Will 9 percent growth rate solve the problems in Bharat?
Dr. Manmohan Singh, the Prime Minister of India, in his Independence Day address at the Red Fort, has indicated that “Restoring our growth rate to 9 percent is the greatest challenge we face”.
He is right in one sense. Growth rate is the greatest concern for the so called “India”, a minority (less than 10%) of the population — the India of the elite, which they call to be shining. But this is not at all true for the struggling Bharat — the other side of India, to which the majority of the population belongs to.
Is not the Prime Minister aware about the livelihood issues of a considerable section of the population? Is “Poverty” eradicated? Do the people of our country have adequate “Shelter”, access to “safe water” and access to “health services”?
Even Barack Obama, the President of USA, has given more importance to health care and education. That country is considered to be a “developed” nation, and the Indian elites are looking up on that country as their “Promised Land”, with which they compare every aspects/issues in India.
According to government statistics itself, more than 25% of the pupulation are living below the poverty line. ie one in four people of the country is living in abject, unacceptably obscene levels of poverty. Can the Prime Minister of a democratic country close his/her eyes to this grave reality and boasts that restoring growth rate is the greatest challenge that the country faces?
Struggling Bharat 
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