Pritpal Singh Bindra, visiting India, writes from Delhi

Second Revolution: Since the dawn of independence, in spite of political disruptions, there have been two promising revolutions in India. The first one was the Green Revolution that made India self-sufficient in food. Within last few years the second revolution has brought an undeniable upsurge in Consumer Goods. India's industrial output and its economic retrieval have put the country among the top fifteen most industrialized nations of the world. On arriving in India, and going through the shopping precincts, one is inundated with the abundance of consumer goods. From Barbie Dolls to latest Video Games, from hand-mixers to most sophisticated electronic food-processors, from bicycles to the fully air-conditioned automobiles, and all types of electronic amusement systems are readily available. The furniture stores are crammed with expensive designer suites that leave behind even the Italian conceptions. China and cutlery are of ravishing patterns and motives. And everything is made in India.

The de-licensing and the freedom of collaboration with international manufacturers have made all this conceivable. Perceiving a great potential in India's economy, western multi-nationals are clamouring to capture places in Indian markets. Already there is no shortage of auto-cycles, cars, and household appliances but the recent `de-licensing' in these fields, as well, will soon flood the markets, and the competition will bring the prices to the level affordable by millions of ordinary folks. (Five business magnates in Ludhiana alone are already planning to start car manufacturing.) The quality of the goods is dependable and the `warrantee' system is honoured. The craze among the wealthy for `imported' good is petering out.

In the field of `export' India is not lagging behind. The export of millions of worth of ready-made garments, and small household goods and office equipment is trivial as compared with the Indian entrepreneurship abroad in heavy Industrial products and technology--designing and building factories, heavy industrial units, bridges, hospitals, hotels, etc. India is already top most in the export of Computer Soft-ware and, in a few years, will be able to meet all the domestic demand in hardware.

However, there is one flaw that defiles the whole progress in the production of consumer goods. It is the `duplication'. Within weeks of a new product is introduced in the market, true likeness of the same is readily available in the shops, including its packaging and operating instructions. The trouble brews when you come back to the dealer with some malfunctioning. Most likely the dealer will refuse ever selling you the product, and if he acknowledges the sale, he will find fault the way you have handled the product. The biggest menace in this process is the production of `duplicate' drugs that is causing thousands of deaths every year. The consumer protection courts are there but the lack of public education, and enormities of `duplication' do not make them much effective.

The technology has brought a big change in the field of telephone communications. About nine years ago an industrialist in Sadar Bazaar, Delhi commented to me that it took less time for him to send his driver to Faridabad and bring the reply back than to get telephone line through. Now it takes just as much time it requires to punch the numbers, may be the places are a few hundred miles apart. The international calls are even quicker. Provided, though, you keep the telephone authorities happy with regular `drink money'. A college lecturer complained that he was getting cross-lines very often. Two telephone technicians came and checked the instrument. They went out, climbed the pole and cleared the line. They told the professor, "It is working all right now, Sir. It was very hot out there. Can we have some `drink?'" "`Drink'? You people earn enough money. You can buy some yourself," and he showed them the door. It happened two years ago and the Professor still is fuming and cursing for not getting clear lines. Such stories appear frequently in the newspapers but no body seems to care because, I am told, `the drink money' is shared very honestly from `top' to `bottom'.

The households, who have S.T.D. connections, are constantly complaining; they are getting bills worth thousands of rupees in respect of the trunk-calls they have never made. As a result of this, most of the private subscribers are declining to install the S.T.D. facilities. To enable the public to make long distance calls, thousands of private Public Call Offices (P.C.O.s), in almost all localities, in the cities and villages, have sprung up. They are equipped with most sophisticated computerized electronic instruments. The display unit fixed on the wall give you the time consumed, and the amount due in rupees.

Another big reformation has developed in the growth of T.V. relay through cable. After installing a couple of satellite-dish-antennas, a private operator runs wire outside the houses (adding to already deteriorating skyline of the towns) to provide the connections to the householders in the neighbourhood. Each such station covers from a few hundred to a few thousand houses. Some operators pipe out one or two channels of their own, to transmit video movies. There is no Government licensing for such operations. Neither, so far, there are any authoritative stipulations controlling this system. With mere hundred rupees a month (or even less) choice of enjoying five or six channels is a big bargain, who would complain? A jhugi (hutment) inhabitant enjoys T.V. as much as a family dwelling in a palatial mansion, probably with its own expensive dish. The Broadcasting Companies are getting immense response from the advertisers, and, consequently, they couldn't care less with the unauthorised actions of the individual operators; even a low-paid domestic prefers to use a shampoo, as seen on Television, instead of crude bar of soap to wash his hair.

