Poverty signifies failure. Why blame others?

"Western commentary on India - be it India's cricket pitches, management of the Covid pandemic or the farm bills - exhibit important similarities that we Indians must learn from," wrote Chief Economic Adviser (CEA) to the Government of India Krishnamurthy Subramanian. He is indignant that people are complaining about the pitch in Ahmedabad where India beat England within 2 days, whereas when India lost to New Zealand on a seaming wicket in 2002-03 it was due to poor batting. First, the highest score in this match was 145 by India which would be considered a poor score in a 20-20 match, and second, people who bought tickets for a 5-day game were cheated out of the price of the remaining 3 days. India has still not forgotten the pitch at Sabina Park in Jamaica, West Indies, in 1976 where injuries to Indian players, because of dangerous bowling by West Indies fast bowlers, forced India to end the second innings at 97 for 5, wrote Arunabha Sengupta. Sunil Gavaskar described it as "Barbarism in Kingston". Muhammad Ali's "Phantom Punch" that knocked out Sonny Liston after just 90 seconds into the first round in 1965 is still debated. Tickets at heavyweight title fights are very expensive and people want to see a good fight. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo fudged data about deaths in nursing homes due to the coronavirus "Would any American care about a tweet on this by our Bollywood stars?" It is not the fault of Americans if Delhi Police file a ridiculous FIR against teenager Greta Thuberg and make us look like idiots, and that India does not have freedom of speech. "Through the pandemic, Indian journalists, scientists and citizens have had to battle against the Indian state for access to basic data, which is often easily available in most other parts of the world, including in resource constrained Latin American countries," wrote Rukmini S. It was not foreigners that questioned the GDP back series but Indians who complained that it did not pass the smell test. Two independent members of the National Statistical Commission resigned in protest against suppression of data by this government. As for farmers' protest, Bihar abolished the state regulated wholesale markets, known as 'mandis', in 2006. In Bihar, "Farmers cannot bargain. The produce is nether graded nor auctioned as is the practice in well-functioning markets," wrote Sayantan Bera. It is more lucrative for Bihar farmers to work as farm-laborers in Punjab than to grow crops on their own farms. Subramanian has lived in the US "for a decade" so he should know that in the US, "In the last decade, income of small farms has consistently been in the red. In February 2020, the median US income from farming was a negative $1,400," wrote Bedabrata Pain. This is because President Ronald Reagan opened up the agriculture market to competition. "Farmer suicide rates are 4-5 times the national average." "Western view of the world is centered around themselves," wrote Subramanian. A survey found over 80% of Indians living in America would like to become citizens of the US, even though they have to give up Indian citizenship, and "Thirty-six percent of Indian Americans report that India is currently on the right track, while 39 percent believe it is on the wrong track," wrote Badrinathan, Kapur and Vaishnav. The per capita GDP of the US was $63,051 compared to a meager $1,877 for India in 2020. As CEA Subramanian should concentrate on making Indians rich instead of trying to cover up for the failures of his employers. The West will automatically fall in line.