Read The Hindu Notes of 15th February 2019 for UPSC Civil Service Examination, State Civil Service Examination and other competitive Examination

The Hindu Notes for 15th February 2019
  • Topic Discussed: The Hindu Notes of 15th February 2019

    • Stress points of democracy

    In this election year in India, we need to keep a sharper eye on the weakening of institutions

  • These are difficult, as also unsettling, times. It is not the complexity of issues that confront the world as much as the steady undermining of institutional and knowledge structures that are posing a threat to the world.
  • Across the world, democracy is in obvious retreat, with authoritarian tendencies on the ascendant. Russia’s Vladimir Putin, China’s Xi Jinping and Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan are constantly projected as the faces of authoritarianism, but many democratic leaders reveal a similar authoritarian streak, which adds to democracy’s woes. It may be too early to predict the demise of democracy, but the reality is that it is not a good time for democratic institutions, or for those who see democracy as the answer to the world’s problems.

    • Examples everywhere

  • Several examples exist worldwide on how decisions today are handed down, rather than being the outcome of discussion and debate. Hallowed international institutions such as the World Bank are facing the heat today for not conforming to the prescriptions of certain powerful members. At the same time, there are enough examples of democracy going awry. Brexit, and the Brexit debate, in the U.K. and Europe is a good example.
  • The U.S., which prides itself as a leading democracy, is setting a bad example today. Under President Donald Trump, arbitrary decision-making has replaced informed debate. His diatribe against what he calls a “ridiculous partisan” investigation against him is an indication. Another is his determination to build a wall to keep out Mexican immigrants, even risking an extended shutdown of the U.S. government. The decision of the U.S. to withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty — a key pact signed in 1987, and hailed as the centrepiece of European security since the Cold War — without a detailed internal discussion appears to be setting the stage for Cold War 2.0.
  • It is, however, the ignoring of democratic conventions nearer home that are cause for greater concern. In a pluralistic, multi-party federal system, disdain for democratic conventions and the violation of well-entrenched behavioural patterns are causing irreversible damage to the polity.

    • Federal fallout

  • Currently, we are witnessing vituperative exchanges between the Prime Minister and some Chief Ministers which involve accusations such as fomenting riots and running extortion rackets. This damages the fabric of democracy. Centre-State relations are already under strain, and face the threat of still greater disruption.
  • Selective interpretation of information is a fallout of such situations. Those in authority deem all information not acceptable to them as nothing but disinformation. Those opposed to the government, on the other hand, insist that the government suffers from a lack of probity. The current sulphurous exchanges between the ruling dispensation and the Opposition over the purchase of Rafale aircraft are an example. The casualty is truth, and the veracity of official facts and statistics.
  • Many instances of this kind can be quoted, but one specific instance that has caught the fancy of the public is the current debate on jobs and unemployment. The Central government has effectively rejected a report by the well-regarded National Sample Survey Office — which showed that unemployment in 2017-18 was at a 45-year high — without giving any valid reason for doing so. The government’s only reasoning for rejecting the report is that it is a ‘draft’, which has only added to existing doubts about its real intentions. Similarly, doubts are being raised about the validity of the government’s revised GDP estimates.
  • Breaches of democratic conventions are adding to the already existing disquiet. Adherence to democratic norms has for long been perceived as crucial to maintaining the independence of institutions and processes. An impression exists today that attempts are being made to effect changes in the existing system. Two instances during the past year when the government breached long-held conventions have raised questions about the intentions of those in authority.
  • One was the brouhaha concerning the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), and a perceived attempt to reduce its functional independence, to compel it to fall in line with the views of the government. The resignation of the RBI Governor put a temporary quietus to these concerns, but it is widely believed that the RBI has been brought into line with the government’s wishes. The second instance relates to the Interim Budget in an election year. The Interim Budget announced on the eve of the 2019 general election clearly breaches certain long-settled conventions, by including many substantial measures that ordinarily would form part of a regular Budget. The intention is plain, viz. build more support for the ruling dispensation in an election year.
  • Alongside the decline in democratic conventions, another cause for concern is the virtual collapse of key institutions such as the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Touted as India’s premier investigation agency, its reputation has of late suffered a near mortal blow, mainly on account of internecine quarrels, as also external interference in its internal affairs. Created out of the Delhi Special Police Establishment in 1963, a brainchild of then-Home Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, the agency was earlier headed by persons with impeccable integrity and ability. It had also adhered previously to the salutary principle of not carrying out arrests, except in the most exceptional of circumstances. Over time, the quality of the CBI leadership and the tribe of proven investigators has witnessed a decline, which has impacted the image of the organisation.
  • An agency of the government, part of the Ministry of Personnel functioning under the Prime Minister, supervised at one step removed by the Central Vigilance Commission, and constantly under the watch of the Supreme Court, the CBI serves many masters. The choice of Director, following the Vineet Narain case, by a committee headed by the Prime Minister, with the Chief Justice of India and the Leader of Opposition as the other members, has hardly helped the CBI maintain a reputation for independence. The recent unsavoury drama, which witnessed a ‘Kilkenny cat fight’ between the Director and his No. 2, reflects the lack of institutional culture in the organisation.
  • Compounding the situation arising from the lack of trained and competent investigators is the fact that supervisory officers, who come and go, are most often not in a position to provide proper guidance to investigating officers. At times, they also tend to tinker with the investigation reports sent to them, to reject the findings of investigating officers.