However, the manufacturers and suppliers of V.C.R. are suffering significantly with the appearance of this innovation, their sales have touched the bottom.

Transportation: In the field of human transportation, the frequency of the trains has increased considerably. For the tourists from abroad the best train travel is pre-bookable A/C Chair Car or for a long journey A/C Sleeper Class. The booking is not easy unless it is done a week or two in advance. The black-market is still flourishing in spite of elaborate sureties by the rail authorities, and carelessness can make one the prey of swindlers: the variation in the name and age of the passenger, entered on the ticket itself, can land one in trouble.

Buses plying in the cities and interconnecting towns have mushroomed. The competition and the urge to reach the next stop ahead of each other to grab the fare-paying passengers are major cause of chaos on the roads. This tendency is inciting innumerable accidents in inner city areas.

This industry is most disorganised and disarrayed except for A/C and Deluxe Bus Services. Chaotic conditions prevail in most bus terminals, particularly, I.S.B.T. Delhi. Buses coming in and leaving the terminals are always clashing and hooting at each other. Their horns pierce your ears--although huge bill-boards are constantly reminding the drivers, `Horn Blowing is Prohibited. Violator will be find Rs.100.' Not only discontented service, the terminals are endowed with dirtiest environments and, God bless, if there had been a rain you must be prepared to share the showers sprinkled on your clothes by the passing bus-wheels.

Road-sense: Unfortunately during all these revolutions and progress, two most important commodities are fast receding from the Indian ambience. The first one is the `Road-sense'. If you are totally stranger in this part of the world, you will not realize for a few days, what is the driving priority on the roads; is it to keep to the left or to keep to the right? Such things as `Give-way', `Stop-at-the-Junction', and `Observe-the- Lane-Discipline' do not exist. I fail to understand why the authorities have spent thousands of rupees on the installation of road markings and traffic lights when people don't know, and those who know don't care, except, however, in certain areas in New Delhi, and Cantonment areas in other cities. In the Civil Line areas the culprits ignoring rules and regulations are mostly the Civil Authorities themselves or their proteges--their offspring, subordinate officers, and domestics.

A few years ago a journalist belonging to very reputable English Daily of London, England visited India. Although an admitted agnostic, he said that if there was any God, he must be in India controlling the traffic. In spite of extremely hazardous traffic manipulations, the number of collisions of vehicles is much less. But when there is one, in most cases, it culminates in an unaccounted fatality.

A young man, with a teenage girl riding pillion, was snaking his motorcycle through the line of vehicles. As usual she was sitting sideways. The boy gave an excessive twist while overtaking a truck. The motor-cycle tilted. The girl was thrown on the road, and her head could not avoid hitting the wheel of the truck. If she was sitting cross-legged, I am sure, the tragedy could have been avoided. It happened on the ring road about a hundred meters from the C.R.P.F.29th Headquarters. I reached the scene about half an hour of the accident. Five policemen were there, and just then they covered the dead body with a `borrowed' dupatta. It was another two hours before an Ambulance arrived. The temperature that day was over 40 degrees celsius. During next day or two I searched almost all the English and Hindi Dailies, there was no mention of the incident. Such happenings are so frequent, up and down the country, that they don't make the news, I was told.

Sense of Outdoor Cleanliness and Hygiene: And the second commodity fast disappearing is the `Sense of Outdoor Hygiene and Cleanliness':

"The city of the Golden Temple is no longer `sifty da ghar'.... (it) is fast turning into the dirtiest city of the state."

Such comments, appearing in the newspapers, do not just apply to the cities mentioned. Rather they pertain to every city in India. People are, no doubt, very conscious about the cleanliness of the inside of their houses. An army of sweepers is always running round to tidy up indoors. Even the jhugi dwellers are particular in keeping their hutments in orderly manner. But every piece of garbage collected from inside the houses is very diligently thrown outside their premises, or is dumped in one corner of the street. The streets and the roads are efficiently swept in the early hours of the day. The garbage is accumulated in heaps. As soon as the sweepers vanish the scavengers--humans, animals, and birds swarm in. By the time the garbage truck comes the refuse is scattered all over the place, a few baskets are collected by them and the rest is left to endow the roads again. The municipal authorities have built brick-shelters as rubbish dumps but the people and their domestics prefer to empty their dust-bins outside those brick squares--the inside of the dump is never attended, the stench does not allow you to go near it, any way.

