If the ultra elites like Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma, who have amassed all the resources India can possibly offer, still choose to leave the country after their work here is done, what does it say about our nation?
In fact, not just Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma. But top Indian industrialists, who still earn their bread and butter from India, don't live here. The list is long, but a few examples are Siddharth Lal (MD of Eicher Motors, makers of Royal Enfield), Anil Aggrawal (MD of Vedanta), and the scumbag Hinduja family (from IndusInd Bank, Ashok Leyland, etc.). These people have their companies totally entrenched in the Indian society and economy, yet they're living far away. In Europe, or US. Why?
Money can't buy happiness. That may be debatable. But what India proves without a reasonable doubt is that money can definitely not buy clean air, clean water, and civic sense amongst the majority population. A very important point to note is that the super rich in India don't have to deal with the consequences of the extremely corrupt bureaucracy, police, judiciary, and low IQ and absolutely evil politics. They're insulated from all that. In fact, all that works for them. They're people with money. Everything moves as per their convenience. Forget about government offices, even the biggest of temples in the country give them peaceful, VIP tours and "darshan", when the Average Aakash gets trampled upon by the crowd in what often leads to a stampede. Even at the gates of gods are they treated differently, yet they leave. Why?
A lot of people have different explanations to this. Obviously, every explanation fails at some level. A lot of people then resort to throwing dirt at these ultra elites, calling them "ungrateful leeches", "snakes", "disloyal social climbers", etc. Adding that "now that they've gained everything from the country, they should think of giving back instead of flying away".
While the last point is solid, of course. What can you do if they just don't want to stay? The concept of "social responsibility" can't be taught. And I'm sure these people try to give back in their own way (though not all of them, of course. Certainly not Hindujas, because they're scum. But most of them), but isn't it unfair to expect them to stay in a place they just don't find inhabitable? I guess it is.
So what can India do? As sad as it may sound, India needs these people to stay. It's not a good sign if a country's richest choose to parachute into a European paradise, leaving everyone else behind in the proverbial shythole. It's not good economically, socially, and even symbolically. These people leave, taking with them, a lot of opportunities for countless average Indians.
The solution to this requires radical political reforms. The kind of which El Salvador took, and Argentina is taking. And now US as well.
Consider El Salvador for a second. It used to be the most unsafe place in the world. The so called crime hotspot. But within 8 years, Nayib Bukele turned it into the safest country in the western hemisphere. What did he do? He took a radical stance on El Salvadorean crime lords, gangs, and even petty criminals. Essays can be written about how incredible that transformation is. But the fact is, it was a bitter pill to swallow. But the most necessary one at that.
Consider Argentina as well. Javier Millie, in just a year, ended the perpetual fiscal deficit of the country, after 123 years, by radical changes in its economic policies. Again. It's beyond incredible what's happening in that country right now. But the fact is, it's a bitter pill to swallow. And the most necessary one at that.
India also needs something comparable. In fact, being the most populous country in the world, and also the fifth largest economy, India needs an even stronger dose of the same pill. What's the point of being the fifth largest economy in the world, when the per capita income is at $2500, which is basically at rank 144, out of 194 economies in the world?
America seems to be having its second coming as far as a political revolution is concerned. The whole idea of "Department of Government Efficiency" is just extraordinary. Can India have something like that as well? Especially when our political discourse right now is in the depths of hell? I don't know. But we sure do need something like that, and nothing less.
Unless something truly radical happens in the political space of our country, any expectation or even hope of "better times" in the true sense, is basically living on a prayer. If it's going to be business as usual, we might just be having the same conversation even a hundred years down the line.
And a lot of us might just be running out of time...
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