Yesterday PM Modi unveiled 183 meter high statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. This is the highest statue in the world dwarfing Statue of Liberty and Chinese statue of Budha! It’s indeed a matter of pride that after a long long time India has added a place of great interest to its repertoire, which will attract more international tourists.
While we can keep on debating whether India requires statues of Sardar Patel and Chhatrapati Shivaji at exorbitant cost or bullet train for that matter, it’s also true that these developments also serve a purpose! Statues of our national heroes inspire us to learn from their deeds, modern innovations such as bullet train bring us on par with most modern nations. Of course, every nation has to set its priorities right and we should not forget that Monsoon has again played truant this year and amongst other states, half of the Maharashtra has been declared to be draught affected. Between now and the next monsoon, it’s going to be one big daily struggle for millions of residents of these areas to walk miles to fetch a bucket of water. We shall see poor farmers committing suicides under duress!
In the above backdrop, the monies spent on statues and proposed bullet train appear to be not well utilised and case of misplaced priorities. What happened to the proposed National River Unification System, where water from all major rivers was to be pooled centrally for equitable distribution amongst various states! While Yamuna has become like a dirty mullah, what’s the outcome of all the money and efforts spent on cleaning Ganga? Karnataka and Tamilnadu continue to slug it out on Cauvery water sharing! Green energy initiatives, CNG, water harvesting, afforestation, population control- all remain jingoistic talks with very little action on the ground! It’s completely incomprehensible that when draught is staring the country in its face, food and potable water shortage is being foreseen, Kashmir is going from bad to worse, Naxals are raising their head again and Pakistan is making threatening overtures, the energies of this nation are being misdirected toward Ram Mandir, Statues, RBI- Govt. tension, Sabarimala and Rafale issues.
It’s clear that nobody is seized of or concerned about the real issues – they are looking at making quick political gains!
Arvind Arya blog 
Respected Sir, It is a critical editorial piece by Your Goodself. While Govt could hardly enfeeble Pakistan & China borders tensions, resolve water sharing disputes among states, measurable relief to farmers marred by draught, it intended to show snowboard jumping by bringing in India elusive Bullet Train , foreigner concept of highest statue to make mark. Visualising that such accomplishments will eclipse promises unfulfilled by Govt and bring equilibrium is shortsightedness. Sir you rightly said it is for quick political gain; if His Majesty Sardar Patel would have alive he would have worked towards poverty alleviation instead of boasting Bullet Train among poor.
LikeLike
Munish you write well – you should write more often
LikeLike
Yourself my Idol and Ideal , I will learn hard to write , Dear Sir Thank You for encouragement.
LikeLike
Always there for you
LikeLike