As we
are headed towards the elections to elect our new “Prime Minister”, The
freshly elected Prime Minister of the 16th Lok Sabha will face the unenviable task of
dismantling the failed administrative systems and destructive economic policies
that have choked India’s progress over the last decade. Redraft our foreign
policy, Fiscal responsibility, discard the outdated institutions like the
Planning commission and do away with the 5 year plans. Time has come when
policy and decisions taken need to be made more transparent and people centric.
India has been plagued by corruption, red tape, inaction, poor infrastructure,
overcrowded transport system, unhygienic cities and roads full of pot holes.
Borders are extremely venerable to intrusion; soldiers are poorly paid and
looked upon. Communism has destroyed the whole economy. Freebies and doles have
become the only parameter of helping the poor, 100 days of employment and 30
kg’s of food grains seem to be the new social indicator of progress. Where your
caste decides which university, which job or who gets promoted rather than your
merit, experience and competency. Performance would be judged on how many
freebies or waivers could be squeezed out of the tax-payers sweaty brow.
‘Accountability’ became a dirty-word that no one cared to utter.
Mr. Prime Minister it’s time has come when India
needs to regain its lost glory, rightfully earn its lost respect in the world.
National interest is put above personal interest, People deserve better life, equal
opportunities, caste and religions based reservations needs to be shunted out
and only the economically backward people should be the beneficiary of
reservation. Justice in India has always been delayed and compromised, poor
people don’t have the resources to fight cases in courts and courts don’t have
infrastructure, and resources to dismiss the cases in a timely manner. Rich get
away with little or no punishments and poor is left hapless and frustrated with
the slow pace of delivery of justice system. Below are some issues that need’s
urgent attention and be addressed on a high priority.
1. Justice
system. Any civilized society can sustain itself only
when there are proper laws and a proper implementing system. Each year the disposal of cases in the High
Courts has been lesser than the number of cases instituted. There are a total
of just 34 high courts in India and Judge Strength of the High Court’s today
stands at “903” (this
is approved number of judges and includes permanent and additional judges) and
1/3 of them are vacant. Supreme Court has just 31 sanctioned judges. Now
imagine how can this number dispose 32 million cases pending?
· India is said to be overly regulated country and lest administered, this has to change. The PM could also setup a time-bound committee to suggest which laws have become redundant and need to be struck off our statute books. The focus needs to be on implementing the existing laws rather than creating more rules that no one respects.
· Fast-action courts dealing exclusively with crimes against women need to be setup in every district under the direct supervision of the High Court of that region. Guerrilla courts of the khap-panchayat variety should be banned and no legal sanctity should be given to them. At least we will be spared by morons like Arvin Kejriwal’s endorsement of these khaps.
2. Economic Reforms: It is generally persuaded that reforms mean everything and anything in the economy needs to be privatized and handed over to the private party, which is not true. Government has no business to be in business but it has every business to see that these businesses are run The PM and the new Finance Minister must put in place a single-window business approval system to hasten industrial growth and to cut out bureaucratic red-tape. The alleged extra-constitutional taxes that the environment ministry levied to approve large-scale infrastructure projects, if true, was a shameful example as to how individual greed and ineptitude cost thousands of jobs in the poorest regions of India.
· India also needs a simplified tax-code that supports small and large business owners and encourages much needed foreign investment. Taxes like retrospective need to done away with it, it was a single reason that has made investors run away from India.
· Please, please get back Arun Shourie. This veteran disinvestment guru can help redirect precious tax-payers funds to more critical pursuits; He has got the acumen and is competent to handle this ministry.
· PM should back his officers and stand behind them rock sold for all the decisions taken by them. It is often criticized that the current UPA lacks spine to support its chief secretaries because of which they just refuse to sign any key documents which has stalled many projects and investments and many of the decisions landed in court battles and retired officers are put in jail because that minister just does not support his officers.
3. Rebuild infrastructure: PM must identify the key projects and declare them as national projects and hire the best technocrats to implement them. One such project should be river linking project, the dream project of our beloved leader Shri “Atal Vajpayee”. This project can prove water to the most draught prone areas of Western India and central India. It is also shameful that our farmers in places like Vidarbha continue to suffer because of avoidable droughts and poorly developed irrigation canals. Unfortunately, India continues to have its fair share of misguided celebrity activists like Medha Patkar and Arundhati Roy who revel in stone-walling critical infrastructure projects at the cost of farmer’s lives and it’s not surprising that these anti-nationalist are have all ganged up to form the AAP party and further penetrate there socialist ideas.
