A case of misplaced priorities ?

A recent news report celebrates the fact that an airport in India has been adjugded to be among the best in the world. http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/5583303.cms. Initially this seems to be a good news, but soon we realize the irony .

India is still an overwhelmingly poor country, and air travel is far beyond the means of all Indians , except a miniscule elite minority. As a member of India's affluent middle class, I am aware that extremely few in India use air travel for leisure; Air travel is reserved mostly for emergency purposes like attending a job interview or college admission when rail tickets aren't available at all due to peak season rush. In this scenario, building the world's best airport in India seems to a example of mindless extravagance, and shows how eliltism has hijacked our national priorities.

A government which claims to uphold and promote the interests of the aam aadmi ( common man ) decides to spend a fortune building a luxury even the affluent middle class of India can rarely afford. Why can't we have the world's best railway station , a facility which caters to the common people ? Or for that matter, the world's best university or college, which will produce world class human resource ? Its shocking beyond words that the Indian government considers building luxury infrastructure which caters to extremely miniscule elite, more important than creating good educational institutions which would help build a better future for India's masses.

Another example of how elitist tendencies has hijacked governance in India, is the colossal amount of money spent on the Commonwealth Games. All this money could have been spent on improving the quality of government schools and colleges, most of which are in an apalling condition. Government healthcare infrastructure may be apalling (as somebody who has had the misfortune of getting treatment at AIIMS ,I know this well ), but India also boasts of hi-tech private hospitals which offer world class treatment and even cater to westerners looking for cheap treatments. Perhaps 21st century India lays more importance on blowing its own trumpet rather than any meaningful development.

But this kind of elitist superficial prosperity cannot hide modern India's grim reality. We are still counted among the poorest among the world . India's rank in the Human Development Index is 134th out of 179 countries, and our GDP per capita is 126th. With such figures, it seems highly unlikely that India's masses would be able to enjoy the services of Hyderabad Airport for many decades to come.

On a slightly brighter note, these developments would only reinforce India's reputation as The Land of Contrasts-- a country of slums and palaces.