As Gurucharan Das says in India unbound , the baniyas (merchants) were always looked down by us Indians. Pt. Nehru famously said to JRD Tata that "Profit is an ugly word". Things started changing with the reforms of the '90s. Another equally illustrious leader taught India the need of growth , profit and all the things associated with capitalism. I started appreciating the growth of Indian industry, felt that making profit wasnt really such a bad idea and looked up to the Mahindras, Ambanis and other Indian industrialists for inspiration. However , over the last few days I was made to think by two different sources - a blog and a news article.
Sobha De , one of the wellknown Indian media personalities posted an article on Ms.Nita Ambani , more famous for her last name and these days for her appearences in the Mumbai Indians dug out. The article was typical of a celebrity interview glorifying minor details about Ms.Nita. In her favour, Nita Ambani does run a school and heads charity organizations that do their bit of work. So if everything looks well where is the contention ?. Here it goes, her son prefers only organic veggies for his pets and the bill comes to a whooping 35K per month (my god that is close to my monthly income!!! ). Then there is the 1bn$ home she is overseeing the construction off along with the private jets, her famous diamond collection, the life style and various other things that come with being a celebrity. Am I really getting jealous here ?. No absolutely not. I finished reading the article nonchalantly but then some comments caught my attention. I was surprised with the amount of criticism there. Surprisingly a Nitin settled in some alien country (US probably) had some advise for "Indians" on how to get out of poverty. (point taken sir !!) . It is just surprising how people still hate the rich.
So the second article on rediff was a conversation with Azizul Haque, former comrade of Kanu Sanyal , the founder of the naxalbari movement. A skim through this article showed me how deeply affected people are at the lower sections of the society, giving me an idea on what motivates them to revolt. After a recap of his association and the background of their struggle , Mr. Azizul finally concluded that Kanu Sanyal's suicide shows that Chariman Mao's ideologies have no place in this world.
These two articles while appear entirely disconnected are attached by a slight strand that keeps two differnt sections of India together - The poor and the rich. (while people like me oscillate somewhere in the middle). So I started questioning again - Is socialism the answer to India's problems ? Is making money , building companies and enjoying the comforts that comes with it so bad that half of the country despises you ?. Is democracy so problematic that people turn against their own government ?. Are chinese happy with their form of government?. I dont think so.
First of all you can never own any land in China . You are allowed to use the land in the government's control but nothing belongs to you. Additionally ,you cant speak against the government , you dont have a free access to media, news is given to you and as we are witnessing now, if the communists think a company is out it is out Period. They simply rule ruthlessly (isnt that the way china has been ruled since eternity ? ). Can I live in such an environment ?. May be I can if I were born and brought up there. After enjoying the freedom democracy provides I would resent such a control. So while I am seriously concerned about the problems we have in India and highly sympathetic towars the deprived sections of the society I feel captialism , democracy and freedom form a back bone on which we need to take India forward.
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