Underplanning or no Commission?

Buzz Aldrin says “today, no nation — including our own — is capable of sending anyone beyond Earth’s orbit, much less deeper into space.A race to the moon is a dead end.”

In a funny, yet a sensible words Shekhar Gupta’s article titled “Babuji dheere chalna”. Some interesting paragraphs:

“Why was the man not showing some “humility” and slowing down? Must he continue to risk the lives of workers? This in a system that is so forgiving of railways that move slowly, completing every project in double the scheduled time if not more (look at the Jammu-Srinagar rail link, for example), while still consuming hundreds of lives every year in completely ridiculous and avoidable accidents. Or, in fact, our view could be, thank God, our trains run so slowly, or so many more would die in these accidents!”

Admitted, we can’t always hope to match the Chinese obsession with scale and speed, and the belief in the principle of “If you build it, they (users) will come.” But we have internalised the whole idea of “hastening slowly” as a core national belief, possibly drawing inspiration from our romantic poetry, even film songs that always counsel patience over speed: “Babuji zara dheere chalo” (Dum), “Haule-haule ho jaayega pyar” (Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi) and that evergreen favourite of three generations, Geeta Dutt’s “Babuji dheere chalna” from the ’60s Aar Paar. You just tweak the next line a bit replacing “pyaar” with “sarkar” and you get the most fitting anthem for our system: Babuji dheere chalna, sarkar mein, zara sambhalna. Because if you move slowly, you take no risks at all. There are enough elements in India for you to justify delays and, in any case, excuse-mongering is our most prized national tribute. It is only if you break that rule, try to finish things on schedule, or dream big, that you run the risk of going wrong. That, if you are in this mai-baap sarkar system, is just not worth it. Even our folklore, our traditional, even Sufi, wisdom passed down generations pleads only eternal patience, as in Bhakt Kabir’s “Dheere, dheere re mana dheere sab kuchh hoye (Be patient my heart, everything will happen, but slowly, slowly).”

Finally an IIT (Delhi) Prof argues, nothing new, but reminding ourselves become a norm now, isn’t? He says “the government should be ready to roll out the red carpet, and roll away the entire red tape — in the interests of the nation and the students crying for high quality education opportunities.”