    • A changing work culture

  • What is worse is that while earlier the CBI used to carry out arrests of so-called accused persons only as a measure of last resort, today it is overturning this on its head. As its investigating officers’ skills have declined, it is increasingly resorting to peremptory arrests, often on very slender evidence, in anticipation of securing approvers to build, or strengthen, a case. The law generally disapproves of approver evidence, but this has become the stock in trade of the CBI. In many instances, the CBI has also been resorting to pressure tactics while questioning individuals, even when they are not accused persons, setting aside legal niceties and requirements. In a few instances recently, the CBI has even resorted to intimidatory tactics, taking recourse to a battery of investigators to question a witness, let alone an accused, in the hope of securing useful leads. The recent incident where a posse of CBI personnel went to question the Kolkata Police Commissioner at his residence late in the evening, though he was only a witness, reflects the changing mores of the CBI. This should be a matter of concern for one and all.

    • The Karnataka model of politics

    Its Assembly constituency-level leadership can operate independent of a political party

  • The repeated confinement of Karnataka MLAs in resorts suggests that the State’s elected representatives have to literally be physically prevented from selling themselves to their ideological opponents. Given the moral compass of our elected representatives, it would be foolhardy to rule out this possibility. Yet viewing the State’s political events entirely in such commercial terms ignores the larger transition taking place in grassroots politics in Karnataka, one that political parties are struggling to keep pace with.

    • Rural politics

  • An often underestimated aspect of Karnataka has been its success with rural decentralisation. Unlike its urban governance, which continues to be dominated by lobbies at multiple levels, from garbage collectors to elite industrialists, the administration of rural Karnataka has a prominent place for its panchayat institutions. Its experiments with decentralisation gathered momentum in the 1980s, well before the 73rd Amendment to the Constitution.
  • Administrative decentralisation was accompanied by a similar process in the State’s rural politics. Unlike some other States, like Kerala, where administrative decentralisation has taken place under rather more centralised party control, the process in Karnataka has resulted in a greater opportunity, and hence competition, for local political office. The leaders who emerge from this intense competition are typically more confident of their political roots and are not afraid to make this known in Bengaluru.
  • The BJP, or more accurately B.S. Yeddyurappa (in picture), was the first to recognise the emergence of Assembly constituency-level leadership which could operate independent of a political party. In his first term as Chief Minister, he launched what has come to be called Operation Lotus. In this operation, an Opposition MLA resigned his seat in the State Assembly and was promptly re-elected as a member of the ruling party. This enabled Mr. Yeddyurappa to convert his minority government into a majority one.
  • A decade later, the same process of decentralisation has worked against the BJP leader. With local competition throwing up even more leaders in each constituency, the number of MLAs who can be confident of re-election has declined. The BJP also needs more MLAs to cross over than it did the last time. But Mr. Yeddyurappa, having previously used the emergence of new local leaders to bring the BJP to power, probably feels he can do it again.
  • In trying to deal with the new set of previously unknown and ideologically promiscuous leaders, parties in Karnataka have usually fallen back on caste. The Janata Dal (Secular) relies quite heavily on its core base of Vokkaligas. The BJP is relatively more broad-based but takes extra care to protect its Lingayat flock. The Congress strategy is to absorb as many caste groups as possible. This ensures that caste conflicts are internalised within the party, and the possibility of sabotage at election time in the Congress is probably the highest among the State’s parties.
  • Using caste to net emerging local leaders is also not immune to the pressures of effective political decentralisation. Competition among emerging political leaders exists within castes as well. Taking one leader into a party often means the exit of his opponent from the same caste. In some constituencies, in the 2018 Assembly election, the main candidates were the same but they had exchanged parties.

