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It all started with Shashi Tharoor staying in a five star hotel and not his state Bhavan. In my view he was right to stay where he did. In my view it is not just a question of the State Bhavan not having a gym. For many politicians (particularly those who are exposed to the West) it is difficult to stay in the State Bhavans because of the poor hygiene standards. It is common to find bed sheets stained with semen and boot polish, the bath rooms are also often unhygienic. The crockery used, the table tops and even the way some people eat and leave the left overs is also difficult for them to tolerate.
Was he sending a wrong message to the society? No. Why can’t a politician spend Rs 10,000 a day (of his own money) for healthy, hygienic living (the figures quoted of Rs 80,000 a day is for top of the line suites which I don’t think were being used). Having said that to be the “responsible politician” Shashi could have settled for a good three star hotel.
Of late if wrong messages have come they have come more from our industrialists. Even though I deeply admire our industrialists for the wealth they have generated, they are making grave mistakes in spending it. An 8000 crore house, a 2000 crore wedding! This is a callous and unwise display of wealth. Callous because you are spending that kind of money in the face of thirty crore people who don’t get a square meal. Unwise because, in the past, India has been known as Sone Ki Chidiya (The golden Bird). This bird was torn apart by other more powerful birds. This bird was raped and predated for a thousand years by invaders. By advertising your wealth so, do you wish to become a golden bird again? No. This time we should not be a”Sone ki chidiya”. We should be a ‘Sone Ka Baaj’ (a golden eagle)- no bird dares attack the eagle. So first develop the strength to guard the nation and then let some of your gold glitter (I know some display may be required from time to time to churn the economic wheels). But let us stop at that till we are strong. Otherwise we will attract predators once again. If we don’t wisen up we can be ecologically or economically colonized. We have already almost stopped getting the financial assistance which a poor and developing country like ours should get. Our brazen display of wealth is partly to blame for it. In fact I feel that every businessman and every politician or film star who spends like this should also contribute to the Missile development programme of the nation. And the Government should give proof that the programme is being efficiently managed.
It is good if the media has highlighted this news because
1. It tells the those who made these bhavans and those who maintain them, that even their own bretheren refuse to live in the facilities they have created for them as these have- as their other creations- turned out way below par. Hopefully the people who are responsible for the Bhavans will wake up and upgrade the facilities. Their clientele is changing, so should they. And if changing is not possible then the government should consider privatizing the state bhavans. Given the real estate prices today and given the misuse of these bhavans it might be actually more prudent to do so.
2. It will hopefully tell the public that how uncaring are we for the other person. Which is one of the primary reasons for poor levels of hygiene in India. It is a good message- It shows us the mirror.
If as a rebound the media is highlighting now the austerity drive that too is good. Even if it is a mask or a pretence (which I don’t think it is in all the cases) so what. The mask of austerity which the political rank and file are donning as their leadership is going austere, could eventually become its face. The mask often becomes the face. We look forward to that happening.
Have a nice week end & Happy Dussehra.
Jai Hind.
-Pavan
I am glad you wrote this blog. As it is I never liked India being referred to as “Sone ki chidiya”. Only predators and foreigners who were casting an evil eye on us could have named us so. It is like the city louts labeling a beautiful young girl as “maal”. Sone ki chidiya nahin, SONE KA BAAJ hi banenge Pavan Ji. Ab nahin bhatkenge. Ab murkhta tyagenge.
[ REPORT ABUSE ]Privatisation is not a solution to everything. Why cant these leaders take some pride in their own guest houses and run it properly with adept staff. Its a question of management. Have a hired and well paid staff, things will turn tables. We ignore our own goverment schools which actually pay teachers better than private schools. But government schools are a solution to some section of the people. They also a keep a check and provide an alternative on the spiraling costs of private schools. If our government does not take pride and mismanges its own establishment they have not really prided themselves on being there. It only means our politicians also treat it like the ’sone ki chidiya’ the invaders of india considered it. How are we so different when we have no national spirit or pride in our own assets. The problem is that we have become such babus sitting in air conditioned offices that we fail to sense the temperature around us and are insensitive ot the actual environment.
[ REPORT ABUSE ]Values have changed.The vulgar display of wealth, shows that India is poor but its citizens are rich. Austerity is not just for the politicians it should be for the citizens as well. Elaborate functions do give people jobs but why not contribute to social causes too on that occassion too! If thats not your idea then yes the missile program to protect the country yes.
yadi yahi haal raha desh ka to desh me sona to shayad hi bache bas charon taraf chidiya aur baaz hi nazar aayenge.kyonki abhi chhattisgarh jise kabhi dhan ka katora kaha jata tha wahan ki jo paristhiti hai usse kuch saalon me yahan sirf katora hi bach jayega. ab likhne padne se kuch nahi hoga khud ko jaag kar logon ko jagana hoga wo bhi jhakjhor kar
[ REPORT ABUSE ]thankzs
PLEASE WRITE AGAINST APPOINTMENT OF SPECIAL AMBASSADOR BY ISLAMIC COUNTIRIES TO KASHMIR.
[ REPORT ABUSE ]100-strong President’s retinue! Holiy Cow! What has Sow.Jayanti Natarajan and Kou.Manoj Tiwari and you got to say regarding austerity?
