My Mann Ki Baat: Let my country be ‘Atma Nirbhar’, not self-reliant

A caveat first. I am not the world’s finest spinner or a ‘riot arm leg breaker’ to have any cricket stadium named after me. Nor am I the country’s best actor who can switch from smiling to crying to laughing to ridiculing and roaring with effortless ease. I also do not hold any Constitutional office to force Prasar Bharati to broadcast my Mann Ki Baat or force schools to ensure that students listen to my ‘Pareeksha Pe Charcha’.

But as a citizen of this wonderfully free and democratic country, I am allowed to share my Mann Ki Baat with those of you who are damned and also those who are not; even with those who do not give a damn to Mann Ki Baat, of mine or of anyone other than me.

Unfortunately, since I do not have a broadcasting platform available to me, I am forced to communicate on social media and by word of mouth. I hear the Government is very worried that many citizens are also expressing their Mann Ki Baat on social media.

The Government, I am told, is quite firm that this is not acceptable. Media and social media should both be used for Mann Ki Baat of the Government and leaders in the Government. Very soon social media platforms will be required to appoint people based in India to hear grievances. They naturally must meet the approval of the Government first. Trustworthy and pliable, sorry reliable, bureaucrats and anchors will be preferred for appointment by Google, Facebook and Twitter. Remember Ankhi Das of Facebook India ?

So, I must unburden myself before social media gets more restrictive.

I will not, however, start by blaming the first Prime Minister for destroying our land of milk and honey. Our parents and grandparents were guilty of electing him, repeatedly and overwhelmingly. They must be held guilty and as their descendant I must carry the burden of guilt. If only they had not elected Nehru, this country would have been saved so much trouble, you see.

But our generation has started making amends. And this generation being more smart-phone savvy and a lot more into Facebook and WhatsApp, have learnt the real history of our country. They now know about great thinkers like Guru ‘Goalwalker’ and revolutionaries like Pragya Singh Thakur. They are now ready to discard Nehruvian legacy.

Nehru’s biggest blunder was to try and make this country self-reliant. He set up public sector undertakings like BHEL, NCDC, HMT, HEC, DVC, NTPC, BARC, SAIL and centres of excellence like AIIMS, IITs, IIIMs… But then as we now know, Governments have no business to be in business and we are planning to sell off many of them. True they were built with taxpayers’ money and it is also true that the private buyers will get them on a platter, not having done the hard work, but what the heck! They are wealth creators and need help from the Government.

Now people who have been to Harvard may quibble that self-reliance is the same as being Atma-Nirbhar. But those who work hard know the difference. Self-reliance is like the phoren Jersey cow, which gives more milk. But ‘Atmanirbharta’ is like the indigenous cow which gives more nutritious and tasty milk.

Congress supporters go on and on about food sufficiency and the Green Revolution, totally oblivious to the colour of the revolution, completely ignorant that our culture forbids both ‘red’ revolution and the ‘green’ revolution. Green revolution was fine for Pakistan, Iran or Bangladesh. But in India, for God’s sake? It was also this revolution which made us less dependent on our friend Doland Trump’s administration in the United States. The US no longer supplies us with wheat or milk powder. Imagine if we had continued to depend on the Americans for wheat and milk powder, what Doland Trump could be willing to do for us? Even otherwise, the Green revolutions has done us more harm than good, made us dependent on chemical fertilisers and pesticides, making us susceptible to all kinds of diseases.

In Atma-Nirbhar Bharat we will restore the primacy of the cow and the cow dung. Use of tractors will be discouraged. They have created enough nuisance already and given farmers ideas—imagine holding Tractor rallies and choking up the cities!

It was an international conspiracy, which a Toolkit has now revealed. The NIA is investigating and in good time the agency will certainly produce the evidence.

That’s all for today. I promise to share my ‘Mann ki Baat’ in the nights to come. Jai Hind.

(Views are personal!)