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If The Tribune editors have titled 2011 as the ‘Year of Reckoning’ for India, it is meant to be both a warning to the nation and an opportunity to square the books. For as a new decade unfolds, there is as much wrong that the country would have to account for as it needs to be proud of. The year just gone by had reflected that disquiet. It ended with the odour of corruption becoming all-pervasive whether it was the 2G scam, the Commonwealth Games mess or the Adarsh sellout. That stench continues to assault our collective olfactory nerves in the New Year. India has sunk even further in the corruption index released by Transparency International recently and is now ranked 87th in a list of 178 other countries, sliding by 13 places since 2009. Political uncertainty looms large with Parliament remaining dysfunctional, the ruling party unhinged by the spate of scandals and states like Andhra Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir in a tinderbox. Food prices continue to rise alarmingly as inflation remains untamed. Every single democratic institution or functionary, whether Parliament, politicians, the judiciary and the bureaucracy, is now suspect in the eyes of the nation as is the corporate sector and even the media. The only silver lining is that the economy continues to grow at a healthy pace – 9 per cent at last count – but the turmoil may soon result in it slowing down. This year signals the start of a decade that will culminate in the much-touted 2020. However, the vision that the nation had set its eyes on is not just blurred but now deeply flawed and requires course correction. At the pace we are growing or going at, we may still have the largest number of poor and illiterate people in the world in 2020. Many Indians will continue to go to bed hungry every night, use the fields or open spaces as toilets in the morning, will not have enough water to drink or bathe and spawn children who still may never go to a high school or have electricity to light up their homes. Millions of families in the country will eke out a living and live lives filled with misery and drudgery – devoid of hope – as they do now. If we have to get out of the morass and break this cycle of despair, then the year 2011, nay the decade, calls for extraordinary leadership, dedication and sacrifice. This is not the time for the chicken-hearted or the status quoist. The year and the age demand toughness, integrity, determination, innovation, agility and clarity of purpose. We must shake ourselves out of the complacency that has set in and realise that the affluence gained by a part of the population in the past two decades does not translate into benefit for all. India’s restless farmers reflect that despondency either by sadly taking their lives when they are heaped with debt or blocking rail and road traffic to express their sense of injustice over their land being acquired for industry at a pittance. As a nation, we are once again at critical crossroads. We can either allow ourselves to descend into chaos and anarchy or rise to peace and prosperity. The choice is ours and we have to make it now. We can’t delay any longer – not another day, leave alone a year. So, 2011 for the nation is the time not just to bite the bullet but also to take the big leap. With corruption emerging as the number one concern, now is the time for tough solutions. Congress president Sonia Gandhi recently talked of a five-point agenda to root out corruption that included fast-tracking corruption cases, cutting down discretionary powers of politicians, transparency in procurements and protection to whistle-blowers. She heads the ruling party, so the government should act on it ASAP. On the foreign policy front, it’s time India said enough is enough. Rather than treating China with kid gloves, it should be told where to get off. The show of force could be the nation launching a massive, time-bound programme to develop infrastructure and connectivity in the states bordering China. On Pakistan, the threat of zero tolerance for terror should not remain an idle one. In Kashmir, the Centre should work with the state government to not only firmly handle militancy but also act swiftly on the grandiose plans to develop the region that has been announced. And both Pakistan and China should be told firmly to butt out. For the economy, the government should not shy away from accelerating the reform process while swiftly putting correctives into place to avoid a repeat of the telecom scam. New land acquisition policies that are fair to the farmer should be announced by states even as the government gives a fillip to agro-based industries to boost employment in rural areas. The process of transforming the education sector needs to be pursued vigorously, including the ushering in of a pragmatic PPP that should ensure rapid growth but with quality. There is much, much more that we as a nation can do in 2011. The following pages have doable suggestions from not just The Tribune team but eminent national and international experts from a range of disciplines. These in many ways outline the imperatives and set the agenda for the nation in 2011, a year we believe could be a major turning point. Shakespeare wrote in Julius Caesar: "There is a tide in the affairs of men./ Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;/ Omitted, all the voyage of their life/ Is bound in shallows and in miseries./ On such a full sea are we now afloat,/ And we must take the current when it serves,/ Or lose our ventures." Such a tide now awaits India. Send your comments at editorinchief@tribuneindia.com
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THE word ‘reckoning’
has many meanings. Some are banal such as the act of counting or
calculating; the settlement of an account or bill; a summing up. Other
meanings are more ominous: as retribution for one’s action; an
avengement or punishment. Dictionaries define the day of reckoning as
the time when one’s past mistakes or misdeeds catch up with one or
when one is forced to deal with an unpleasant situation which has been
avoided until now.