A myopic view that defies reason

'Jo Vada Kiya Voh Nibhana Padega'… an evergreen song sung by Late Lata Mangeshkar from the film 'Taj Mahal' is more relevant today, particularly in politics. Unfortunately, the regional satraps are behaving in a manner which is causing a sort of nausea to the common man because they are forgetting all the Vadas (promises) and have given up the competitive spirit to vie with other States. Instead, they blame everything on Centre or Modi.

Criticism per se is not wrong. Our Constitution gives the right to criticise. Criticism of policies is not wrong but what is happening is that the criticism is being directed against individuals. We refused to take pride in what is happening in our own State and want to link everything to narrow politics because our State leaders, even the younger generation, refuses to think in a progressive manner.

Within 24 hours of inauguration of the Statue of Samatha Murthy by the Prime Minister, Telangana political parties, TRS and Congress, have started showing their narrow mindedness. Congress leaders like Bhatti Vikramarka say that the inauguration of Statue of Equality was more like BJP function and inequality was displayed there. Leaders of other parties were not invited, and that Modi believes in divide-and-rule policy. Is it only Modi who is following such a policy? Didn't the Congress under the leadership of Indira Gandhi and all those who succeeded her do the same thing? Sitting in glass houses, our leaders tend to throw stones at each other.

As far as the ruling party here is concerned, personal vendetta was clearly visible. If there were no political tweets in the name of netizens by the party leaders, one would have believed that the Chief Minister could not receive PM due to ill-health and the party could have also said that even as per protocol rules, CM need not go to airport if it was a private visit.

But TRS lost a chance to make such claims. It is very clear that the tweets were well orchestrated by the party itself and were by party leaders. The irony is that even senior ministers such as KT Rama Rao made comments on twitter, saying "Icon of Partiality unveiled Statue of Equality." He may have any amount of anger against the Prime Minister but why drag the Statue of Equality into it. This is what is called myopic view of politics. We need to learn a lot from Gujaratis (I am not saying Narendra Modi but 'Gujaratis'). Every Gujarati takes full pride in talking about the Statue of Unity and plays his little part in promoting the place. We, on the other hand, have already started belittling the Statue of Equality to vent anger against Modi.

The core strength of Gujarat is that it does not depend on any one single industry for its economy. It had systematically made rapid strides in oil and natural gas, textiles, tourism, pharmaceuticals, power, healthcare, agri-business, chemicals, jewellery etc. There people are progressive and do not depend much on the government. They know how to utilise their natural resources and generate revenue. All major corporates have set up wellness centres and hospitals, which have become a force to reckon with in the health sector.

The nursing care is said to be one of the best in the country. On the industrial front, SMEs play a very big role and in fact can be called as the backbone of economy. The IT sector contributes a little over 5 per cent of India's GDP and is going up every year. The entrepreneurial zest in the State is eye-catching. Here the zest is to cry over Centre for everything. Will we ever change?