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Independence Day balancing acts

The grand theme of India's place in the sun is much discussed at home and abroad and, unsurprisingly, there are divergent and even conflicting visions of where the country is and where it seems to be headed. At home, visions of "a new India in a new world" range from the extremely upbeat to the sceptical and positively downbeat. The supporting analyses and arguments are rooted, at one end, in bullish projections of Indian economic performance and development and in uninhibited realpolitik. At the other end, they are rooted in a preoccupation with basic livelihood and human development issues and with serious concerns over foreign policy directions. President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, in his inspirational speeches, has picked up issues from both ends. His grand vision — what he thinks must be the singular goal of students and youth — is the transformation of India into a developed country by 2020. In his latest August 14 address, he comes up with the novel idea of a sense of Parliament resolution "that India will get transformed into a safe, and economically developed nation before the year 2020."

Unfortunately, this kind of transcendalist vision does not command much credibility in India. Notwithstanding annual economic growth rates exceeding 8 per cent for three consecutive years and other accomplishments, above all in the field of democracy, of which Indians should be proud, in order to be a true believer in `2020' you need to persuade yourself that the world's largest mass of basic deprivations and other structural features of a less-developed society can somehow be overcome within a decade and a half through a `national awakening.' Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, taking his cue from Jawaharlal Nehru's August 1947 call to "accept the challenge of the future," addresses the question in the context of 2006. To his credit, the latest Independence Day address does attempt some reality testing of `Vision 2020' without directly taking it on. Dr. Singh is far too learned an economist not to note the troubling contrasts — between the unprecedented prosperity and the deep agricultural crisis, farmer suicides, life in urban slums, "vast segments of our people... untouched by modernisation... who continue to do backbreaking labour... [and] continue to suffer from iniquitous social orders," and so forth. The national challenge, he correctly proposes, is "to address this duality" and overcome it. As a recently emerged political leader, he has also some interesting things to say about the "two major threats" to internal security — terrorism and Naxalism. Dr. Singh is positive about good neighbourly relations all round and specifically détente with Pakistan while cautioning Islamabad that unless it takes "concrete steps to implement the solemn assurances it has given to prevent cross-border terrorism against India from any territory within its control," Indian public opinion supporting the peace process will be "undermined." However, just as it looked as if the Prime Minister was going to develop an interesting thesis, he loses the plot. The second half of the Independence Day address makes immodest and non-credible claims that the United Progressive Alliance Government has done a great deal to transform life and livelihood in both town and country and indeed for all sections of the people. Without batting an eyelid or so much as mentioning the latest move to blunt and weaken the Right to Information Act, the Prime Minister registers the "hope" that it will "empower our people who will be able to use their rights to make government more accountable." It is clear that reality testing from the ramparts of the Red Fort has its limits.

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