[ REPORT ABUSE ]The best way to deal with inefficient govt.staff and ministers is to introduce the CTC system in govt. also. And their performance should be judged by a committee of all their customers ( people whom they are supposed to serve) if performance is not satisfactory then perquisites and allowances should be scaled down. And all the leaders and officials should also share with nation the secret of making money so fast. Men and women who were earning in thousands all of a sudden start earning in crores. so if 10% of indians start making money at the pace our leaders do we will become “sone ka hathi” in five years from now.
[ REPORT ABUSE ]Hey Pawan, that was nice reading. Hope we have another 10,000 patriots like you to start with and soon we can be the Sone Ki Baaz. looking forward to more such articles from you.
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[ REPORT ABUSE ]our politicians are the persons who are appointed to run the country .if a responsible minister feels helpless to change the conditions of his own state house ,what else we accpect from them.its not the point of there own choice or money its the point to take a responsibility or the courage to improve the system.he is the person who is really gives interesting statments time by time why dont he take initiative to improve the conditions.
[ REPORT ABUSE ]thougt provoking
[ REPORT ABUSE ]Found vthis a very interesting view of recent events and tend to agree with views expressed!
[ REPORT ABUSE ]Dear Sir, Join me in Urban Risk Reduction Mumbai Innititive -Safer Schools, Safer Hospitals and Safer Mumbakars a campaign to prepare people to minimize risks from manmade and natural disastesr by raising awareness, imparting education and training at grass root level .A way towards equal sustainable development. Every one to be Sone Ki Cldiya.Let us inter act more emil -saritsa@vsnl.net, mob 09323157377
[ REPORT ABUSE ]Shashi Tharoor was born abroad, has studied abroad and worked abroad. Ishaan and Kanishk are twin sons of Shashi. Ishaan lives in Hong Kong and works for “Time” magazine. Kanishk lives in London and works for “Open Democracy”. Obviously the upbringing has been top class, the lifestyle upbeat and there is no surprise that the preference is for 5-star hotels.
But it has not always been so for the Tharoor clan, in Shashi Tharoor’s own words ( ref : his column in The Hindu on Sunday, Sep 26, 2004, titled “Standing Tall” http://www.thehindu.com/thehindu/mag/ 2004/09/26/stories/ 2004092600270300.htm )
He wrote this nostalgic obituary to mourn the demise of his father’s eldest brother Tharoor Parameshwar, who had just passed away.
Let us read his own words:
“MY sisters and I knew him as “Valiachan”, which in Malayalam is literally “Big Father”, for he was our father’s elder “brother”, indeed the eldest. …… For he was one of those people who was not merely a self-made man, but one who had made others; ……..
Valiachan was born, in February 1918, into a good family that had fallen upon hard times. Historians tell us that at the time of Vasco da Gama, the entire area around Palghat was known as “Tharoor Swarupam”, but the Tharoors had, over the centuries, been reduced to farming at levels little above subsistence.
The usual Kerala solution had to be found to the problem: emigration. So young Param, a brilliant student, dropped out of school after standard 10, learned typing and moved to Bombay, aged 18, to look for a job. His father had been ailing for years and soon passed away, leaving the financial responsibility for his mother, four brothers and three sisters upon the teenager.
Valiachan found a place in the Ramakrishna Mission at the Bombay suburb of Khar where, in return for cleaning the premises, he was allowed to sleep on the floor and given one free meal a day. Each day he walked 20 kilometres to work in the Fort area and back, because he could not afford the bus fare. But he sent money home. Before he became an adult, Valiachan had become the saviour of his family.
…………. After a few temporary jobs he was hired by the largest advertising agency in British India, J. Walter Thomson, as a stenographer. His intelligence, integrity and drive soon shone through: within a couple of years he was the Media Manager.
……………..(Later) he decided to set up shop on his own in London. In those days most major Indian businesses were headquartered in London while the consumers were in India, so for five years he ran a successful operation from Fleet Street …….. While doing this he not only supported his family in Kerala but brought his three youngest brothers to London to study and start their working lives. It was no accident that two of them followed Valiachan into advertising: one was my own father, Chandran Tharoor.
London lost its attractions after independence, so three years (were spent) in Calcutta ….. In 1955 Valiachan returned to Bombay in triumph, as the founder publisher of the Indian edition of the Reader’s Digest.
The boy who could not afford to complete his schooling, who walked 20 km to work each day, ended a long and distinguished life as the patriarch of a highly successful and prosperous family, and the revered patron of an entire profession.”
It is not difficult to imagine that what would have been the plight of seven siblings and the mother if the eldest one had not created great opportunities for himself as well as three brothers, (Shashi Tharoor’s father included).
Imagine that just 20 years before Shashi’s birth, the plight of Tharoor family- as described by him - was similar to several lower middle class families in India who make a daily struggle for managing two square meals a day and a shelter. Every one knows that two years ago, a plate of idlis cost ‘merely’ Rs.395 + taxes at the renowned 5-star hotel Taj Man Singh hotel, which he found to be nearest to his affluent life style.
Out of this self-professed extravagance under the pretext of ‘proper residential accommodation” was born the infamous “cattle class” controversy which robbed Shashi of his stiff ‘moral’ upper lip and he was saved from being the first sacrifice at the altar of austerity in almost first 100 days of his rise to the national fame.
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