Caste Classification: Sponsored by the sage, Manu, India was bestowed with four castes. The concept of such classes is still dominant in the rural areas. Those people of the low-caste who benefitted from the Reserve Quota System in Education and Services have, long time ago, abandoned the villages and have become urbanites. They are quite well off, but they still qualify for Reserved Seats as they are exempt from any means' tests. Their children are drawing full benefits. Those urbanites are the ones who are providing material to the politicians to boast that India is heading fast towards a classless society.

New class consciousness is emerging in the urban areas. To large extent Government developers, such D.D.A., are instrumental in its creation. In Delhi, for example, there are HIGs, MIGs, LIGs, Janataites and Chounpriwalas--the dwellers of apartments for High Income Group, Middle Income Group, Low Income Group, Poor Masses, and Semi-nomads respectively. In some cities they are known as Type A, Type B, Type C, and etcetera. And above them there is the Elite. The Elite lives in exclusive, mostly, giant house. Their dwellings are swarmed with cars and servants. They are not much concerned with how the other classes live. Their main interest is to keep the Middle Class happy, and through that keep the rest under thumb.

Neo-caste-classification can be described as the Elite, the Upper Middle Class, Lower Middle Class, and the Poor and Deprivatives. The most dominant, politically and socially, are the Elite and Upper Middle Class, and we can group them as the Affluent Class. About a year ago an Indian Federal Minister visited America to woo the Western capitalists for investment in India. He allured them that there were two hundred million people in India who were as affluent as the people in Europe and America, and their buying capacity was equally exorbitant. India's whole economy revolves around those two hundred millions--the Affluent Class.

Democracy: Nearly nine hundred million people make India the biggest democracy in the world. Every adult, over the age of eighteen, is entitled to vote to choose `their' government. But do they really rule the country? The democracy in India is the Government of the Affluent, by the Affluent and for the Affluent, with the Middle Class acting as a buffer state. The Middle Class is constituted of the people in the income group just under ten thousand rupees a month, the Union Bosses, and the Community Leaders. There are two main objectives for which this class is toiling hard, to keep the Elite and the Ruling Party happy with its sycophant endeavour and, furthermore, to conserve the lower classes, by fair or foul means, in manipulative state, to use them as vote banks. This class is the biggest factor of increasing nepotism, bribery and corruption at the lower level. To catch up with the Upper Class they indulge in such tendencies; with their limited income they aspire to provide expensive English-medium education to their children and enjoy the above average living standard full of luxurious amenities. In an interview with Pratish Nandy on Doordarshan Mr. Rajesh Pilot, the dynamic Federal Minister said, "In India democracy is power...." The factual power lies in the hands of the Elite, and it is promulgated through the auspices of the Middle Classes.

Political Cohesion: Even after forty-five years of independence, the Constitutional dust has not settled down. The struggle for freedom had brought a political cohesion among various communities. This cohesion started to decline the day the India's Constitution was promulgated. Not only the Constitution was devoid of promises given by the Congress-leaders to the minorities, it followed the pattern set by the Constitution of erstwhile Soviet Union--bequeathing Central Government the ultimate power. All that what has had happened, and is transpiring presently in the North, East, and South of India, reflects the people's dissension towards the totalitarian tendencies of the Centre. Alexander Solzhenitsyn warned the Soviet Union, "You have power over people so long as you don't take everything away from them. But when you you've robbed a man of everything, he's no longer in your power - he's free again." The Soviet Union did not heed to that timely advice, and faced the consequences--there is no Soviet Union now.

Cultural variations and provincial affinities in India are, equally, clamouring for emancipation from exterior dictates. The stubborn adherence to the present Constitution, conferring authoritative rule on the Central Government, could lead India the same way.

A miser grandfather had a pair of shoes that he had been wearing since the time he was young man. The shoes were accorded with patches upon patches. It was impossible to find the original part, and his grandchildren used to bet on that. That is what has been happening to the present Indian Constitution, whatever it is. This malleable Constitution has been amended many a time by the successive Governments to serve their individual needs. If the trend continues, it will be difficult to trace the original clauses.

The Government itself is not sure about the validity of certain provisions of the Constitution. For example there is overwhelming demand from all sections in Punjab to refer the dispute of River Waters to the Supreme Court. But the Centre and its proteges are declining. They are afraid of a verdict against them: they have enacted a legislation in this respect that is questionable under the provisions of the Constitution.

In the last forty-five years enough experimentation has been done. It is about time India produces a real Federal Constitution and rigidly keeps to the letter and spirit of the same.