The change that India needs ...

Today, being 67th Indian Independence day, the day started with flag hoisting and Prime Minister's address to the nation from Red Fort, New Delhi. It was Dr. Manmohan Singh's 10th Independence day speech from that place. But there was something different today. To break the Prime Minister' monotone, Gujarat Chief Minister and probable BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi, addressed the nation today from a lesser known place in Bhuj, Kutch. Yes, Narendra Modi addressed the "nation", the media played it live and was also followed by comments from political analysts.

Modi was on a visit to Indo-Pak border to meet Border Security Force (BSF) jawans in Bhuj, specially because of recent incidents of firing along the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir. He wisely chose to be there when he knew that the nation will be following him as takes on the prime minister in his address.

Modi, in his address, took Prime Minister head-on and all the points raised by him were relevant. He challenged the Prime Minister for an open debate on various topics of growth and governance. This is more seen as going the US way of fighting elections and is very much welcome in India. Though there were quite a few instances of war of words in media between NDA's Prime Ministerial candidate Lal Krishna Advani and UPA candidate Dr. Manmohan Singh during 2009 general elections, this challenge if taken up will be a direct debate and should be the way ahead.

What I see in Modi's speech is "change"! There was a touch, though feeble, of that of the US President Barack Obama's famous election speech on "change". Direct television debates, instead of cold war of words, is the way forward. It helps one to directly compare and choose their leader. Voting for the leader, as against the party, should be encouraged, though party's define the idealogy - I believe strong leadership is equally important. If idealogy is the backbone of the party, leadership is execution - which should undoubtedly be strong.

I believe, until now, Indian politics has been leadership driven. It is the leader that the people vote for. For good or bad reasons it was the face from Nehru-Gandhi family so far and not the Congress party that has won! But there were quite a few elections in which people voted for party - mostly third front came in power in those scenarios. In 2004, it was Sonia Gandhi who was the face, but Dr. Manmohan Singh was made the leader; 2009, according to me, was different - it was still Sonia Gandhi's leadership that Dr. Manmohan Singh won. Yeah, we should start giving credit to individuals rather than party as a whole.

UPA and Third front, if at all it comes into picture, should also declare their prime ministerial candidate much in advance. This is a small change - but much in lines of what is partly in practice already. So Dr. Manmohan Singh or whosoever is declared UPA's Prime Ministerial candidate, sportingly should accept Narendra Modi's challenge (assuming Modi to be NDA's candidate here) and jump into the arena!

Forgotten Ratna - P.V. Narsimha Rao

Nehru had a dream, a socialist dream! Inspired by Soviet Union, Nehru showed the socialist path to India. He invested then limited funds in government founded enterprises - few among them are known to be the Nav-Ratnas (the 9 diamonds) of Indian industrial revolution. With that he also went on to put heavy restrictions on private investments in many of the sectors during this period, which is infamously known as the License Raj. During License Raj, private players could manufacture goods only with official license and quantity of goods manufactured was also decided by the government. Industrialist like Birla had to opt for other countries like Indonesia / Europe to setup their business instead of just knocking onto politicians  and bureaucrats door for as long as ten years to setup an industry.
By and large, the decade after independence was very crucial, as that decided the path India would take and as always changing an established system is always difficult - if not impossible. If License Raj was not enough, Nehru also promoted worker unions, who had their own set of rules. India being democratic country unions got employee friendly and went against the employers - going on strike being their ultimate weapon to turn on any argument in their favor. This made already inefficient and corrupt government establishments more inefficient and Nehru's dream more distant satellite.

In July 1991, it was P.V. Narsimha Rao's government who ended this License Raj and allowed 51% foreign direct investment in India. It was Narsimha Rao who with help of his team - including Manmohan Singh and P. Chidambaram - liberated India from the clutches of License Raj. There were some compulsions to do this as well (India was economically in very bad shape then and India had to pledge huge amount of gold in foreign market), but Narsimha Rao dared and did majors economic reforms in just 2 days (which actually continued until 2 years). Though this credit goes to Rajiv Gandhi, with Rao himself declaring that it was Rajiv Gandhi's undone work that he is completing, it was part of 1991 Congress election manifesto that was written under Narsimha Rao's leadership.
So to speak, greater portion of this credit should go to P.V. Narsimha Rao, whose bold decision gave India the much needed economical reforms. This more so because former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was much against this liberalization for government might lose control. But today after 21 years of end of License Raj, P.V. Narsimha Rao's work in still undone and economic reforms are still a way to go. This clearly puts Narsimha Rao in spot light in the history of Indian economy and makes him a true Bharat Ratna, though this award hasn't come his way as yet. His contribution is forgotten and there are hardly any government schemes by his name - more so the newly inaugurated airport in Hyderadad, Rao's home state, was named after Rajiv Gandhi.

