Politics, Politicians And People
When we hear the word politician, words that come to our mind are corruption, crimes, liars and many more. We Indians do not agree on most of the topics but if you ask the above question to anyone, the answer would be synonymous. So who is to blame for creating such a persona about politicians? Well, in all probability the one responsible the most are politicians themselves.
The country is made up off people, including politicians. Whenever there is a scandal showing a politician taking bribes, the whole nation jumps on the ship blaming politicians. That is one of the few occasions you can see people of India united. But in everyday life, normal people are taking bribes for doing smallest of jobs. So if the people of the country are doing it, then it just gives green signal to the politicians as well. I'm not saying politicians do not hold any responsibility, but that, if we have to blame someone, first we have to take a look at ourselves.
Politics in India is run like a family system. When the head of the family dies, the next in line takes his or her position. The same goes for our political system, in that when a party leader resigns, the immediate person to look for will be his relative. Instead of having the thought of elections, they have a thought of bringing the relative of the outgoing leader. In this age where even a child has a mobile phone in his hand, people want the country should run as it did during the old ages (mughal rule etc- where the son would take over the chair after his father). Another important issue is that poverty in India has somewhat taken a back seat while it has been rising all the time, just like our population. Also India has a literacy rate of only 60% where as countries like Cuba, France, Netherlands etc have literacy rate of 90% or higher. We have the resources to do it, but the inner voice is missing.
All in all the system has to change if we want India to move further. I remember reading an article written by the former president of India, Mr. A.P.J. Kalam. In that article he said that our government should be aiming at a new India by 2020. According to me it will take more than just a few statements or words of encouragement for the government to start thinking about the country rather than themselves. Also by 2020, global warming would have taken a tremendous turn towards damaging the world, we would be fighting for our lives by then. Well here a question comes to my mind, which is more lethal, global warming or our government? At that time also the government of India would only be worried about how they will hang on to their chairs or posts.
A saying goes that a country is fare reflection of its government and people. Well going by that, India would not look like an ideal place to be. Yes there has been improvement as we are growing at an average rate of 8-9% GDP. But at the same time rate of corruption and level of greed is also growing at a tremendously high rate. So it's like everything is balancing itself.
Indian government also has few good men in its cadre. They are all trying very hard to do something for their country, make it a self-sufficient nation. But they are not allowed to do any progress by other officials running the system. The recently ongoing nuke deal between India and USA has been the talk for the politicians. Some are interested, some are not also for sure there will be some who don't give a horse's ass about it. Whenever talk about moving forward comes, everyone is like "hell yeah, we will make India the best place both economically and educationally". But when the time comes to move forward, then all of them just want to stay were they are.
This sort of attitude does not take the country anywhere except backwards. It will be an arduous task to get India to the top but when we believe only then we can reach the top.
I'm pretty sure that if anyone from the past, who fought for our freedom, see the India of today they would again kill themselves. They fought for freedom and thought that India to come will be full of promises, but in turn it has been full of jokes. It just feels sad to see the state of our country, India. Though I myself have not done anything in my whole life for India and criticize our country at every opportunity I get but I stand for those who have been doing something for our country without any selfish motive involved. I m not a true Indian, I can say it loudly (not proudly) because only those can call themselves true Indians if they have ever done anything for their country.
We the people of India have become inure to this situation and are ourselves reluctant to do anything about it. We have to stand up and speak for ourselves because the time has come when situations like corruption, racism, rich-poor inequality, poverty or illiteracy can be eradicated from our country we call India. If we change then the politics and politicians will definitely change.
Indian Point As Backdrop
THE small hamlet of Buchanan has become a popular news conference locale in recent months. Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, there has been broad public debate about whether the Indian Point nuclear power plant there is a target for terrorism.
Showing at the plant has promised plenty of news coverage, and many politicians have taken the plant's officials to task over various issues, including shutting the plant down. But more and more plant supporters are now accusing politicians of jumping on the Indian Point bandwagon and exploiting the issue for their own political gain.
Central in this backlash is Gavin J. Donohue, executive director of the Independent Power Producers of New York. Mr. Donohue has accused politicians of using the plant as a news conference backdrop and ''inducing hysteria and fear in residents.''
Mr. Donohue, whose trade association represents electric generators and marketers, contended that ''these politicians know very little about a complex issue'' but have simply seized upon it to get themselves some camera time. He called their calls to shut down Indian Point permanently ''a self-serving attempt to take advantage of Sept. 11 by manipulating the fears of Westchester residents.''
''It's political opportunism by politicians who don't know the impact of such a decision,'' said Mr. Donohue. Closing the plant, he contended, would increase electric rates for residents by 40 percent and cost more than 1,500 jobs. It would also delete a tax base of $45 million and $356 million in payroll and expenditures that the plant adds to the local economy, he said, and overtax the state's electric system.
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and Senator Charles E. Schumer have appeared in front of Indian Point. So have Representatives Nita M. Lowey and Eliot L. Engel, both of whom have advocated closing or decommissioning the plant.
History of India
Later, successive empires and kingdoms ruled the region and enriched its culture - from the Achaemenid Persian empire[1] around 543 BCE, to Alexander the Great[2] in 326 BCE. The Indo-Greek Kingdom, founded by Demetrius of Bactria, included Gandhara and Punjab from 184 BCE; it reached its greatest extent under Menander, establishing the Greco-Buddhist period with advances in trade and culture.
The subcontinent was united under the Maurya Empire during the 4th and 3rd centuries BCE. It subsequently became fragmented, with various parts ruled by numerous Middle kingdoms for the next ten centuries. Its northern regions were united once again in the 4th century CE, and remained so for two centuries thereafter, under the Gupta Empire. This period, of Hindu religious and intellectual resurgence, is known among its admirers as the "Golden Age of India." During the same time, and for several centuries afterwards, Southern India, under the rule of the Chalukyas, Cholas, Pallavas and Pandyas, experienced its own golden age, during which Indian civilization, administration, culture, and religion (Hinduism and Buddhism) spread to much of south-east Asia.
Islam arrived on the subcontinent in 712 CE, when the Arab general Muhammad bin Qasim conquered Sindh and Multan in southern Punjab,[3] setting the stage for several successive Islamic invasions between the 10th and 15th centuries CE from Central Asia, leading to the formation of Muslim empires in the Indian subcontinent, including the Ghaznavid, the Ghorid, the Delhi Sultanate and the Mughal Empire. Mughal rule came to cover most of the northern parts of the subcontinent. Mughal rulers introduced middle-eastern art and architecture to India. In addition to the Mughals, several independent Hindu kingdoms, such as the Maratha Empire, the Vijayanagara Empire and various Rajput kingdoms, flourished contemporaneously, in Western and Southern India respectively. The Mughal Empire suffered a gradual decline in the early eighteenth century, which provided opportunities for the Afghans, Balochis and Sikhs to exercise control over large areas in the northwest of the subcontinent until the British East India Company[4] gained ascendancy over South Asia.
Beginning in the mid-18th century and over the next century, India was gradually annexed by the British East India Company. Dissatisfaction with Company rule led to the First War of Indian Independence, after which India was directly administered by the British Crown and witnessed a period of both rapid development of infrastructure and economic decline.
During the first half of the 20th century, a nationwide struggle for independence was launched by the Indian National Congress, and later joined by the Muslim League. The subcontinent gained independence from Great Britain in 1947, after being partitioned into the dominions of India and Pakistan. Pakistan's eastern wing became the nation of Bangladesh in 1971.