All’s Well That Augurs Well

LOOKING AHEAD AT 2025, one’s heart is fixed with mixed emotions. We lost many good people, but amongst the truly good people we lost were Ratan Tata and Manmohan Singh. For both of them, in the lives they led, the work they did, and the people they interacted with, there was this rare sense of decency and dignity. The two values that I would like to see our nation embrace with greater panache and intensity. Because it is these values that ultimately define the national discourse. So, here are a few things that I truly hope for in 2025.

I hope my nation continues to rise and rise, but with inclusion as its ultimate goal. Where no Indian is left behind, where no Indian feels threatened, and where no Indian feels not part of the mainstream. For that, we have to ensure that we become not just a functional democracy all over again but an even more empathetic one. Where we are not just concerned with the Constitution of India but what makes the constitution of this nation the splendid country that India is. And to that end, I believe we need to do many things. We need to change our political discourse. It has to rise above hatred and sectarianism. It has to rise above casteism and creed. And it must embrace a larger narrative.

The larger narrative cannot be anything but the overwhelming care and concern for the entire population. Not a population that makes political capital or that is politically relevant or something that will win votes. Because the dilemma that India faces today is that it cannot move ahead as a single entity in terms of nationhood if there is any level of divisiveness. I am not for a moment suggesting that we are a divided nation, but at times the hate speeches that we hear, the kind of violence we see, and the dysfunctionality in our Parliament do not augur well for a nation that is now occupying the global high table, be it economically or diplomatically.

I also believe 2025 should and must see the rise and rise of MSME businesses. Small and medium enterprises are the backbone of our country. We have to recognise that no matter what we do in terms of embracing technology, technology cannot be at the cost of human capital. Technology cannot be a replacement for human enterprise, and technology can certainly not be a replacement which will add to cost savings, because this is not who we are. We are a populist nation, and we keep talking about demographic dividends without recognising that those dividends must in fact be transferable and transferred to the people of India. They cannot be the preserve of the government of India or state governments. I look forward to greater federal participation and federal collaboration. What we are seeing today is federal combatism. We are seeing more and more people trying to combat each other in order to score political brownie points, and that has to stop. I know it is easier said than done, but this is where political maturity resides, and this is how we can change the narrative of our great country.

I also look forward to younger people occupying posts of public office. We need the youth to recognise that they have to shoulder a responsibility in nation-building, and in garnering that national support, we must make public offices more attractive, not because of the power they wield but because of the good they can do. I hope for greater collaboration between the private and public sectors. It is not the responsibility of the government alone to do things which are economically sound. The citizen must get involved, and the citizen must feel responsible.

I have often said that two sectors that are critically ignored are tourism and cultural tourism, and when I say tourism and cultural tourism, I am purposely differentiating between the two, because while one encourages tourists of all hues, the other is a window to India’s civilisational legacy which we not only need to capture but also harness for greater good and for greater profit.

2025 augurs well for our nation but the challenges of converting setbacks into everlasting opportunities remain. I am sure that with the kind of heritage we have and the rootedness that is part of our DNA, this will not be an insurmountable challenge.

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