References:
India Unbound by Gurcharan Das

Vande Mataram!

"Motherland" - what significance does it have in your life? Same as that you have for your mother?

Every citizen from day one is taught to respect his or her motherland. Right from childhood days, we pledge for mother India, sing national anthem with great pride in schools, sing our national song "Vande Mataram". Learn what great freedom fighters did for the nation, hear patriotic stories, watch patriotic movies, represent India or cheer for India everytime India participates in international events. All this and more in inculcated into every citizen from childhood days. This to make everyone patriotic, so that the person serves mother India in every possible way, everyday, every moment. This is how a nation grows. John F. Kennedy has rightly said in his inaugural speech - "Ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country".

Children grow into adults, start earning money, and sometimes fame as well. The first thing many of them try to escape is tax - by hook or by crook! We bribe, small and big, most of the time to avert paying fines or get things done - legally or illegally. Politicians very proudly and without much thought declare bandhs (strikes), acts of vandalism destroy national property worth crores in hours, in minutes. Scams, protecting scamsters, generating and hiding black money, etc. makes India that much more poorer. And still we say we are patriotic and we love our motherland!

We should ensure that every act helps India grow, directly or indirectly. Work for India, live for India and breath for India! That should be the mantra! If this happens, we need no laws! In a way, country having less laws have more patriotic people and less thieves! Why would there be a watchman where there are no thieves in the first place!

Whoever involve themselves in corrupt practices are not patriotic! They are anti-national elements and should be dumped in the Arabian Sea. No place for them in motherland!

Vande Mataram!

I'm Anna Hazare!

It is good to see India Awakening! Indians from all walks of life, forgetting their age, gender, caste, class, geography, were on the streets all over India, for a cause. That cause, as you all know is corruption. Corruption has been eating our country all these years, a major hurdle in development, growth, hurdle in the fight against hunger, diseases, illiteracy, injustice, terrorism, environment protection ... if not more. And it wasn't that the people weren't ignorant. They weren't acting. They didn't have support, didn't have ideas.

Anna Hazare, age 72 years, a social activists, a retired driver in Indian Army has driven India to a new awakening. A true patriotic person, did not stay back when India was fighting China way back in 1962. When the nation called for its people to fight for the country, Anna Hazare immediately responded. He has done a lot for the country before this anti-corruption movement. But this was different. Different as the nation supported him full-fledgedly. And certainly this is not his last.

Government on day one of Annaji's fast, thought this to be some kind of movement that will be fast forgotten. Thought it will get burried in other breaking news. Thought it might just hit routine prime time debate on some news channel for a day or two. What politicians think and know is that public memory is short. Government said "Who is Anna Hazare!". They even came up with government form of toothless Lokpal bill, just in case...

Young India sporting "I'm Anna Hazare" cap

Quick came the answer, this time from the youth. Young India in their 20s gave a fitting reply. Said "I'm Anna Hazare", every Indian is Anna Hazare and do not mess with us. We decide. Government measured the potential this movement had and cleverly, this time, came in to support the movement before it was too late. Formed a panel containing 5 politicians and 5 participants from the civil society, to work on Jan Lokpal bill, which they promised will be floored in the lok sabha in monsoon session of parliament. An unprecedented thing. All thanks to Anna, for forcing the government to act on something that was in cold storage for 42 years.


Who's going to stop us! We, the civilians, rule!

India won yet again, this time a bigger win. But this is just the beginning, has a far way ahead until this bill is passed and India puts an end to corruption and corrupt people.

India Tastes Victory ...

Dhoni lead the way, in style, to another victory! This has given the nation, especially young India, joy like never before! Most of what young India heard about, and clips of Kapil with the cup in '83 that we saw on television was all second hand experience! This team has given us first hand experience, the real taste of victory! A much needed victory to prove to ourselves what we are capable of. We are the new champions! We are the world!

