[Reader-list] Reg: Indo-Pak Peace Process : A Mirage??

cashmeeri cashmeeri at yahoo.com
Mon Feb 15 19:12:47 IST 2010


I would like to suggest.
 
It is better to stay focussed on what the topic is. Otherwise, by bringing in all other issues, it creates a mess.
 
The topic is one of possibility of peace between India and Pakistan and what impacts that process. You could discuss the other issues under a new thread.
 
I had already written "It could be said that to some extent and in some form in India also there is a disconnect between the elite and the masses in the attitude towards Pakistan."
 
Thanks
 
............ aalok aima  

--- On Mon, 15/2/10, Rakesh Iyer <rakesh.rnbdj at gmail.com> wrote:


From: Rakesh Iyer <rakesh.rnbdj at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Reg: Indo-Pak Peace Process : A Mirage??
To: "cashmeeri" <cashmeeri at yahoo.com>
Cc: "sarai list" <reader-list at sarai.net>, "Aashish Gupta" <aashu.gupta20 at gmail.com>
Date: Monday, 15 February, 2010, 15:59


There's a huge disconnect between the Indian elite and the Indian masses as well. This is reflected in many things across the country, some examples below are put up to highlight the points:

1) The complete lack of finding out electoral verdicts particularly in the General elections, and even more mediocre kind of reasoning given by news channels, media and the elites to explain electoral verdicts (where some useless reasons are coined out every time, without even knowing the ground reality or some basic depth of understanding of Indian elections). 

2) The problem of Naxalism, whose origin and spreading itself shows how elites are totally cut-off from the ground. Nobody knows what is going on in Operation Greenhunt, and probably the elites hardly care; after all, iron ore is more important than lives of the people. 

3) The idea of development. There is a complete lack of understanding of how the poor perceive development. This is also shown through the understanding of Naxalism. For the rich, development simply means more money and good roads. For the poor, health, education and dignity-related issues are found out to be much more important than say Naxalism. 

At the risk of sounding Communist, I will say that the Indian elites have simply captured the process of democracy to ensure that only people among them can rule over the country, while the masses have only elections to express their views. In reality, democracy is absent. What is present, is mobocracy. 

Rakesh



      


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