Page 74 - EW February 2023

Postscript

Changed perspective countries, India Inc’s trade gap with China has widened to
an unprecedented $101 billion, 45 percent higher than in
ESS THAN A DECADE AGO, ONE READ AND 2021. Major imports from China are APIs (active pharma-
heard proclamations of India’s tourism potential ceutical ingredients), chemicals, electrical and mechanical
Lwith a big dose of scepticism, if not derision. The machinery, auto components, and medical supplies. The
plain truth was that beyond the front gates of 5-star stark truth is that with 68 percent of APIs and 60 percent
hostelries, India was too chaotic and filthy, and if tourists of smartphone components emanating from China, in the
ventured further into the hinterland, bad roads, unhy- event of a new Sino-India war, our pharma industry could
gienic restaurants and dirty toilets not to speak of beggars collapse and electrical and telecom industries would be
and chisellers, were inevitable experiences of foreign severely damaged.
and domestic tourists. Yet a brief sojourn to Hampi, the In the circumstances, the best course of action for the
ancient capital of the forgotten Vijayanagar kingdom BJP government at the Centre is to drop its aggressive
(1336-1565) in Karnataka, has changed your sceptical cor- muscular stance and initiate meaningful border settle-
respondent’s perspective. ment negotiations with our giant Asian neighbour with
In the backyard of Hampi, George Ramapuram, a whom we maintained harmonious relations for over two
low-profile Kerala-based ‘earthitect’-entrepreneur has millennia until the border war of 1962. It’s surprising that
constructed a Xanadu style pleasure dome built entirely the BJP leadership which has often expressed contempt
out of local materials and designed to blend seamlessly for the Congress party’s Nehruvian political and economic
with the topography of the powerful, prosperous and legacy, is perpetuating Nehru’s obstinate vacillation and is
well-governed Hindu Vijayanagar kingdom which stood reluctant to negotiate a border settlement with the Xi Jin-
steadfast against repeated invasions and expeditions of ping administration, and settle this issue once and for all.
the Delhi sultanate and the Mughal dynasty for 229 years.
Moreover, the ruins of the ancient Vitthala and Virupak- Founding fathers error
sha temples have been marvellously preserved by the
Archaeological Survey of India and the state government
has developed excellent roads complemented by smoothly NY CITIZEN OF INDIA WITH A CONSCIENCE
functional taxi and public transport. cannot help but weep for the unfortunate con-
Yet perhaps the most surprising feature of the meticu- Adition of the industrious, uncomplaining and
lously preserved Hampi ruins is the clean restaurants continuously short-changed people of the eastern state of
with well-maintained toilets, and the excellent service Bihar (pop.104 million). Despite a mountain of evidence
provided by educated and knowledgeable tourist guides that liquor prohibition has failed in every country and
who narrate fascinating histories in several languages, society since it was promulgated in the US in the 1930s
including English, for modest remuneration. And it’s and gave birth to the mafia and prolonged wars between
worthy of note that Hampi is a live pilgrimage site for the hooch gangs, Nitish Kumar, who was re-elected chief
devout, and that the majoirty of 6 lakh tourists who visit minister in 2016, enacted legislation imposing liquor
are Indians. A sharp contrast to the surly service and con- prohibition in Bihar. Predictably since then, illegal vends
descension visitors receive in over-hyped Europe. There distilling cheap country liquor have mushroomed across
is indeed a bright future for Indian tourism. this chronically mis-governed state with notoriously cor-
rupt police personnel hand-in glove with liquor mafiosi.
On December 18, 70 manual labourers were done in by
Sino-India paradox spurious liquor in Chhapra district. On January 3, three
residents of the Siwan district died from the same cause.
OME TELEVISION NEWS ANCHORS AND bris- For the past half century since sham socialists Laloo
tling retired army brass seem to be itching for a Prasad Yadav and Nitish Kumar clambered upon the late
Sborder skirmish, if not war, with troops of China’s Jaiprakash Narayan’s Navnirman anti-Congress move-
People’s Liberation Army massed along India’s 3,488 ment and established themselves in Bihar politics, these
km unsettled border with China stretching across almost greedy opportunists have heaped misery on the state’s
uninhabited terrain from Kashmir in the north-west, to public. Like the old man who climbed aboard Sinbad’s
Arunachal Pradesh in the north-east. But the national in- shoulders and refused to get down. While Laloo has been
terest demands that the Union ministry of external affairs convicted and imprisoned for being caught with his hand
and our allegedly excellent diplomatic corps pull out all in the public till in the infamous fodder purchase scandal,
stops to ensure that peace breaks out between the world’s Nitish Kumar, a classic political turncoat, has self-served
two most populous countries. three terms as chief minister by adeptly switching allies
The under-reported paradox of Sino-India relations on the eve and after assembly elections.
is that economic engagement and trade between our two During the past 50 years — in 300 BCE, the state was
countries is growing continuously and is at an all-time the epicentre of the mighty Maurya and Gupta empires
high of $135.98 billion. In 2022, the value of goods and seat of Buddhist and Jain philosophy — under the
imported by India from China aggregated a prodigious rule of these latter-day Neros, Bihar has entered a new
$118.5 billion (Rs.9.6 lakh crore), 8.4 percent higher than dark age. The pathetic plight of Bihar’s people highlights
in the previous year. On the other hand, our exports to the error that the founding fathers of the Constitution
China were valued at a mere $17.48 billion. made in rejecting completion of primary education as the
Amazingly, despite hostile relations between our two pre-condition of right to exercise adult franchise.

74 EDUCATIONWORLD FEBRUARY 2023