The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : The twain shall never meet

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, May 06, 2006

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

The twain shall never meet

K. Venkateshwarlu

HYDERABAD: It is too contrasting a sight to escape the attention of a sensitive citizen. The choice of venues, cuisine, delegates' dress code and agenda - all reflect the deep divide of the rich and poor and of course of the digital kind, notwithstanding multilateral development banks' interventions.

At one corner of the city- a showpiece of reform-triggered, hi-tech development-Hyderabad International Convention Centre plays host to the cash-rich Asian Development Bank's (ADB) annual meeting. Bank officials in immaculate suits, holding fully loaded gizmos sit in air-conditioned comfort brainstorming over what boils down to a single-point agenda-- coaxing countries to double and treble their loan portfolios.

At the other end, a decrepit Indira Priyadarshini Hall in a nearly forgotten Bagh- e- Aam (Public Garden) is the venue of struggle of the much talked, but least understood `aam aadmi' (common man). Small wonder then that it is hosted by the People's Forum Against ADB.

Pluralistic Asia

The Forum delegates dressed in their traditional best, symbolising the pluralistic Asia, no problem if some of them barely manage to cover themselves up well, sweat it out in a dingy hall and under the `shamianas' outside, debating on the havoc wreaked by the `Asian Destructive Bank's pro- privatisation policies'.

Unlike the delegates to the ADB meet who were treated to the choicest drinks, those attending the `aam aadmi' summit, had the choice of `chai' or `ganne ka sharbat' (sugarcane juice). Ditto with the cuisine. ADB president Haruhiko Kuroda and his entourage might have dug into marinated aubergines and sautéed spinach but for lesser mortals it is the standard `dal- roti- chawal- subzi' meal. And they don't grumble.

The debating platform too was contrasting. At the people's forum, democracy flowed in all its vibrancy with people of all shades expressing freely without the Big Brother's nudge to stop in the tracks. What more, the cultural troupes saw to it that there was never a dull moment.

In a way the distance between the two venues, about 18 km, reflected the widening gap between the attractive offers made by the Bank and the people's hopes and aspirations. Will the gap ever be bridged?

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