Team India did it for 1.21 billion people of India; for Sachin Tendulkar, who tried hard to achieve this feat for last 21 years in 5 previous world cups; for Guru Gary and for themselves. What started with an early exit from 2007 world cup, got us this title! Yeah, I believe, it was that spark that has now ignited in a flame, in each one of us, to achieve what team India collectively achieved. Immense talent, no doubt, is there in this team. But, moreover, India wanted to win very badly (tears of happiness just proves it). That urge got us through some of the toughest and challenging moments that team India faced during this world cup.

Wins against Australia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka were all big, and Indians backed the team all through. Indians, including politicians, businessmen, actors, all came in large numbers to witness this historic win. Celebrations, after the win in finals, ran throughout the night! India was glowing on a new moon night! This was the glow from within each one of us. Just wondering what kind of positive vibes a win could possibly get. 

While watching India celebrate the victory on a news channel, I saw a person with Indian tricolour in hand, with all emotions right up on her face, saying "Mere India ne world cup jeeta. Yeh India ke liye hain". I think and hope that this "for India" urge, will soon show up in other fields too, especially in politics. This may just be the beginning of a new era. Era, which will change India forever, for good and show to the world its true potential.

The Supreme Saviour!

"What the hell is going on in this country," the Supreme Court remarked as it expressed annoyance with the lack of government's seriousness in bringing to book alleged black money offenders like Hasan Ali Khan and asked for his arrest.

Hasan Ali Khan, who started as a stud farm owner with just 2 horses in Hyderabad in 1991, moved to Pune and Mumbai to grow as a gambler, betting on horses. He is now a billionaire with 8 billion dollars stacked in accounts abroad. He had/has accounts in Swiss banks with balance over 6 billions, which was recently moved out to elsewhere. This person having strong connections to the underworld, was introduced to the Swiss bank by none other than Dubai underworld dealer in ammunition. And, yeah... and, guess what, he is a free man in India! Being arrested and left out for crimes like owning a fake passport, has a strong backing from someone very mighty.

"You (Enforcement Directorate) know about his arms deals, smuggling cases and his other connections and still you allow him to come on another day. Whose convenience is sought to be seen? We want a simple answer why is there not a custodial interrogation (of Khan) when the nation's integrity and sovereignty is at stake.", questions honourable Justice of India.

Honourable Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, who is fully aware of his responsibility, is simply incapable of acting and says that compromise has to be done to run a coalition government. But, in the case of appointment of Chief Vigilance Commissioner (CVC), it wasn't compromise in the name of coalition. Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, Home Minister P. Chidamabaram and Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj were part of the panel to select the CVC. Swaraj's demand to expand the panel were put down and C. J. Thomas was appointed as CVC with 2-1 majority against Swaraj's wish. The President too had given a go ahead for this appointment. This was another attempt to have individuals, who can do fovours for Congress, holding important positions.

Supreme Court, after Sarosh Homi Kapadia took over as the Chief Justice of India in May 2010 (earlier CJI, Balakrishnan, who held office for three years, has allegedly amassed disproportionate wealth), has come out against the government time and again on issues from washing of paddy in the last monsoon, to eviction of Thomas as CVC, to oust Raja and initiate investigation in 2G scam, to stacking of black money in tax haven and many more occassions.

"I come from a poor family. I started my career as a Class IV employee and the only asset I possess is my integrity", said Sarosh Kapadia, son of a defence clerk, in one felicitation function held for some other judge. An honest person at the helm can work wonders for India.

Finally, in the PIL filed by Ram Jethmalani, SC orders CVC's eviction. Surely, what government wants is clear from acts like these, doing every bit to pave way for corruption. In times like this, we, the people of this country, have hope because and only because Supreme Court is above the government - directing it to act. Many thanks to SC and moreover, thanks to Honourable Chief Justice of India Sarosh Kapadia, you are the Supreme Saviour!

Freedom to choose!

