Punjab's Progress At An All Time Low

[West London Singh]

there is still a corrupt education system. Some people need to bribe to get into Uni. Major engineering Indian Uni's discriminate against graduates from Punjab colleges for some reason

Most of my relatives in Punjab have not just single degrees, but what they call double and triple degrees, i.e they did a degree...couldn't find a job and so did another degree etc. Top of my head....I honestly can't name a single relative of mine that has ever managed to find a job in Punjab. The rural Sikh, no matter how highly educated he or she is, has more chance of hitting the jackpot in the national lottery than landing a job in Punjab. They can't get a job in the private sector because the urban classes that control industry restrict the jobs to their own kind. They can't get a job in the public sector because those jobs are reserved thru quotas for the 'backward classes'.

The main blame for Punjab's woes lies with the dirty Badal family, but the central government in Delhi shares the blame. Just to give one example of how the centre deliberately keeps Punjab down, lets look at the issue of aviation. In every other state in India, the central government in Delhi, have been giving financial incentives and help in establishing and building regional airports with global links to improve business infrastructure. The only exception to this official Indian policy is Punjab. Every major international airline that has pulled the plug on its Amritsar service in the last decade has said the reason was because the Indian government were deliberately discouraging them from flying to Punjab by making it too expensive to do so. This is in stark contrast to what is happening in other states such as Gujarat where Airlines have been encouraged to fly there with financial sweetners and incentives so that Gujarat businesses can improve their global reach. Punjab, has the soil and climate for some of the world's most valuable commodities at the moment. Rape seed is at an all time high.....flowers yield high profits....chillis and other organic products would give high profits. But for this to be the case the indian government know those agricultarists in Punjab need good international links from Punjab . Instead, the govt mandis instruct the farmers to grow crops such as rice that need 20 or 30 times more water than other crops. Thats total madness in a state where the water table is dangerously low. But everything is designed to make it hard for the farmer to not only make his own contracts with the international community but be able to deliver on those contracts. I'll tell you right now, my family have tried several times to diversify into the flower market. I even have, in the past, had meetings with major buyers from UK supermarkets. If i was a gujarati farmer in gujarat it would be happy days right now. Within hours my fresh flowers would be on a plane and within a few more hours on the shelves in wall mart. As a Punjabi farmer though, my flowers would be rotten and dead by the time they reached a western supermarket several days later.

Punjab is failing because Punjab is an enslaved state of a hostile dirty foreign power : The Indians.

[singh135]

agree with this, despite dalsinghs comments

[dalsingh101]

There are other ways around the issue West London mentioned, and the fact that people can't even see this, says it all about the lack of imaginative reach of our people today.

One BIG growth sector that Panjabi farmers could be tapping is the organic health market. And if transport has been scuppered like mentioned by WL, then people need to start thinking about dried and powdered natural goods. Last week I was talking to a white neighbour who has diabetes. He had approached members of the family a while ago for advice on control because he said the medicine the doctors were giving was having a lot of side effects. Naturally karela was suggested and he was even given some - which he tried raw. Naturally the guy nearly died from the taste and didn't want to take any more but when I last spoke to him, he told me that he had tried some dried karela powder tablets he had got off the web. He said it was working wonderfully. These tablets cost a small fortune! My point is that there are plenty of products that our farmers could be growing and exporting that aren't as delicate as flowers or the like, the above is just one example of many. Some of you may even remember that video from the hippy brother I posted a while ago, who was talking about experimenting with hemp.

Walk into your local supermarket or a health store and see for yourself! Organic nuts, dried fruits, dried and powdered herbs like coriander, tumeric, dried chillies, jeera.......the list is endless and all stuff that can be grown in Panjab and doesn't have a short window for transportation. The fact that apnay educated in the west use lame excuses like seen above says a lot. Again it is this victim mentality that makes people refuse to place any responsibility for our current state, upon ourselves. Not only is this lame it also disempowers us from actually digging ourselves out of the rut....

[dalsingh101]

I should add, the other week I tried to watch a Panjabi film by Babbu Maan called 'Hero Hitler in love'. Now occasionally I will enjoy a quality movie, even a foreign one with subtitles.

Brothers and sisters should note that plenty of countries sell their 'arts' to massive global markets even if the language isn't English. Think of all the Hong Kong/Chinese martial arts films for a good example i.e. crouching dragon. The other day I saw a good film called Sin Nombre which again had no English. My point is that quality arts can also sell and they don't have to be in English. But when I try and watch Panjabi films they are generally so straight pendu and rubbish, I can rarely get to the end of them. That Hero Hitler in love for example was straight weird. Panjabi films in general are small minded, poorly acted affairs with no depth. Again, we can see other people make quality foreign films and sell them abroad - if we ever raised standards of films and made them relevant to more than some tiny demographic (like plenty of others seem to manage) this could also be a potential component of a robust and diverse economy.

Maybe we should try and brainstorm and see what things could have potential for Panjab's economy, just as a mind widening exercise?

