PM is in Town

The Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh, is in Chandigarh for the next two days. Why? Well, a new IT park is opening in this city and he has come to officially open it. According to the newspapers, this IT park means that Chandigarh is the "next big thing" in India.

To get ready for the PM's visit, the streets have been "re-carpeted (re-paved)," sidewalks painted, street lights fixed, and garbage cleaned up. By the sounds of things, the only way to improve the infrastructure of this town is to have VIPs come to town. That pothole (practically a crater) in the middle of the main street was only fixed because the city felt that if the PM saw the town in such disorder, he would sell his house here and never come back.

Maybe I'm way off here, but isn't that sending the wrong message? I mean, don't you want the PM to see how the infrastructure really is? Why pretty up the town for 2 days, only to see those improvements go by the wayside? This is like tidying up the house when guests are coming...why must we put up a facade, when we know damn well that the house has never been that clean since we moved in? There are certain standards, of course, but the bottom line is that I want to see how people really live, not how they want me to think they live.