We’ve never been great fans of Indian IT giant Wipro’s Chairman Azim Premji.

But tonight, as we slowly sip our White Russian into a stupor the old man Premji is our hero.

Really.

In a blistering attack penned in an Indian newspaper, Premji belatedly questions in rhetorical style the wisdom of a poor country like India hosting the upcoming commonwealth games:

The term ‘commonwealth’ originally meant public welfare, things that are for the greater good of society. Do the Commonwealth Games pass this commonwealth test? Is this Rs 28,000-crore drain on public funds for the greater common good?….

(G)iven the thousands of crores being spent on the Delhi Commonwealth Games, we need to ask if this is money spent wisely. As a country, we are constantly forced to compromise on funds. For instance, India needs more schools, and the existing schools need better infrastructure and more teachers. This will require us to spend 6% of our GDP on education, but we manage just over half that figure. Similarly, the country has very little sports infrastructure on the ground. To encourage sports, our first step has to be to ensure children get access to playgrounds, good equipment and quality coaching. To not have this, and to instead spend on a grand sporting spectacle sounds like we have got our priorities wrong….

How can we forget that for Rs 28,000 crore we could have established primary schools and health centres in tens of thousands of villages? Can we ignore this splurge the next time a malnourished child looks at us in the eye?

Citing recent studies, Premji reminds us that eight Indian states have more poor people than 26 African nations combined.

Folks, if we’ve said it once we’ve said it a thousand times – With all its lopsided priorities, that corrupt, shitty country India has no future.

Sleeping, eh, Premji?
By the way, WTF was Premji doing all these months and years.

It’s not as if the decision to host the Commonwealth Games was taken last week.

Was the budda (old man) sleeping?

Still, better late than never.

Premji, we raise our glass of White Russian to you tonight.

Bravo!

Source:
Premji’s article in the Times of India