PM Manmohan Singh, Independence Day and Common Man

       On sunday, when PM Manmohan Singh ji unfurled our tricolour, lot was expected from him by the Common Man. But that resulted in a disappointment. His speech had everything from socio-economic problem to the high growth rate of development after the recession. But the stark reality is the increasing wedge between economic development and the Common Man.

    Yes, this was the landmark occassion that he was only the third Prime Minister to have reached the seventh year in office. More significantly, he is the first non-Nehru family Congress Prime Minister to have achieved this distinction. But the story he told about growth and develpment after recession is more a repetition than new one. The work done by the UPA-1 government is more comendable than this UPA-2 one.

  On the issue of Kashmir violence, he has presented only a political roadmap whereas the need of the hour is overall development of the region. Jammu and Kashmir need a plan which will create confidence in the people that Central Government has a genuine concern for the people of that region.

      Similarly, our North- Eastren region also need holistic development. Our PM gave more emphasis on "Discussion and Dialogue" but the reuirement is more. Apart from that,  region requires economic as well as  social development. The aspirations of the people must be fullfilled then only the youth may leave the path of violence.

He had told Naxalites to abjure violence, come for talks with the Government and join hands with the authority  to accelerate social and economic development. But to persuade them to leave violence is not easy. The Central as well as State Government must work in tandem for development of the neglected part of the country. Moreover, they work honestly to rise above their personal and political interests to meet this challenge.

Furthermore, the spiralling price graph, and even more so by the insensitivity of a government that suggests that inflation is a price to pay for growth make the life of the Common Man very difficult. Mr. PM has not suggest any measure taken in this direction.

Overall, I think our aspirations from Dr. Singh are very high and the apathy shown by the other parties in UPA-2 towards the policies led to the dismal show of him. Further, he did not deal adequately with burning issues like the situation in Kashmir, price rise and international relations.

Now, UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi came from abroad and said that guilty must be punished after the CommonWealth Games, I think must boost the moral of the Common Man that in future she will look into other matter of importance.


 

Whose Mumbai is this?

Mumbai belongs to Indians.

A celebrated and oft-quoted passage we read is
"Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measures, but very substantially. At the stroke of midnight hour, when the world sleeps, india will awake to life and freedom." 
                                                        Jawahar Lal Nehru

He was talking about India and Indians not about any Delhiite, Mumbaite, Harayanvi , Marathi , Bengali etc. Irony is that, at that very time India  had as many as 568 Princely States and now after 63 years of Independence we are still not Indians but people having regional identities.

This system of regional identities is not an Innate event but engineered in our mind by the political opportunist cutting across all the party lines. They have a misconception that masses are still ignorant and they will fall into the trap of regionalism and other petty issues like casteism etc.

Two years ago I was working  in  Pune,  after spending weekend in Delhi I was returning to Pune . I boarded a flight from Delhi to Mumbai , after reaching Chatrapati Shivaji Terminal I took an auto, the driver was basically from Allahabad. I asked about the growing tension in Mumbai created by opportunist (read Politicians), he told me that he was as much against the opportunist of Hindi speaking States as against from Mumbai. Then he dropped me near a taxi as after that place autos could not ply till Dadar. Intrestingly, taxi driver was from Nashik, I asked the same question, again response was same. Moreover, he told me that there were more important issues for the people of Maharashtra and Mumbai than creating furore in the life of ordinary people for such a petty issue. I was astonished to found that he was well aware of the problems in his state than some of the literates of the same state. He told me that these opportunists did not cry for the suicide of the farmers in the Vidharba region, but worried about nothing.