It appears that either the government officials are completely unaware of the situation in the country or they are hell-bent on ignoring the truth that's staring them in the face. This is clear from following statement of former Prime Minister Rao when he began one of his speeches by "delineating the social structures into three segments. The crust, according to him, consists of about six crore (1 crore= 10 million) people, who do not need to be canvassed about economic reforms. The next layer contains 25-30 crore people belonging to the middle classes, who are beginning to appreciate the benefits of liberalization. It is the next segment, of 55-60 crore of lower income and poor people who remain unappreciative of the changes in the economy."(5) The political structure itself is not exactly wrong. The party-system has worked in favor of people by generating more awareness about country's social and economic issues. However this system has been used to brutally maim the entire country, its people, its economy and almost everything else. India's democracy is more or less a sham as Dreze and Sen argued:

It is in terms of these broader egalitarian concerns that India's record has been most disappointing and that the scope for action may be particularly extensive.... The importance of local democracy is not confined, of course, to this issue of public services, or other instrumental roles of intrinsic value for the quality of life. Indeed being able to do something not only for oneself is one of the elementary freedoms which people have reason to value. The popular appeal of many social movements in India confirms that this basic capability...

(6)
On the whole India is the country we think it is. Its future may look promising but it is still infested with many pervasive social, economic and political issues which must be tackled effectively before India can be declared a success. However despite all its problems, Independent India is a much better place than occupied India was. The British rulers were neither more intelligent nor savvier when it came to social and economic matters and what made the whole thing even worse was the fact that these imperial masters did not care about the local people. They were more interested in plundering and robbing the country of its resources and in their 200-year occupation, they did everything in their power to suppress the people of India. Indians firmly believe that they are better off without those ruthless British people and for any country, there is nothing more humiliating than seeing someone else make their decisions for them.

Works Cited

M.S. Panini, "The Social Logic of Liberalization," Sociological Bulletin, 44, no. 1 (March 1995) pp. 34-62.

Arun Ghosh, "India's Macroeconomic Situation," Alternative Economic Survey 199596 (New Delhi: Alternative Survey Group, Delhi Science Forum, 1996) p. 11.

Arun Ghosh, "Planning Imperatives, Occasional Paper 3," Working Group on Alternatives (1996) p. 2.

National Council of Applied Economic Research, Economic Survey (New Delhi: National Council of Applied Economic Research, 1997).

Hindu (1 January 1996).

Jean Dreze and…