After running the country close to bankruptcy in 1992, the government did a decent job liberalising various policies. Consequently things changed and the country reached new heights. The economic growth made people more confident and all the time government (UPA or NDA) assumed, they had control of things. They had an “All izz well” feeling.
Almost 2 decades later, today’s India is different, it’s restless. The common man is growing impatient because of lack of opportunities due to a bluntly corrupt system. Now the common man wants a change, and he/she is ready to drive a change. The issue is that the government thinks it can deflect the issue by pointing fingers at the people involved and applying the divide and conquer policy. I think the government just doesn’t understand that while their ministers were busy making money a sea of change has occurred and now common people actually have a voice.
Let’s take the Lokpal bill, it’s a great way of bringing change in the current political and bureaucratic setup of India. Anna Hazare and his team have taken the government to task and may be things will change for the good this time. I think all political parties have been caught sleeping; the leaders have been is touch only with the wealthy in the country and now need a reality check, rest of India is no longer a mute spectator. Honestly the government doesn’t know how to stop the lokpal bill from going ahead. The traditional approach of breaking a movement by breaking people involved doesn’t seem to be working, and you know what that’s great! It gives me a feeling that change will come this time around.
The second and rather fascinating chain of events includes yoga guru Baba Ramdev, he is a genius. I am not sure why or what was in his mind, but, he took up two serious issues (black money and counterfeit currency) that has rattled the government to its core. The absurd way in which he was treated further goes to prove that the government has no idea how to deal with the demand people have. At the end of the day, Baba Ramdev stands as someone who has gone through a character check, attitude check and local support check and still stands firm on his belief. The traditional policy of deflect when you don’t what to talk about an issue has failed miserably for the ruling UPA Alliance.
The government was sleeping when India changed, I guess. Today the common man, with its brave civic society representatives are hell bent of bringing a change. The sooner our government changes its mind set the better it is, because, the movement seems to be going from strength to strength.
