India lives from crisis to crisis
T P Sreenivasan
The image of India demolished by scams will take time to rebuild itself.
No amount of spinning will get the glory back. Nor can spectacular show of Indian dances or glossy publications suffice to change our image, says former ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
Gone are the days when diplomats could lie abroad for their country. Images of leaking toilets and pug marks of dogs on mattresses in the Games village were flashed on the BBC long before the people of India realised the extent of the looting of public money in the name of the Commonwealth.
Most people in the world, who followed the trends in the Indian economy, knew that the government was deprived of much of its revenue by the way the 2G spectrum licences were gifted away to powerful corporations.
The foreign press is writing feverishly on the complicity of media icons in wheeling dealing even when tainted journalists continue to call for the blood of erring politicians, as though they still have the moral authority of a free press.
India's image builders may work overtime, but how would they cope with India's dwindling soft power?
India lives from crisis to crisis. The intensity of a new crisis diminishes the gravity of the previous one. Corruption involving Rs 70,000 crore (Rs 700 billion) appears small compared to Rs 160,000 crore (Rs 1,600 billion). So we have no time to evaluate the damage done by each crisis to India's image in the world.
The dazzle of a new achievement blinds us to the insult of past failures.
But the fact is that every demolition of India is not undone by a handful of gold medals or declaration by the US president of India's emergence on the world scene. The cumulative effect of faults and failures remain alive in the eyes of the world even as we move along for another spectacular moon shot or a gold hunt.
The enduring images of the demolished mosque, the collapsing bridge in the Games village and the recordings of suspicious conversations by journalists cannot be erased or wished away.
India lives from crisis to crisis - Rediff.com News



