The unknown knowns

Many people across the world don’t know who runs India. It shows that size doesn’t matter after all.

Those billions we spent on the Festivals of India jamborees and Incredible India advertisements across the hotspots of the world have definitely got us a few more tourists but they seem to have done precious little to improve the image of the men and women who lead us. According to Gallup poll surveys, the country’s leadership remains an unknown quantity in most parts of the world.

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The survey shows that nearly half of the world’s residents don’t know enough about the powerful men and women of Delhi to have an opinion on them. More than half the people in the former Soviet Union (clearly, everyone has forgotten the Raj Kapoor days), the Americas (they still call it a cultural cauldron, is it?) and Europe (our old non-aligned movement allies, included?) don’t have an opinion about India’s leadership.

So should we feel a bit uneasy with all this ignorance? Well, we guess not. Once, during his presidential run-up years, President George Bush choked (no pretzels were involved, we confirmed) when he was asked to name a certain General who was ruling Pakistan then and also the then elected prime minister of India. But in a few years time, Bush and others found out that while he was busy brushing up his general knowledge, Pakistan quietly became a jihadi factory and India an infotech sweatshop.