A man walks into a restaurant and places an order for four veg meals, one each of Gujrati, Punjabi, Maharashtrian and South Indian. When he has all four meals at his table, he chooses something from each and asks the waiter to take back the rest.
Yeah, this is one of the recent television advertisement of direct-to-home service provider, which allows its users to choose individual television channels, instead of predefined packs of channels.
This is the new world with cut throat competition, in which each company tries to attract consumers with unique features built into their products.
If one mobile service provider comes with dynamic cellular plans, then other comes up with one-second pulse rate. If one bank works from 8 AM to 8 PM, other bank works 365 days a year. All in the same game, to leave others behind in the race. Even public sector units (PSU) have their sleeves rolled up. Chandrababu Naidu even ran his government in Andhra Pradesh in much the same style, as corporate world does. Many started calling him the CEO of the state, and not CM (chief minister).

Let's start from the first line all over again...
A man walks into a polling booth and gets lists of cabinet ministers of different political parties or alliances to choose from. Say, for UPA we have Mr. Manmohan Singh as Prime Minister, Mr. P. Chidambaram for Home, Mr. Pranab Mukherji for Finance, so on covering all major portfolios and one local representative. Similarly, for NDA we have Mr. L. K. Advani as Prime Minister, Mrs. Sushma Swaraj for Home, Mr. Yeshwant Sinha for Finance and a local representative. When he has the ministers on the menu, he chooses one for each portfolio, plus a local representative. Giving India more power to choose. Intelligent India, intelligent government!
With main portfolio already allocated, having a mix of all parties, the chosen prime minister now chooses his other cabinet and state ministers from among the elected local representatives, which together will form the face of the government. All other elected local representatives alongwith the losers competing for major portfolios will form the opposition. Party lines broken!
What say... poor uneducated people, a very big number in itself in India, won't understand and will not be able to register their vote? Doesn't matter, they can just choose a local representative, as they do now, and/or a prime minister, leaving everything else blank. A valid vote! For blanks, we may consider local representative filling in for them at a later stage. Open for debate!
Election for educated will be online and/or in booth, and with UID chipping in.. it will just be easy. Is it not?! For others we have our electronic voting machines to choose just the local representatives. Not bad!
Cutting party lines to individuals, ending casteism and still having a good, knowledgeable opposition will get competitiveness into governance. Just what India needs badly!

India Infected!

India completed 61 years being Republic! After 61 years, it really feels bad, that India is suffering from cancer. Yes, I say it again, India has cancer, a disease which is curable only if detected and treated at an early stage.
What are the chances of survival?
Wait, do not jump to it right away. One does not ask that question to a person suffering from cancer! It is simply not appropriate!
Okay! What type of cancer is it? When was it detected? Is it being treated? Who is ...
Wait... one question at a time. It started as brain tumor; but as tumor is an abnormal malignant growth of cells, it has rapidly spread to other parts of the body. Now most of the parts are infected. And it is known to everybody since long, everybody who keeps himself updated. But nobody cared, nobody cares. It is not being treated. Even worse, doctors are acting as though they are treating India, disinfecting India off the fatal disease; but in reality they are the ones who infected India and are spreading it.
Now, before you pound me with your next question, let me mention the name of Yashwant Sonavane, probably not the last good cell to perish. That cell tried to punish malign oil mafia cells. There were quite a few Yashwant's in recent times, if you can recollect Satyendra Dubey and Shanmughan Manjunath.
What are the doctors doing?
Doctors are themselves malign! They have their hands dirty with 2G, CWG, Adarsh, .. all very recent and the list goes on. There are too many older ones, which I do not want to get into. Lessons learnt by 26/11 like incidents are easily forgotten. Doctors have the list of all malign tumors, with addresses from Germany; Swiss is willing to help. Only if doctors are ready to help India! Malign cells are making themselves strong... Hasan Ali's case, a Pune based man, who siphoned 6 bn USD from Swiss bank recently. India needs a good doctor and all malign tumors can be washed away. 
How will India get rid of cancer?
Good cells are too busy, don't want to understand the issues, not willing to act and not willing to appoint a good doctor! Instead, good cells get away from malign bodies and start a new life in foreign bodies.
What good cells need to do is to appoint a better doctor, get rid of tumors and protect new cells.
Apart from the above, it is very important that quality-good-cells get right up to the brain. Reservations should be done with. It is simple. If a family, because of limited resources, cannot provide higher education to both the children they have. Then most deserving child should be provided with best of conditions, so that he/she supports the entire family when he/she grows up and becomes wise. There is no point promoting the least deserving one and building inefficiency!
With this, you will see, India will not only survive till eternity, but will soon become a super-power! Jai Hind!

