Diversity of beliefs, religion, traditions, customs, language and cultures presents diverse opportunities and impediments the world over. What differentiates a progressive culture or government from one steeped in tradition and blind beliefs is the way difficulties and drawbacks are perceived, and addressed. The most developed countries in the world, at the best of times still have to grapple with myriad issues and internal conflicts which are social, political and fiscal in nature. The world has yet to witness or experience a perfect government, and indeed, governing is a thankless job. What keeps prominent personalities relentlessly pursuing the top posts of a country are the inducements and privileges in various forms that comes with the posts. It would be wishful thinking if we are to believe that leaders of the developed nations or states are above reproach; guided only by their altruistic beliefs and zeal. After certain permutations and combinations of the existing political and economic atmosphere, everything boils down to just a few basic factors that determines the level of efficacy of a government- readiness to usher in changes no matter how radical or unpopular such a move might appear initially, ability to reach out and stay connected with the masses through its various agencies, the political determination backed by action for curbing corruption, despotism and nepotism as well as the humility to respect and give space for other machineries such as the law and media to carry out their roles in the society without any restraint or suspicion of unwarranted influence.
China, the most populous country in the world beset with the accompanying problems of overpopulation and underemployment, after a long struggle, realised the opportunities presented by its inherent shortcomings and shifted focus from an agrarian economy to one with optimum utilization of the abundantly available manpower for production and manufacturing to become the largest economy, surpassing the USA in the process. Thailand, a small south-east Asian country has managed to utilize its agrarian economy to become the largest exporter of rice in the world, and coupled with the proactive development of tourist facilities, have managed to earn 10 percent of its GDP from the tourism sector alone, resulting in keeping rate of unemployment to less than 1 percent.
Cut to the present India, and by extension, our very state with the sobriquet “ mani gee leipak”- loosely translated as ‘land of jewels’. There is no denying that we are proud of our rich culture, customs and traditions and we would go to any length to protect and preserve them. We almost always refer to our ‘glorious’ past and ‘developed’ heritage at the drop of a hat. There is a sneaking feeling that we are becoming more than ‘proud’, that we have acquired a certain air of ‘haughtiness’ of a past we are unsure if we still deserve. It is time to introspect and reflect on the deviations, to own up our mistakes and review our moral and social standing. Everyone of us have a stake in making earnest efforts to make this state work and progress. It would be sheer foolishness to try and push each other off the boat as that will only result everybody getting capsized.
