Chetan Bhagat, best-selling author of One night @ the call centre and The 3 mistakes of my life, on BBC:
“Money can’t buy everything—it can buy India a lot.
“Imagine if India was a developed country, our biggest problems – poverty, healthcare, infrastructure, child labour – will be gone. Alongside, there will be lesser religious tension or caste differences.
“If you have a nice home and a Toyota Corolla, it is unlikely you will go and riot on the streets.”
Read the full article: Mixed feeling about India’s future
1.1billion corollas?
I don’t think that’s the right model. A better model would be to think of 1.1billion REVA cars, or even better – a country mandated to have only public transport or electric two wheelers and REVA like electric cars within city limits.
To start with “Roti, Kaapda & Makaan” for all would still be a better target.
Chetan Bhagat’s solution (house & a Corolla for all ) to India’s woes sounds like a day-dream of a well-meaning nouveau rich. Chetan forgets that a small % of India’s population own cars in India and interestingly more than half of them have more than one car.
Bharat would consider herself lucky if the bottom 70% have one cycle each. It is this increasing dispaity in income that is causing the riots in the first place.
It is an interesting phenomenon observed among the middle class who suddenly earn handsome amounts in their lives but are unable to reconcile to the widespread poverty, squalor & anger around them. Afraid that they are of losing their riches in the riots , they start offering quick-fix solutions to make the country look like their 1 crore spanish villas.
Its a wrong idea that developed countries do not have religious issues. Please read this speech “A “post-secular” society – what does that mean?
“, by Jürgen Habermas (http://www.resetdoc.org/EN/Habermas-Istanbul.php).
The funda of 1950s/60s was that with development, secularisation of society will take place & RELIGION WILL HAVE LESS/NO PLACE IN SOCIETY. It turned out to be wrong notion.
For example, Evangelical right enjoys far more political, cultural power in USA, american media than in India.
Am I imagining things, or is Nandan Nilekani at the panel on the right looking at each story very suspiciously?
not really.
more importantly his flowery ideal includes a corolla. we can all either drive a corolla with ‘give peace a chance’ bumper sticker or actually live in peace. cant do both simultaneously. not possible. a corolla might give the illusion of individual safety, but overall, in the collective, it is a security hazard for the country.
more obviously, with a corolla in every garage, you will never be able to solve infrastructure problems. with a corolla in every garage, no one ever has and no one ever will solve infrastructure problems even if he has all the $$$ in the world.
again the same fuss and blaming the poors for all the ills.
Who will tell these d-bags that Saudis can afford enough corollas but that didn’t make them more tolerant
Where will the children play if we have 1.1B Corollas? Or should they all stop playing and read Chetan Bhagat’s writings?
This apart, check the profile of Omar Sheikh and if he could afford a Corolla or not:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/1804710.stm
A Mercedes E-class may be even better.
Even Abraham Maslow accepted limits to his “hierarchy of needs” theory.
That’s why I haven’t read his novels yet and now I get even better reason.
While I understand his logic behind ‘corollas and homes’, I also remind myself of all those who were behind 9/11 attack – As far as I know, they all could afford corollas and homes!!
This is what happens if you have worthless morons as ‘spokespersons’.
Was he serious when he made this statement?
Nice Home and Toyota Corolla!!!!!!!!!!!!
Please read the following
PATNA, India (Reuters) – A state government in eastern Indian is encouraging people to eat rats in an effort to battle soaring food prices and save grain stocks.
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Authorities in Bihar, one of India’s poorest states, are asking rich and poor alike to switch to eating rats in a bid to reduce the dependence on rice. They even plan to offer rats on restaurant menus.
“Eating of rats will serve twin purposes — it will save grains from being eaten away by rats and will simultaneously increase our grain stock,” Vijay Prakash, an official from the state’s welfare department, told Reuters.
Officials say almost 50 percent of India’s food grains stocks are eaten away by rodents in fields or warehouses.
Jitan Ram Manjhi, Bihar’s caste and tribe welfare minister, said rat meat was a healthy alternative to expensive rice or grains, and should be eaten by one and all.
“We are very serious to implement this project since the food crisis is turning serious day by day,” Manjhi, who has eaten rats, told Reuters.
In Bihar, rat meat is already eaten by Mushars, a group of lower caste Hindus, as well as poorer sections of society.
(Writing by Melanie Lee; Editing by Paul Tait)