Terrific Tuesday for Indian Sports!

It had to be a very calm, cool, composed, a man with wonderful temperament, God of second-innings-on-day-five on with the job to sail India through and get an unassailable 1-0 lead against the once solid and unbeatable Australia. Yeah, it had to be our very own Very Very Special Laxman.
Aussies were on top of things and favorites for last one-and-a-half days of Mohali test. India finished day-four with 55-4 on board and with a target of 216. Though Tendulkar was at the crease with Zaheer, the top order including Gambhir, Sehwag, Dravid and Raina were in. I knew if India were to win the test from here, it had to be because of Laxman. It happened so, India lost Zaheer, Tendulkar, Dhoni and Bhajji much before lunch on day five, with a hurricane task of 92 runs still to get on Laxman, Ishant and Ojha. Laxman and Ishant put up a splendid 81 run 8th-wicket partnership, giving India a miraculous win. Not to forget, Laxman had a bad back all through this test, came in 8-down in the first innings and 6-down with Raina as runner in the second. But as Farooq Engineer said later during the day.. with bad back or with no back, Laxman was always going to be too much for the Aussies to handle!

I saw the final overs of this nail-bitting finish. Laxman was not only getting the runs, but also managing which singles to run for, which ones to let go and when and how long to expose the tail to the Aussie attack. One instance, when Ojha was trying to get a run not called by VVS, made our calm and cool guy lose his temper. This only showed how desperate he was to win the match for India.

VVS got unbeaten 73 off 79 balls (SR 92.4) with 8-boundaries and Ishant scored 31 off 92 balls, which happens to be the highest number of deliveries faced by an Indian in second innings of this test. With this win India proved they are number one test playing nation. Ponting also will now have to wait longer to register his first win as a test-captain against India in India, having played 6 games already and losing 4 off them.
For Laxman this wasn't the first time. He has done it time and again and that too against the mighty Australians. His 281-run memorable contribution with Dravid's 140-odd to win the Eden Garden test against the same opponent way back in 2001 was the greatest of all. India then were on a follow-on and Australia were on a winning streak, having won 16 tests before getting a beating from India in Kolkata. It is against Australia that he has got his top-four best scores; his average in the second innings is 50 - there's something very very special about him. Ponting also later during the day added that it was only Laxman that they were worried about.

This Tuesday hasn't been only about cricket! India won 5 gold medals in commonwealth games today! Two in shooting, one each for Abhinav Bindra and Gagan Narang, and three in wrestling for Ravinder Singh, Anil Kumar and Sanjay Kumar. All Indians are proud of their achievement and stand to salute their heroism.

Jai Hind ! Jai Maharashtra !!

True to it's name Maharashtra, in yester-years and today, has shown signs of being a great state. It has produced some (some? in fact many) great personalities. To name some very prominent ones - Chhatrapati Shivaji Shahaji Bhosale, Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Veer Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, Chaphekar Brothers, Jyotiba Phule, Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar... and this is just the beginning, the list goes on.

Hinduvi Swarajya was established by Chhatrapati (King of the Kshatriyas) Shivaji Maharaj (1642-1680). What started on 6th June 1674 at Raigad fort, Shivaji Maharaj built and expanded the empire. The empire, as in the map (1758), covered most of today's India. Shivaji was an able administrator, who in his government had modern concepts such as cabinet, foreign affaris and internal intelligence. His strong and able army was well organised too. And above all he respected all religion.

Lokmanya Tilak (1856-1920), a social reformer, leader of Indian Movement of Independence and one of the first and strongest advocates of Swaraj... his famous words quoted "Swaraj he maazhe janma siddha adhikaar aahe ani to me milavnarach!" which means "Swaraj is my bithhright and I shall have it!". British authorities called him the "Father of the Indian Unrest". He knew the importance of education and co-founded the daily - Kesari with Agarkar and colleagues. He enhanced social gathering by starting the famous Ganapati festival.

Veer Savarkar (1883-1966), a Hindu revolutionary, a politician who fought for Indian Independence, was educated in India and England. He organised an armed revolt against British empire and was sentenced to 50 years of imprisonment and was transported to infamous Kaala pani - Cellular jail in Andaman and Nicobar islands.

