Tragedy of lost opportunity

Successful people create opportunities. At least they grab opportunities without fail. What they dont do is indulge in passive inertia, hoping that things will fall in place somehow.

So do successful nations.

The corollary is true. If you dont exploit the opportunities at the opportune moment, you will most certainly be left behind.

The last sentence, in a nut shell, epitomises the tragedy of India.

We had a great opportunity to become one of the leading global economies in early 1970's. The public spending was at an all time high, the post independence generation was about to enter the job market and they were a breed apart- intelligent, educated and not tied down by the diffidence of having studied under the British. But an insecure and autocratic Indira Gandhi set us back by a good 30 yeares through her so called socialistic corrupt regime, that benefitted none but she and her cronies.

Rajiv Gandhi, first, and PV Narasimha Rao, later out of compulsion, changed the track of Indian economy and Vajpayee built on it beautifully. 1995-2004 was the period when India came to be recognised as an emerging global economy. The GDP was growing at 8% and the next generation of brash, confident, arrogant young generation with no inferiority complexx whatsoever was ready to take the world on.

But, to their disgust, the two successive Sonia-Manmohan Singh misgovernance put paid to the asprations of India ever becoming a force to reckon with in the world arena.

The financial melt down of 2008 globally, from which India was isolated (by accident and not by design), should have been the cue to storm the world economy and rewrite the rules, as the Chinese did.

But policy paralysis, pusillanimity, lack of strategic vision, absence of political leadership meant India being ruled by the status quo comfortable bureaucracy who ensured we remained were we were, and even tried to push us back to 1980s.

We have missed the bus for now, and the negative impact of the lost decade will be felt throughout this century.

What a tragedy!!!!