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Little India was just a slice, try
the real big ugly whole
WSN Bureau
Those readers of
the WSN who passed through New York's Central Park a week ago must
have seen the dancers, chefs, actors, musicians, singers trying to
tell the western world that India has become Incredible, 60 years
after achieving political independence from the British and denying
it to its minorities, the have nots, the deprived and the poor. In
the mammoth metropolis that NY is, creating Little India to send out
signals that it is a wonderful little heaven of democracy with some
software industry thrown in and a lot of aspiration to become a
global power is a tricky task. But even then the Indian
establishment thinks it will be easy to fool the quick-paced New
Yorker, hermeneutically sealed from the world as they rush to their
offices and back everyday, to register the reality beyond the image
created in the Central Park.
The initial
plans were even bigger, and the Indian officials, who had contrived
to make the CII pay for the extravaganza, had decided upon Times
Square, the Rockefeller Centre, the Bronx Zoo and Central Park. They
wanted to erect a Taj Mahal in Central Park, and put up the
Incredible India on view in the form of two artificial elephants
weighing a thousand tons each. Then, logistics and availability made
them compromise upon Port Authority Bus Station for the sand replica
of Taj and Bryant Park and South Street Seaport for cultural events.
 But
with the United States currently on terror guard and its minorities
on guard lest their concerns are trampled upon in the war on terror,
could the 45 classical dancers, 140 performers and folk artistes, 15
technical assistants, 15 chefs and 10 handicraft specialists have
succeeded in camouflaging the reality of India? Brand building
militates against ground reality. Even the dumbest will see through
it that while the Delhi-Agra-Jaipur triangle is on touristy agenda,
the showcased India is only a little slice.
Mass deprivation
pockets across India do not show up in Tourism Department's posters,
the Incredible India or India Shining campaigns do not talk about
ugly incidents of rape and crime against travellers, and the India
in Central Park edits out what its government does to its
minorities, even defining and re-defining them out of existence.
Fake encounters is a typically Indian invention, with considerable
potential of patent application and becoming a revenue source every
time an African tin pot dictator uses it to silence a dissident.
Dancers do not sing about Godhra and Gujarat riots, or India's
increasing by the hour lynch mob on the streets because its courts
hear petty cases for 50 years without making up their mind.
Little India in
Central Park is beautiful, the big brother real India is watching
the Burmese military junta crushing democracy-demanding monks under
shoes provided by Indian decision of non-intervention. India's new
army chief of staff Gen Deepak Kapoor, in his first remarks after
taking over from Gen J J Singh, reiterated the "good relations" of
India with military junta.
You may build a
brand in Central Park, but this was a poor ad. Just compare it with
the visit of United Nations envoy on October 1 who preferred to meet
Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, but not the top brass of ruling
junta.
True, the
Americans are intelligent enough to see through the pretty postcard
they may have glimpsed in the Central Park. You may name it
Incredible India, but people will believe a brand only if it has
some credibility. Bites of tiny samosas handed out in disposable
little bowls with tamarind sauce may do you well for a three-column
picture back home in obsequious media. For better hard-sell, try
adding a pinch of real democracy; respect for law and co-existence
with the minorities rather than interminable attempts to assimilate
them in the slogan of Mera Bharat Mahaan!
3
October, 2007
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