Can India develop despite its politicians?

Its a moot question.

India has rich natural resources, bright, educated middle class, a great work ethic and a sound economic base.

But it is run by politicians. Corrupt, unscrupulous and hideously short-sighted.

Till 1991, a socialistic democracy hiding incredible economic inefficiencies and an unsustainable subsidies drove us to the brink of economic disaster. Since then, we have had Finance Ministers, who have taken the country progressively towards liberalization, but are constantly hindered by the inept politicians whose base is the illiterate millions, who shall continue to stay illiterate if these politicians have their way.

Most recently, a former Prime Minister, Deve Gowda (who was known to sleep in cabinet meetings, no less) almost charged Infosys, one of India's jewels in the IT crown with doing virtually nothing for Karnataka. The Chairman of Infosys, Narayan Murthy, widely hailed around the world as one of the most dynamic leaders of the IT industry, was understandably miffed. He sent a point by point rejoined to this statement.

I have met Narayan Murthy. Spent half a day with him. Talking about building a world class organization in the heart of Bangalore, the IT capital of India. He is sincere, simple and straightforward, the very antithesis of an Indian politician. He started Infosys in 1981 with about $250 dollars in seed capital. In 1999, it became the first Indian company to be listed in the US and has exceeded analyst expectations quarter after quarter. Through its stock option program, it has made thousands of its employees great ownership and made them rich.

Narayan Murthy doesnt take much credit for this. He credits it to the team. His leadership philosophy is simple- hire bright people, give them a free reign, have a pay for performance culture and you will succeed. And he has made many in the indians middle class realize a dream they never thought would come true in their lifetime.

To question his commitment to India's development is blasphemous. By doing that, Indian politicans have only shown that they are worthy of nothing but contempt.

There are some islands of hope like the Cambridge educated economist, Manmohan Singh who is India's PM and continues to fight a lone battle for liberalization and integrating us into the world economy. More power to people like him but unfortunately such people in a minority.

For the sake of my own countrymen, I hope our politicians do minimal damage as our economy rolls on at a brisk 6-8% growth rate. I see them as impediments rather than enablers. Why we need them at all is a good question.
Can we sustain momentum despite our politicians? I am confident we will because we have too many bright hardworking people to let this slip from our hands, inept politicians notwithstanding!