The Mars madness – What the world fails to recognise

Mars or morsel?

We will have to wait eleven more months to see whether the Mars orbiter is indeed a success. The orbiter is expected to enter Mars’ orbit on 24^th September 2014. Once there it will look for signs of life and presence of methane. But India is not the first country to send an interplanetary probe or to look for signs of life on Mars. We have ample information on what the Martian surface looks like and we know there are no sign of life and that human life is impossible in the present Martian atmosphere. Why then is the Indian government spending millions of dollars on a programme that is useless at best and fancy at worst? Why is the government not spending that money on two thirds of its population living under USD 2 a day?

These are the arguments that the international media picked up while reporting the launch on 5^th November. They reported the launch, termed it a success and then immediately threw in the figures of aid money India receives and millions that live in poverty. This in itself is not a bad thing. After all media is supposed to be neutral and question the establishment. However, it is interesting to see whether linking the space programme to poverty by international media is fair or not.

In the financial year 2013-14 the government of India is expected to spend USD 55 billion in food and fuel subsidies. Fifty five times the yearly amount spent on the entire space programme. The recently introduced Food Security Bill (though flawed) will inject another USD 20 billion a year. There are many other programmes introduced by both the central and state governments to eradicate poverty. Add to this a few more millions in farm subsidies and we are looking at a figure close to USD 100 billion, spent on welfare schemes. The anti lobbies will argue that despite all the money spent, little has been achieved. Indian Affair will agree. But the argument of not spending on poverty elevation does not hold true anymore. The real question is that of implementing these programmes transparently and passing the benefits to the needy.

The view from the tinted glasses

The low cost space ship

The debates on international media revolved around the imagined space race between India and China and the need for a poor country to embark upon a programme, which should ideally be carried out by the first world. The Express News of the UK carried a headline, which read, “India sends a spaceship to Mars after UK government gives GBP 280 million in aid” implying that India used the aid money to fund its space programme. The German Sued Deutsche Zeitung (South German Newspaper) carried a story titled “India sends probe to Mars”. It started off well but towards the end it too succumbed to the temptation to highlighting “poverty” and “wasteful” expenditure on an expensive project. The American CNN and the British BBC were no exception. The media and public in west and especially the UK (if one reads through the comments section of various British news sites) see the launch as a fancy project. 

Almost everybody in the mainstream media of west acknowledged the fact that India carried out the mission at one tenth of the cost of a similar venture, MAVEN, by NASA (scheduled to be launched on 18^th November). What no one discussed was the mind boggling cost reduction by the Indian scientists. It is no mean feat to cut cost to a tenth for an interplanetary probe. This should have been the topic of discussion on the television debates. Curious minds should have called in astronauts and space scientists to discuss the frugal engineering by Indian scientists and how rest of the world can learn from them. They should have asked questions on future of space exploration industry and India’s role in it. They should have discussed the difficult scenario where India and China will dominate the high tech space industry, leaving the conventional pioneers behind. But they chose to ignore it and discussed poverty.

Not just a fancy toy

India’s space programme is anything but fancy. Ever since India sent its first satellite in space in 1975, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has conducted 72 launches from various launch locations in India and abroad. Over the years ISRO has helped India in telecommunication, broadcasting, weather forecasting, remote sensing, etc. The billion dollars a year that India spends on its space programme is paid at least a few times over by selling the services of its satellites to various users in India and abroad. India has also mastered the technique of sending multiple satellites into space from a single launch vehicle. The first successful launch was carried out in 1999 on board Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV). The PSLV placed three satellites, the Indian Oceansat-I, the German DLR-Tubsat and the Korean KITSAT-3 in their respective orbits. ISRO has carried out a dozen successful multiple launches since then. The next step for ISRO will be to tap into the USD 340 billion space exploration market.

Poverty reduction should obviously be on India’s priority as a developing nation. It should take sincere steps to eradicate poverty and pull its millions out of the misery they live in today. And the problem is definitely not money. It all boils down to honestly implementing such programmes. But that is a different debate. It is surprising that the world media missed to discuss the obvious but chose to go the extra mile to ridicule a brilliant scientific achievement. We will never know whether it is a product of a prejudiced mind or fear of being left behind.

   

Great Expectations

If the next Lok Sabha elections are held on social media, Narendra Modi (Prime ministerial candidate of the opposition) will probably win hands down. In the past few months there have been various opinion polls suggesting that Modi leads his closest rival, Rahul Gandhi (heir of the ruling Congress party) by several miles when it comes to the choice of next prime minister of India. The Business Standard ran an article on September 12, 2013, summarizing the trends of seven opinion polls conducted in the recent past. According to the article, two clear trends emerge from the findings. First is the rise of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP, right of centre) and National Democratic Alliance (BJP and its allies) as the single largest party and pre poll alliance respectively. Second is, huge losses for Congress (between 75 to 90 seats). What will actually happen in 2014 is anybody’s guess, but BJP is definitely enjoying high approval ratings in almost a decade. Social media and other internet platforms are inundated with pro Modi and pro BJP comments, sometimes even bordering jingoism. On the other hand Congress supporters seem to struggle a lot in defending the indefensible series of scandals and poor governance.  

Outside the social media, the recent public speeches by Modi in various Indian cities have demonstrated his popularity among a large section of urban and semi urban population too (in some cases people paid to attend his public rallies). He seems to have the backing of the middle class. Though there are no clear polls suggesting Modi’s popularity among the rural voters, it can be assumed (based on the other surveys conducted on random samples) that he has some support in the rural constituencies too. Now let us imagine a scenario where Modi is indeed chosen as the next prime minister of India. What should the voters expect from him?

I have an idea, or two

If one reads through the comments on major news paper websites, one thing that catches the attention is the expectation people have from Modi. From rising onion prices to the latest scandal, violation of cease fire on the Line of Control with Pakistan to Tamil fishermen being arrested by Sri Lankan navy, Narendra Modi seems to be the answer to every single problem the urban internet users face. For the ears of BJP and Modi this might be the best music they heard in a while. But let us not forget that it was the same group of middle class, Internet using Indians who marched the streets of Delhi and other cities in support of the anti corruption movement headed by Anna Hazare, it was the same middle class which once again took to the streets to protest against the rape and subsequent death of a student in Delhi. Such was the force of Indian middle class that the government was forced to give in and discuss changes in legislation well into the night.

In the past there have been no attempts from either the BJP or Modi to tone down the expectations people have from them in the next government. This probably suits them well for the time being. But with so much that is wrong with the economy, governance, public health, law and order, etc it will probably take more than just five years to show visible improvement. It takes years for the economy to show any sign of growth after a few bad years. The American economy despite the quantitative easing took almost five years to recover and things are still not the same as they used to. Any improvement in governance might require constitutional amendments. This means long negotiations with the opposition and possibility of a deadlock. These issues are just the tip of the iceberg. The real problems might be worse.

Modi should come up with a separate strategy to manage the expectations people have from him. The middle class, who today is willing to put him on the pedestal, will not hesitate to pull him down if he does not meet their expectations.