    • Battle within castes

  • What is of greater concern to Karnataka’s political parties is that the battle within castes can take on a longer-term ideological colour. This is most evident in the case of Lingayats. The caste has for some decades been under a leadership that would like to take it deeper into the Hindu fold. They tend to treat the 12th century poet-saint Basavanna as no more than an important footnote in the history of the caste. This has been challenged by the historically less privileged sections of Lingayats who see Basavanna as one who challenged the basic tenets of the caste system and hence Hinduism itself. Their demand to treat the followers of Basavanna as belonging to a different religion has become a major bone of contention.
  • Karnataka’s political parties are struggling to come to terms with this division. The conventional wisdom is to pretend it does not exist. The BJP would like see a continuation of the status quo so that Lingayats remain a part of the Hindu community and there is no division in the major support base of the party. The Siddaramaiah-led Congress government supported the case for the followers of Basavanna to be treated as a separate religion. This led his opponents in the party to blame its poor performance in the last election on this decision, though the party did worse in the non-Lingayat regions of coastal and southern Karnataka.
  • The way out of the current confusion of parties running helter-skelter to capture ‘winning’ leaders would be the emergence of a new vision, one that new leaders would gravitate towards. But there is no such vision, or visionary, on the horizon.

    • Auditor’s account

    The CAG report does not allay all doubts about the Rafale deal

  • The price-redacted audit report on the process to acquire 36 Rafale fighter jets is unlikely to bring closure to the controversy over the deal. The report of the Comptroller and Auditor-General of India tabled in Parliament comes in the midst of a vigorous campaign by the Opposition that is questioning the process, based on media revelations about possible lapses and deviations and significant points raised by dissenting members of the Indian Negotiating Team (INT). The Modi government can draw comfort from the fact that the CAG report concludes that the 2016 agreement is slightly better in terms of both pricing and delivery than what was under negotiation in 2007 during the UPA regime. However, the report does not allay all doubts. Pegged at 2.86%, the price advantage in the contract over the 2007 offer is marginal. It is a far cry from the 9% saving claimed by the government. The delivery schedule is only one month sooner than the estimated outer limit in the earlier process. The CAG has found fault with Dassault Aviation being allowed to retain the gains made by the absence of a bank guarantee, which, if executed, would have come with significant charges. Disappointingly, the CAG has not quantified this amount, though it declares that it should have been passed on to the Defence Ministry. The 2007 price offered by Dassault included bank charges, and its absence in the 2016 contract is a clear benefit to the company. In other words, the ‘advantage’ is lower than the 2.86%.
  • While the key question of pricing is sought to be resolved by the CAG by comparing the auditors’ aligned price with the INT’s computation, some issues remain unaddressed. The original issue of bringing down the total acquisition from 126 to 36 aircraft does not draw much comment. Also, the huge outgo on the India-Specific Enhancements (ISEs), despite the final figure being projected as a 17% saving on the aligned offer, is something that requires deeper examination. While auditing the earlier process, the CAG found that ISEs were upgrades allowed to be made so that Dassault’s bid would be compliant with qualitative requirements. Even a team of Ministry officials that examined in March 2015 the integrity of the earlier process concluded that “the acceptance of [Dassault’s] additional commercial proposal after bid submission date... was unprecedented and against the canons of financial propriety.” Dassault was not the lowest bidder in the earlier process, and its technical bid had been rejected. Perhaps, this presented an opportunity to the present regime to reopen the entire process to buy Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) and invite fresh bids. However, it chose the IGA route with France, possibly for diplomatic reasons. The CAG identifies as a major problem the fact that the technical requirements are too narrowly defined for most vendors to comply with. The message from the report is that defence acquisition processes require reforms and streamlining.

