India will have to pay for regionalism

It is clear that the Sri lankan cricketers will not be playing IPl matches in Chennai this year. By this one move, the world is seeing the country in a new light — that the States can dictate terms to India as a nation. While India suffers this humiliation, political parties in Tamil Nadu are celebrating. Tamil parties are also drafting a foreign policy on Sri lanka!

So, the important question facing the citizens of Tamil Nadu is whether their State comes first or IndiaIJ The politicians have already proved that for them, Tamil Nadu comes first and India can wait. But one can’t just blame the politicians from Tamil Nadu. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had a similar stand when it came to the Teesta river water-sharing deal. While on the face of it, things may appear that the States are justified in their stand. But India as a nation has to pay a price for regionalism.

There are few very critical factors that act as a glue in India’s nationhood. State Assemblies, post of Governors, Indian Railway, Indian Postal system, posts of District Collectors, Superintendents of Police, District Judges, civil surgeons, to name only a few are a binding force. All the above institutions have an all India presence with identical norms and systems of operation.

Take the case of the Indian Railway and the former Rail Minister and Mamata Banerjee. To, her Railways meant West Bengal. She even had a make-shift office in Kolkata. To a regionalist, West Bengal is India and India is West Bengal.

But even Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief lalu Prasad Yadav, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, and lok Janshakti Party (lJP) President were no better than Mamata Banerjee. For all three, former Rail Ministers, Railways begun from Patna and terminated at Patna.

Regional leaders tend to wreak havoc when they come to power at the Centre. Sharad Pawar holds a key Ministry, that of Agriculture. But one hardly sees him visiting any State other than his home State Maharashtra. He flies over Gujarat, Rajasthan and Haryana because that is unavoidable. He visits New Delhi because his office is in Delhi and also, his official residence is Delhi. In fact, Pawar has been more abroad more than he has visited any State outside of Maharashtra.

Today, the biggest challenge facing India is regionalism. The fear of regionalism keeps foreign investors at bay. last week, BRIC nation had a summit in Durban. I am sure that many regional leaders won’t even know what the word BRIC stand for. For their benefit, the acronym refers to the countries of Brazil, Russia, India and China, which are all deemed to be at a similar stage of newly advanced economic development.

The nations have decided to set up a bank to fund infrastructure project in these countries. This will symbolically reduce the dependence on the World Bank for big projects. I doubt there is any regional leader who will have an opinion on the outcome of the summit. What if one regional leader forces his way into Prime Minister’s Office as the functioning head of the GovernmentIJ A fractured verdict in the year 1997 saw an elevation of a regional leader like HD Deve Gowda as India’s Prime Minister. When he power, Gowda’s various policies convinced the rest of the country that he was Karnataka’s Prime Minster alone. To him, India meant Karnataka and Karnataka meant India.

Similarly, imagine DMK chief Karunanidhi or Mamata Benerjee or Nitish Kumar or Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav or BSP chief Mayawati or even Sharad Pawar as the Prime Minister of the countryIJ But it is not the leaders who are to be blamed here. It is the voters who are the culprits. After all these leaders will not come to power if people didn’t vote for them in the first place.

The public needs to understand that there is a difference between voting for a sarpanch and an MlA. An election that involves choosing the Prime Minister is at a very different level. The same yard stick can’t be used that people during local body elections. The voters need to ask their leaders what kind of policies will they make once in powerIJ Will they take up regional cause or will they frame policies that will take the nation further on the path of progressIJ Voters need indeed ask why the Karunanidhis, Mamatas or Mulayams are so excited over 2014 lok Sabha electionsIJ

If the public fails to ask these questions today, the nation will have to pay the price of regionalism. If the price of regionalism has to be paid by the India, the future generations will suffer. Regional identities may create a stir for some time. But on the global front, Kolkata, Chennai or lucknow are just cities and nothing more.

The regional leaders need to take advantage of globalisation for the whole country instead of just their State.