A Citizen's Manifesto: A Ray of Hope

By Mike Rana

A Citizens Manifesto the Book
The recent books published by the administrators, leaders and authors on the subjects that concern our country generally focus on a few burning issues or those which are popular for the time being. The problem with this specialised approach is that issues get constrained by the coverage scope of the book and the book fails to deal with the inter-related impact of issues. In contrast, the treatment of the majority of issues in the pages of one book, gives corrective action a reasonable chance.

The book offers a coherent list of about two hundred such issues and complementing suggestions for shaking up our citizens from the materialistic slumber that they are currently in to some sort of awakening. Even if these ideas are simply kept at the back of mind while in the day to day living or at work place, the chances that we would be moving in the right direction are real. The complete list of these ideas is summarised in the last chapter The Manifesto.

Relevance

It is a simple book, not really recommended for reading by the historians, economists, sociologist or the Indian Administrative Services (I*S) officers who need a much heavier dose to satisfy their intellect ; in fact it should be banned for them. This book deals with ideas, emotions, and feelings and not with statistics, reports, tables, numbers or references and quotations. Those in the seats of power or in administration of the country generally are guided by their perception of the society by looking at it from their ivory towers. Reading this book from the viewpoint of a common citizen gives them the advantage of being closer to reality as seen by an average citizen.
Readers
For the citizens of India, for creating a big picture in mind of how the government is functioning, what are their constraints and how public can help.
For the governance of India including politicians, for understanding the need for going into grass root level issues of the nation
For the bright students, it provides material for improving grading and for the students in general it provides important material in simple and interesting form
For the citizens of other developing countries, what they can learn from the Indian experience; countries like Pakistan, Eastern Europe, South East Asia and Latin American countries.
For Western Countries to help them do business with India after making better informed decisions for a win-win situation. We expect a very large number of readers in England, South Africa, Canada and USA.
Even from the view point of a traveller to India or school students going in for interviews this book provides adequate information as well answers to discussion topics.

Unique Main Messages in the book
Introducing a 4th wing Regulatory in the government for overseeing Legislative, Executive and Judiciary
Reducing the number of national parties to 5 and regional to 3 per state
Using media power to promote transparency and take over control
Limiting the progress and GDP in order to conserve natural resources and control inflation
Restructuring and revitalizing our cities and getting back to villages and Maha-Grams
Reduction of laws, but intensification of its enforcement
Delegating funds to Panchayati Raj level for empowerment of villages
Discarding the ills of religion and cricket, and managing these industries sternly
Getting away from reservations, subsidies, and policies that weaken the society
Engaging our enemies in knowledge warfare where we can excel, instead of military or physical warfare
Introducing compulsory army tenure and compulsory rural service by doctors
Installing a good leader and politician but when in opposition establishing a shadow government
Creating a real time intelligence correlation network (RICN) to tackle terrorism
Recoveri

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Nov 4, 2011
• ISBN: 9781465381835

Mike Rana

Rana, Manmohan Kumar is an electrical, aeronautical and computer engineer from Indian Institute of Technology – Bombay. His experience of 30 years in the Indian Air Force and 10 years in the international corporate world has motivated him to direct attention to address the political, economical and social ills that plague India, with the aim of bringing in prosperity and freedom to the citizens of India. Mike Rana has received several awards of the highest level by the Government of India for his work on several projects relating to the large database systems, real-time Air Defence systems, including missile systems. He has the distinction of receiving repeated awards for his writings related to information technology by the Computer Society of India.

Book preview

A

Citizen’s

Manifesto

A Ray of Hope

Mike Rana

Copyright © 2011 by Mike Rana.

Library of Congress Control Number:          2011918737

ISBN:                      Hardcover                      978-1-4653-8182-8

                                 Softcover                      978-1-4653-8181-1

                                 Ebook                            978-1-4653-8183-5

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This book was printed in the United States of America.

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris Corporation

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www.Xlibris.com

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Contents

Prologue

Country on the March

Protecting our Sovereignty

Constitution – Use or Misuse

Endnotes

Credibility of the Parliament

Governance with Purpose

The Spaghetti of Law

Redefining Land Use

Restructuring our Cities & Towns

The Rural Potential

The Dream of Natural Resources

The Identity Crisis

The Shackles of Religion

Diversity or Disparity

Education at Crossroads

Corruption – A living monster

The Menace of Traffic

Heritage – The Pride of India

Media – Articulated Transparency

The Manifesto – Jansatta

Abbreviations

List of Hindi Words Used

Prologue

‘Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfils the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things.’ . . . Winston Churchill.

A Citizen’s Manifesto is a collection of ideas based on desires and expectations of the citizens of a developing country that can assist political leaders. An unbiased external document will help them in sifting through the maze of conflicting feedback that they receive from the media or the rosy picture that is painted by their workers coming from the so-called grass root levels. Some of the 200 odd recommendations made in this book, may appear farfetched but this out of the box thinking is necessary for applying a mid-course correction to the system. The Manifesto is a ray of hope for citizens towards realistic change and possible progress.

