Table Of Content

Chetan Bhagat is the author of seven blockbuster books. These include six novels—Five Point Someone (2004), One Night @ the Call Center (2005), The 3 Mistakes of My Life (2008), 2 States (2009), Revolution 2020 (2011), Half Girlfriend (2014)—and the non-fiction title What Young India Wants (2012). Many of his novels have been adapted into successful Bollywood films. TIME magazine named him amongst the ‘100 most influential people in the world’ and Fast Company, USA, listed him as one of the world’s ‘100 most creative people in business’. Chetan writes columns for leading English and Hindi newspapers, focusing on youth and national development issues. He is also a motivational speaker and screenplay writer. Chetan quit his international investment banking career in 2009 to devote his entire time to writing and make change happen in the country. He lives in Mumbai with his wife, Anusha, an ex-classmate from IIM-A, and his twin boys, Shyam and Ishaan. Praise for the author ‘Bhagat is a symbol of new India. A torch-bearer for an unafraid generation…’ —India Today ‘Many writers are successful at expressing what’s in their hearts or articulating a particular point of view. Chetan Bhagat’s books do both and more.’ —A.R. Rahman, in TIME magazine, on Chetan’s inclusion in the TIME 100 Most Influential People in the World ‘The voice of India’s rising entrepreneurial class.’ —Fast Company Magazine, on Chetan’s inclusion in the 100 Most Creative People in Business Globally The thoughts and opinions expressed in this book are those of the author alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of Amazon Publishing or its affiliates. Text copyright © 2015 Chetan Bhagat All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher. Published by Amazon Publishing, Seattle www.apub.com Amazon, the Amazon logo, and Amazon Publishing are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc., or its affiliates. EISBN-13: 9781503987371 To the awesome youth of India Contents Start Reading Making India Awesome: A Letter to the Reader AWESOME GOVERNANCE: POLITICS AND ECONOMY POLITICS Seventeen Commandments for Narendra Modi Games Politicians Play Revenge of the Oppressed: Why Corruption Continues to Be Around Despite the Outcry Against It We the Shameless The Kings in Our Minds The Telangana Effect Analysing the Modi Effect Can India’s Backward Polity Provide a Pro-growth Economic Environment? Rahul’s New Clothes, and the Naked Truth Swachh Congress Abhiyan: Some Essential Steps Once upon a Beehive ECONOMY Rescue the Nation To Make ‘Make in India’ Happen, Delete Control Pro-poor or Pro-poverty? The Tiny-bang Theory for Setting Off Big-bang Reforms AWESOME SOCIETY: WHO WE ARE AS A PEOPLE AND WHAT WE NEED TO CHANGE Time to Face Our Demons We Have Let Them Down Watching the Nautch Girls Let’s Talk about Sex The Real Dirty Picture Saying Cheers in Gujarat Our Fatal Attraction to Food Cleanliness Begins at Home India-stupid and India-smart Bhasha Bachao, Roman Hindi Apnao Mangalyaan+Unlucky Tuesdays A Ray of Hope Junk Food’s Siren Appeal AWESOME EQUALITY: WOMEN’S RIGHTS, GAY RIGHTS AND MINORITY RIGHTS WOMEN’S RIGHTS Ladies, Stop Being so Hard on Yourselves Five Things Women Need to Change about Themselves Home Truths on Career Wives Wake up and Respect Your Inner Queen Indian Men Should Channelize Their Inner Mr Mary Kom Fifty Shades of Fair: Why Colour Gets under Our Skin GAY RIGHTS Section 377 Is Our Collective Sin MINORITY RIGHTS Letter from an Indian Muslim Youth Being Hindu Indian or Muslim Indian It’s Not Moderate Muslims’ Fault Mapping the Route to Minority Success AWESOME RESOURCES: THE YOUTH An Open Letter to Indian Change Seekers We, the Half-educated People DU-ing It All Wrong, Getting It All Mixed Up How the Youth Can Get Their Due Scored Low in Exams? Some Life Lessons from a 76-Percenter Concluding Thoughts Before you begin reading, it might be helpful to understand the words that comprise the title, so that we know the task at hand better. Making /'meɪkɪŋ/ verb 1. to bring into existence, to produce; bring about; render. 2. to convert from one state, condition, category, etc., to another. India /'ɪndɪə/ noun Officially the Republic of India; a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world. Awesome /'ɔ:s(ə)m/ adjective 1. causing or inducing awe; inspiring an overwhelming feeling of reverence, admiration, or fear: an awesome sight. 2. exhibiting or marked by awe; showing reverence, admiration, or fear. 3. informal. very impressive: typically used by the Internet generation. Making India Awesome: A Letter to the Reader Dear Reader, Thank you for picking up this book. This is not a story. There is no romance in here, nor are there page-turning, thrilling moments. Rather, this book is about a dream both you and I share—to make India a better place. Why This Book? The current political environment and public sentiment are so cynical that one wonders if there is even a point in writing a book about a better India. As I sit down to write this opening essay, I hear political noise everywhere. The ruling party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), brought to power a year ago with love and votes, is now in the midst of battling several controversies. Cabinet ministers are accused of helping a fugitive; the fugitive, on his part, is trying to lay blame on multiple senior politicians. State government scams are coming to the fore in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, one of them triggering many deaths. The bane of favouritism is back—with the news that a flight full of passengers was held up for an hour because an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer in a chief minister’s contingent forgot his correct passport at home. The prime minister hasn’t spoken about any of these issues, even while everyone else is talking about them. The Congress is blaming the BJP. The BJP is reminding the Congress about its past sins. Their followers on Twitter are sending abusive tweets to one another. The image I have presented is a snapshot of Indian news right now, but this could be the situation at any given point in time. There