Friday, May 14, 2010

The Agenda INDIA

This discussion started amongst some friends during one weekend night. We were talking about everything under the sun. It ranged from hot girls to the Big Bang, from evolution to Indian politics. Everyone trying to prove their point. But one point came up in which everybody could not firmly put their point. That was the situation of India in today's World.

India, as we know has a very rich history. Of big emperors and also in the field of medicine and mathematics. Then what is it that we are so much behind economically. Other countries which started their development way after we started are now so ahead of us. Many people will say that it is us who prevented the development. Some people also think that the British invasion was a boon to us. Or else technology could have never reached India. Also the politics which started after the independence is also a big reason for India's downfall as a nation. Where we see that middle-east countries have been united and development happened to them, what is India lacking? One of friends believe India lacks a good leader. Because only a good leader can unite a country like ours. But spare of thought on that.

What are the qualities of a good leader. What does a leader to do to unite his country. If we take example of the Middle-east countries, to my belief the reason they got united at first is basically the religion. The European countries are also a big example of this, where the Christianity religion played a big part. But to unite India, how could one leader concentrate on religion? We are proud to be a secular country. But has secularism helped you? Each and every day we come across news of communal violence, of terrorism. For a huge country like India, it is really difficult to find out on which agenda this country can be united. And more of all the British came and destroyed the harmony between the people of India. Between Hindu and Muslims. Between people of every caste and races.
People may argue that if you were resistant enough then the British couldn't have invaded us.
And here lies the misconception. By the time British came, we already lost our harmony. Each and every time any external force came and conquered our country, they created a division amongst us. They came to India for their own needs. They fulfilled their needs and went away. They came and took away our huge wealth leaving only hatred for each other with us. If any emperor tried to use the religion for uniting the country, the other religion will protest. And then there were the caste system. We have so many castes and races. That it is really difficult to fulfill everyone's needs. So what is it? What is that INDIA agenda that will unite us?

For the agenda INDIA, we have to think as per today's perspectives. Today what is that special agenda which can unite the country as one. The first thing comes to mind is the game cricket. Yes. But I am not in support of that being the agenda to unite us. Like as Rahul Dravid said when India were sen to Pakistan for a test series after a long period. His POV was that cricketers are there to play cricket, not to act as diplomats. Very rightly said so. Then what is that thing? Which will unite India. For me it is development. Development. Itself a big word. Now the obvious question people will ask that isn't India developing. Yes, of course. But is this sufficient? Today also farmers die of hunger. People are jobless.
Development starts from the grass-root level. By saying grass-root level, I mean the basic behavior of people. People should know to respect each other. People should possess good ethics. My point in this is that if people are not true to themselves then how will they help others. Try to question every decision taken by the government, but constructively. Nowadays what we see is, people questioning government with no proper reason. If we take the example of China, they also started development like we did. They started with foreign help, but afterward they started their own. They no longer need to depend on foreign help for development. But after all these years, we still are at the same bay. We still have to depend on foreign investments for development. Don't we have the brains? Yes we have. Involve people in the development. Take their advices. Analyze them. Then people should not have any grudges against the development. I know that this is a very rigorous one. But someone has to take the initiative someday. And I fear that Someday has come.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

India's T20 WC

To write about India's performance in the T20 World Cup, I didn't have to think much. Any time India goes into a T20 World Cup, they are the favourites. They were the favourites last time also. The reason is the abundance of talent in this country and ofcourse the million dollar Indian Premier League. But little do people understand that the IPL does not help the performance but also deteriorates. In IPL, for the cause of the audiences the pitches are made flat and run belters. Also, in the IPL the batsmen face less effective bowlers. And the bowlers bowl to less effective batsmen. Apart from the frontline Indian players, the other players are not of the international standards.

If you look at the batsmen from the different franchises, you will understand that mainly the foreign players and one or two Indian batsmen are mainly responsible for their performances. Yes sometimes a Saurabh Tiwary or Ambati Rayudu pops out. But are they of the international standards??? I mean not everyone becomes a Virender Sehwag or Mahendra Singh Dhoni. So the bulk of the responsibility's are on these players only who play for India. And the simple fact is, that they get exhausted. MSD quoted yesterday that the IPL parties took toll on them. But that is a very lame excuse. MSD is mature enough not to make these type of excuses.

The team composition this year was similar to that of last year only. Last time they faced the same issues with the same players. Problem with short balls and fast pitch. Yuvraj Singh was out of form, Gambhir out of form, Murli Vijay full of over confidence and a liability named Ravindra Jadeja. I am not talking about Yusuf Pathan, as he has never played well for the national team till date. Only Raina and Rohit Sharma was in good form. And one player India missed is Robin Uthappa. The most surprising thing to me is that Robin Uthappa has not been selected for the Zimbabwe tour also, where BCCI select almost a second tier team.

People are questioning about what can be the role for Dravid and Sachin in this team. Maybe the answer lies some 3 years back. At the time when the team was selected for the inaugural World Cup, the BCCI politely asked the seniors (Sachin, Sourav, Dravid ) to step down. And now when BCCI are pleading before Sachin to play, Sachin is rightly not playing for the world cup. In some news channel I saw people asking if Sachin is selfish. I proudly say that yes.... Sachin Tendulkar is selfish in this case. Because at a time you people became selfish and didnot want Sachin in the T20 team. Now when your back is on fire, you are going back to your old favourites. Sachin and Dravid in their whole will not play for the Indian T20 team. Because of the arrogance of BCCI, because the arrogance of MSD. And yes I mean it. The arrogance of MSD.

In every aspect of the game MSD's arrogance is being seen. Right from team selection to batting orders to execution of plans. To end this post just one thing....
M S D... Arrogance is good. But, not trying to understand the reality is the biggest threat Indian cricket is facing from the most intelligent captain India had ever had after Sourav Ganguly.

Bye..