The initial euphoria was followed by Prime Minister Modi making all the right noises about pulling India out of its apathy and leading the country to the world's center stage. The PM's Independence Day speech, his UN General Assembly address preceded by his call for "Make In India" and followed by the spectacular show at Madison Square Garden in the US and finally his call for a Clean India. And of course the spectacular success of Mangalyaan !!!
While the average day Indian stood by, all starry eyed and in awe of this great orator we chose as our 15th Prime Minister, it was but natural that the new government felt the immense burden of the expectations of a billion plus people. An expectation for a change. A change for better.
But then, as a nation are we ready for that change ?
Uplifting the country out of its many vices may be the government's responsibility to an extent, as in providing and ensuring an environment for that positive change but the commitment to change and actually changing for better is definitely the responsibility of that very average day Indian who voted for change.
The immediate answer to my question above, would be "Yes, of course". Probably that was the reason for a resounding victory by one single party in the elections. The nation was tired of hearing the excuses of 'coalition dharma'. Sounds good, isn't it !
So the next question is, what has the average day Indian, like you and me, done to usher in that change ?
We have debated the performance of the new government innumerable times. . .1 month. . .60 days. . .100 days..etc..etc. If the same parameter was to be applied for us masses, what would we have to show ? Frankly, pretty much nothing !!!
For as a commoner, rushing about the day for his work, his family, his friends, his leisure and such, the country has become the last priority. We have conveniently placed the task of governance into the hands of a few, while the billion others go on with their lives expecting them few to make lives better for us.
Having said that, I do not recommend everyone to leave everything behind and jump into the service of this nation. No. Serving the nation or having our own individual action plan to make this country a little better does not require the ultimate sacrifice. All it needs is a little compassion and the sense of duty.
Lets take corruption as an example. While we all crib about the rampant corruption prevalent in public offices, how many of us have actually stopped being corrupt since we voted for change???Transparency International puts India at 94th position among 176 countries on the corruption scale, so what have we, the people, who are actually the part of this problem and also the same people who call for change, done about it ??? I have my doubts that the corruption index would see us moving up the scale anytime soon and its not just the government's fault, we are equally a part of this well oiled machinery.
Some might say, that corruption is prevalent only in a particular set of environments, like government offices or police. So to take another example, is our pathetic sense of conduct on roads. India has the dubious distinction of having the highest road accidents anywhere in the world, with 1,30,000 deaths annually. I am sure that the statistics would have hardly changed in the last 100 days, since we ushered in the much needed change. Have we actually started driving with our seat belts or helmets on ? Have we stopped talking on the phone while driving ? Or have we at least stopped behaving like F1 racers at traffic stops and ensured that we stop right at the STOP LINE and not ahead of it ???
Examples are far and many, but will we sit up soon and start bringing in the change that we so much desired. Will each one of us realize that bringing in change starts from each one of us individually.
Pessimism, is not my agenda here, but introspection is.
Time for me to introspect . . .for you to introspect.
Its time, India needs to introspect.
While the average day Indian stood by, all starry eyed and in awe of this great orator we chose as our 15th Prime Minister, it was but natural that the new government felt the immense burden of the expectations of a billion plus people. An expectation for a change. A change for better.
But then, as a nation are we ready for that change ?
Uplifting the country out of its many vices may be the government's responsibility to an extent, as in providing and ensuring an environment for that positive change but the commitment to change and actually changing for better is definitely the responsibility of that very average day Indian who voted for change.
The immediate answer to my question above, would be "Yes, of course". Probably that was the reason for a resounding victory by one single party in the elections. The nation was tired of hearing the excuses of 'coalition dharma'. Sounds good, isn't it !
So the next question is, what has the average day Indian, like you and me, done to usher in that change ?
We have debated the performance of the new government innumerable times. . .1 month. . .60 days. . .100 days..etc..etc. If the same parameter was to be applied for us masses, what would we have to show ? Frankly, pretty much nothing !!!
For as a commoner, rushing about the day for his work, his family, his friends, his leisure and such, the country has become the last priority. We have conveniently placed the task of governance into the hands of a few, while the billion others go on with their lives expecting them few to make lives better for us.
Having said that, I do not recommend everyone to leave everything behind and jump into the service of this nation. No. Serving the nation or having our own individual action plan to make this country a little better does not require the ultimate sacrifice. All it needs is a little compassion and the sense of duty.
Lets take corruption as an example. While we all crib about the rampant corruption prevalent in public offices, how many of us have actually stopped being corrupt since we voted for change???Transparency International puts India at 94th position among 176 countries on the corruption scale, so what have we, the people, who are actually the part of this problem and also the same people who call for change, done about it ??? I have my doubts that the corruption index would see us moving up the scale anytime soon and its not just the government's fault, we are equally a part of this well oiled machinery.
Some might say, that corruption is prevalent only in a particular set of environments, like government offices or police. So to take another example, is our pathetic sense of conduct on roads. India has the dubious distinction of having the highest road accidents anywhere in the world, with 1,30,000 deaths annually. I am sure that the statistics would have hardly changed in the last 100 days, since we ushered in the much needed change. Have we actually started driving with our seat belts or helmets on ? Have we stopped talking on the phone while driving ? Or have we at least stopped behaving like F1 racers at traffic stops and ensured that we stop right at the STOP LINE and not ahead of it ???
Examples are far and many, but will we sit up soon and start bringing in the change that we so much desired. Will each one of us realize that bringing in change starts from each one of us individually.
Pessimism, is not my agenda here, but introspection is.
Time for me to introspect . . .for you to introspect.
Its time, India needs to introspect.
