The rush to get out among talented Indians is real

Some years ago, we spent a week interviewing hawkers on Kolkata’s streets. While talking to one of them, he suddenly said, “You, know if I were in Singapore I would be treated with much more respect as a hawker.” The desire to be anywhere else in the world is a real one among Indians, rich or poor. It is the result of the poor quality of governance, absence of fraternity and the lack of opportunities to get on with one’s life.

Our cover story this month is an extract from Sanjaya Baru’s brilliant new book, Secession of the Successful, which is about emigration — particularly by the educated and well-off, who move on in search of a better life in the First World. The flight of such elites further dampens the hopes of the less fortunate, making them wonder if things will ever get better.

The inequalities spawned by India’s growth story are well known. But they are most visible in the rush to get out. If, like that hawker on a Kolkata street, you can’t be treated equally and given a chance to come up, what is the point of staying on? Worse still, if you can’t get out and are forced to live with grim realities in our crumbling cities, just imagine the sense of hopelessness, especially when the privileged have all the choices in the world.

Who should be held accountable for this national sense of despair and hopelessness? Politicians, for one, because when they stand for election, they undertake to give people a better life through good governance. But there isn’t a legislature in the country where time is invested in serious discussion on the things that matter to ordinary people. You could also call out the elites who don’t bother to give back but are focused on taking care of themselves.

We have two fascinating interviews in this issue on how much of a difference robust governance can make. Vinayak Chatterjee argues convincingly for high-speed rail because of the way it will connect cities and trigger economic growth. The other interview is a sad one about workers losing their fingers on shopfloors in the supply chains of the big automobile brands. The good thing is that Safe In India, the NGO taking this up, has been winning over managements to do better. But why were they allowing it to happen in the first place?

The Pujas are always a great time to be in Kolkata. Some very socially-driven people put up those lovely pandals. We identified a whole lot of pandals that took up social causes such as acid attacks on women. Kolkata always has a conscience and a heart.

It is sad that Sonam Wangchuk has been put in jail under the NSA. The Wangchuk we know is a nationalist above all things and the causes he has taken up are a huge contribution to safeguarding the future of the nation. We pay him our salaams.