathom:
When the words "secular" and "socialist" were introduced into the Indian constitution, the reasons and the effect was known by the chosen few. The public remained unaware. Slowly and surely these concepts and their usage has eaten away our genius.Even the word "pseudo-secular" presupposes that those who use it support "real secularism", whatever that means. Our ethos, our culture, our roots, our genius, our very existence is Hindu. Secularism takes away everything Hindu: we will always be subjected to the whim of the "minorities" because secularism entails that the government cannot engage the "majority". Everything we hold dear will be contemptuously swept aside by the secularists. There are professors in West Bengal and JNU who actively decry "nationalism" and teach this concept. No wonder Communists, Marxists, major national newspapers etc casually repeat these same concepts without batting an eyelid.For Communists/ Islam / Christianity, it is always the greater "brotherhood" or "ummah", that has precedence.Our children are taught Marxist history and are completely unaware of our real struggles.Our judiciary is completely infected with this deadly virus. Fortunately, the works of some historians such as R.C. Majumdar, Jadunath Sarkar etc are there to give us a correct picture. However, it is inevitable that the conflicts between groups and the government will keep increasing because you either give up everything that you believe in or go with the flow. General apathy or sullenness is bound to occur.
socal, good post.
looking at the international media response to the mess, it is fair to say that cwg is already a failure. all talk of linking it with national pride is an excuse to gag the media and avoid some embarrassment for the congress party. in effect, the cwg is an organised event for the congress to loot the public exchequer of one of the largest sums of money.
i completely agree with you that the cwg event must be delinked from national pride. befitting the saying "patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel", congress party is trying to rally support for its misadventure.
the bad publicity generated by cwg has affected indians to a large extent. this includes those haughty, chattering elite -- they derive their sense of intellectual superiority by habitual self-flagellation before their white masters. for them, this is just another opportunity to pass a condescending remark on those "other" indians. if we are not seeing them deluging the media, it is because the cwg show is organised under the super-honest pm and the super-efficient cm.
pervasive mediocrity is a universal phenomenon and just limited to india. a few visionaries rise above this mediocrity to drive successful companies/organisations/nations. it is a pity that in india, these men are limited to the private enterprise. the political class seems to attract the worst talent. and as you have pointed out, the system kills any one with the slightest of ambition to change the status quo. nehru has long gone but his legacy continues to haunt us. while our economy has discarded its strictures, our political class is still stuck in nehruvian socialism. this disconnect is reflected in cwg fiasco. for our grand old party, it was another opportunity to loot. it failed to see the larger picture; it clearly failed to understand the aspirations of the people. for indians, it was an opportunity to showcase our coming of age.
the last time there was such a disconnect, the congress party failed to relate to growing hindu assertiveness. it resulted in ayodhya movement. a strange coincidence that ayodhya is also in the spotlight during the cwg fiasco.
Wow - so according to idiots like seadog and 'Hindu Fundamentalist'. it's the 'secularists' that have caused the current fiasco - need I remind you that it was the BJP - those stalwarts of Hindu fundamentalism - that secured the right to waste the taxpayers money - oops, I mean have the 'honor' of hosting the games in the first place! A right, secured by a generous bribe - oops, again, I meant a 'donation' of 100,000 dollars (!) (yes, that's OUR taxpayer's money folks!) to he people who voted in favor of Delhi!
The reason all those lame-brained hindus who rail on about 'secularism' seem to have forgotten something:
a) over 90% of the crap brought upon Hindus is started by Hindus themselves;
b) If it weren't for hardworking minorities sending remittances from the Gulf by working for generous Arabs - India would have been in the waste bin of the world a long time ago - we are only getting good press because our corrupt expats are bribing scumbag America Jews to write good things about us;
c) Even if all the minorities were kicked out of India - Indians would still be fighting each other over caste, creed, linguistic and water/food rights - to say nothing of money and land rights!
Dear, the reason India is secular is because we need to be UNITED to keep the country strong - otherwise if we keep on bickering about how 'different' each one of us is, we'd fall apart!
Hey, I have a solution to your problem - leave India and go to Nepal. It's a Hindu country. None of that secularism nonsense there. Don't expect a warm welcome; India (under the BJP) supported the corrupt monarchy which was overthrown recently - by those very own socialists these commentators damn.
Amazing that they equate Hindu assertiveness with an act of vandalism - the tearing down of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya! So breaking stuff up is Hindu assertiveness! Wow! Just like the Taliban tearing down the Barmiyan statues!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
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