    • Common and minimum

    Opposition parties will have to make compromises to build a cohesive front

  • Political stability is a necessary but not sufficient condition for good governance. But the promise of stability is now such a recurring theme in the speeches of senior BJP leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, it is almost as if nothing else matters. As Opposition parties of different persuasions are beginning to stitch together a motley coalition, the response of the BJP is in the form of raising visions of the years of instability in the latter half of the 1990s when neither the BJP nor the Congress could get a majority in the Lok Sabha. The BJP would like to believe that 2014, when it became the first party to win a majority on its own since the Congress in 1984, was no aberration. A call to vote for stability used to be the Congress’s slogan in the 1990s, but it is now appropriated by the BJP as the biggest party on the political landscape. The more the prospect of a united Opposition draws close, the greater the BJP harps on the need for stability. In Maharashtra and Goa, the BJP runs coalition governments without too much trouble, but it is acutely conscious of the possibility of a coming together of Opposition parties if it falls short of a majority. Finishing as the single largest party might not be enough for the BJP in a situation where it has alienated even its existing allies. The Shiv Sena is a difficult ally, and the Janata Dal (United) an undependable one. A post-poll polarisation of smaller parties could hurt the BJP more than the Congress.
  • The rhetoric around stability is forcing a response from the major Opposition parties. After the rally organised by the Aam Aadmi Party in New Delhi, the push seems to be towards forming pre-poll alliances and formulating a common agenda as part of developing a more cohesive coalition. Congress president Rahul Gandhi is now talking of a common minimum programme, and of working together with Mamata Banerjee of the Trinamool and Arvind Kejriwal of the AAP, and Sharad Pawar of the Nationalist Congress Party. The AAP rally may have just turned out to be more than a show of hands. But for the Congress, the challenge is to build alliances with different parties in different States to take on the BJP. In Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, where it is the dominant party, it might still need the support of the BSP to maximise the yield in terms of seats. In Punjab and Delhi, it could do with the help of the AAP. In Karnataka, it would have to deal with a demanding partner in the Janata Dal (Secular). In Bihar and Tamil Nadu, it is the smaller partner in alliances. A common minimum programme might thus have to be truly minimum in order to remain common.

    • Is the unemployment crisis for real?

    Employment opportunities, formal jobs and the labour force are all shrinking

  • The jobs situation in India does not reflect a crisis, but it is a matter of serious concern. A crisis is understood as an emergency that demands immediate attention, without which we could see a calamity of sorts. There is no immediate calamity of any kind on hand. But there is a deeply insidious problem at work in the form of shrinking employment opportunities, shrinking formal jobs, and a shrinking labour force.
  • A populous and demographically young country like India has a lot to gain if the expanding working-age population can join the labour force and be provided with gainful employment. More hands at work can ensure greater prosperity and relatively evenly spread growth.

    • Problems of unemployment

  • But if India cannot provide employment to its growing working-age population, it does not just miss a chance to become a prosperous country, but also risks becoming an unmanageable or unruly country. Unemployed youth, beyond a threshold, can lose hope of a job and can easily stray into becoming unsocial elements.
  • A bigger problem is that those who do get jobs and prosper do not appreciate the plight of those who do not. It is mistakenly believed that those who do not get good jobs are not worthy of getting them. The blame is placed at the door of the unemployed as if it is entirely their problem. The macro-economic and social dimension of the problem is not appreciated in India.
  • Statistics give us clues of the brewing problem and its insidious nature. First, we are in the midst of a serious investments deficit. CMIE’s CapEx database demonstrates the persistent fall in new investment proposals since 2011-12. New investment proposals had peaked at ₹25 trillion in 2010-11. In 2017-18, these were down to ₹11 trillion, and in 2018-19, these are unlikely to cross ₹10 trillion.
  • The impact of this fall in investments is visible in shrinking jobs. In a point-to-point comparison, in 2018, the number of persons employed declined by 11 million. An estimated 408 million people were employed in December 2017. This fell to 397 million in December 2018. The average employment in 2017 was 406.5 million. This fell to an average of 402.1 million in 2018. This shows a smaller fall of 4.5 million. Either way, we see a very substantial fall in employment. One (11 million) is only much worse than a fairly bad fall of 4.5 million, or 10%.