National Highways: one of the greatest achievements of NDA Govt. was building the “Golden Quadrilateral” which was not only built in a record time but was a key in bridging the gap between the four metro cities. Now it’s time to build railways on same lines.
Other such project was “Pradhan Mantri Gramin Sadak Yojna” which built thousands of kilometers of roads to connect villages to towns and towns to cities. Emphasis must be laid to review such projects and open the roads of prosperity to the remotest of regions of country.
· It is a crying shame that India is the only country which runs, funds public transport such as Airways and Railways no other country is this business. What is more ironic is that in spite of being into a monopoly business railways incurs crores of losses and has the highest number of employees on roll and equal number of pensioners and to mention the rampant corruption that prevails from buying of tickets to offering tenders to construct bridges. Time is ripe to divest stake in railways and open it to the private players.
· There is tremendous scope to bring in private enterprise into the operational functioning of the railways to improve safety, efficiency and comfort. The thousands of railway platforms across the country, if harnessed properly, could generate thousands of crores of rupees which could easily be used to build world-class express and bullet trains.
4. Internal Security: When the terrorist struck the twin towers of world trade center in USA in 2011 the then president of USA said that it’s a strike on the Americans and we will take revenge. And they waged the biggest war on terrorism. Such was their commitment that they intercepted the telephone calls of their own citizens and strip searched anyone suspicious irrespective of their name, nationality, designation. Which some of our Indians find offending and below their dignity to be searched (remember Sharukh Khan and Azam Khan’s theatrics when they were searched they started throwing tantrums at New York Airport)
· Nexalites crisis: The new PM must recognize that the Nexalites have taken to violence out of sheer disgruntlement at the failed economic policies that have their roots in Nehru’s failed economic experiment.
· The Maoists/Naxalites are the children of extreme poverty who must be reintegrated into the mainstream by providing them genuine opportunities to better their lot. Brute military force may fix the symptoms but will not cure the disease.
· People of the socially backward regions need to be included in the economic growth; the tribal should be properly rehabilitated and compensated before taking their land and resources.
5. Educational Reforms: In the below Facebook post of our HR Minister claiming to spent thousands of crores of rupees on education and bringing in Right to Education which he wants to claim as revolutionary, but he conveniently forgets that it had only more repelling effect on our education system. (He does not even respond to my post)
· India is said to be overly regulated country and lest administered, this has to change. The PM could also setup a time-bound committee to suggest which laws have become redundant and need to be struck off our statute books. The focus needs to be on implementing the existing laws rather than creating more rules that no one respects.
· Fast-action courts dealing exclusively with crimes against women need to be setup in every district under the direct supervision of the High Court of that region. Guerrilla courts of the khap-panchayat variety should be banned and no legal sanctity should be given to them. At least we will be spared by morons like Arvin Kejriwal’s endorsement of these khaps.
2. Economic Reforms: It is generally persuaded that reforms mean everything and anything in the economy needs to be privatized and handed over to the private party, which is not true. Government has no business to be in business but it has every business to see that these businesses are run The PM and the new Finance Minister must put in place a single-window business approval system to hasten industrial growth and to cut out bureaucratic red-tape. The alleged extra-constitutional taxes that the environment ministry levied to approve large-scale infrastructure projects, if true, was a shameful example as to how individual greed and ineptitude cost thousands of jobs in the poorest regions of India.
· India also needs a simplified tax-code that supports small and large business owners and encourages much needed foreign investment. Taxes like retrospective need to done away with it, it was a single reason that has made investors run away from India.
· Please, please get back Arun Shourie. This veteran disinvestment guru can help redirect precious tax-payers funds to more critical pursuits; He has got the acumen and is competent to handle this ministry.
· PM should back his officers and stand behind them rock sold for all the decisions taken by them. It is often criticized that the current UPA lacks spine to support its chief secretaries because of which they just refuse to sign any key documents which has stalled many projects and investments and many of the decisions landed in court battles and retired officers are put in jail because that minister just does not support his officers.