is nothing unusual about such noise. Chances are that if you happen to read this some years later, and turn on the television, you will see a couple of fresh, new controversies—with a lot of debating, pontificating, finger-pointing, outrage and no problem-solving. The noise from one controversy will ultimately fade and make way for the next…and then, the next. Youth and National Consciousness With all this chaos, an average viewer or reader will either be totally confused, or, more likely, will opt out of the constant cacophony generated by unsolvable national issues. No surprise then that most of India’s youth don’t care much about politics or the government. Applying the 80:20 rule, I would say that 80 per cent of our youth don’t even care about politics or government. What they care about are their lives —their jobs, their boyfriends or girlfriends and, well, that’s about it. We can call this set of people Self-focused Indifferent Indians. This is a huge segment, and the actual number of people who just don’t care about what happens may be even higher than 80 per cent! Of the remaining 20 per cent who do care, most have decided to take permanent sides, as this helps solve confusion. These sides are often based on a personality. For example, it’s just simpler to assume that Modi is always right, or that Kejriwal is the person to back, no matter what. The derogatory terms, ‘Modi-bhakt’ and ‘AAPtard’, have emerged because of this set of people. They are politically conscious, but are aligned. They defend anything their chosen party says, and are ready to abuse and insult anyone who even hints at disagreeing with their great leader. Such people create a lot of noise on social media and may be well-intentioned about the country; however, they solve nothing. They have taken sides and stick to them, no matter what the issue. Hence, their contribution to public discourse is limited. Again, using the 80:20 rule, 80 per cent of people who care about politics and national issues fall in the ‘taking sides’ category. We can call these people Caring but Aligned Indians. Finally, there is the tiny segment that matters—people who actually care about the country, have an interest in political issues, but don’t have fixed sides. These are—to do the maths—20 per cent of the 20 per cent, or a mere 4 per cent of our youth. We can call this narrow set of people—Caring Objective Indians. These are the people who give me hope. For they want to give support to the right issue, not to a particular party. And if we have enough people of this kind, we can actually put India on the right path. This book is an attempt to reach out to, and expand the narrow segment of, Caring Objective Indians. The Sad State of Caring Objective Indians Caring Objective Indians are often ignored or shouted down in debates. They are also labelled as fence-sitters, opportunists, or indecisive, confused, contradictory or weak. Say, a Caring Objective Indian, who wanted change, voted for the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections. However, the same voter dislikes the way the BJP is handling the current controversies. When he voices his protest, Caring but Aligned Indians will attack him. BJP supporters will call him ignorant and label him an idiot. Non-BJP supporters will abuse him and question why the hell did he vote for the BJP. Faced with such attack, the Caring Objective Indian will withdraw and eventually become silent. Every issue will, therefore, become a free-for-all between the already aligned sets, each side shouting down the other. Such screaming and blaming solves nothing, though the emotions and whipped- up drama entertain for a while and make for good TV. After all, it is fun to see educated people shout and belittle other educated people! The Way Out Just as people gather on the road to see a fistfight, India gathers at night to watch TV debates. However, soon, the novelty of the fight wears off, and as nothing is solved, people get bored and move on. It is time then for a new controversy, and for each side to start a duel again. Breaking news, fiery debates, no solutions. Rinse and repeat. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? So, what do we do in such a scenario? Is there any room for a sane voice? Is there even a point to writing a book like Making India Awesome when things are so messed up? Does anyone actually want solutions instead of the drama? Is it simply easier to ignore it all, and be a Self-focused Indifferent Indian? Or even better, to become aligned and at least have the comfort of a group, a virtual mob that lends support? All these doubts bubbled up in my head when I conceived this book. Ultimately, I felt there is a need for this. In all the noise, there are people who would care for a voice to simplify things and point to a solution. Thus, this book was born. The fact that you have picked it up means that, at least to a certain extent, I was right; there are Caring Objective Indians who want to hear reason. India 2015 versus India 2011–2014 I think it is interesting to compare the mood of the nation now versus a couple of years ago. In 2012, when my book What Young India Wants was published, not only was I a different person, but I was also looking at a different India. How so? Did this nation not have problems then? Sure, we did. We had tons of issues then, and some would argue we had them on a much larger scale. The mindboggling numbers associated with the CWG, 2G and coal scams prove this. These cases shocked some of the most indifferent Indians, and brought to the fore a problem each one of us faces— corruption. The growth of social media, which allowed accumulation and aggregation of public opinion like never before, helped coalesce people’s anger against corruption. The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government in power then—a Congress-led hotchpotch coalition—missed all this until it was too late. Neither did the government act quickly on the scams, nor did it sense public anger fast enough. Meanwhile, we had street protests, hunger strikes, social media hashtags and a sort of a mini-Arab Spring, all in the span of two years.