Saturday, September 23, 2017

The fate of bolder initiatives may lie in the hands of the timid

Some friends were over for dinner and the talk took a turn towards, GST, Demonetisation, Oil prices etc. Some known Congress supporters (beneficiaries of the erstwhile corruption driven systems) and Modi haters (yes some like these are still friends with me), laughed at the idea of building infrastructure - 'where is it' - they said? 
‘The more you build flyovers the more traffic snarls you will have around them. ‘
‘So what about the metros’? I asked.
 ‘Well it is a good idea but being badly done they said. Everybody is making money hand over fist.’ - they retorted. 
‘And the oil prices, why are they so high? I’m a common man, it is affecting me’ - angry not just with demonetisation & GST but also the high price of petrol.
Now, these are people who so eloquently describe the problems India has, as they’ve been doing so for years now. Ask them for a solution and they have none. 
All that the government is doing (has done so far) is going to have a positive effect after a lag.
Meanwhile, the cynics and skeptics will look good.
My hope lies with the poorer, less educated, less vocal voters. In their hands may lie our fate to move ahead with bolder initiatives for the future or we may succumb to the short-term fixes that perpetuate the interlocking mess that we find ourselves in, now seven decades after we got the chance to determine our own destiny.

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