When I saw the initial Advts of " The Greatest Indian after Mahatma " on the TV, was quite excited. The first aspect which impressed me was excluding Mahatma from the competition and claiming him to be the greatest Indian, well who else could it be . I waited quite eagerly to have a look at the 50 Great Indian nominations. When finally the list was out, there were few obvious greats who I expected them to be. And surprised that quite a many I anticipated did not.
The initial reaction I had after reviewing the list was "these people managed to have a representation from all fields ". I expected the nominations to be skewed towards politicians , entrepreneurs and social leaders but seems to have a good number from sports , arts etc. Well that isn't much of a concern except that i expected the nominatiions to be more closer to the real picture rather than mere representation.
I am bewildered with a few exclusions, some one like P.V Narsimha Rao, I expected him to be part of the the list. If there is one person who has influenced India in the last two decades it has to be him.
APJ Abdul Kalam is categorised under political leaders which does not make much sense to me. Might be i could give him credit for an administrator and scientist but not as a political leader. If exclusion of P.V Narsimha rao was due to the controversies during his reign, why was Lal Bahadur Shastri excluded ? a man of integrity , and the one who gave and lived the slogan " Ja Jawan , Jai Kisan ". Sam Manekshaw finds a place , but is not the victory over Pakistan majorly due to the astute leadership of Indira Gandhi ? With the Bofors scam not proved yet, I believe Rajiv Gandhi ought have been a great option than many of the ones nominated. A man of great vision and undoubtedly the one who sowed the seeds of the current IT boom in India. I do not know how many would agree with me but I would say Dr.Manmohan Singh should have found a place ahead of many , simply for the profound impact his economic polices have had on us. If only it was not for the arm twisting coalition politics he would have been on much higher ground, the nuclear deal is one such example.
Do not want to sound regionalistic but I do see the typical north domination on the south. If it is not for the mass appeal and the universal recognition of Rajani Kanth he might not have found a place. The greatest actor India has ever produced ought be Kamal Hasssan , it surprises me that due care was taken to have representation from all fields, and Kamal is excluded from the Arts category.
Satyajit ray is unparalleled and hence we find him in the list, but apart from him no other technician seems to have made the cut. Quite a many south film greats do not find a place, might be the over reaching connect of Hindi Cinema, but it does not make them any less Indian being part of regional cinema.
The one category that i am most happy with is "Entrepreneurs & Idea Leaders ", no complains on the ones included but might be a couple more could have been added.
If Milkha Singh, why not P.T.Usha ? why are not any of the great spin quartet or for that matter any of Indian Spinner included where in they were the key for majority if not all of Indian victories. Do not want to comment upon inclusion of Kanshi ram because not to flirt with controversy, but if Kanshiram is why not Anna Durai ? Does impact north means impacting India ?
I know 50 nominations cannot include every one and there ought be a few omissions which might not have made the cut, but its the inclusion of the few at the cost of exclusing few others who deserves for the sake of mere representation and perspective bias that does not sit with me well.
Anyways lets wait and see who gets shortlisted to the top ten .
The initial reaction I had after reviewing the list was "these people managed to have a representation from all fields ". I expected the nominations to be skewed towards politicians , entrepreneurs and social leaders but seems to have a good number from sports , arts etc. Well that isn't much of a concern except that i expected the nominatiions to be more closer to the real picture rather than mere representation.
I am bewildered with a few exclusions, some one like P.V Narsimha Rao, I expected him to be part of the the list. If there is one person who has influenced India in the last two decades it has to be him.
APJ Abdul Kalam is categorised under political leaders which does not make much sense to me. Might be i could give him credit for an administrator and scientist but not as a political leader. If exclusion of P.V Narsimha rao was due to the controversies during his reign, why was Lal Bahadur Shastri excluded ? a man of integrity , and the one who gave and lived the slogan " Ja Jawan , Jai Kisan ". Sam Manekshaw finds a place , but is not the victory over Pakistan majorly due to the astute leadership of Indira Gandhi ? With the Bofors scam not proved yet, I believe Rajiv Gandhi ought have been a great option than many of the ones nominated. A man of great vision and undoubtedly the one who sowed the seeds of the current IT boom in India. I do not know how many would agree with me but I would say Dr.Manmohan Singh should have found a place ahead of many , simply for the profound impact his economic polices have had on us. If only it was not for the arm twisting coalition politics he would have been on much higher ground, the nuclear deal is one such example.
Do not want to sound regionalistic but I do see the typical north domination on the south. If it is not for the mass appeal and the universal recognition of Rajani Kanth he might not have found a place. The greatest actor India has ever produced ought be Kamal Hasssan , it surprises me that due care was taken to have representation from all fields, and Kamal is excluded from the Arts category.
Satyajit ray is unparalleled and hence we find him in the list, but apart from him no other technician seems to have made the cut. Quite a many south film greats do not find a place, might be the over reaching connect of Hindi Cinema, but it does not make them any less Indian being part of regional cinema.
The one category that i am most happy with is "Entrepreneurs & Idea Leaders ", no complains on the ones included but might be a couple more could have been added.
If Milkha Singh, why not P.T.Usha ? why are not any of the great spin quartet or for that matter any of Indian Spinner included where in they were the key for majority if not all of Indian victories. Do not want to comment upon inclusion of Kanshi ram because not to flirt with controversy, but if Kanshiram is why not Anna Durai ? Does impact north means impacting India ?
I know 50 nominations cannot include every one and there ought be a few omissions which might not have made the cut, but its the inclusion of the few at the cost of exclusing few others who deserves for the sake of mere representation and perspective bias that does not sit with me well.
Anyways lets wait and see who gets shortlisted to the top ten .
