Obama could have been speaking about India – almost

The word cloud that you see is a slightly re-interpreted version of the cloud that would have been created by the words in US President Obama’s speech to America on the vexed and hamstrung debt talks. Reading the speech showed how much of what Obama said could be relevant to India, so we replaced all American proper nouns (people, names of political parties, institutions, cities, countries) with Indian ‘equivalents’. The cloud that you see, with the re-interpretation, will give you an idea of the extent of commonness. As we heard the speech, much of what Obama said touched a chord. “Because neither party is blameless for the decisions that led to this problem, both parties have a responsibility to solve it. And over the last several months, that’s what we’ve been trying to do. I won’t bore you with the details of every plan or proposal, but basically, the debate has centered around two different approaches,” he said. “That’s not right. It’s not fair. We all want a government that lives within its means, but there are still things we need to pay for as a country - things like new roads and bridges; weather satellites and food inspection; services to veterans and medical research,” Obama went on to add. Most tellingly, and most relevant to the mood in India, Obama said, “They’re fed up with a town where compromise has become a dirty word. They work all day long, many of them scraping by, just to put food on the table. And when these Americans come home at night, bone-tired, and turn on the news, all they see is the same partisan three-ring circus here in Washington. They see leaders who can’t seem to come together and do what it takes to make life just a little bit better for ordinary Americans. They are offended by that. And they should be.” Indians, too, see a three-ring circus each night, hoping that politicians of all hue compromise on their rigid positions and come together to do what it takes to make life just a little better for ordinary Indians. [caption id=“attachment_48616” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Much of what Obama said could be relevant to India. Jason Reed/Reuters”]  [/caption] “The American people may have voted for divided government, but they didn’t vote for a dysfunctional government. So I’m asking you all to make your voice heard. If you want a balanced approach to reducing the deficit, let your Member of Congress know. If you believe we can solve this problem through compromise, send that message.” Indians, too, have voted for divided government, but we didn’t vote for a dysfunctional government either. Here, though, the similarity ends. Obama asks citizens to contact their elected representatives in Congress. Indian citizens even managing to contact, let alone be heard by, their Member of Parliament is a dream. “America, after all, has always been a grand experiment in compromise. As a democracy made up of every race and religion, where every belief and point of view is welcomed, we have put to the test time and again the proposition at the heart of our founding: that out of many, we are one… Every man cannot have his way in all things…Without this mutual disposition, we are disjointed individuals, but not a society.” So was India, from the days of the freedom struggle, an experiment in compromise, made up of many a race, a religion, a caste and a belief. Increasingly, as we watch the three-ring circus play out on our TV screens, we see every politician wanting to have his or her way in all things. Common sense says that this cannot happen, especially with a government that is cobbled together by tenuous relationships. As we approach the monsoon session of Parliament, we dread the boycotts, the closure of the parliament, the wastage of public money – and a dysfunctional government. We would love to see compromise, an agreement on mutually acceptable approaches, an agreement on the way forward on the critical issues that we, as a nation, are confronted with and healthy debates in both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha resulting in some of the issues that we face being resolved. The biggest issue that we face is the big difference in the cloud that you see above: the word ‘corruption’ doesn’t show up. And as corruption is not a proper noun, it’s not one of the words that we Indianised.