WILL 2014 PROVE RAHUL RIGHT ?
BY SUNNY THOMAS
Those who were looking for sense found it, and those who were
looking for nonsense fond it, too! In his speech at CIE, Rahul identified the
disconnect between the system and the people, and signalled the danger of
alienating sections of the people from the system. The speech, well-crafted and
read out, creates a constituency for the alienated, which commands a major
chunk of the votebank.
It could be argued, who created the system? Dr Manmohan
Singh, Sonia Gandhi, or Narendra Modi? The escape route is, the monolith State,
by which we mean the totality of the system, of which governance is only a
constituent. The system embraces the Opposition (always stalling Parliament),
the judiciary (never so friendly to the government), CAG (ever capricious), the
terrorists (never listening), bureaucracy (the power-crazy), the police (the
inhuman) and, of course, an angelic chorus called politicians!
The Rahul thesis will be tested in 2014, when the people give
their verdict. Till then, let’s blame it on the system. But it has a ring of
his grandma’s Garibi Hatao, and his great-grandpa’s envisioning Modern India,
and his own Dad’s Information Highway – all exclusive constituencies, to begin
with!
FOR WHOM THE BELLS TOLL?
Can you hear the bells? The bells ringing in Bengal! While in
the Railway ministry, sh was known as ‘Minister for Disaster’ because the
maximum number of railway accidents were during her tenure. In West Bengal, she
has become Chief Minister Disaster. The writing is already on the wall; it’s
only a matter of time before power slips out of her hand, or she slips out of
power! Having ruined the state economy, the Marxists have little chance of
coming back. Will it be the Congress’ turn?
SPACE TOURISM
Space Ambassador Sunita Williams was in India – not for a
holiday, but on business. His compliments to ISRO signals the purpose of her
visit: she came to sound some sort of tie-up between NASA and ISRO! That’s good
news for not only Indian talent but for Indian entreprenurisihp. The private
sector must be involved in not only funding but repeaing benefits od space
research, like space tourism. ISRO research labs must be set up at IITs to
shape young minds and to catch them early. Innovation and inventiveness are the
key to progress, as the story of civilisations will tell us, strengthened by
the recent Chinese and the Japanese examples.
GADGET FOR TOMORROW
There never was one like this, and there never will be one
like this! Out of the 8 billion, 7 billion people living on the planet has a
mobile phone. What is the secret behind the planet popularity of this gadget?
Mobility and wider application. Soon i-Pads will replace age-old newspapers,
will entertain, educate and guide while travelling. Crazy scientists even
suggest air sacks that become zero gravity air boats at the click of a mobile
phone will replace cars on the road, since people will prefer to swim and fly
within their metro to outsmart traffic jams.
Incidentally, April 3 marked the 40th anniversary of
mobile phones. This day 40 years ago, the father of mobile phones, Marty Cooper
of Motorola, spoke to his
competitor that his firm had won the
race and that he was speaking on the mobile phone! But 40 years ago, you
wouldn’t think of carrying a mobile phone to office, even if it was given free.
It was as heavy as a brief case and looked ungainly. Sexy phones came much
later.
Great is competition, the spirit of capitalism, without which
we would still be living in those primitive caves – perhaps ever happily.