    • Labour participation rate

  • This fall in jobs is not translating into a proportionate rise in unemployment. But it is showing up in a fall in the labour participation rate. A rise in unemployment is bad, but a fall in the labour participation rate is worse. The former reflects a shortage of jobs compared to the number of people looking for jobs. The latter reflects a fall in the number of people looking for jobs. When we juxtapose this against falling jobs, we see a glimpse of the hopelessness of people who should be looking for jobs.

    • The crisis is the response

  • Our real crisis is in the nature of the government’s response to the situation. When the establishment works hard to rubbish sound statistical practices and results of large sample household surveys and instead uses back-of-the-envelope calculations to measure employment, we are headed towards a bigger crisis than the jobs crisis.

    • The methodology used in the surveys is questionable. What India has is a wage problem

  • The furore around the unemployment issue is ill-founded. Most of the analysis is based on incomplete representations of the labour market. The recent surveys that profess spiralling unemployment are either unverifiable or heavily skewed by sampling biases. This narrative raises questions on the political motivations behind these surveys that may intend to change the perception of India’s growth trajectory, nationally and globally.

    • What the surveys ignore

  • CMIE claimed that the total working population in India declined by 11 million (1.1 crore) in 2018. These preliminary estimates seem opportunistically quoted by the think tank two months ahead of schedule. CMIE has considered a minuscule sample of 1,40,000 respondents for a nation of more than 1.3 billion citizens. With regards to the leaked excerpts of the National Sample Survey Office survey, the public has been unduly kept in the dark about the methodology used to compute the claimed 6.1% unemployment rate.
  • Estimating a macro profile of employment for the country based on a survey of even 2 million participants is not statistically valid without a study of the various components of job creation. Such surveys have biased weights which have recently been contradicted by more concrete research. These surveys give higher weight to States with large populations but where less formal jobs are being created. There is a higher supply of formal jobs in Maharashtra and in south India than in States like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
  • Another trend which was noticed was that jobs were being created in big cities. However, cities carry less weight in the aforementioned surveys. A company called BetterPlace Safety Solutions, which has one of the deepest databases of the formal sector workforce in India, had recently released these revelatory migration trends. Until such biases are removed using actual data, we must reserve judgment.

    • Creation of formal jobs

  • India has been creating formal jobs in large numbers. Further, deliberations based on other proxy databases like vehicle sales, the annual reports of the IT department, and MUDRA loan disbursals help ascertain jobs in large job-creating markets like transport, the professional sector, and small-scale entrepreneurship, respectively. This provides us with a robust methodology of ascertaining employment.
  • We have estimated that India requires around 1.5 crore jobs a year. This is because it has got about 2.5 crore people attaining the age of 21 every year. We estimate that 40% of this population may not want formal jobs, as they choose agriculture or become homemakers after marriage. The social security databases point to around 70 lakh jobs created annually (in companies with over 20 employees), the transport sector creates around 30-35 lakh jobs, and the professional sector creates around 6-10 lakh jobs. That’s 1.1 crore jobs from just three sources. The rest (30-40 lakh jobs) is contributed by people starting their own ventures. India has not improved on its Ease of Doing Business ranking for nothing, and this sector is expected to generate more employment with support from initiatives like Make in India.
  • Today, if you talk to employers like shopkeepers and small and large firms, they will tell you that they are not finding enough employees. This means that there are not enough skilled people in the market. Manish Sabharwal of TeamLease has been producing an annual labour report documenting a healthy demand for jobs. However, these jobs provide insufficient compensation for the applicants. India has a wage problem and not a job problem. This problem can only be solved by creating higher-quality jobs to meet aspirations.

    • The issue that is more pressing than unemployment is underemployment

  • Work is fundamental in determining one’s quality of life. Indians rely on their jobs to earn a living, to fulfil family obligations, and to satisfy the aspirations that motivate them daily. Yet jobs that are productive, with fair pay, and that allow citizens to live healthy lives are scarce, and are becoming even more so.

