By Brij Bhardwaj
Financial scams are part of life which every nation faces and size of these scams have been becoming bigger in size with passage of time and India can be no exception. The only difference is that we lack the capacity to take them in stride and move ahead. Nations allow Courts and enforcement agencies to do their work and punish the guilty promptly and move ahead. In India, wheels of justice move very slowly and trials linger on for years, but it provides an opportunity for many to indulge in nation bashing and find everything wrong with the country.
This is exactly what has happened with the TWO G scam. Guilty are in Jail even though Courts are expected to take a long time before they are pronounced guilty. Unlike in other countries where bail is given as a matter of routine in India it is becoming selective and is used as means to punish the accused even before they are pronounced guilty by the Courts. More serious concern is that instead of dealing with such a case as exception it has been used to condemn entire bureaucracy, political system and paint the entire country in dark colors.
Can one scandal be enough to come to a conclusion that India as a nation has failed. Overlook the progress made in last two decades which has made it among one of the fastest growing country in the world and raised hopes that India is on road to becoming a world power. It has also been ignored that while the world was in grip of recession, Indian economy continued to grow at a respectable rate of eight to nine per cent. The world is yet to overcome the economic crisis with Europe struggling to keep countries like Greece, Italy and Spain solvent.
It has also been ignored that India is among the few countries in Asia which has moved ahead while retaining democratic form of Government. There are many in India who would like us to hang corrupt from lamp post after quick trials. They ignore the fact that China executes more people in one year then India has done in fifty years after independence and it has not resulted in any reduction in cases of corruption which remains as rampant as ever.
Very recently U.S had to deal with cases of malpractices and some icons of financial world indulging in corrupt practices. The cases were dealt with in a calm manner even though it led to fall of some legendry names in financial world. They however, avoided nation bashing or in condemning the entire community. There is still strong resentment against the manner in which the Wall Street works. Some top functnaries of the Financial world had to bite dust while others are being prosecuted for offences where conviction can lead to long terms in prisons.
Situation in Europe is no better with some leading banks surviving with artificial transfusion provided by State agencies. Under the circumstances, a time has come when India should allow courts and other agencies to deal with scams and stop nation bashing. The present slow down in world economy offers opportunities for entering new fields. We have made a place for our talented youngman and women in field of services. New opportunities will come in manufacturing sector also. Our agriculture has potential. In times of scarcity our godowns are full and with improvement in infrastructure we can produce surpluses. The biggest advantage is our young population, in case they get proper training they can become a productive force.
India at present has the unique distinction of producing some of the most talented young people who occupy top positions in corporate world and are easily employable in any part of the world. But at the same time we also have a large force of young who lack skills and education to be productively employed. The task of providing education and training to them should not be difficult for us. Politicians fight and criticise each other in all democratic societies, but the criticism should not undermine the nation as a whole or reach a point where it starts hurting the country. We are very close to it and in case it is not checked world will start believing that we are a corrupt and a failed nation with no future. Self belief is first step to world recognition and that is being undermined today.