Monday, August 18, 2014

Smart Country

Vasu Reddy From Chicago

We just had another grand celebration of Indian Independence day on 15th of August and the celebrations of Indian's independence of 2014 is once again celebrated with pomp and circumstance around the world. With more and more wealth in the Indian community across the world along with the ever expanding NRI population, it so seems fitting we remember the country's freedom struggle and it being freed of the British in 1947. It has been three generations or a bit more since the British stopped using Hindustan and breaking it into pieces, and left the nation more divided than whatever it was, and the nastiness of divide and rule and caustic and religious intolerance; all of which continue to be fostered by the nations that was once a great nation with great expanse.

While we continue to want to celebrate the leaving of British on 15th of August of every year since 1947, we have forgotten how smart the country was prior to the occupation by foreign invaders, and the division of the great country for centuries. For in fact some of the politicians of today keep referring to themselves as people who have been occupied by the Indians, rather than looking back at the division of the great nation for centuries of occupation and abuse by the invaders. Perhaps every politician who would like to represent Indians should be thoroughly tutored in the history and traditions of the nation, and that might help them from mouthing off on who they are and where they come from.

The mantra in the speeches of the Prime Minister since the victory in the latest general elections and even prior to the elections the development of smart cities in every state of India. Also the word development is used and continued to be used with such regularity, it is more than redundant to hear this repeated constantly. Your elected representatives are given a chance to represent a smart country, and the smart people of India are quite politically savvy and are quite smart in looking forward to their future. It is a country that is very large, very diverse and very smart; and always looking forward to the future. A country of believers in god, faith and destiny; and also a country of people who are smart in picking and choosing a government every five years based on their belief in future. The country remains democratic in principal and optimistic in nature, and it is already a very forward looking and smart nation.

The diversity of India requires smart planning as the issues that face the nation are as diverse as its population is, and requires smart politicians who envision the needs of the great nation and it people. No doubt that building infrastructure to meet the needs of the Indians is important and planning well ahead into the future to meet those ever expanding needs, but the politically intelligent population of the country will always look for the leaders to keep their promises made while looking for votes. The speeches made to bring voters to the polling booths, are typically in line with the aspirations of the nation, and delivering them to the electorate and only by delivering to the poll promises the democracy will allow the political parties to continue in power.


The value of being a smart nation is really making do with the resources we have, and managing to the best with what is available. Building cities that are self sufficient, energy and resources smart, forward looking in education and employment and also provide safety to all citizens is important for the country and its people. We also need smart planning in agriculture, rivers, human resources and natural resources all along with people management, and we should start to do what we plan quickly. Just talking about them is not going to help, implementation of these plans and doing them quickly will help the nation to remain smart and forward looking. There is no question of the magnitude of the issues to be resolved and the implementation of plans to meet those needs of the nation. A smart country will get started on implementation and stop talking about the ideas of the last 60 some years. We are a smart country and we know that the time to talk is over and time to do is here. With each election cycle and each elected government we hear the rhetoric of what can be done with the nation, and we only see the degradation of a smart country, rather than development to meet the needs of its people. It is now time to get smart in doing things that are made in speeches and on paper, and say we are smart people that realize that we don't want to waste any more time talking, but we get smart and start doing.

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