Are we really a superpower ?

Are we really a superpower that we always kowtow or is it a mere illusion. I would say being a superpower would mean primarily among other things -  having a political influence, military might, economic superpower and being a leader.

It is very obvious by what is meant by political influence, military might and economic superpower.
What I mean by being a leader is a nation which has cutting edge innovation in multiple areas/disciplines, leads the other nations to the next big thing in science, defence, policy, thought leadership and vision etc. Basically a leader of innovation in all spheres.

The USA fulfills most of the criteria above and deserves to be a superpower. The other contenders are China, Russia etc. who do fulfill the some of the parameters but fulfil others. What about India ? I am not sure we have the political influence in South East Asia leave alone the world, we have to beg all the other nations to help us take action against the perpetrators of unimaginable terror in our nation. Even teeny weeny neighbours snub us.Military might ? We have a committed Armed Forces but are pretty behind on the technical/weapons superiority. We take years to modernize our Forces. Economic superpower - we cannot put a claim to this as well, we have a decent economy but that's it. We are exactly generating enough to feed our hungry people forget doing justice to massive population.

I guess we need to get our priorities right. Stop declaring ourselves as economic superpower and focus on pulling millions of people who are miserably poor. Basic human rights itself is a dream to a big chunk of the population - food,shelter and clothing. Get ourselves out of the cesspool of corruption, it is much much bigger achievement than sending multi billion dollar spaceships to places where people have been 30 years back. Figuring out a way to make remain 98% population to pay taxes is a bigger problem than hosting Common Wealth Games.

Superpower is just a tag. Self labeling yourself as a superpower etc. is ok but even maintaining a facade needs some semblance of credibility. What is point of calling urself a superpower if more than 40% of the people live below poverty line ?



Articles :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_percentage_of_population_living_in_poverty

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_in_India

Great Indian political dilemna

Indian electoral process and political  set up is much like us Indians - hypocritical in not serving the purpose it was intended for. We  do not attack a problem head on. We do not like to accept change or shortcomings. We just tend to keep a status quo but like to posture to the world that we have adapted and/or changed.

We have 4 choices for the  2014 LS elections -  A leader with a solid administrative track record but hated for communal agenda, a party with 2 consecutive terms in power - with an abysmal report card to show for it, a bunch of regional parties(communists included) with a local fanbase and national aspirations and a neo-stragglers on the electoral arena still learning their electoral ropes.

Knowing the Indian polity, this could again be a coalition govt. with God knows what kind of weird combination. Politics can throw some weird bedfellows but Indian politics tops it. Everybody parrots about their holier than thou unique ideology, but the only ideology everybody seems to believe in is power by hook or crook, nation be damned. So expect the lowest human behavior - a naked, rock bottom display of greed and gutter level mentality to come to the fore.  

Logic and analysis is not how we select our leaders.Performance reviews, vision, execution, efficiency and other metrics do not matter a jot. We have parameters like religion, caste, creed  etc. to judge a candidate. So that ways, regional considerations will play a big part. Every major regional party boss has a prime ministerial ambitions even though they don't have a foothold outside their state.  They are trying to cobble together their own version of third front. God forbid if these guys win a big share of the electoral. It will be a tower of babble out there with governments who wont last beyond a few months.

The grand old party cannot be dismissed right now, nobody rules a nation for 60 years out of it's 67 years of existence without  formidable smartness and clout. They made some real smart moves like NREGA, Food Bill etc. over the years with the focus on the right electoral group - the poor. Now these are the people who do not treat the election day as a holiday and go out there and vote. They attach some importance to their franchise and tend to vote for the most populist govt, which aint wrong considering the fact that it determines their survival  in an extremely overpopulated nation. The resources are scarce and the demand is too high. It is these populism and subsidies which help the poor survive. Congess almost clinched the third term but messed it up because of price rise.This will hit them hard, not the scams etc. as I don't think it matters, we have almost taken scams to happen when parties are in power. However in terms of what they have achieved for the nation is an utter disaster in the past 2 terms - inflation, decelerated growth and a pessimistic economy.

As far as the new kid on the block is concerned, it will take a time to mature. They tried something new -great !! However taking on seasoned politicos is a different deal altogether. Political experience cannot be replaced by well meaning naivete, especially in a diverse, no holds barred and stoop down to gutter level environs as ours. Also integrity does not mean competence & a honest person is'nt automatically an able leader as well. As it is they are had a hard time managing a state the size of UT, managing a nation can wait for some time.

Logic suggests that you go with the leader with a good administrative track record - Modi for eg. here would be the best bet. 2002 riots will be a concern to people but to be fair to him, there has not been a communal frenzy for the last 12 years he has been helming Gujarat. The other parties have had really dubious track records themselves w.r.t riots/communal clashes.Modi has proved his development track record and his actions after 2002 do not suggest that he is going to fashion a theocratic state like an Iran or Saudi.His vision for the nation are heartening. Some of his speeches are refreshing from the vacous or below the belt slugfest that we routinely witness to. I am not sure how much you can expect from Modi if he wins, as we do not what kind of allies he is going to be saddled with while forming the  government.

Whatever be the result of the election, people are desperate to see better times ahead. That needs involvement and effort from the Indian citizenry which we somehow do not bring to the table.

Getting Married in India - Get Bail - Part 1

Marriages are made in heaven !! Sure, if it turns out to be fine. If not you can experience hell, if you are a male and especially if you are in India.

Well for starters, we are a very confused and a rigid society. We think we are modern but stick on to our traditional beliefs, this way we feel we are getting the best of both the worlds but end up assimilating the worst of both the worlds. For eg., dowry laws, we have strictest dowry laws but at the same time dowry is rampant in our society. End result, the nauseating practice is alive and kicking but the dowry laws are used for purposes other than for what it has framed for. This can only happen in a hypocritical society.

The dowry law or 498 A is a non bailable, non compoundable and cognizable offence. You are a married woman and want to extort money from ur in laws ? You want to teach a lesson to your in laws ? You want to harass ur husband ? You have an affair and want to separate off from an unwilling husband - use 498 A. The Republic of India is at your disposal. Use the might of the govt. machinery, law and a crooked system.All you have to do is to just bury your conscience and be ready to file all kinds of cooked up charges.

The Indian system/machinery is an excercise in hypocrisy. We do not want to let go of evils in the society but to show to the external world (posturing that is),that we do, we come up with all kinds of cooked up laws. The draconian nature of the law can never be a solution to the problem. However it serves to advertise to the world how strict we are against misdemenours like dowry,rape etc. For eg. 498A, the anti dowry law was instituted in 1983 but practice of dowry continues unabated. However it has served as a nice weapon for some devious women who want to misuse it against the husband and in laws. As such, the law in India supports the more criminal minded party. Now we have some 'strict' rape laws designed to posture to the world that we are serious about rape. The rapes however continue like before. But nowadays there is a exponential rise in the the number of women misusing it for personal gain/vendetta etc.