Thursday 12 November 2015

WHY HAVE WE GROWN UP SO DIFFERENTLY?


We were cut out of the same cloth, then why did we turn out to be so different after 68 years of independence? True, we both have large populations who remain below the cursed poverty line, we both have far too many illiterates for comfort, we both have shameful maternal and infant mortality rates, and we both have impoverishing malnutrition and rampant corruption, but still……..why are we shaping up so differently?

In the recent UNGA the Pakistani PM was clueless and harped an age old issue which has been used by their successive establishment as opium for the masses lest they start asking uncomfortable questions about lack of development, unemployment and unrest. He may have gladdened the hearts of his generals who keep him propped up, but was the Pakistani Diaspora even 1% enthusiastic about his visit as compared to the deafening crowds in Madison Square Garden? Is it not time to look beyond Kashmir and plan a future for Pakistan?

Yes I will be the first to admit that though we have reached the Mars, a very large section of our population remains hungry, but we are doing something about it. We are not blaming others for our miseries; we are facing it head on. So why should I be concerned about our neighbor? Well simply because we are the same people, we have the same DNA sequence. Our culture, our traditions and our cuisine are all the same. We watch the same movies and sing the same songs. Some of my best friends reside across the border and I love them.

We are 4.12 times larger than Pakistan and have 6 times their population. Our problems too are bigger but still our GDP is 8 times healthier than that of our neighbor. A quick look at facts listed below, sourced from UNESCO and World Bank, highlight how Indians have better educated themselves than Pakistan.
1. India, despite a population 6 times that of Pakistan had fewer or just 3 million out-of-school children at Primary level in 2010, compared to some 7.0 million in Pakistan.
2. Net Primary School Enrollment in India is 92.1 per cent, whereas it is just about 70 per cent in Pakistan
3. Primary completion rate in India, both for males and females is 95 per cent, whereas the same for Pakistan is only 67 per cent for males and under 60 per cent for females.
4. India spends over 3 per cent of its GDP on education, while Pakistan barely spends under 2 per cent.
5. Adult literacy rate in India is approx 63 per cent; in Pakistan it is just about 55 per cent.
6. Youth literacy in India is 81 per cent. Pakistan: just 71 per cent.
7. Female literacy rate in India is 50 per cent; it is less than 40 per cent in Pakistan.
8. Indian scientists excel in areas of defense technology, space research, electronics and avionics, genetics, banking and telecommunications. India produces 10,000 PhD s every year, about 4,000 of these in the faculties of science and technology alone. Pakistan produces just about 800 PhD s altogether.
9. India produces more PhDs every year than Pakistan has produced in the last 20 years.

Education perhaps is one single factor that has pulled us ahead in the last 68 years. Imagine, 12 percent of all American scientists are of Indian origin; 38 percent of doctors in America are Indian; 36 percent of NASA scientists are Indians; 34 percent of Microsoft employees are Indians; and 28 percent of IBM employees are Indians and 3 ministers in the Canadian government including the Defense Minister are of Indian origin. This is what education can do to a nation’s clout and respect in the world.

Democracy, the ability and the right to choose a leader, is the second advantage which India has and Pakistan only wishes it had. India has had an unbroken chain of democracy since its inception and adoption of her constitution in 1950. On the other hand, Pakistan has had an unbroken chain of ineffective democratic governments, followed by dictator-led ineffective governments since its inception and adoption of their constitution in 1956. Dictators build and develop only enough to keep their constituencies happy; they keep the rest for themselves or for their pet projects. The ineffective democratic counter-cycle is not really a democracy of the people for the people. It is an oligarchy of the dictator’s opposition. In the end, the people get nothing. Moreover, the longer the duration of dictatorship, the longer it takes the new government to govern on behalf of the people and the longer the new government remains in payback mode. Only 3 countries – Portugal, Spain and Chile have transformed successfully from Dictatorship to Democracy, because instead of payback the concentrated on reconciliation. Conversely the other glaring example of failure of this transformation is Iraq, and it is there for all to see!

In a democracy the politicians occasionally take time off from fighting each other to actually govern. They are compelled to build roads, schools, hospitals, and other infrastructure so they can get votes to try and stay in power. When the opposition comes into power, they direct resources for their constituencies, but they do not tear down the opposition’s work: they just preferentially support their interest groups. This is democracy at work: slow sputtering progress, but progress nonetheless. This is the central reason why India has managed to progress over the past sixty seven years and why Pakistan remains so far behind.

Religion undoubtedly is the third reason of Pakistan’s inability to keep up to expectations of its people. Muslims believe in the edicts from the Koran and would prefer to be ruled by Sharia law. The Koran does not make any accommodation for democracy and therefore democracy cannot prosper among people whose gospel does not support democracy. Further, Muslims have a strong sense of rule of law and justice, but because Sharia law supports the second class status of women, this is something just not acceptable in a modern, pluralistic economy. Democracy cannot germinate in such barren lands. Turkey and Indonesia have understood this and have learned to keep religion out of politics, and may I say with a word of caution that this is also a lesson for India. We are progressing because we are secular and we give equal opportunity to women.


India is by no means an economic giant today, but we are in the right course because of our stellar record of stable parliamentary democracy, world-class scientific and technological talent, and contributions to mankind’s progress by sheer entrepreneurship of her middle class. Pakistan has not taken off because of its inability to elect national leaders, focus on destruction of another nation as opposed to construction of their country; and obsession with religion and religious wars and not with education.

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