the State of the Union

Chandrayaan, Deepavali and the continuing social unrest...

There was some sweet news from India in the past few weeks, but the continuing rumble of severe social unrest is worrying and is spoiling all the joy.

The succesful launch of Chandrayaan-1 moon mission was very heart-warming. Although we still are a bit away from manned space missions and quite a distance from where other established world powers are, this was a powerful showcase of our increasingly advancing technical prowess. I hope we indeed go on to develop a space propgramme, one that will give our kids (for once, real- and not bollywood type reel-) starry eyes and dreams!

But the disturbing signs of rapidly spreading social unrest - semingly unending and increasingly audacious Islamist terrorist attacks (Mumbai, Gujarat, Delhi, Manipur, Guwahati...) with fuzzy masterminds, the resurrected parochialism and separatism in the Kashmir valley, the ugly Marathi-Uttarbharatiya spat following on the heels of Tamil-Kannadiga discord on Cauvery, rudderless and chaotic pandering to Tamil ethnocentric passions, rowdy clashes with Christians and Maoist Terror in the tribal belts - and now an irresponsible trial-by-media and the 'Hindu Terror' namecalling : really points to a leadership clueless on the state of the nation.

with the global financial crisis likely to hit investments into India badly over the coming months and such a restive society, the outlook appears very grave indeed. The Chandrayaan appears to be the one of the few silver linings on the cloud hiding the moon...