3. Rebuild infrastructure: PM must identify the key projects and declare them as national projects and hire the best technocrats to implement them. One such project should be river linking project, the dream project of our beloved leader Shri “Atal Vajpayee”. This project can prove water to the most draught prone areas of Western India and central India. It is also shameful that our farmers in places like Vidarbha continue to suffer because of avoidable droughts and poorly developed irrigation canals. Unfortunately, India continues to have its fair share of misguided celebrity activists like Medha Patkar and Arundhati Roy who revel in stone-walling critical infrastructure projects at the cost of farmer’s lives and it’s not surprising that these anti-nationalist are have all ganged up to form the AAP party and further penetrate there socialist ideas.
National Highways: one of the greatest achievements of NDA Govt. was building the “Golden Quadrilateral” which was not only built in a record time but was a key in bridging the gap between the four metro cities. Now it’s time to build railways on same lines.
Other such project was “Pradhan Mantri Gramin Sadak Yojna” which built thousands of kilometers of roads to connect villages to towns and towns to cities. Emphasis must be laid to review such projects and open the roads of prosperity to the remotest of regions of country.
· It is a crying shame that India is the only country which runs, funds public transport such as Airways and Railways no other country is this business. What is more ironic is that in spite of being into a monopoly business railways incurs crores of losses and has the highest number of employees on roll and equal number of pensioners and to mention the rampant corruption that prevails from buying of tickets to offering tenders to construct bridges. Time is ripe to divest stake in railways and open it to the private players.
· There is tremendous scope to bring in private enterprise into the operational functioning of the railways to improve safety, efficiency and comfort. The thousands of railway platforms across the country, if harnessed properly, could generate thousands of crores of rupees which could easily be used to build world-class express and bullet trains.
4. Internal Security: When the terrorist struck the twin towers of world trade center in USA in 2011 the then president of USA said that it’s a strike on the Americans and we will take revenge. And they waged the biggest war on terrorism. Such was their commitment that they intercepted the telephone calls of their own citizens and strip searched anyone suspicious irrespective of their name, nationality, designation. Which some of our Indians find offending and below their dignity to be searched (remember Sharukh Khan and Azam Khan’s theatrics when they were searched they started throwing tantrums at New York Airport)
· Nexalites crisis: The new PM must recognize that the Nexalites have taken to violence out of sheer disgruntlement at the failed economic policies that have their roots in Nehru’s failed economic experiment.
· The Maoists/Naxalites are the children of extreme poverty who must be reintegrated into the mainstream by providing them genuine opportunities to better their lot. Brute military force may fix the symptoms but will not cure the disease.
· People of the socially backward regions need to be included in the economic growth; the tribal should be properly rehabilitated and compensated before taking their land and resources.
5. Educational Reforms: In the below Facebook post of our HR Minister claiming to spent thousands of crores of rupees on education and bringing in Right to Education which he wants to claim as revolutionary, but he conveniently forgets that it had only more repelling effect on our education system. (He does not even respond to my post)
The new PM needs to acknowledge that our
government run schools are among the worst in the world. Even the poorest of
our citizens prefer to use their meagre resources to send their children to
privately run schools that offer a marginally higher quality of education. A
brilliant way to resolve this crisis is by introducing a ‘voucher’ based school
system. By allowing private players to setup schools and compete for
‘payment-vouchers’ given to families by the government, there will be an
automatic incentive for these private entities to provide the best quality of
education. Government funded schools could be gradually phased out.
6.
The
world socialist should be deleted from our constitution: socialism
it has no value or palace in today’s time. No other nation spends billions of rupees
paid by tax payers on doles and freebies and leaky schemes. Govt. job to
provide avenues and a fair and just environment and to give social security for
people who want to live in safe and cushioned environment.
·
No modern democracy in the world can continue to
turn a blind eye to the perverse forces of a communist ideology. The new PM
must show grit and stand by the stated ‘democratic’ objective outlined in our
constitution and firmly deny any place whatsoever to the evil Marxist-communist
ideology, be it even in the garb of a ‘political-party.’ States like West
Bengal and Kerala continue to remain the poorest and most backward regions of
India because of the communist stranglehold that has only produced misery and
death at the cost of merit and enterprise.
These are just a few ideas that the new PM might
want to consider while dealing with the accumulated failures of the last
decade. I would urge my readers to post their suggestions in the comments
below. Democracy runs on the engine of consensus, when enlightened citizens
come together and demand accountability from their leaders.