    • Waiting for a good job

  • Leaked data from the National Sample Survey Office’s (NSSO) latest labour force survey suggests that unemployment rose to an all-time high of 6.1% last year. This is, no doubt, a worrying trend.
  • Yet the rise in unemployment can largely be explained by the fact that more young people are obtaining an education. With education comes the expectation of a ‘better’ job. Those who can afford education also tend to be in a position to wait for a job that meets their requirements. Those who are not as financially fortunate must find the means to make a living, however poor in quality the work may be. The data show that unemployment is higher among the educated, and lower among those with less financial means and education.
  • The need to work to make ends meet also fuels India’s large informal economy. Over 90% of the employed (farm and non-farm) are informal workers. In the non-farm sector, 66% of those employed are informal workers. The informal economy is characterised by low levels of productivity and low wages because many of these workers are underemployed.
  • The urgent crisis confronting the economy, then, is underemployment. Underemployment occurs when workers are unable to find employment that makes use of their qualifications and skills. For instance, an engineer might be working in a mechanic shop. Underemployment and/or refers to the sharing of low-productivity work, as is common in agriculture, for example. Or picture a 16-year-old who spends his mornings selling just enough coconuts to make the bare minimum to survive. And these are just examples of visible underemployment.
  • Persistent underemployment also contributes to the decline in labour force participation rates. As people grow frustrated with their inability to find a good job, they may stop looking for work and drop out of the labour force altogether. Data from the leaked NSSO labour force survey suggest that the labour force participation rate declined to 49.8% in 2017-18 from 55.9% in 2011-12.
  • Both underemployment and this form of discouragement are a significant loss of productive potential. This is particularly troubling when it pertains to India’s large and growing youth population. Pathways to productive and high-quality employment are essential to deliver better living standards to citizens, but also for sustainable and inclusive economic growth.

    • Three-pronged strategy

  • So, how can we address the problem? Addressing the underemployment crisis entails a three-pronged strategy.
  • First, we must improve the quality of jobs by improving productivity in agriculture and in enterprises. Second, we must align education, technical and vocational education and training to market demand. Third, we must make enduring and long-term investments in human capital through good-quality education, skills, and on-the-job training, as well as in basic social protection.
  • Recent data do suggest that there is rising unemployment. To be sure, this is a problem. But perhaps the larger and arguably more pressing challenge is underemployment.

    • Removed from reality

    India is more interested in maintaining a facade of social harmony than in putting things in order

  • Given what is at stake in the 2019 general election, much can be read into recent surveys where a majority of respondents found Prime Minister Narendra Modi to be the most trusted leader and that his leadership enhances the country’s image abroad.
  • In this epoch of social media, the hunger for admiration is unbounded, which could explain this national fixation with the country’s global image. This craving to prove India’s prowess in the absence of real progress in many areas has resulted in certain awkward moments for the government and the country. A recent one was the doctored video of the Vande Bharat Express posted online by Railways Minster Piyush Goyal.
  • There is enough data to link this image-neediness to other sociopsychological findings. According to the United Nations’ 2018 World Happiness Index, India ranks low, lower than the Occupied Palestinian Territories. According to the World Health Organisation, India is the most depressed country in the world. In 2015, India ranked fourth in a Social Hostilities Index. And in the 2018 Global Peace Index, it ranked 137 out of 163 countries and territories.
  • Herein lies the paradox: an unhappy and depressed country dealing with large doses of internal hostility is concerned with its leader’s ability to enhance the country’s image. This is a natural corollary to the strategy of impression management, a notion that seems to have come into vogue in recent years after it was promoted by the current dispensation. For example, consider the public and media references to Mr. Modi’s 56-inch chest and the bear hugs he gives to global leaders. All of this implicitly gets linked to the broad question of policy performance. Never mind that policies such as demonetisation, implementation of the Goods and Services Tax, and the surgical strikes across the Line of Control in 2016 were seen by many to have failed in some regards; the mere image of the Prime Minister being decisive and driving these policies to bring about positive change seems enough to carry the day. This aura also appears to legitimise taking credit for the previous government’s achievements.
  • The BJP-created need for a strong leader has synthesised into potent individual cravings for global recognition. This has become so chronic that we as a country are more interested in creating and maintaining a facade of social harmony and uninterrupted economic progress than recognising the disarray at home and putting things in order. Or is the high from global recognition a coping mechanism for the despair citizens find themselves in? That India is more concerned about the face it shows to the world than what the world sees behind it indicates how far removed it chooses to be from reality.