[West London Singh]

Walk into your local supermarket or a health store and see for yourself! Organic nuts, dried fruits, dried and powdered herbs like coriander, tumeric, dried chillies, jeera.......the list is endless and all stuff that can be grown in Panjab and doesn't have a short window for transportation. The fact that apnay educated in the west use lame excuses like seen above says a lot. Again it is this victim mentality that makes people refuse to place any responsibility for our current state, upon ourselves. Not only is this lame it also disempowers us from actually digging ourselves out of the rut....

^ No offence but you wouldn't know a farm if one jumped up and bit you on the bottom.

You know as much about the realities of rural Punjab as a Swiss clock maker. However, despite the pointless ill-informed nonsense of it, i do respect your right to at least have a go. The truth is you simply will not tolerate anything said against your beloved mother India. Never have done.....Never will do. And why would you ? You, unlike the majority of us Sikhs here, have family, heritage and home from amongst them . If we sikhs from rural backgrounds are not lecturing about the dynamics about something we know nothing about, i.e urban industry....what makes Dal Singh think he can lecture about rural agriculture ? its a bit like recieving a lecture about Punjab from a Norwegian fisherman, i.e like a broken pencil.......i.e Pointless. There are also other issues such as crop rotation or yields to consider here. Where the money is etc. Right now, at this very moment, farmers in areas such as Gujarat are artificialy emulating the natural climate and soil of Punjab to grow things such as flowers and selling directly to western wholesalers. That business should be natural to Punjab. It isn't for no reason other than the fact that India has put other states at an advantage re; transport infrastructure, and Punjab at a distinct disadvantage. But you're up to your old tricks Dal Singh. You're a one trick pony.

You say the problem is that the rural sikhs don't get educated. You get told that the rural sikhs do in fact get them themselves degrees, masters, double degrees and triple degrees but still can't find a job. And yet your conclusion is that the rural Sikh has a victim mentality. :omg:

You get told that the rural sikhs stand a slim to none chance of getting a job in the private sector because the urban classes give the jobs to their own kind and your response is that the rural sikh has a victim mentality :stupidme:

You get told that the rural sikh, no matter how great his education, cannot get a job in the public sector because the jobs are reserved through govt quotas for the so called 'backward classes', and your conslusion is that its the rural sikh's fault for having a 'victim mentality'. :wow:

Nah, its all getting silly mate. If there's a discussion about the road system in Bombay I'll listen to what you have to say because you'll be in your element. Here, you're simply doing what you always do as a habit : Deflect blame from your beloved India and pin it on the 'evil pendu rural Sikh' , the architect of all that is wrong in Punjab......apparently.

[dalsingh101]

A text book case of the victim mentality spoken of earlier.

Where even reflective thinking and constructive criticisms are seen as part of some 'grand plan' of oppression........

[UKLondonSikh]

The current culture and ethos of Panjab, in terms of every facet of life and not the kind of things Panjabi songs popularise, is so completely messed up from top to bottom.

>>Ironically enough Paji, those wretched Punjabi songs and the wretched Punjabiyat they seek to pimp at the expense of Sikhi are a very dangerous contributory factor in the kind of under-achievement that DalSingh Paji brilliantly highlighted. If the youth are taught that getting drunk and having caste pride is the way to go ... what kind of room for disciplined adherence to Sikhi and academic achievement does that leave?

The mindset of Panjabis is the biggest obstacle to any change that could occur. Analysis and identification of the problems would require a thread in itself, but suffice to say the emergence of a particular trait amongst our people - ruthlessness - is very worrying. You could argue it has originated from desperation for varying reasons, but inherently good people do not do the kind of things that are occuring back home.

>>I think DalSingh Paji did an excellent job of providing a few markers

But anyway I do wonder how change can occur.

>>We can bring it Paji. Every Sikh youngster we know we have to reach out to them. Even if they think we are idiots, we should try to encourage them to work honestly, study hard, stay away from drugs and sharaab. If everyone who cares (which I know you do far more than me) does this, we are doing our best and change will occur. Look at where the Yadav community was in India in the Nehru-Gandhi era and where they stand now controlling UP with its 200 million population as a tenuous but nevertheless instructive example. The same could be said for what Kanshi Ram (whose parents were a Singh and Kaur) engineered politically from 1984 to the point of Mayawati being CM in the same state.

>>Nothing is ever lost. We just need to fight harder.

I have a strong feeling Sikhi must play a role, but not in the gung-ho manner some desire.

>>Change will only come about via Sikhi ... obviously gung-ho tactics will not work when we are collectively facing such challenges. Before we start raising naaray for Khalistan, let's ensure that 100% of Sikhs are literate as a pre-cursor.

First an individual must master their own mind and have a firm grip on their own life in order to affect change. However, self-reflection is an alien concept for them.

>>The worse things get, the more folks will realise that the some of the paths we're travelling upon are suicidal.

[proactive]

West London Singh,

I couldn't have put it better myself. Unfortunately people whose only claim to having any connection to rural Punjab is that they watched Putt Jattan De seem to think they know more than those who actually have family there and visit every year. I was watching NDTV this afternoon and they had a discussion about government subsidies. One Indian nonce had the nerve to say that free power shouldn't be provided to the rich Punjabi farmer! That numbnut thought that all Punjabi farmers are rich. DalSingh would add his own nugget to that fact by claiming that apart from being all rich the Punjabi farmers are also treating the lower castes like the Southern good ole boys used to treat the negros!

