With sixers, run-outs, wickets, balls and bats, stars and starlets, becoming the only priority news being featured on our television screens these days, the many simple, obvious thoughts that need to become tangible realities in order to energize those who have been left out of the great churning that India is in the throes of, need serious attention. Our nation is coming to its own at last — confident of taking a variety of risks to ensure change. Old baggage, tattered and falling apart, ideas caught in a time warp, attitudes that have remained unchanged over time — all require to be overhauled, some discarded and others reinvented to fit the changing times. Twenty20 cricket and the response to the Indian Premier League are signs of a generation ready to experiment and move on. All the ageing men and women who adorn our small screen spouting the jargon of the past generation are passé. They seem unexcited about the unexplored future that is unfolding rather rapidly. Their usual stances have become dull and fossilized as these people hang on for dear life to the comfort of living in a dark cocoon, enveloped in warm predictability, unwilling to look beyond.

The large majority of Indians — young and raring to break loose from the bondage of age-old stigmas — coming particularly from the large and small cities and towns, are consistently being stymied by a plethora of redundant and archaic regulations and by corrupt regulators who frustrate creativity and entrepreneurship. If the government stuck rigidly to its mandate, India would create abundant wealth and become more prosperous quickly. If administrators conducted their business with honesty and dedication, potential entrepreneurs would easily take up the challenges that a complex society such as ours throws up to deal with the diverse needs and aspirations of a vibrant society.

Generation next

The government should concentrate on the honest delivery of water and electricity, on building roads and increasing connectivity, on education, health, social safety, all of which together define civil society. Sixty years of flawed administration at the hands of divisive and manipulative leaders who have deviated from all norms of good governance has had a dreadful impact on India. Exploitation has to give way to inclusive growth and enlightened change. There seems to be less and less of intelligent public operations that would have alleviated the misery our people have to contend with. Laws enacted to keep the polity clear are misused by the enforcement machine and its representatives to harass honest citizens who protest against corrupt practices. Over the years, administrators have managed to corrode the system and make it inoperative. Politicians, too, had chosen the easy option of being hand-in- glove with the babus in the grand game of exploitation.

It needs to be understood that the optimism about a more dynamic and inclusive future that the young exude is a serious possibility. The outgoing generation needs to step aside and allow the next-in-line to lay the foundations for a fresh set of values. My generation wallowed in the comfort of not having to take on the many challenges it faced. It looked aside and hoped the goodies would just drop on their lap. It was not charged. It consciously turned a blind eye to the horrors that engulfed us. The generation before us, the one that ruled India after Independence, was parasitical and insecure, being the product of an era of shortages, of diktats and commands. India is moving in spite of the legacy we have left in suspended animation and despite the failed governance and archaic norms that rule this land. It is time to hand over the legacy to the young, so that they can bring about a vigorous overhaul and renewal.