India achieved independence from foreign rule after hundreds of years in 1947. It immediately set upon itself the task of rebuilding the nation. Pt Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first Prime Minister adopted a socialistic approach to leapfrog India’s position on the international scene. The results were remarkable in the early days. Forty years after the experiment with socialism, the country shifted gears towards Adam Smith’s free market economy in the early 1990s. After twenty years of running the country under the free economy paradigm, the present situation does not give us the pride that our efforts deserve.

A new situation has developed. Liberalisation has resulted in new forms of corruption that were unheard of during the era of governmental controls. Increase in population and diminishing of natural resources has assumed alarming magnitude. Violence has been dragged in from the war theatre to the domestic public places in the form of terrorism. Above all, the citizens have adopted an indifferent attitude towards elections and its leaders. The good thing is that the current generation is aware of what is wrong in the system and who is responsible for it, and perhaps it will take better care of the country than we have done.

If we continue treading on the path that we are currently following, we may not achieve what we want to. Our dream is to reach a pinnacle of progress by the year 2047, which is a landmark event after a hundred years of independent governance. The current situation demands that honesty and accountability, that are the two paramount parameters of behaviour, must take priority over the mundane governing processes for physical prosperity and growth. The future leader must prevail over the tentacles of corruption, inefficiency and wasteful expenditure. The politicians must learn what it takes to re-establish credibility and acquire it quickly to regenerate mass following.

If the emerging concepts like the Gross Happiness Index can experimentally succeed in Bhutan, sustained political will of forward looking leaders can deliver similar results in larger developing countries as well. The inertia of the system needs something out of the box for its corrections, and therefore innovative ideas of this manifesto are well worth considering.

Independence

‘At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance . . . We end today a period of ill fortune, and India discovers herself again’.

These are the words Pt Jawahar Lal Nehru echoed from the ramparts of the Red Fort in Delhi, at midnight on 15 August 1947, the day when India received political freedom for the British Raj. He spoke these words with great aplomb that was befitting the sobriety of the event, and it still, evokes goose pimples whenever broadcast.

It was a different world then. India was a fragmented society of people speaking different languages, States attempting to understand their federal relationship with the Centre, and the country as a whole struggling to reach a level of self-sufficiency. There was also a question of making a place for itself in the world forums as an independent and sovereign state. Three major ideologies were proposed by the leaders of those times, Socialist pattern of society by Nehru, Swaraj by Mahatma Gandhi and A free economy of Adam Smith by C Rajagopalachari of the Swatantra party. With the elimination of Gandhi from the scene, Nehru bulldozed his option over the free market oriented Swatantra party. Due to overwhelming pressures from the Congress party, the Swatantra party too left the scene without much resistance.

With hindsight, we may criticise the direction that Nehru took but our criticism will not be fair since we forget that he was operating in a different environment of hostility and handicap, and perhaps he did the best that was possible at that time. It was necessary to give the initial push by administering government controls to major activities related to education, industry, agriculture and economics. However, the continuation of this policy by Indira Gandhi, his daughter and our fourth prime minister, when the country had already been put to the path of progress, indicates lack of vision or at least complacency on the part of the leaders of that time.

India Today – after Sixty-four Years of Independence

My knowledge and experience in politics and social sciences cannot be compared to our leaders or government officials, but it is not even necessary for making the following observations from the citizen’s viewpoint.

Our euphoria about independent self-governance seems to be long back over. Freedom in our context is perhaps only political in the sense that leaders of Indian nationality are controlling the governance instead of the British; it is not social since it has not given us the happiness and quality that we wanted. Those who died for our freedom did not expect that we, the citizens of free India, would not have the freedom to

• eat what we want due to the adulterated vegetables and fruits in the market

• receive the desired education due to commercial exploitation by the schools and colleges

• receive medical aid without getting fleeced by the hospitals

• wselect our desired profession since reservations obstruct our opportunities

• choose our place of residence due to restrictions placed by States on being the original domicile for purchase of land

• buy urban property without getting swindled by the builder mafia that thrives on crony corruption and on ineffective enforcement of laws

• go on a vehicle drive due to the fear of chaotic traffic and road rage etc

• travel without fear that the driver of the public transport may not have the skills for safe driving

• run a business free from fear of harassment by enforcement departments like tax, inspectors and police

• let our women go around without fear of getting assaulted

• raise our voice against the system without getting hurt

• vote for the right person, for want of the Mr Right

• nourish numerous other legitimate desires of a free citizen which are currently shackled by the system

Sovereignty related issues both internal and external have not yet been settled and show signs that things will only worsen. Terrorist violence has increased and it is a record that no major culprit has been punished. Both of these issues require handling at professional level ie perking up military, police and systems and at social level by moderating the relationship between different groups of the society.

Our government seems to be highly focussed on economics and law. Governance and delivery to the citizens is perhaps not getting the required attention. Improved gross domestic product (GDP), foreign direct investments, foreign exchange reserves and inflation do not seem to be transduced into the quality of day-to-day life on the ground, so it does not impress the ordinary citizen. The immediate concern of the people is inflation and price rise of essential goods.

