73 years of freedom: India has come quite far. But its tryst with destiny is still unrealised

We are dealing today with the coronavirus pandemic, Chinese aggression, and a severely bruised economy. But today, 73 years after Independence, can we look beyond the immediate, and attempt an introspective contemplation on what has been achieved overall, and what has not? No complete answer is possible, but let us provoke debate by taking a few examples.

It is a matter of pride that we remain the world’s largest democracy. In the last national elections, our voters numbered a staggering 911 million; of them, over 600 million voted. Indian elections constitute the planet’s single largest organised human exercise.

But, we need to be concerned about our democracy’s patchy ethical content. Money and muscle power are very much around. Legislators are on sale and need to be locked up in resorts. Caste mostly finesses merit in elections. Undemocratic political dynasties proliferate. Constitutionally autonomous institutions are under pressure. Tolerance for dissent is low. And, Parliament, if it functions, rarely witnesses informed and scintillating debate.

Our economy has grown exponentially. We are today the world’s fifth largest economy by nominal GDP, and the third largest by purchasing power parity. But inequality haunts us. The richest 1% in India owns 58.4% of the country’s wealth; the richest 10%, an astounding 80.7%. The bottom 10% of our nation owns 0.2%.

Moreover the rich are getting richer at a much faster rate than the poor. In the period between 2005 and 2016 we have, indeed, lifted some 270 million people above the poverty line. But, we still have the world’s largest number of the abjectly poor. According to the IMF, in terms of per capita income in 2019, India lags at 139th in the world. China is at 65.

India is ranked second worldwide in terms of farm output, first in the world in net cropped area; it is the world’s largest producer of milk, and the second largest of wheat and rice. But India still languishes at 102 out of 117 countries in the Global Hunger Index, below Nepal, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Half our workforce is employed in agriculture, but agriculture contributes only 16% to the national GDP. Only 35% of our land is reliably irrigated; if the monsoon fails, the farmer, in debt, and with poor access to credits or markets, commits suicide. There have been too many such deaths in recent times.

On the World Bank’s ease of doing business, India has pole vaulted from the 149th position worldwide in 2014 to 63 in 2019. This is good news. There has been progress in the areas of construction permits, trading across borders, and solving insolvency. But in 2019 we were still at the 136th place in the ease of starting a business, just ahead of Mozambique and Afghanistan.

In New Delhi, to open a restaurant requires 26 licences, and 45 documents to obtain clearance from the police alone; in China you need just four licences. Manufacturing units need to conform with 6,976 compliance items. We take four years to enforce a contract; in Indonesia, it takes 1.2 years, in China, 1.4. Our goods take 7-10 days to reach a port; in China – and even Bangladesh – it takes a day. It takes 58 days to register a property and, on average, 1,445 days to resolve a commercial dispute in the court of first instance.

Entrepreneurship is one of our great assets. We need to give it a greater chance. Our doctors, engineers and scientists are among the best in the world. The New Education Policy has many positive features.

But too many of our young are still not in school, and even if they are, the state of government schools is abysmal. We have some of the best hospitals in the world, but the ordinary Indian – in spite of schemes like Ayushman Bharat – is still not guaranteed even efficient primary health care, and more people die of dysentery and malaria in India than anywhere else.

We are preparing to send a mission to the moon. It is a great tribute to our scientists. Yet, the number of scientific innovations with global impact are meagre. Usually, our best brains become cogs in somebody else’s wheel abroad.

As an ancient civilisation, we are still negotiating the elusive divide between tradition and modernity. We proclaim fealty to egalitarianism, but remain deeply hierarchical in our thinking. Gender disparity persists pervasively, although far more women are empowered and excelling today.

We are now part of a globalised world, but many of our young are woefully adrift from their cultural roots. Nobody really respects photocopies. Too much mimicry of the West abounds; we laud our culture, but neglect artists and cultural infrastructure.

Our Republic is proud to be a land of many faiths. While we are rightly interrogating the political misuse of secularism, we must renew our constitutional commitment to respect all faiths, and to fight – in accordance with our civilisational heritage – forces of bigotry, hatred and violence.

So, is the glass half full or half empty? It depends on the view you take. I remain an optimist, a believer in the destiny of my nation. For me, it is half full. Happy Independence Day! Jai Hind!