"Serial blasts kill 60 in Assam, 450 hurt..." – Friday, October 31, 2008
"SGX Nifty opens 8% positive gap on Friday."
What an example of irony..! I've heard about a basic phenomenon – "Anything in abundance is not valued". Has our population hit such an excessive mark, that there is no value to human life in this country anymore?
There has been news every fortnight of a series of blasts taking place in some city / state of the Country and killing tens of people in each event. Be it the eternal J&K issue, Naxalism, attacks on Christians in Orissa, Maoism, Gujjars in Rajasthan or issue of North Indians in Maharashtra, every state of India is facing social unrest. Are we totally lost as a secular democratic country after 60 years since independence?
I agree that serial blasts in a town in one of the 'backward' states of India may not have the magnitude of hampering India's macro economic potential. But aren't we undermining the entire internal security issue while considering the macro economic factors affecting our growth? We have always been talking about the infrastructure opportunity so positively and thousands of crores of rupees to be spent to create and upgrade it. Doesn't it take just a few minutes for the terrorists and these anti-social elements to wreck the buildings, transport systems, bridges created over long gestation period?
Wherever the missing pieces are, we must act fast and put them together. We are in dire need of tougher implementation of anti-terror laws, better access to basic infrastructure including education & healthcare to the economically lower rung sections of the society, these made possible by strong anti-corruption practices. We must figure out how we, as citizens, could be involved in the entire process. And after deep introspection, I feel the entire anti-corruption issue starts from ourselves and from the smallest bribes we pay to get our daily tasks done OR just to save a few minutes of inconvenience OR a few necessary visits to the government office…
If this continues, the day is not far when the famous Jijibhoy Tower or the Dalal Street would have been blown up and still the market would have a positive opening gap on account of rate cut by some foreign bank...
Ashutosh Z
31st October, 2008
(Would appreciate your reaction on what can WE do as our bit...)
