The Great Indian Banana Republic ?

A German Business daily has called  India  a  ” Banana Republic ”  instead of  an economic super power [quoted by Mohan Murti , former European Director of CII in his article titled ” Is the nation in a coma? ” – The Hindu Business Line dated  31 May 2010] .

We may feel offended but with all humility we should admit that there are enough  indicators to substantiate this perception  during the last six months  –  The IPL  high drama involving a nexus between politicians and business people ,  the Madhu Koda  interest in Libya ,  The Shibu Soran drama being played out daily in Jharkhand against all canons of political civility , The “go slow ” or calling off  the CBI enquiry against Mayawati in return for a tacit support for the UPA  Government in crisis  in Delhi ,  the naive political approach in dealing with a major rail mishap by Mamta Banerjee  , the  2 G spectrum deal involving corrupt practices ,  the Air India express accident and its fall out and possible reasons , and to top it all , the repeated Maoist actions against the innocent civilians in Dantewala  -all point to a lack of political will to deal with such incidents in the larger interest of public good and instead resort to ” patch up ” actions to save a government in the Center or in a State .

The European mind or for that matter even any sane Indian mind cannot help lament the state of affairs of our nation now  – more cell phones than public lavatories , man made disasters / tragedies  due to  irresponsible mining in Karnataka or late diversion of a holiday train to another platform in Delhi etc . In addition , the general public is fed up with the fraudulent  and dishonest way  the politicians are amassing wealth and perks . It is therefore a matter of time when the pent up anger  will make people take to the streets to retaliate .

Let us hope that such a day do not come in this country which is so rich in resources and expertise but so inept in managing it !!.