As I mentioned, this is just the beginning and shows how great people carved the state of Maharashtra. Maharashtra was formed on 1st May 1960 from what was mainly Bombay state in British Raj. Reorganization of British-formed states were done according the Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar's opinion of "One state - One language" and not "One language - One state".

Maharashtra, with history one should be proud of, is the third largest state of India, is second most populated state of India, is first in GDP (in 2006-07), is first in tax revenue generation, is sixth by literacy rate and first in the capacity to generate power. Jai Maharashtra!!!

Where are we lacking? It is an established fact that we are on the top as far as Indian states are concerned, but we should be the one leading India. There is no state level competition, is what we miss out on. Our current leaders, like leaders of yester-years should take the real work in hand and fight the problems India is currently facing. Nation first, then the state... should be the way for us Maharashtrians to go and other states to follow. Chhatrapati has shown us the way, Lokmanya has taught us, Veer's blood flows in us... it was "we", it is "we" and it has to be "we" to drive the nation to where it is destined to be. So as always, it is ...

Jai Hind! Jai Maharashtra!!

"Bharat - Ek Sone Ki Chidiyan"

The News:
-  10,000 tonnes of paddy rots in Punjab

The Woes:
-  India has 50% of world's hungry people,
-  52% of India's children go to bed without food daily,
-  7% of India's children are malnourished,
-  India ranks 66th off 88 countries in battling hunger

With all this and more, we still allow 20K tonnes of food stock rot each year. This is just the official figure. The unofficial figure is somewhere around one lakh tonnes of food stock. Reasons being ...

• Lack of covered godowns to store the stock,
• Lack of good supply system,
• No accountibilty and then the blame-game between central and state government,
• India's full-time agriculture minister, who is responsible to feed 1.2 billion people, is also food minister, consumer affairs minister, heads and looks into his party affairs and is also a full-time ICC president.

India's problems till late 80s were not the same as today. There used to be a deficit in food stock. In fact, Late Former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri had urged the nation to fast on Mondays. Even the so-called Indian middle-class was poor. But last couple of decades... India has become self-sufficient in food. On the other hand, there has been this criminal wastage of food stock. It neither reaches the hungry nor does it reach the markets, which would ensure price stability and lower inflation. These decades has seen the Indian middle-class prosper and many earning much beyond bounds.

Here is something to ponder ...

"Bachpan mein suna tha ki bharat ek nirdhan logon ka dhanvaan desh hain,

Bharat ko tab 'Sone Ki Chidiyan' bhi kaha jaata tha,

Ab Bharat ek dhanvaan logon ka nirdhan desh ho gaya hain!"

- Vinod Dua in Vinod Dua Live on NDTV India

India - A Third World Country!?!?!

A third world country... What do you think it means! What images cross your mind when you come across the term "Third world country"! Of a country that is left out. A country with poor and hungry people. Hmm.. let's dig deeper.

This term was coined during the cold war (1941-91) between the western countries, primarily United States (representing the first world) and Soviet Union and other satellite nations (representing the second world). The cold war was the continuing state of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars and economic competition existing after World War-II. Obviously, other countries that remained non-aligned were referred to as the third world countries. These non-aligned countries were primarily poor countries.

This changed post the cold war period, third world countries are now referred to as developing nations. What changed? Hmm.. something to think about. So is India still a third world country? Consider this...

• According to statistics, number of people below poverty line (i.e. people earning below Rs. 10 per day) is a whopping 30 crores (about 30% of india's population).
• Union Carbide wasn't setup in US, UK or Australia, but in India.
• Sub-standard quality of food grains, which is not consumed by people in developed countries is imported by India.
• Iron scrap containing radioactive material is still imported by India.
• Activities like ship breaking is carried out in India, as its laws on dealing with lead paint, asbestos and general worker’s conditions fall far short of Europe and the US. 

This isn't all in the list... the list goes on. But isn't it time to value our people and treat them in a more humane way!!! Ain't we demonstrating to the whole world with acts like this, that India is still a third world country!!! I would have used a more soothing word "developing country", but it hurts more when we refer to it as a third-world-country. And I think realising that India is still a third-world-country sooner would probably benefit us. Who knows we may all come together, use population to our advantage and turn India to a faster-developing country.