Friday, May 20, 2005

moi on rediff.com: India dimming?

May 20th

in 'celebration' of one year of cohabitation. a rather dismal affair, upa governance so far.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mr. Srinivasan,

Can't agree more with your assessment of Dr. Singh's (or should I say Signora Gandhi's) pathetic gov't. It has done nothing whatsoever to help India domestically, just riding on the rising tide of the economy that sadly, as you pointed out, it's seeking to hold back with "progressive" schemes that would embarass Leftists even here in America. All of course, so that this tide doesn't swamp them and their political culture of corruption.

As an 2nd Gen. Indo-American, I'm proud of my roots but so dismayed that the old country is under such horrible leadership. In foreign policy, the best that can be argued is that India didn't disband all the armed forces it maintains on the border with China. This lovely little tendency to snuggle up to China, despite China giving India a nasty kick in the gonads in 1962 puzzles me immensely, as does kneejerk anti-Americanism and this idea that India and China ought to oppose the "evil Americans" (lol, some people just never learn from things like NAM).

Anyhow, your points on SEZs and so on are right on the mark as well. Have been reading your blog for a few weeks now and it's quite interesting.

-Rahul, high school student, Michigan, United States of America

Anonymous said...

I think the lackluster performance of India is due to the "democracy cost" that India is incurring.
Yes, I am suggesting that the economic development of India is not happening due to democracy but inspite of democracy.
In the most business freindly state of Gujarat the govt. requires years for land aquisition so that a good highway can be built. The reason being a multitude of small political factions trying to pull in different direction. What that causes is the removal of any long term, big picture view of projects . I cant imagine how it is in states that are not business freindly.

Anonymous said...

I had expected the article assessing the governments performance to be true and insightful.
I think credit should be given where its due and the rate of dollar coming down is pretty impressive(this comes from a man who is hurting the most coz of it).
Your whole article is with the assumption that India WAS shining and hence its now dimming. Lemme remind you Advani himself apologized for this slogan.
When you talk about Indias foray into the world stage with more open policies which normally favor the business class please remember the last government did exactly that and failed miserably.
I am not praising the congress or the left for that matter. Its totally insane what they are doing with the economic policies and i dread the day when there will be job reservations in the private sector too. BUT......
this is what the majority of people living in villages, slums, under paid workers want.
UPA is not in the governmet to make India a super power. They are there to give people what they asked for. Why do u criticize CPM, they have more seats than ever, which implies there are more people who disagree with u and me on this issue.
The bottomline is, people in India themselves dont know what is good for them and they are getting what they have asked for. Give me one good reason why cheap people like Mayawati and her party members get the opportunity to attend the parliament as elected members.
Indians always have believed that religion, caste and local issues are more important than economic progress and international image

Anonymous said...

I agree with Shan to a certain extent - that not many people in India know what's good for them. They are more passionate about other things than economy. That being said it was UPA which promised more to "Aam Aadmi". Now is Aam Admi really getting benefited? NDA, even though they srewed up many things, there was a general sense of achievement. India Shining was not totally an illusion..

Anonymous said...

What gibberish some of these previous comments illustrate: people in India donot know what is good for them, oh, so people sitting in the US know what is good for people in India? That smacks of so much global hegemony, the exact same thing that this blog space tries so much to fight against.
Contrary to the opinion of rich, well-to-do middle class migrants from India or in India, the people in India know very well what they want. They clearly want more domestic development as opposed to some nonsensical "enhaced global standing due to a seat in the UN Security Council" or things like that. And that has nothing to do with religion, caste or reservations. It smells of the dominant "ruler knows best" attitude when people sitting here saying they know better than the people in India.
Also, the term "India dimming" assumes India was "shining" before, which ofcourse was totally false. If India were truly shining, the NDA would have been voted to power with a huge majority.
I am not endorsing any policies of any political parties here, but this attitude of people sitting in the US know what's better for India than people sitting in India is exactly what the British had for the people in India: contempt. Get off your high horses, people in India know a lot better than you are ever capable of. If you care, shut up and go live amidst the circumstances. Else don't indulge in arm chair analysis of what's good for India. Incidentally, Rajeev indulges in the same critique-from-a-distance-but-never-step-in-the-mess game that the Indian Left has mastered..maybe, they are his true masters!

-Indian

Anonymous said...

And does the decency and integrity of Manmohan Singh be reminded every time his name is mentioned? How decent is he anyway? His financial integrity may not be questionable. But how does it cover the other glaring deficiencies in his character? If he is of so much integrity, let him fire Laloo, Sahabuddin and so many others, instead of defending these indefensible thugs.

