Arnab Nandy

arnabnandy87@gmail.com

THE APOCALYPTICAL HOUR

When you have 500 million educated young people unemployed, who have no hope of a decent living, or access to basic amenities like healthcare, you cannot expect them to add value to society. That is Narayana Murthy’s analysis of the current Indian scenario.

No wonder, politics today is ruled by lunatics and desperados who fish in troubled waters. A certain politician in his infinite wisdom wanted to ban computers and English! It rings bells to what a Pakistani maulana said the other day: ‘Democracy is anti-Islam’!

Just think of Salil, Rahim and Tony who had passed out of college two years ago but were still unemployed. They were sitting at a dhaba and smoking when the local leader of a political party approached them. “We are calling a rail roko next week. If you guys join us, we will give you Rs 500.” Would you blame the three unemployed for taking up the disruptive work? It’s only a Road to Terrorism. Then you wonder why terrorism succeeds so well in this land. You have human cannon fodder— intelligent, perceptive, innovative, ready to help at the drop of a hat.

You may say `Troublemakers are all over the country – Naxals, moral police, bandh monsters …’ The educated unemployed have so many choices before them, except of course a job profile.

If Pakistan had not descended to its present abyss of chaos, it would not have been sending misguided young men like Ajmal Kasav across the border. Now with the alarming rate of population explosion and burgeoning unemployment in India and Pakistan, it is the apocalyptical hour of Uriah Heep!