Home > Musings > Just another thought
Though the United States of America might give lot of reasons to the world to condemn, but there are more than few things which are worth learning and appreciating. And one such thing is their strong nexus between business and politics, unlike ours, where unfortunately the nexus is mostly between politicians and criminals. Though the above nexus has also been one of the prime reason for most of America’s international engagements, (both for peace and war) but then it has also helped the economy to reach an enviable position. Imagine if we could have rearranged our country on the same lines! If the business enterprises, particularly the entrepreneurs, who through their enterprises have given our country whatever recognition it has in the world today, could take charge of the nation by being at the most coveted positions! Imagine Mr. Narayan Murthy or Mr. Azim Premji as our Minister for Information Technology. Mr. Ratan Tata or Mr. Rahul Bajaj as our Minister for Industries, Captain Gopinath as our Minister for Civil Aviation, Dr. Devi Shetty as Minister for Health, Mr. K.V. Kamath as Minister for Finance, Mr. Varghese Kurien as Minister for Rural Development, Mr. Prakash Chauhan as Minister for food processing etc etc. This compilation may be a result of loud thinking and top of the mind recall as more such able personalities are there in this country who could be awarded such coveted posts. But the question remains that why is it that something like this does not happen in our country? Is it that our current democratic system acts as an impediment for these entrepreneurs to come forward and contest elections or is it that they are themselves reluctant in coming forward and take charge of such responsibilities? Unfortunately the reasons are both. On one hand the political system in our country has been such that most of the times it remains hostile towards the enterprise, particularly the successful ones. As a result, most of the entrepreneurs, for their mere sustenance, remain subservient to the political system, making our kind of democracy thrive. Such is the degree of submissiveness that even when the entrepreneurs come together and form national associations which are supposed to be forums to negotiate terms with the government, they too remain equally meek. On the other hand, our entrepreneur class too has shirked to challenge the existing setup and take the responsibility of the nation in their own hands. They somehow prefer to confine themselves to their comfortable environs. This column might just be an extension of my wishful thinking and undemocratic in more than one way but then we can always take a cue from what our political parties have done to our most revered, able and popular President, Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam. Unlike in our President’s case, which has been one of the biggest insult to our democracy, if a little bit of ‘undemocratic-ism’ can do good for this country, let’s indulge in it!