Anonymous said...

Hi,

I disagree with the comments that Indian passed about others. I agree to an extent that people in India know what they want from government and they elect people accordingly. But, usually not all aspects are taken into consideration(by almost everyone). I studied in a premier institute like IIT and people will expect that elections for student bodies will be a serious affair with lots of cogitation and analysis. No way! Voting is on petty linguistic/engineering-discipline-fraternity feeling and so on...If one can see such patterns in IIT where people are "well-educated" then what to say of masses? Only after this experience, did I come to believe that voting in elections is mostly on either outright anti-incumbency or caste/religion basis. People tend to forget what government was provided by UPA earlier(although people did not vote for it recently) and soon this will be the case with NDA too which they voted out(which will do better in next elections by all probability). Anyway it is easy to dismiss all this "circus" as our "karma" (As we sow so we reap). A nation gets what it deserves. With recent skirmishes in Goa, Jharkhand, Tytler/Taslimuddin/Shahbabuddin/Laloo, YSR/Arjun Singh's Muslim reservations etc etc, NDA govt was not really this bad to be voted out. Maybe their campaigning(presnetation to masses) was not done well.
By the way by sitting in US in an armchair does not mean our heart does not bleed for India. At the same time it is preposterous to assume that those who are toiling hard in India are all patriots and nationalists. If this is the way to judge then our polticians who toil day in and day out living in India are really patriots? Also not all NRIs are villians who left India for greener pastures leaving their fellow-men in lurch. I guess one must not judge things so simplistically. And NRIs do contribute for growth of India in many ways which I need not mention. They are still Indian citizens(assuming they have not gvien citizenship) and have every right to criticise the govt.

Anonymous said...

TO the anomymous above,
I am also an IITian and the day I participated in one of the campaigning spearheaded by my seniors I stopped blaming people voting along sectarian lines or even for a bottle of liquor . If "cream of the nation" can be swayed by linguistic and regional sento then dont blame that poor farmer in Bhagalpur.

Anonymous said...

Do you see the NYSE or the FT100 taking money only from Anglo-Saxons

I suspect that until as recent as 1990, the above statement was true.

Anonymous said...

San,

I believe that your post made reference to the 'NYSE' and 'FT500' (sic). I, of course, can only respond to what you posted.

If you wish to assert that the Japanese, ASEAN, Taiwanese amd Gulf controlled interests made significant investments via the NYSE and FT500 )sic) prior to 1990, I would be most curious to see your source.

BTW, someone with your innate communication skills and knowledge of 'Western capital markets' should contact the EUREX and inform them that the 'Western capital markets are open to anybody' given that those ignorant leftsts at that exchange have filed lawsuits against U. S. exchanges.

Anonymous said...

san,

I have been reading stuff on this blog for quite sometime. never commented, usually never get into a pissing match on the net, never had the time to waste.

but you seem to be making lot of these prickly, i-know-it-all kind of statements. your above comment is totally f***ed up and shows your inability to process/analyze information. everyone has access to infomation. so doing a cut-paste or parroting the same shit is "NOT INTELLIGENCE". if u do not have the intelligence don't post your analysis. i do not have the time to show how f***ed your comments are. freaking idiot, talking about economies. rajeev's blogs cannot substitute for "education in economics". get some real education, prick, and do some thinking. and don't get into this "you are a leftist" shit. that is so lame and stupid.

Anonymous said...

I am not surprised by the last comment made on this blog; obviously by a leftist hate monger. He ususally comes on this blog to get his share of attention & to his credit gets enough of it. Never have i seen him come up with logical or balanced rejoinder (But than you can't expect that from a leftist).
San, you are doing a good job. Do not be bogged down by such a perpetual idiot (We call him "george" by the way,since he comes under anonymous.This time he used something else).
He is an unemployed leftist (surprise surprise !) who happens to eat,sleep,sh**,drink on this blog.
It seems he does have access to internet; but thats it. Beyond that its a vaccum. This low-life scum seems frustrated with life (surprise again?) & tries to create a minor ripple every time a new post is made here.
I guess San, its best to let barking dogs do what they know best. BARK.
Its height of optimism to expect any intelligent conversation with this gutter.
Let us all who really appreciate Rajeev's commentary & views make an effort not to react to this a**-hole.Let him bark & scorn.
Remember that there's only bark no bite to a leftist.