"Surfing the Social Media !":

Sad to read.. https://x.com/AartiTikoo/status/1941718132298518678 The most corrupt and unscrupulous people in India have been the ruling elite. The extent of the rot they have created is staggering. While their own generations live in opulent luxury, generations of ordinary and poor Indians are expected to toil with blood and sweat—without complaint—and without comparing India’s state of affairs to that of China or any other country that has dramatically improved its standards across all spheres in the last 75 years. Policymakers and the ruling elite in India often excuse themselves by claiming that the Chinese people are more hardworking, disciplined, and productive than Indians. They attribute China’s success to their common people and culture, while India’s failure to our common people and culture. This is completely preposterous —a blatant lie repeated to keep the self-esteem of poor Indians low and their expectations from the ruling class even lower. With this false narrative, we are meant to self-flagellate and resign ourselves to a lack of basic amenities. The truth is that ordinary poor Indians—in villages, towns, and cities—are as hardworking and driven as any other people in the world. They slog through daily challenges, struggling to make ends meet under the worst circumstances, while the ruling elite and their progeny sit on a high horse. Either they boast of India as a superpower (attributing it solely to their self-certified competence, talent, and intelligence) or lament how unruly, undisciplined, and mannerless the Indian working class is—especially when their propaganda is questioned. Very cleverly, the incompetent and corrupt ruling elite, has evaded scrutiny, accountability and responsibility for their monumental failures. All the penalties for wrongdoings are meant only for common people. The reality is that India remains deeply colonial in its mindset, despite all the Left-wing and Right-wing rhetoric against foreign imperialism. The ruling classes, regardless of ideology, behave like imperialists, while the common man remains as enslaved as he was a century ago. His condition, as depicted in Satyajit Ray’s ‘Appu Trilogy’, has only marginally improved. When compared to the dramatic wealth amassed by the ruling class and their world-class standards of life, the progress of the common man seems insignificant. The lower classes in India still cannot afford decent homes in clean neighborhoods with basic amenities. Outside the so-called "15 growth engines" (India’s much-touted cities), public infrastructure fails to meet even fundamental needs. It’s embarrassing that Indian officials boast of just 15 cities—none of which are truly world-class—when a country of 1.4 billion people should have at least 50 such thriving hubs. But forget cleanliness, facilities, affordability, or jobs. Instead, we revert to Hindu-Muslim conflicts, caste wars, and so on. Only God can save this nation from its deeply corrupt colonial elite.