Pravasi Bharatiya Divas

Addressing a gathering of over 1,500 NRIs on the occasion of Pravasi Bharatiya Divas, the annual convention of the vast Indian diaspora, in New Delhi last Friday, Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh said that ‘‘it is probably true that we are a slow-moving elephant but it is equally true that with each step forward we leave behind a deep imprint’’ and that ‘‘is a price that we pay in trying to carry all sections of our people along in national development’’. By ‘‘slow-moving elephant’’ Dr Singh meant the ubiquitous delay in decision-making and implementation of policies. But what we all know is that ‘‘the price worth paying’’ for taking all sections of the people along in national development is an aberration of the system that the politician-bureaucrat combine is reluctant to do away with. Call it their casual attitude to the development imperative. The government here, more often than not, exists solely for itself. Then there is that wonderful regime of corruption: there is delay in implementation of schemes because time must as well be spent on finding innovative ways of diverting development funds to private coffers. And an oversized, recalcitrant bureaucracy is already an addition to the crippling red tape. Therefore, let us not shy away from the ground reality, and the NRIs know that very well. The ‘‘slow-moving elephant’’ is a very poor consolation for the new generation of Indians. It demotivates them. THE SENTINEL