WHAT AILS INDIA–GRINGLO

A friend of mine of Indian origin who lives in Canada sent me some amazing photographs of animals and birds in that country taken by celebrated photographers. I know—as do many readers –that Canada is a breathtakingly beautiful country. On a visit to that country a few months ago I felt that Canadians are a lucky people. Americans too are a blessed people having being born into or migrated to a nation that lacks little.

Three thoughts crossed my mind when I saw the snaps.

The first thought was ignited by a comment made by a Canadian after viewing the splendid snaps The reader asked; We Canadians are blessed to be living in such a splendid country Why then are we a nation of complainers?

The second thought was this: Why are Americans so unhappy?

The third thought was: Why are we in India seemingly incapable or unwilling to solve any problem and are content with ‘somehow’ improvising in the face of crisis or worse still resigning to them as if it is our fate?

The simplistic answer to the first two questions may be [I request readers to suggest more answers]; Man is inherently a creature who is never satisfied. The minute one want is met another springs up. When most wants are met boredom sets in and man imagines new wants and craves for those wants that now assume alarming proportions.

As for India I propose what I call, THE GRINGLO THEORY.

The word GRINGLO stands for GREAT INDIAN GRIDLOCK. Let me explain.

Let me take the issue of corruption. Whenever I write an article on this issue I get a predictable and justifiable retort; Ravi we all know that corruption is rampant. It is of no use writing about it. Why don’t you suggest solutions for a change?

I understand and entirely agree that it is easy to indulge in armchair pontification. But I am afraid there is no dearth of solutions. Why do these solutions not work? That brings me to GRINGLO.

There is in India a gridlock at work. This operates as follows;
Someone might say that when a person is caught with his hands in the cookie jar he ought to be given swift and just punishment. This is how it is in the least corrupt nations of the world.
But look at the following scenario: You report the matter to a police station The police official refuses to even register your complaint because he has already received the proverbial telephone call from a higher up NOT to register. You manage to use your contacts to not only register but get the CBI to enquire into your complaint. The CBI takes years before submitting a report –obviously doctored at the behest of top politicians-that the evidence is not persuasive.

Let us now assume that you have enough ‘influence’ to get past this hurdle and are persistent enough to get the matter to court ten years after you first filed a complaint at the Police station. The court process takes another ten years. As the court rises on the day of judgment you are told that the evidence is flimsy, and the politician is allowed to go scot free—baizzat. The judge also has received telephone calls. You decide that it is useless to try and curb corruption since those whose duty it is to do so are themselves compromised.

This is the kind of gridlock that stymies any solution to any crisis in India. That apart we have the ability to NOT let sleeping dogs lie. Two recent headlines remind us of this habit

[1] Ram temple should be and will be built at Ayodhya: Advani
[2] The Union HR Minister has said that he will revive the 3 language formula in educational institutions that will require students to learn English, Hindi and a regional language.

Take Advani’s announcement. One would have thought that his party the BJP would have been licking its wounds and decided that there is only so much mileage in raking up a dead issue like the Ram temple. I would have thought that there are many far more burning issues that need to be attended to which the current government is not even talking about. If these are articulated and BJP takes action it can galvanize the public But the GRINGLO effect prevents the BJP as it does the nation from thinking in a solution oriented manner. Indeed what it says about the BJP is that the party is trying to solve either non existent or wrong problems.

This is also what Kapil Sibal the HR minister is trying to do. I thought that the language issue, a long moribund one, had settled down into a natural course with people deciding for themselves what is good for their kids. By and large the consensus was that English was required from the employment point of view and kids learnt the mother tongue as a matter of course. One learnt any other language depending on practical needs. Thus I learnt Oriya when I worked in Orissa and my Punjabi friend Anil picked up Tamil when his family settled down in Chennai.

Into this placid scene enters Sibal and stirs up a hornets nest and promptly comes a retort from Karunanidhi. He will soon ask if North Indians will condescend to learn any one southern language if as Sibal says, national integration is the motive behind his policy initiative. Nehru tried this idea and failed. But GRINGLO compels us to revisit old issues and tilt at windmills and skirt more important issues..

I would have thought that poor standards and lack of access to even primary education were the main ills But GRINGLO sets in!

The new austerity drive is my final example. One laughs at the idea of ministers traveling economy class across the world. It is GRINGLO that prevents us from asking if it is necessary at all for these ministers to travel to these countries!

I had to attend a wedding at Pittsburgh last month. We set out by car at 6 in the morning for the muhurtam at 10 a.m. It takes little more than 3 hours for the journey. Near Baltimore we encountered a maze of flyovers of varying altitudes. Confident that our GPS would guide us we set forth. Soon we found ourselves traveling in all directions on the grid of flyovers but returning to the starting point. Repeated attempts to try other roads in the system brought us back to our starting point. At one stage we had to park our car on a busy stretch and have lunch. Unlike in India one has no one to seek help from. Finally we found ourselves out of the maze but in the wrong direction—we were headed home. It was 3 pm and we were back home! Later that night I rang up my newly married friend to apologise for not showing up at his wedding.
‘Shut up Ravi. I am in Hawaii on honeymoon Don’t disturb me‘ he shouted.

That is what India looks like—a GRIDLOCK of the Baltimore sort..
Someone told me that our leaders are always telling us that the country is turning the corner. The question then arises; If we are turning the corner why are problem not getting solved?

I have an irreverent answer; We are going around a cylinder. Hence we are always turning a corner but at the end of the day we are back to square one or more pertinently at starting point.

But yet I am certain we will make it later rather than sooner. We have emerged from many a crisis and will emerge from this one too. The Indian spirit of endurance, of ingenuity and innovativeness will see us through We will prosper despite the GRINGLO.

K.R.RAVI
U.S.A