Bowled over by the Chinaman

There was this seminar I once went for. One man gets up and talks about his trip to China. Marco Polo's reports in the 1700s (?) couldn't have been filled with more awed wonder - he talks of malls and sky scrapers and causeways and autobahns, and everyone there, including myself, eyes glaze over (in a good way) and we all dream of this fairytale land And then he goes - "In China, if they decide to build a bridge, they build it. It's up and running in a matter of months." And then pounding the table "WHY DOES IT TAKE INDIA SO LONG!" Anyone who's been stuck in traffic in Taramani road will empathise surely - that road they've been working on for 18 months now, and nowhere close to completion.
The next speaker simply said, "Well, that's China. India is a democracy - if we decide to build a bridge, there could be a slum there, and those people have to be relocated, if there's a river there, and environmentalists protest, then that has to be taken into account."
It was the most chastening experience, to be so carried away by one speaker, and then brought right down to earth by the other. I felt quite like one of those jackasses in Roman history who stood around and cheered during Brutus' speech, and then tooled off with the others to kill him post Marc Anthony's speech.
I think I agree with Speaker 2. China, whatever it declares itself as these days, seems to have this really wierd dichotomy - Communist politics, capitalist economy. Basically, they ride rough shod over whoever opposes the so called interests of the state. When urbanisation became a problem in China, they introduced what basically are visas for people in the rural segment which they need to obtain to move into the city. Simple solution, except perhaps for rural farmers whose livelihoods are eaten away by the MNC agri businesses (as they are in India), except that unlike in India, they have to sit where they are.
But this isn't a feel good piece about being an Indian. Here, they come to the cities and become construction workers, which sucks ass, no doubt, but it beats starvation. I'm not saying we're great, but at least we have a mechanism up - when the Narmada dam was built, and tribals were getting screwed, noone gave a shit, and it needed someone like Medha Phatkar to go out there and stir things up - but at least there was a mechanism with which she could fight, and appeal to the Supreme Court, and get a ruling. Whether the ruling was favourable or not, at least there is a mechanism.
But of late I feel that India is heading dangerously in the China direction. I could be completely wrong, but I really think so. We're so desperate to push that stock index up, to - just - somehow - puuuussssshhhh that GDP up, that we're sacrificing a few things along the way. And not just starving farmers in Hyderabad, but your friends and mine - the BPO industry, for example, does not have an employee union. "They don't need one," says a friend of mine flippantly - he's an IT guy, and they just drive me MAD - and why don't they have one? Cos their American clients think it would be an added cost. So of course, since low cost is our selling point (don't listen to talk of Indian brainpower, and analytical capabilities) , we dispense with this rather unnecessary element. Do we need an employee union for BPOs after all? They're getting good money, they're happy.
But, the fact is, a suicide helpline gave out info that the maximum number of calls come from BPO employees. I think that warrants representation, I think they should be able to express the stress and work pressure and god knows what else through a proper mechanism, and not just through Rs 125 novels called 'One Night at a Call Center'.

So what is the solution?
Something someone once said to me was 'never depoliticise an issue', and I think that was the best advice I've received - you have to look at the political and social implications of everything. I find that today, my friends who are in business look at economies, and stock indices and feel very happy, but noone looks at the implications. I think the first step towards a solution is to look at those implications - and I'm definitely not saying I am good at it. For me, it has involved plodding through the paper, and switching (with a lot of angst) from VH1 to NDTV. But I feel I'm learning something everyday, and what joy can equal that?