By The Editor

It’s an amusing thing about human nature, to judge, people sizing up others on abilities and grounds they themselves don’t possess. For instance, the innumerable experts on cricket, the gurus who point out flaws in a batsman’s technique from the comfort of a couch, most of these experts will never go beyond the “Mohalla” level but they are experts none the less, no body gives a s**** what they think but everyone has an opinion. IT industry is another good example, managers, project managers, delivery managers, client managers and any random title you can think of including executives, presidents are going to judge you on the work they themselves don’t do. If you think that developers, testers and analysts in trenches are rated on things like work efficiency, productivity, hard work then probably, you might have never worked in the IT industry but hey, that’s the story everywhere. It’s always a matter of perspective, depending on who you ask.

  Modi government is one year old now, lot of things have happened and lots of things have changed.  Prices aren’t rising as they were under Congress rule; things are getting done more, both at home and internationally. Indians overall has a good overview of the government but like everything else it depends on the individual’s point of view. Congress, its leaders and monarchy will give the PMO zero, but its understandable at their position, what else they have to loose, they are already stripped naked. Government and state employees are happy as cost of food and living is not skyrocketing and center is willing to give some leeway in power sharing and decision making, though corruption is one area where PM Modi would have to focus intently to keep the middle class happy. The government has to do more than forming SIT’s and naming tax evaders or AAP will try its best to outmaneuver BJP on this issue in future elections. Businesses are darlings of this government especially the big and foreign ones but in order to really boost the economy from ground up, the government has to find ways to ease things a bit for small businesses. Enriching local economies and infrastructure will give confidence to both investors and public that things can get done in this country.

 Farmers on the other hand might not have A’s for Modi government in their books. Industrial revitalization is necessary but it has to be done in balance with the interest of nation’s breadwinners. Prime minister and the government is in no mood to go back on the land bill but they have to be flexible enough to accommodate the concerns of farmers and their representative organizations. If ever a farmer has to give up his land for a factory, the authorities have to safeguard his livelihood and his family’s wellbeing but the way our bureaucracy works only add to the worries and fears of those opposing this bill. India’s farmers have always struggled from debt, poor rains, undercut prices and lack of better equipment. They do all this in order to protect one small piece of land that provides for their family. We can only hope that two sides can come to an agreement where ‘Make in India’ and ‘Grown in India’ can go side by side, fruitfully. Another case is of veterans who are fighting the battle off the battlefield for one rank, one pension. We owe our security, stability and democracy to these warriors of the old. Just like them we have an inherent moral responsibility to protect them. The massive sums of money that is spent to buy military equipment should also go for betterment of soldiers, veterans and their families. India never had any shortage of motivated men willing to fight and die for her but a soldier not only requires good weapons but also an assurance that he and his loved ones will be taken care of.

 Government is doing a good job overall, we have to give them credit for that but it’s our collective duty to keep our leaders accountable because as old saying goes, democracy is a two way contract.