I'm beginning to wonder if the Indians are going way over their heads these days. I'm all for friendship, but it peeves me now to see them blowing their own trumpet, endlessly and shamelessly. For the last few years, our ears have gone dry, listening to shouts of "Shining India", despite the separatist elements, the massacres, the Mumbai slums...
Now, there's more. A few examples:
Mr. Chakravarty of the Hindustan Times (Waiting for Obama's Call) was going bonkers over an anticipated call to his PM from U.S. President-elect Obama. And what annoyance that he called Mr. Zardari and a few other leaders before he ever got through to Manmohan Singh. Bummer! He missed an important rite of passage by not calling India first. India is shining.
The Hindustan Times again, and this time, its Mr. Thappar (Obama or 'Oh bummer'?), crying fowl over Obama's expected foreign policy on Kashmir, because it seems more in line with Pakistan's demand for an intervention. But of course, if they can't let in international observers easily, how could they allow mediation. India can go it alone, because India is shining.
Now for Mr. Bachchan and his blog. On the day when the media around the world was going ecstatic over a black man in the white house, our superstar did the research and managed to make it all about India, going on to quote a not-so-ecstatic response: "So, we can be partially progressive while still following and passing regressive policies. Segregation of color in America is not abolished! India is a far fairer democracy! Here even the so called untouchables have representation. They are considered; one of them may well be Prime Minister one day ! The US still isn’t the land of the free after all…".
Then there is mention of that evening in 1969, when the first man landed on the moon. And today, so has India's spacecraft, lodging its tricolor on the moon. Instantly, he is corrected.
No sir, don't get carried away! India is shining, but its spacecraft hasn't yet landed on the moon (it was, in fact, the Moon Investigation Probe), nor is there a flag as yet.
Having the chance to take pride in one's country is something very special. But trying to rub it in harder than it warrants, takes away any shine that might have been.
Copyright (c) 2008 Saadia Malik
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