ABOUT INDIA AND CHINA

Let us be clear about it. China is FAR ahead of India, many many milestones away. There’s no doubt about it. We don’t need a Freidman or Kaplan to tell us the obvious. BUT if anyone thinks India is losing out to China, they couldn’t be more wrong.

I am proud to be an Indian. India is a thriving democracy. This is a fact just as sure as the above fact is. In a democracy we take everyone along with us when we move forward. This necessarily takes time. We are a complex peoples. No country in the world is as diverse and no other country in the world has a representative of almost all the races known to man. These are not small things. Anyone will tell you that.

Therefore, unlike in a communist country where freedom is regulated and people are ordered to think and feel, we in India are free to think and feel. We need to be convinced that every forward step we take is agreeable to ALL of us. This necessarily takes time. BUT the end result is also necessarily better - the preferences and collective wisdom of such a vast peoples is incomparable. Think of all the pent up emotions of a billion people that have been ordered to move ahead. The explosion is going to be horrific. Much better to express yourself every now and then, even if the rate of progress must be sacrificed along the way.

And unlike non-communist capitalist countries that are free to think, but race ahead with only the fit, leaving everything and everyone else behind, you get to be a world class economy, you get to be number one, but we all know what happened to the man who left his wife, children, family and friends behind, exploited everyone he came across to get ahead – He did get ahead, but collapsed in the end. Greed always leaves egg in the face.

The CWG says a lot about us. Chaos until the curtains unveil – and then India, even with India’s most hated man Kalmadi around, shows everyone that we are second to none. India is the ideal country. It is a country that ought to be. It’s a country like no other. It’s a country that all other countries must emulate and aspire to be. We are not here to win the battle were here to win the war. We’re here for the long run. Let the others run till then…… Our time is coming. India is a ‘lamba race ka ghoda….’

Er….. on hindsight I should have at least written it around August?



November 2010