…Of “Aaloo, Pyaaj and Andaa”

Views bereft of facts and realities as well as ‘half-baked truths’ are nothing but “Jayus”-an Indonesian word for a joke so poorly told and so bad, you cannot help but laugh at it.  Whether the state is a failed state or a failing state or is a state in fear – all appears to be true.  One, economically we have miles to walk; socially, two tribes in the state won’t see eye to eye and on every given opportunity, they would draw a think “communal line” even on small incidents. Politically, money does all the talking. But abundance of money in circulation is not an indicator of a healthy economy, if at all there’s a perception.

Economy is never defined by borrowed or begged money. One can’t define economy’s health based on per-capita income or by creating ivory towers of investment flowing in or least of all by embellishing one’s argument with finest of idioms and phrases from the English lexicon. Globally accepted indicator for measuring the health of an economy is its infrastructure- roads, railways, airways, water-ways, telecommunication, hospitals and likewise. For example, has anyone ever kept a tab on the inflation level in the capital complex? Is there a price-mechanism to regulate commodities?

Let’s deconstruct whatever doesn’t define a healthy economy. First, ‘Fly-by-night’ contractors are not investors but are brokers who pay 20% commission on projects; Widening of roads by 7 kms in Itanagar doesn’t define infrastructural growth; laying hundreds of foundation stones is definitely not taken as economic yardstick neither is the reduction in bandh-days accounted for while measuring economy.  As stated in the preceding paragraphs, per capita income per se as economic indicator, with negligible revenue source, is a sand-castle built on alms donated by the central government and other funding agencies.

Let’s put across a few fundamental questions: one, do we have an airport, railways etc? Two, for schooling, would VIPs keep their children in the state? Three, for treatment would they go to the hospitals in the state? Have they invested even 50% of the income- good or bad- within the state? If this doesn’t give you a “Jayus”, then what else would?

Please admit that future of Arunachal Pradesh is slowly being pawned. One can’t be an Ostrich. In few years’ time, the youngsters and future leaders would be shackled in a debt-trap, authored by today’s political class with very little understanding beyond their personal gain, prosperity and self-gratification. Isn’t political class worried about the youths’ well-being, their future- which comprises of more than 60% of today’s population? There is a need to create at least 2-3 revenue sources that should generate about 30-50% of the state’s fund allocation; there’s need to improve upon infrastructures across the board-communication, education, health and so on.

Need of the hour is for a leader who can build at least an inch more of railway lines beyond where Britishers left at Murkong Selek; we need a visionary leader who can create an ICU facility of at least Indian standard; we need a selfless leader who can say ‘stop squabbling over land compensation, let’s build an airport’. Unless infrastructural growth takes root, unless there’s price regulation mechanism in place for commodities, don’t be surprised that political parties would keep bickering about the definition of a failed state…and public would hang their heads over such “Jayus moments”. As the saying goes, one must learn to crawl first before walking. Let’s not talk of economy without talk about the basic regulatory price mechanism for “Aaloo, Pyaj and Andaa” that affects the daily lives of the commoners.