The President of the Australian Olympic Committee pulled no punches when he stated that India should not have been given the 2010 Commonwealth Games. India, of course, could not agree less. India has been projecting the image of a risen power-high economic growth, a couple of international billionaires, high profile Indians in important international places, Bollywood churning out films with gyrating scantily clad Indian women, an assiduously nurtured military muscle and the deliberate portrayal of a state that is a democracy and a responsible nuclear power. All of this ties in with India's projection of itself as 'shining' and 'incredible'.
There is no doubt that India is headed towards big power status at some point in the future---but not the immediate future because too many uncertainties make this march shaky. There is grinding unimaginable poverty in a large segment of Indian society that is graphically portrayed in western films about India. There is the caste system within India that disenfranchises and discriminates against the large low caste population creating religious divides and fuelling religious extremism and terror---the anti Muslim pogroms and the burning of Christians are examples. There is the factor of uneven growth, vast disparities in incomes and life styles and widespread corruption. Much more serious is the spreading Maoist insurgency that dominates the entire north eastern part of India and the uprising in Kashmir that has led to more than 100 killings by Indian security forces armed with Draconian powers and brutalized by using rape torture and extortion. That Kashmiris are alienated from India would be a gross understatement---there is hatred there.
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