Harish Palaniappan's

"Indians.. they always complain about their country.. blame each other.. and you waste a lot of time talking.. ".. was what I have read in blogs by foreigners, in reaction to debates and talk we host on our TV channels and news mags in india.

While I have read/heard a lot about this "indian attitude" thing as perceived by foreigners, especially from the US and UK, I never had any doubt they were wrong.. it was all real facts that I have seen living in this country.

Today, a conversation was triggered on an yahoo group I am part of.. as a cry.org volunteer. Thanks for vijay of that group who posted some information on a TV programme he found interesting on LokSabha TV where there was a speech by the chief editor of 'The Hindu's rural affairs section P.sainath.

It seems whenever the Parliament is not in session, the channel telecasts this programme at 4:30 pm. Many experts come and talk on diverse topics.

Considering Lok sabha TV is not some interesting, commercial, popular, channel.. if you by any accident have it on your TV (only in india), may be you can tune in on such programmes.. schedules are at: http://164.100.24.208/ls/lstv/dailyschedule.aspx

So, today, there was this programme.
Parliamentary Lecture Series - Featuring lectures by eminent experts to Parliamentarians... P.Sainath speaks on “The Farm Crisis: Why have more than a lakh farmers ended their lives in India”, followed by a Q&A interaction with Members of Parliament

I quote the summary.. of what Mr.P.sainath spoke.

"India's NREGA(national rural employment guarantee act) ensures 100 days of work with a minimum pay of Rs. 60 per day... whereas the diary subsidies in the USA is like $3 per day per cow(for all 365 days). Which is equal to Rs. 120 per day! Sainath remarked that the dream of every Indian farmer is to be born as an American cow!

Sainath noted that with Government continuously withdrawing bank operations from rural India, the farmers struggled hard for a debt of just Rs. 8000 at a decent interest rate last year. Whereas when he went home in urban India, he got a advertisement letter from a bank which was willing to give him loan for a luxury car at 6% without collateral!"

My opinion on this speech:

Mr.P.Sainath.. is known for saying things like "indian farmers are dreaming to be born in somalia... better than india.." and now, "indian farmers are dreaming of becoming US cows which have a subsidy of US$ 3 per day" is great. He is a magsaysay award winner for 2007.. and sure he is energitic.

It is so surprising that he is still with that immature line that we hear very often.. where we translate some counrty's cost of things and compare which country is better.. Economical comparison is not any indicator of a healthy life.. and economy has a different movement.. so this comparison is so immature.. I think japanese yen is much low priced than indian rupees, does that mean japanese farmers should come and live in india. interesting statements.

regarding P.Sainath's examples and speech: He complains all the time.. many people just do that unfortunately, and only blame it on this and that and whatever.. it would be great if he sometimes talks with some insight on how to correct problems or what is the reality.. i dont know whether he did.. but if he didnt, he missed a great opportunity to tell parlimentarians ways to correct issues rather than just say "US cow is better than indians.. or somalia is better than india" and stuff like that.

United states of america .. as far as my geography is.. is 3 times bigger than india by land.. and has just over 350 million people.. while india has 2 billion and growing strong .. it means US has to struggle a lot lesser than india to use its resources, taxes and everything properly and distribute it properly.

unfortunately every person in this country called an expert says population is this country's strength.. just because it can get more engineers and graduates (who we again sell to US and UK)..doesn't mean it is our strength. our population is what is eating away all resources which could have been well organized if only we had a controllable population.. so comparing US cows with indians is so unfortunate... i hope sainath coupled that description with some speech on giving reasons and suggestions for improvement also.

regarding somalia.. their story is also something similar.

I read in somebody's biography(i think jrd tata's) that population growth was extraordinary during indira gandhi's period and she realized late how it was or could become a problem.. and that's why in her period... they did so much talk and tried reforms on population control. whatever we have today in population control.. much of it was just started then.