The Pakistani Spectator

The publicity boom of `Incredible India’ is again captivating the viewers’ attention; despite the fact that many tourists claim, it still stricken and lies in tatters. It is weather-beaten, but the magic of Information Technology has helped its artists, tour operators and media managers to project their country’s spectacular aesthetic beauty as a land of fairy tales and a museum of ancient cultures to mesmerize the tourists with their new web of snares.

The idea of indelible India is not only specific to its landscape alone, as similar juggleries are also common in her politics too, as if its economic flight is going to help her win a superpower status in the United Nations. Nobody can deny that India is too big and too diverse to allow for any convenient cover-all facts. But for every similarity, there is significant difference. Such imageries are created by a leap of logic and ideological sleight of hands as BJP tried to derive from `Shinning India’ but failed and was flushed out.

This new campaign is an off-shoot of economic activity, one like a small modicum of reality - whipped up to brew similar concepts. It is an attempt to create false sense of satisfaction - to feel proud and think big to fit into the minds of its people, to draw political mileage and divert attention of the poor masses from the internal dynamics of their problems substituted by nationalism. It is being applied as a bandage on the bleeding wounds and stigma of `Untouchables’ - one like `Salwa Judum’ that was invented to solve the Naxalite problem. Such a motivation pills may have negligible or incremental effect on the humpty-dumpty naiveties, but people have not forgotten what `Hindutva’   Pandits are trying to play.

Tourism like politics too, of any country is product of its social, educational, cultural, scientific and economic progress further groomed by natural virtues. But in India’s case, there are many obvious and hidden realities behind the germination and pampering of this sweet illusion. Can any country afford such state of the art tourism till its socio-economic set-ups, poor development, worn out communication net-work, inadequate medical facilities, poor foreign relations and high illiteracy rate are completely overhauled? India continues to experience, its centuries old belief system, which in the words of Sanjaib Baruah’s famous book `India against Itself’ is enough to drive it on the brink of ruination.

The new images emerged in the last decade or so, fed mostly by its success in off shore call centers, the growing reach of Bollywood abroad, popularized in part by the increasing wealth and visibility of Indian communities in the US/United Kingdom and elsewhere who transformed its image abroad… unlike past, when India was viewed purely through religious lenses. Granted, Indian society is changing rapidly by previous standards, but the nature and scope of the changes are mostly exaggerated, as Indian got into the habit of counting their chickens before they are hatched.

The words like `Green Revolution’ Shining India and `Incredible India’ are buzz words which are tossed every now and then to captivate the public attention, rolling in centuries old discrimination under totalitarian regime, now to bask under the sunshine of Indian disinformation. The myth behind is to white wash her looming Naxalite crisis, with flush of national enthusiasm. But ground realities and analysis presents entirely a different picture. India is still stooped too low, spiraling in poor governance, price-hike, mounting employment, social apartheid and tax burdens.

Like a metaphor and referred pain, this new mystique is aimed at reviving its political image as rising economic tigers of the world during the next few years, more particularly in 2012. The purpose is to drag the viewers to focus on her commercial entrepreneurship by triggering such debates - like BJP leaders used as electoral gimmick through a chain of media publicity campaign. A stage reached when, at almost all political debates, international seminars and conferences, workshops and even small friendly gossips or college/university lectures started discussing,  Indian miracles.

Granted India has really achieved some degree of success and it may succeed to maintain its high growth rate during the next few years but the big question remains about the visible signs, which still paint a grim picture about its real physical contours visible on ground. Any visitor to India, who reads tall-claims, is caught between the two glaring dichotomies which are poles apart. The common sense demands to set the record straight because any miscalculated or projected picture to reap undue benefits often back-fires and may cause more damage to the country one day. Then the people will start believing what former US President Nixon once said “world opinion is on the Indian side but they are such a treacherous and slippery people” This gap between the myth and reality would then paint another coat of `Indelible Liar or Cheater’ India.

I. A. Pansohta