ashokbhatia

Dear Aamir ji,

As a person front-ending the ‘Satyamev Jayate’ show, you are truly making a change in the way we think and react to situations. Allow me to repeat a comment from one of your famous movies: ‘Jahaan-panah, tussi great ho…!’.

Our Sundays would never be the same again. After a sumptuous breakfast, we had got used to becoming couch potatoes, settling down in front of our TV sets. Like ‘Ramayan’ and ‘Mahabharat’ in the past, ‘Satyamev Jayate’ had got us used to a new prime time on TV!

 Each episode brought into our drawing rooms real issues we were aware of but had never thought of in detail. We have all built a cocoon around us. Safe in our self-created comfort zones, we believe that the problems we are aware of need to be addressed by someone else.

Well, here was a show that made us sit up and think. Harsh reality came knocking at our emotionally impregnable doors every Sunday. If we ever entertained self-congratulatory thoughts of India becoming a super power in the days to come, we learnt the sober reality of the long way we are yet to go to be able to make it.

Bringing about a change is not easy, whether at the individual level or at the societal level. By washing our own dirty linen in public, we at least made a beginning – by showing the courage to admit that problems exist, and by beginning to discuss these. The brains behind ‘Satyamev Jayate’ deserve kudos for this.

Right from female foeticide and sexual abuse of children to domestic violence and water and food pollution – you name it, and ‘Satyamev Jayate’ had touched upon it. Each issue was well researched and well presented. Each one covered unique success stories, where an alternative approach had been tried, with a positive outcome.

The marketing as well as the structuring of the show was smart. Its handling was such as to skirt current controversies. The protest by Medical Council of India did not rub off on the show’s image; it only lowered the public image of that august body further. There was no attempt to denigrate the government in power. The amount of financial support it has generated goes on to show the immense connect it built up with the audience. Surely, a great attempt at social activism, using the media’s potency in a positive manner.

One way to compliment the ‘Satyamev Jayate’ team is to ensure that we, the citizens, become vigilant on these issues. In our personal lives, we can abhor the derogatory practices we have witnessed on the small screen, week after week. In our social circles, we can try to discuss these issues, thereby spreading the awareness about the ill effects of such practices. A small beginning would then get made.

For those who are already yearning for more of the same stuff, it is perhaps time to ponder over important areas which never got discussed so far. In other words, if the show were to make a comeback, what are the burning issues it can cover? Permit me to make a few suggestions.

• WORLD CLASS QUALITY: As a country which is poised to overtake Japan as the third largest economy of the world, how many globally acceptable products/brands do we make?

• DELIVERY OF PUBLIC SERVICES: How can India rapidly apply technological innovations to improve the delivery of public services to its people? Whether it is getting a ration card made or receiving a LPG refill, a death certificate to be obtained or a FIR to be registered, mundane tasks make life rather complicated. Just like an Aadhar initiative shows, there is a tremendous scope of improvement.

• MAKING OUR EDUCATION SYSTEM DEPENDENT ON REAL LEARNING AND NOT ON MEMORY: The current generation has failed to design and roll out a futuristic education system. This issue needs to be addressed on priority, so India’s human capital development no longer remains sub-optimal.

• ENCASHING OUR DEMOGRAPHIC DIVIDEND: How can India better leverage its demographic dividend by rolling out an ambitious skill development programme, so our graduates really graduate and our researchers really search for innovative and sustainable solutions to our unique problems. How do we generate leaders for tomorrow?

• BALANCING INDUSTRIAL GROWTH vis-a-vis ITS ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT: How can we balance our environment protection goals with our need to expand our industrial base? With rising incomes and aspirations, the consumption base will continue to expand. Can we look for sustainable solutions?

• GIVING UP OUR OWN ATTITUDE OF ‘CHALTA HAI’: Administrators in any field – public or private – complain (and justifiably so) that 90% of their time is spent in ‘following up’ things. This attitude, once commented upon by Mr. J. R. D. Tata himself, is at the core of many of our problems. Consider the following:

  1. We can build super highways, but how do we improve our driving skills and the courtesy we show to others on the road.

  2. During an agitation, where is the need to burn and destroy our buses, trains, hospitals and schools, created out of our own hard-earned money?

  3. Why does our sense of cleanliness remain confined to our homes and does not extend to public places?

        We, the people of India, need to take ourselves – and our roles – more seriously! The ‘Chalta hai’ attitude will not do!!

I am delighted to know that the SMJ team is already planning the next phase of the series. Some of these areas may interest them.

 Jahaan-panah, we wait for you to come back!

 With loads of admiration and love,

Ashok Bhatia,

Puducherry, India.

(akb_usha@rediffmail.com)