A Pessimist Hopes

If you insist on the proverbial three indicators for my upbeat mood, I will probably not be able to supply even one. The positive movement in the economy highlighted daily in the pink papers we have seen before, so that by itself cannot be reason enough for cheer. Political stability also we have seen before, although presently a grateful nation tremblingly counts its blessings. The ability to cope with horrendous calamities/crises, both natural and man-made, has been demonstrated earlier and consequently provides meagre relief. The deep-rootedness of democratic institutions is reassuring but it can at best provide coffee-table comfort - at any rate for those living in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Orissa, to name just a few areas of darkness, it is meaningless. The new money, circulating in Cigar Clubs and in stores groaning under the weight of 'globalisation benefits' like Austrian chocolates, is if anything irksome. So, where does this strange, heady premonition of good times ahead come from?

It may be dotage, or perhaps I am going soft in the head, but in December 1999 I have the happy hunch that we are finally getting out of the functioning anarchy syndrome. For at least a decade, if not more, we have known the cure for India's multiple ailments. It seems to me we now have the will, the tools, the expertise to administer the right medicine in order to correct the distortions in the obscenely unjust and unequal society we have created. False optimism? Am I merely the purveyor of the usual glad tidings before the midnight hour? Perhaps. But let me remind you that glad tidings is not my trade. Rather, I am the kind of person whose job is to see the glass half empty, not half full.