The Painted Skin
By – Pamarty Venkataramana
Mankind was once Neanderthal Man.Tattoos were in.
2020 is a watershed in annals of Human Civilisations.Tattoos were in until the previous year.
Fashion has taken a beating. As did the barber-shops and hair-saloons.Tattoos are soon going to be out of vogue.
‘Social-distancing’ has turned the tables on all rebels.Nature has rebelled. A deadly virus is lurking around our Beings, right under our nose and Man has turned into a ‘masked creature’!
The painted skin finds its veneer peeled off. Political correctness and histrionic opportunism have got exposed. Those that were touting foreign investment as a great engine of economic growth have changed direction and shifted gears to declare ‘Local is In’ !
Swadeshi movement has its centuries-old following. No extra-publicity is needed by the State expending enormous sums to Tom-Tom what is already known to all.
There’s more to the clarion-call than meets the eye.
In the not so distant past of the pre-Covid era, millions of youth were weaned away from nationally useful productive skills and studies in humanities, sciences or commerce to be groomed into ‘attractive’ call-centre labour.
Today, with the Buccaneer mindsets dominating their public imagination and the realm of ‘good governance’, all SMEs are soon going to turn into glorified errand-boys for the overseas markets.
The skin seems painted, again.
What should India do?
Can it ever move away from red herrings called PoK and Tibet?
Can it not outgrow the obsession with all things Chinese?
Do not the desi mandarins remember how China was depicted a peasant donning straw hat and riding a bicycle, until transfer of Power of Hong Kong by Britain and the fiscal engineering marvels of China in Shanghai and in Hong Kong?
Why cannot India dare to moot a Common Currency in entire SAARC region?
Where do all those boasts of ‘big brains’ assisting Honourable Modi ji disappear when we are left watching long rows of labourers trudging unthinkable distances in scorching heat, back to their native places?
How much of the ten percent of GDP relief-package announced would actually permeate to every needy household?
The skin is painted, again!
What ails the nation was amply reflected in the pinpointing of ‘the four Ls’ by Prime Minister.
Four Ls being # Land #Labour #Liquidity #Laws.
Land reforms are long overdue.
Local law & order prevents even the ambitious bullet train project to stay a distant dream more because land acquisition fails.
As in other parts of the country where a little green flag planted by Muslims or red flag hoisted in paddy fields by Commies would deter any such ‘public purpose’ action by local administration promoted by local satraps and minion sidekick politicians.
An uniform civil code is yet to be introduced at least for discussion by the August Houses of Parliament by the 303-majority Party alliance which avowedly is a crusader of Hindus and out to set right 7-decades old injustices perpetrated by predecessors in power. Constitution is left being held by a blindfolded Lady Law!
The skin is painted, again and again. And, again…!!
That mere ‘liquidity’ or the actual infusion of funds into a system already eaten by termites of nepotism, corruption and bigotry is known to every factory owner who endures long hours of power-cut or a lack of supply of other amenities.
Laws.
Lesser said, the better.
Unless the Policing system is altered radically by first bifurcating’ investigation’ & ’ law-order’ functions into different departments, no enforcement can be ‘just & fair’ in a land where the criminal justice system has admittedly collapsed. How else would one justify innocents being harassed even as widely known evil ones roam free and shamelessly in society?
‘Labour’ are the spinal cord of our country’s economic prosperity. Not e-commerce or tech start-ups but manual & skilled Human Resources. Be it in the agricultural fields or construction sites and be it in the tertiary sector or para medical fronts,human labour must be worshipped and valued.
Any attempt to suspend labour laws with a fool’s paradise of attracting larger investments is only pouring life unwittingly (or, rather knowingly) to almost extinct Communist parties of Indian nation. Constitution guarantees fundamental rights for labourers as much as the capitalists can claim to be entitled or privileged citizens.
And,does capital grow on trees? Or, do only those having right connections in a faulty environment of banking umbrella enjoy loans and infusion of relief-funds?
Banks too have changed skin ever since ‘loan mela’ culture took over nationalised banks. Subsidies and government sops could be routed via the Post Office Banking network but even the ‘sabka saath; sabka vikaas’ regime seems to be deaf to sane advice.
Let commercial banks be left to undertake core activities without the bugs of corruption and political-sops messing up the balance sheets.
The skin is painted.
As the animals in the jungle of the fabulous Panchatantra tale discovered, that the painted wily Fox was not a Lion eligible to rule them, so too should masses with a better perspective of all that hoodwinking done by pollsters and paid-media creatures, begin to adore natural skin.
Be it of their leaderships or of societal-systems.
The Emperor’s new clothes are of no consequence. The skin is painted!
Wake up, India.
Arise, awake, let priority be accorded to feed all countrymen, eradicate poverty by creating more and more jobs to render the menace of caste-based reservation redundant.
Only then will you be able to do purposeful comparisons with China or Vietnam or even with Russia and America.
No more basking in empty euphemisms and sloganeering.
Jai Hind!
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