Anyway that facts as you state are quite correct. The GOI treats the Punjab as a colony just as the British treated India as a colony which would provide the raw materials and then be a market for it's value added goods. GOI needs Punjab to remain an agricultural state which provide cheap foodstuffs to the rest of the country and which is then a market for goods which are produced outside of Punjab. Having looked at for example biscuits in the shops of even a small town, more than 60% are produced outside Punjab in states such as Gujarat and even Maharashtra. Why is in that the state that produces the raw materials yet value added products are produced outside?

You make a valid point about Amritsar Airport. Why is it that there is now no direct flights to Amritsar. Even the Indian carrier Jet Airways stopped their direct flight and if you want to fly to Amritsar then you have to do so via Delhi Airport. This also entails a 10 hour wait for the connection from Delhi to Amritsar! If that's not discrimination against Punjab then I don't know what is.

[UKLondonSikh]

@proactive

proactive wrote " West London Singh, I couldn't have put it better myself. Unfortunately people whose only claim to having any connection to rural Punjab is that they watched Putt Jattan De seem to think they know more than those who actually have family there and visit every year. I was watching NDTV this afternoon and they had a discussion about government subsidies."

>>Bro by concurring with WLS i take it your referring to Dal Singh's points in the above? If so, I find it disappointing that you miss the wholehearted commitment of Dal Singh to seeing his fellow Sikhs from a rural background do better in life and by implication you + WLS have simply belittled the very valid points he made (which I'm sure the majority of the forum agreed with).

One Indian nonce had the nerve to say that free power shouldn't be provided to the rich Punjabi farmer!

>>The economist/nonce may have been referring to Punjabi farmers on a per capita basis. As poor as the smaller, more indebted Punjabi farmers are individually ... the Punjabi farmer is indeed "rich" in the context of various Indian states on a per capita basis. Manpreet Badal also said free power shouldn't be provided as it leads to greater indebtedness for the Punjab Sarkar - which in turns sacrifices education + health (as a way to balance the books) and it artificially subsidizes the agricultural sector ... meaning more of our Sikhs remained mired in small, uneconomic landholdings.

That numbnut thought that all Punjabi farmers are rich.

>>Nobody could say that. Large landowners are wealthy of course but those with smaller landholdings are being left behind economically.

DalSingh would add his own nugget to that fact by claiming that apart from being all rich the Punjabi farmers are also treating the lower castes like the Southern good ole boys used to treat the negros!

>>I don't think anyone would claim slavery is going on. But it's certainly true that virulent casteism which is a vestige of Hinduism and Islam has been and is exhibited by a section the community famously toasted in Bhangra records.

Anyway that facts as you state are quite correct. The GOI treats the Punjab as a colony just as the British treated India as a colony which would provide the raw materials and then be a market for it's value added goods.

>>I quite agree with the above paragraph. Until we get out out of the "we are Negroes enslaved by our Deep South Slavemasters" mentality and think about how to develop new businesses which can sell to a market of 1.2billion without restriction we'll remain as economically weak as we currently are. But I totally agree that our enemies want to keep us locked in agriculture while they sell the value added goods back. Hence, why free electricity is a poisoned chalice.

GOI needs Punjab to remain an agricultural state which provide cheap foodstuffs to the rest of the country and which is then a market for goods which are produced outside of Punjab. Having looked at for example biscuits in the shops of even a small town, more than 60% are produced outside Punjab in states such as Gujarat and even Maharashtra. Why is in that the state that produces the raw materials yet value added products are produced outside?

>>Totally agree with u on that Paji. And one way we can help our own is by buying from Panthic businesses that agree to contribute to the welfare of the neediest sections of our community.

You make a valid point about Amritsar Airport. Why is it that there is now no direct flights to Amritsar. Even the Indian carrier Jet Airways stopped their direct flight and if you want to fly to Amritsar then you have to do so via Delhi Airport. This also entails a 10 hour wait for the connection from Delhi to Amritsar! If that's not discrimination against Punjab then I don't know what is.

>>Everyone on this thread agrees and knows the score on that. I myself cannot bring myself to land on that wretchedly named airport in Delhi. But Badals (for all their faults) ought to be able to revive Amritsar airport within their tenure (though by then Chandigarh will have replaced Amritsar as the aviation hub of choice most likely). Maybe Ajit Singh the current aviation minister (a Hindu Jatt) can treat Sikhs better than his fellow Hindu Jatts like Sajjan Kumar and the majority of the Delhi Police did in 1984.

[dalsingh101]

Having looked at for example biscuits in the shops of even a small town, more than 60% are produced outside Punjab in states such as Gujarat and even Maharashtra. Why is in that the state that produces the raw materials yet value added products are produced outside?

So fill us in. What is stopping Sikhs making biscuits in the Panjab and selling them? I'm genuinely interested to hear this.