Talking Shop: I don’t have that number

“A people that values

its privileges above its

principles soon loses both.”

—Dwight D Eisenhower

I don’t like being the harbinger, yet again, of bad news, but what I see around me and the world leaves me with but one choice; that someone has to talk about it, and that someone might just as well be me. I can’t really put my finger on the catalyst, the real trigger for all that is going awry around us, but it does appear to be an angst to always win, a constant mad rush that has seeped into our very being to be seen as being the best, even though it oft brings out the worst in some of us. It has happened before, but the ferocity with which this scourge is devouring our souls now is not boding well for the future.

Why am I delving into sensitive territory and spoiling your Monday morning, you ask? Well, as stated in the paragraph above, someone has to, if only to awaken at least a few and stem the rot as much as we can. Around us in the world, there are villainous and volatile symptoms of value systems taking a beating and the environment—social, societal, economic and moral—spiralling southward. And astonishingly, little or nothing is being done to tackle the various travails that now dictate our very lives. I am not an alarmist, but the signs of a crumbling and squelching inner moral core are clearly visible, and this is not the world that we would like to leave behind for our next generations when it is time for us to go. Let me cite some examples from recent days to underline the underpinnings of decline.

Shooting in Prayagraj

We have seen graphic videos, yet again; of dreaded gangster mafioso Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf being gunned down and shot dead while in police custody last week, in clear view of 15 armed lawmakers who watched but did not even reach for their weapons when three youngsters with ultra-modern guns opened fire. Immediately after the incident, the shooter-troika allegedly laid down their weapons, shouted religious slogans and surrendered. The incident happened in the safety of police custody, in the presence of a posse of mediapersons who captured it all on camera and ran the video repeatedly on their TV channels, taking those macabre images into homes across the country. Somehow, the otherwise adept state policemen who are known to act swiftly against criminals watched the situation play out without raising a finger or firing a single bullet.

Then the blame game started and blew out of proportion, with police personnel being suspended, political parties pointing the finger at one another, blaming the other for having pulled off this dastardly act and calling it ‘political opportunism’, while activists and human rights advocates bayed for blood.

While this entire facade was being played out, the world all but mocked the Indian system, with a score of leading newspapers and media houses denigrating these happenings, questioning how a former Member of Parliament and a former Member of the Legislative Assembly could have been gunned down while in custody and on live TV. Things got a bit musty and misty too, with Al Qaeda in Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) threatening attacks on India to avenge the murders, calling them ‘martyrs’. Moral of the story; may the Lord bless those without police protection, especially if ‘protectees’ can be so easily disposed of.

The comeback virus

It is back, yet again; the dreaded novel Coronavirus. Over the last 15-20 days, daily infected numbers are increasing, and frighteningly so. At last count, both India and its National Capital Region had 10-month-high figures, with positivity rates reaching alarming levels. The only saving grace is that the ferocity of the infection seems to have diminished and mortality rates are low, with hospitalization numbers at record lows. That’s the good news. The not-so-good news is visible to all of us—on the roads, in clubs and pubs, inside restaurants, offices and metro trains. No one is taking it seriously.

We have all but forgotten that the situation today is getting eerily similar to what it was three years back, when we ignored clearly-visible warnings, prepared for Donald Trump’s arrival in India and heard his infamous address at a jam-packed cricketing arena in western India. I am not saying President Trump did anything to us (well, the Americans insist he did nothing for them either), but barely a month after Air Force One took off for Washington, we were subjected to amongst the most stringent of pandemic-spurred lockdowns in the world, which bit us in our nuts and shot our bolts to smithereens.

I have thus far not been wrong about COVID-19 and its staying power or longevity. I believe this is the final stage and historically too, most global pandemics of this nature have lasted around four years—by that logic, this and perhaps a minor relapse later this year would be the final guffaw for this scourge. That does not bother me much; what does is our decision after a redoubtable past to figure out whether to invest in masks and a bottle of sanitizer or indulge in Butter Chicken and Tangri Kebabs.

Economy slowing down

Our growth rate has been downgraded by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), yet again, though only modestly, from 6.1 per cent to 5.9 per cent for the current fiscal. This is primarily because of the slowness of domestic consumption and data revision. The IMF did graciously admit that India will still continue to be the fastest-growing economy in the world. In its annual World Economic Outlook, IMF also lowered the forecast for 2024-25 fiscal (April 2024 to March 2025) to 6.3 per cent from the 6.8 per cent it had predicted in January this year.

The Government is making moves to help avoid the side-bars of the global economic meltdown from impacting India. But we need more—tax reforms (our own expenditure far exceeds revenues); subsidy overhaul (too much is being spent on welfare); banking sector reform (bad loans and NPAs have to be reined in); job creation (which will instil personal pride and improve the quality of life); and improving infrastructure (sectors such as manufacturing can see a boom if we impose clear timelines and implement single-window clearances all-around). All of the above needs to be done to get the juggernaut rolling again. If this doesn’t happen and Governments worldwide do not pull back from the economic precipice facing the globe through concerted actions, people will have to do it on their own.

Rita Mae Brown once said: “Art is moral passion married to entertainment. Moral passion without entertainment is propaganda, and entertainment without moral passion is television.” Today, we don’t need propaganda, falling moral values or a debilitating social fabric; we need resolve, a calibrated approach and careful planning to ride out the impending economic storm. Do that, and we should be fine.

The writer is a veteran journalist and communications specialist. He can be reached on narayanrajeev2006@gmail.com. Views expressed are personal