Y DO WE ALWAYS NEGLECT HILLS ??

Recently, for their demand of a separate state of Gorkhaland, the GJM (Gorkha Janmukti Morcha) was blocking the NH-31; and extending the blockade by an hour each successive day; this highway is almost like the neck of NE India ... it's like a gateway to sikkim and mountainous areas of North Bengal from the plains of Siliguri. Inspite of the great strategic importance of NH31, it was indeed shocking to see the negligence of the bandh and demands of GJM by the media, both print and electronic ...

I fail to understand y v only concentrate on the plains and treat hills only as entertainers for those living in plains (i.e. tourist destinations) ... we care for even 20 minutes of delhiites and make flyovers to reduce their travel time (and obviously, there's nothing wrong in that; kudos to Delhi governance for that) ; however, do we really care for so many hrs of blockade on the roads of highest strategic importance ?? and abt the condition of such roads ?? NH31, (or atleast the part that lies in West Bengal), is worse than most of the local roads in Delhi-NCR region ..

media was too busy covering the issue of Telangana, in minutest details (prob coz of the involvement of Hyderabad there); however the only news in print media that i could get abt duration of bandh declared by GJM was thru the local edition of Dainik Jagran (no news abt it even in the Kolkata edition of TOI while HT discusses the bandh with respect to the problems that tourists are facing in Darjeeling (click here)) ... and neither of them neways mentions the duration of the bandh on NH31 ..

i m not supporting (or opposing) GJM in their demand for a separate state ... all i feel is that there is more to hills than just tourism/tea/apples etc ... they deserve good roads and better infrastructure as much as ppl in plains do ... and the way media is informing ppl of the opinions/demands of both pro and anti telangana groups, the ppl in hills too deserve the same ... i met localites in Kolkata who r supportive of their cause for a separate statehood and also ppl in Siliguri who are against them ... so, whether their demand is legitimate or not cant be decided by just looking at one side of the coin ... though i wonder how many of my friends from plains even know abt the NH31 bandh and the reasons for GJM to ask for a separate statehood !!

however, i titled this blog as "Y DO WE ... " as i personally feel that media only shows what it can sell .. hence, media is just a reflection of what we want to see/read ... and if v concentrate on only plains and treat hills as just places of tourist attraction, y blame media for making news along that line ???

SOFT POWER OF INDIA

I recently saw one video of Shashi Tharror on ted.com where he talks abt the need of having soft power by nations. And this certainly is one of the best presentations i hv seen in recent times (apart from may be, the power of sixth sense, also available on ted.com). Basically, he refers to "soft power" as the capability to influence other nations independent of the "hard power" i.e. military strength, population or the economic growth or other such parameters. Certainly, hard power is not a field that India lacks (we hv 4th largest army in the world and r still growing @ a decent (if not gr8) pace, when the world has just witnessed one of the worst financial crisis since Great Depression), but soft power is something that India has championed over the last thousands of years. Thats y, the famous comment by Hu Shih, former Ambassador of China to USA: "India conquered and dominated China culturally for 20 centuries without ever having to send a single soldier across her border." Thats the extent of our soft power!! The hard power can certainly be attributed to the Govt and its initiatives; however soft power is something that can only be attributed to people.
The past several decades hv seen a tremendous change in the attitude of the World towards India. The drastic change in impression from a land of snake charmers and fakirs sleeping on nails to a land of computer gurus, business tycoons, and IT giants is certainly not possible with just hard power. Its not easy for the technical and higher educational institutes of a country, that was once thought to be a land of superstitions, to be rated equally to the topmost scientific universities of the world, all within a matter of a few decades, if not years. The last general elections in India was a very unique illustration in itself: a woman of Italian origin giving way to a Sikh PM, who was sworn in by a Muslim President (Dr APJ Abdul Kalam) in a country that's almost 80% Hindu; and this was not a demonstration to the world, it was just India being itself (Mr Tharoor rightly points it out in his talk).
Though some might feel that it's more of a glorified version of an "India Shining" initiative by the Govt of India, (as is obvious from the comments to that presentation); however I don't think this can be totally subscribed to. The problems being faced by the country are immense and gigantic, (and no one can deny that...there are many 'isms' to deal with), but amidst all that, does lie some "power" (call it soft or nething), due to which India is still moving ahead. We might talk of innumerable (and almost never-ceasing) differences in India; but one thing that India has proven is the fact that for a truly diverse society to not disintegrate (unity etc comes only later; and there were "learned scholars" who predicted that India would disintegrate in 1950s or 60s owing to such differences), it (i.e. the society) need not agree on all points; all that is needed is that we agree on the most fundamental principle i.e. how to disagree; how to survive without consensus .. we still hv to overcome many obstacles (a country can't be both a superpower and a superpoor simultaneously !!), however, the fact that as diverse a country as India, and with a multi party democratic set up, is still existing and developing is no less a miracle !! ..

P.S. I personally dont think this post is a contradiction to any of my previous posts especially this one ...