India - More Of Millionaires And Less Of Slums & Dogs.

Amitabh Bachchan has criticized Slum Dog Millionaire. Really this guy has chutzpah to criticize a film which has won Golden Globe Award and the same time an actor of his dignity would definitely have a deep rooted logic behind his criticism.

To re-quote Mr. Bachchan - "If Slumdog Millionaire projects India as [a] Third World dirty underbelly developing nation and causes pain and disgust among nationalists and patriots, let it be known that a murky underbelly exists and thrives even in the most developed nations."

I believe that there lies truth somewhere in his statements. I have been in US for three years of my life and one thing that took be aback was the perception US and rest of the world has about India. India in their minds exactly depicts the slums projected in this film. The very notion of people being wealthy in a country like India turns them off. Haven't we seen foreigners coming to India and taking pictures of poor and helpless all the time. At least, I have seen it happening most of the times.
I believe that people around the world need to be shown the wealthy side of India, too, when they visit our country. This initiative needs to be taken by the tourism ministry of India.

What people today are forgetting is that in spite of the downturn in most of the economies of the world, India, still, is confident of its 5-6 % GDP growth. Which country in the world today can even think of a growth in their economy? In fact it is the internal domestic consumption of India that helps it to grow. Also the world forgets that India was once upon a time the wealthiest nation in the world. Foreigners invaded us, and thus, is our state of poor and destitute.

I think now it is up to the Government and our celebrities who represent India abroad to create a brand "India" portraying a lot of riches. Although, I do believe that in India there are two extremes of the society -stinking rich and weeping poor one should not forget that even USA faces such a situation. Only the difference is in the way the image is sold to the world. USA in fact is facing extreme financial turmoil and rich are getting poorer whereas in India rich are getting richer and poor are not getting poorer, mind you, but they are earning well slowly and steadily.