These days the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is being cheered in India. Even those who do not know the meaning of IMF are sharing its report on social media and telling how the country is avoiding economic recession due to the very good economic policies of the Government of India. In fact, the IMF has released a list, in which it has been told which country is likely to have the most or least impact of the recession. In that it has placed India at the bottom and has expressed zero possibility of the impact of recession in India. There is a kind of euphoria in the country regarding this report.
Along with social media, those who set up schools in electronic media are explaining how good India’s economic policies are, which has also been praised by the IMF. Quoting the IMF report, many news anchors and cyber soldiers are washing people who criticize the country’s economic policies. However, no one is saying that even the 2008 global economic slowdown had no effect on India.
However, an international agency said a positive thing and the whole country went crazy about it. Earlier, another international agency, the World Bank, reported last year that India’s ranking in the global ease of doing business list has improved 23 places. It is mentioned everywhere from the head of the government to small and big leaders. However, the World Bank itself has taken the initiative to put a halt to the Ease of Doing Business report after two years of reports found allegations of misappropriation of money. Apart from this, a third report is from a US-based company ‘Morning Consult’, in which it was told that Narendra Modi is the world’s most popular leader with an approval rating of 71 percent. According to this agency, the second most popular leader is Mexico’s Andres Manuel López Obrador and the third most popular is Italy’s Mario Draghi. On the basis of this report, it is said in India that our Prime Minister is the most popular in the world and above the Presidents of America, China and Russia. However, in this sense, the leaders of Mexico and Italy were also bigger than the presidents of America, Russia and China! But what was the point if there was so much rationality and wisdom!
Apart from these three, the report of any other international agency is not being noticed, in which India has got a higher rating or something positive has been said about India or there is an improvement in the rating. Everywhere else the rating is going down. But we reject all such reports. We do not accept any such report, which has not been said well about India. We will accept and promote what is said to be good but reject what is not said good and also question the credibility of that agency, no matter how reputed it may be.
Think, we trust the report of ‘Morning Consult’ made by a technology company Deloitte but reject the report of United Nations agencies or ‘New York Times’, ‘Washington Post’ or ‘Time’, ‘The Economist’ is done.
India is ranked 131st out of 189 countries in the world in the Human Development Index prepared by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). India has been ranked 101 in the list of 116 countries in the world in the Global Hunger Index prepared by Concern Worldwide, a German-based organization. India has been ranked 150th out of 180 countries in the world in the Press Freedom Index prepared by ‘Reporters Without Borders’. Every year it is declining. According to the Democracy Report of Sweden-based organization V-Dem, India is ranked 93rd out of 179 countries in the world. In this, India has been called a country with elected autocracy and has been placed in the top 10 countries of the world with elected autocracy. Another report on democracy is prepared by the Economist Intelligence Unit attached to the British magazine ‘Economist’. In this, India is ranked 46th out of 167 countries.
It has placed India in the list of Flood Democracy. In India for the last eight years, the government is running, despite the fact that India is ranked 85th out of 180 countries in Transparency International’s Global Corruption Index. India is ranked 111 in the Human Freedom Index. The United Nations agency, which monitors religious freedom, has placed India at the fourth place in the list of ten most worrying countries. India is followed by Myanmar, China and Eritrea, followed by Iran.
Many more reputed organizations of the world prepare such reports, in which India’s ranking is very low. At times India is seen competing with Latin American and African countries. In Asia itself, many countries rank above India. But we reject every such report. Instead of taking lessons from the reports of reputed organizations and making efforts to improve them, the community, which is roaming around the chest with the tag received from global organizations, rejects the report, questioning its credibility. A campaign is launched against every such report. These institutions are termed as anti-India and their reports are suppressed in some way or the other. Keep in mind that many prestigious institutions of the world are warning about the status of India’s economy to democracy and education level to hunger, malnutrition and human development. International organizations are drawing attention to the state of human rights and the continuing decline in freedom of the press. But we the people of India are not ready to accept it because we are told every day through WhatsApp forward and dedicated anchors of committed media that India has become Vishwa Guru or is standing on its threshold. This thinking of rejecting the truth and embracing the lie can prove to be suicidal.
