The wounding effects of the economic downturn in India have not been adequately reported by the media, whose judgment of news is still guided by the ‘glamour factor’—another habit imported from America. For example, it was alright for TV and print media to highlight the retrenchment and reinstatement of 1,900 employees by Jet Airways. But where do we read or see anything about the tens of thousands of people who have lost, or are on the verge of losing, employment in the construction industry and the allied industries of steel, cement, transportation, furniture, etc? The Index of Industrial Production (IIP) shows that India’s industrial growth has plummeted to 1.3 per cent in August from 10.9 per cent in the same month in 2007. In the months to come, it is likely to become negative. Hence, a large number of people in the manufacturing sector will lose their jobs. However, since they are not as smartly dressed as the in-flight crew of Jet Airways, you will not see them on your TV screens.

Shouldn’t somebody be held responsible for this simultaneous onslaught of inflation and recession on the Indian economy? And who should it be, if not the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister? Both of them, especially the Prime Minister, sold the dream that India’s short-term and long-term interests lay in becoming a junior partner of America. Indeed, the sub-text of the Indo-US nuclear deal, on which Dr. Manmohan Singh spent almost all his time and energy, was that America, led by George Bush, was going to help India become a Great Power. This line of thinking influenced many well-meaning intellectuals who warned those opposing the nuclear deal by saying, “Why do you want to lose the support of the middle classes, who are all for India being on the right side of America?” What an irony, therefore, that in a month when the nuclear deal was finally signed, there was not much cheer in the Indian middle-classes for this ‘historic achievement’ and few takers even in the Congress party for Dr. Singh’s unbecoming praise—“People of India deeply love you”—for President Bush.

... contd.