The Times Now debates have of
late emerged as the widely accepted practice of killing time, killing time without
later being able to recollect later what indeed the debate was all about. The
debates that earlier started and continued with a flourish are now fast losing
their relevance as discussions are being held merely for the sake of discussions.
Perhaps it is a fine way of many to put on display their faces and thus remain
in the reckoning in the public arena.
A couple of years back while
living in Bhopal, the city of lakes, I often wondered at the architecture of
Hotel Lake View Ashok a property of the tourism major going by the name of
ITDC. The hotel designed by an internationally
renowned architect whom one would not like to name had a lobby that can never
be air-conditioned for it had all high ceiling with all corridors opening in
the vast open space. It was pretty obvious that the hotel was designed for the
sake of architecture with perhaps only the architect getting a kick out of the
design.
On a similar analogy, handing
technical issues now, the injection of new technology in the form of latest
international designs of locomotives and coaches always makes me wonder whether
a technological upgrade merely implies a transfer of technology from beyond the
shores and a couple of overseas junkets without handling the overall associated
gamut. And therefore all such upgrades come with massive labor pains that carry
well beyond the birth of the child.
I have now realized that a pinch
of salt is what one should take while consuming rhetoric of any kind, whether
it is a claim to a nationalistic fervor or trumpeting of efforts to heal the
wounds of the humanity. The efforts to nail those found with their hand in the
till also have to be taken with a lot of salt as the final punishments are
never commensurate with the extent of the crime. At a lower bureaucratic level
also the statements of intent often proclaimed from rooftops turn out to be
falsity personified. The wheel continues to be invented again and again with
the difference that unlike in the golden past, those inventing keep on taking
sole credit ad-infinitum.
The last decade has indeed been
the most horrifying in so far as decline in human values and a disgraceful
conduct on display on the part of those occupying high chairs is concerned. Partially
successful efforts at selling the family silver cheap marked the beginning of
absence of probity in public life, a trend that continues unabated till today,
with brazenness emerging as the hallmark of those in power.
Railways also have a long story
to tell. While still being counted as an organization that delivers, albeit in
a sellers market that too in monopoly, the standards of leadership, governance and
management have witnessed a steep decline. The Mahesh Kumar episode is indeed
the tip of the iceberg, but perhaps as matters stand today, the full iceberg is
never going to be visible and things shall soon return to normalcy with corrupt
and unethical practices continuing to rule the roost.
And that makes me certain that
the only person capable of setting the nation in order through his impeccable
standards of commitment, honesty and guts will never be allowed to rise and
lead all of us to glory. Perhaps we can only wait for divine intervention to
bail out the nation now!
