"Dear Dr. Manmohan Singh,
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Once I was asked to write to you as part of a Letter-a-thon to the PM initiative. This is the letter which I never got around to sending.
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Let me begin by stating that I am a fan, as in, am still a fan. A lot of people seem to think that a chest-thumping gorilla will be the true representative of India. I disagree. Quietness or loudness has nothing to do with inner strength.
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A fan of you, I must clarify, not of your rotting Family driven corrupt party that uses you as a pawn in their dirty games. You were the visionary tasked with saving India, while others were busy stuffing their pockets or plotting a mosque destruction for political gain. You made a decision to let the evil foreign money in.
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That was 20 years ago. I am part of that economic section and age-group of India which benefited. There are still hundreds of millions of our countrymen who remained untouched by these changes but as an individual, if I crib about how my life has turned out, I deserve a punch to the nose.
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The Lok Sabha elections are around the corner and all indications seem to point to your government's exit. I feel extremely happy about that. Your present circle of friends is an unsavoury one and the sooner they are kicked out of power, the better it is.
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You are a honest man yourself but compelling circumstances prevent you from being effective anymore. It is best now that you leave, as Maun-mohan Singh to your detractors, as the guy who never spoke out. But some of us know that actions speak louder than words.
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The alternatives to your government are not awe-inspiring but deserve a chance to implement their promises all the same. Democratic change is good. It shakes things up. Different parties, different philosophies. In a country like ours, who can really tell when the right idea will click?
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As you would know, India is always getting written off by the realists. This can't be fixed. That'll NEVER happen. Ha! Good luck with that! So on and forth, from its very inception. "The existence of India is in itself a miracle" school of thought is the only respite in those dark moments.
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The critics rightly cite this "It could have been worse" defensive line as an excuse of mediocrity. Come to think of it, in any God-forsaken situation, it always could have been worse! That just can't be a real excuse.
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I feel extremely lucky to have seen in part, the older India of Doordarshan, pension plans & Ambassadors. I KNOW things have changed... drastically. The pessimist might rightly say that now we have an India of MTV Roadies, 2G scams and BMW-hit-and-acquittals, certainly a bigger tragedy.
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Shut up, pessimist, I say. Enough with the downers already!
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You rarely smile these days, indeed have very little incentive to. A very gentle, wise man's smile does make an appearance in some earlier images of you. A smile of belief, it is, I might add.
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You seemed to know that India would be up to the task, the second time around the foreigners came back in, unlike 250 odd years ago. However different and regionalistic, we were one nation now. That Indian was an established identity and given a reasonably level field, an Indian could stand toe-to-toe to whatever or whomever he had to face.
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Optimism and confidence alone never fixed anything. But however misplaced, they give us beautiful illusions of possibilities. Possibilities that were visible only when you showed the guts to take us there. If I were to use a weird metaphor, you were our economic Felix Baumgartner (Super-cool man, sir, the first man to jump from space to earth. Check him out on YouTube!)
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I think you must be worried by now about how long this letter is getting to be, but guess what? That's how true fan letters look like.
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You, sir, have done more than most people in India's history to advance India's cause. Behind those bottle-glass lenses and underneath the blue turban, resides a very sharp mind who did his bit despite the muck that surrounded. Some people did emerge to realize their potential thanks to your mostly lonely battle to push forward your reforms.
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It is for them to pick up and run the race from here on in. The naysayers may b*tch, but the race is on. The CAG is an ultimately answerable to government body but it is refreshingly fond of slapping its master in the face, if all the scams it has been unearthing are any clue.
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The media (when it is not discussing Pamela Anderson on Bigg Boss) has a TRP/readership incentive to name and shame every two-bit man-in-power accused of corruption and sexual harassment. The courts are in an unhealthy hurry to confirm death penalties but the urgency & pressures may soon begin to tell on the lower courts too, where some of the justice may be delivered during the lifetime of the disputing parties.
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Anna Hazare's movement and its political offshoot, the Aam Aadmi Party may yet fizzle out but the sentiments they generated will not. Upcoming leaders in the BJP/Congress genre of parties may think thrice before even thinking of any underhand dealings. Fear of being actually being punished for wrongdoings may no longer a theoretical concept in the circles of power.
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If the above read like a lot of Mays, I am sorry, because it is still April. Sorry, I also make really bad jokes sometimes... Yes, there are too many mays, I know but I am sure you already knew that too, you being a two time Prime Minister and all. It don't seem like that scared you from doing what you needed to.
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After all, there are only a couple of options. (A) Do something about it (B) Roll over and die. And God knows that there's enough of us that even the smallest percentage of people doing something about it, would mean a huge lot of something being done.
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Happy Baisakhi and Happy Bengali New Year to you, sir! You must be wondering, where and why this dosage of the can-do spirit is coming from!
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Regards
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PS: Did I tell you that you and I share the same birthday? OK. Now I did. Just an interesting side-note."
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