The Reluctant Indian!!

I wanted to rant about "The Reluctant Indian" for long and after due reluctance, it is now that I set foot and byte to write about him (me too :) ). Everywhere you spot an Indian, there is this characteristic of reluctance that comes along with him. From what I hear about other country men, I believe this is unique to our country fellows, the phenomenon of being reluctant in whatever we set out foot to do. Of course, there are some exceptions, but exceptions are not examples!

Our Government is a very shining example of how reluctant an Indian could be. Key decisions take years to take, citing very unreasonable reasons. The reason being that our netas and babus don't want to take any step that would be risky and suicidal.. The very fact it has taken years for our public sector airlines to plan for upgradation of their fleet and also the number of years it takes to finalise plans for metro rail links in out cities reminds me of our reluctance. For such utility projects, there should be single window clearance for speedier clearance and speedier execution of projects. Or else, the private sector could gain more vis-a-vis the public sector.

Be it the top secretaries or IAS officers right down to clerks in government offices, they always want to pass the bucks. We have always had to meet umpteen number of officials to get our passport stamped or for obtaining driving license. Whether this is to purposefully complicate procedures or not, I give full credit again to reluctance of our Indian fraternity!!

A few more instances of reluctant Indians -

1) Government reluctant to press for hard reforms,

2) Indian ex-ministers reluctant to vacate!! - reports even a Taiwan newspaper Taipei Times

3) Reluctance to clean the mess in electricity boards

This phenomenon is not only observed in the government circle but also among the citizens too. Our fellow men hesitate for almost everything.. They hesitate to complain against irregularities ('the chaltha hai' attitude which is turning out to be more suicidal than anything) and lead a very mundane life. They are also reluctant to venture into newer fields of study or work. Only in the recent days, we observe emergence of a genre of people who venture into adventurous studies like 'voodoo art and its societal impact among indo-africans' and work like scuba diving,

adventure sports, salsa dancing etc.

We would continue to be more reluctant if we hear about what happened to a very few bold Indians like Satyendra Dubey and Manju Nathan who broke the tradition of being reluctant indians and tried an expose! Very sad, but that is the state of affairs in our country!

The growing online community and support in the form of chain e-mails and blog reports have had some ripple effects, but given the fact that the online user base is still low, there is very little awareness of these pressing issues among the common masses. I conclude with reluctance that we may be reluctant even in the coming years too!!!