Since the population growth is not sufficiently supported by education and utilisation, it becomes a challenge instead of being a potential. The policy of reservations that has been in effect for six decades has given sufficient benefit to three generations. Further continuation of this policy will only breed indifference, laziness and complacency in the rural and poor youth. Coupled with this ideology, the leaning of the government towards loans, grants and subsidies will cause empowerment not to take place at these levels. Experts opine that such a kind of systematic dependence of the poor on the systems works to the advantage of the ruling party for votes.

There must have been something lacking in our will or techniques that in spite of our enormous size constitution, huge pile of laws, elaborate ministries and departments, powerful enforcement agencies, corruption is rampant at all levels. Piling up, in Swiss banks and international tax havens, of large amounts of unaccounted parallel money, is not something that we can be proud of. The media is full of discussions and reports that individuals who indulged in these unpatriotic activities should have been publicly prosecuted, but this was never done.

In spite of so much of fanfare about the e-governance and computerisation, citizens are confronted with unfamiliar and irritating situations on approaching a government department for permissions or for legal financial transactions.

The concerns of the citizens, like happiness, employment, health care, safe environment for living and travelling and many others, are disregarded and sidelined by the politicians in their media interviews as ‘will be taken care’, ‘something needs to be done’, ‘diverse conditions need more time for gestation of benefits’, ‘the need of the hour’ or ‘gains of our government’ etc. Blaming the previous government for all the ills in the society is not the argument that the public will digest.

Despite being touted in Nehru’s 14-point, Sanjay Gandhi’s 5-point, Indira Gandhi’s 20-point and many other multi-point agenda of many clever leaders, we are still at the stalemate of poverty of the pre-independence era, if not worse than that. It is interesting to read the following slogans, which were used to secure votes.

• Jai Jawan Jai Kissan (Hail Soldiers Hail Farmers)

• Garibi Hatao (Alleviate poverty)

• Hum do Humare do (We 2 our children 2)

• Liberalisation

• Aam Admi Ke Badthe Kadam – Har Kadam Par Bharat Buland

• Maa-Mati-Manush etc (mother-earth-man)

Profit hungry media is engaged in presenting romantic and devoid of reality images to our youth that is in sharp contrast to our traditional values and culture. Young minds are not able to interpret the harmful implications of information planted in their mind. Since the much-desired self control by the media is not likely to materialise for quite some time, our education system will have to provide the necessary seasoning of the young minds to see things in the correct perspective.

Progress versus Retreat

When I was very young, I had a chance to visit Yol Camp, ¹a Brigade township constructed by the British during the Second World War. Amongst other nice things about this town, what I vividly remember is the spurt of cool fresh air that swept past my face as I climbed down the pent-up bus on reaching here on my first visit. A gushing stream of crystal clean water in the brook within meters of our residence was many shades cleaner than the bottled drinking water that we purchase these days. I happened to re-visit this place after fifty years in the year 2010, and was miserably depressed to see its transformed profile. One cannot but appreciate the professional maintenance by the army that has sustained its cleanliness, yet the niceties are now missing. Gone is the aroma of mulberry and oak plantation, the transparency of the stream; its place been taken by dust and smog from the increased traffic due to the widening of the road to Dharamsala.

There is this eternal question to be answered, whether progress is desirable or detrimental. The conservative and prudent view is that progress extracts energy from natural resources for short-term benefits and consumes them for an eternal loss. So unless one replenishes the natural resources by whatever techniques, the bargain is that of losing. If we decide to exploit our natural resources for short-term benefits like GDP growth or balance of payment etc, its long-term consequence cannot but be disastrous. We may milk the nature but we should leave something behind for the calf.

In very recent speeches of our leaders, the GDP growth is being sidelined due to the overwhelming pressures from the inflation. The increases in interest rates have failed to register decrease in inflation in the last two quarters. As a matter of policy, it will not be a bad idea to reduce progress slightly, if the citizens concerns about rising prices can be laid to rest by this policy. Moreover, something tells me that retreating from progress will also lessen the burden on our natural resources.

Moving on towards 2047

Whether India will catch up with the projections for the year 2047, lag behind or lead will depend on the following factors.

• Can we lay to rest our sovereignty related problems, both external and internal

• Can we avoid controlling our population; instead harness it for utilization

• Can we improve the character of our citizens and politicians

• Can we rewrite our constitution to take care of the modern necessities

• Can we re-establish the credibility of our parliament by suitable election reforms

• Can we change our orientation from enacting laws on the drop of a hat, to the enforcement of existing laws

• Can we introduce professionalism in our governance methods

• Can we streamline the processes related to land acquisition, restructuring of cities and development of rural areas so that the pressures on cities and people can be reduced

• Can we discard the parochial tendencies gifted to us by the language based States and religion based culture

• Can we change the norms of our professionalism so that they are directed away from pleasing the immediate boss

• Can we persuade women to deploy their overall superiority to men in a complimentary instead of confrontational manner

• Can we normalise the disproportionate advantage provided by the one-sided laws to the women

• Can we make our education relevant in the context of society and industry

• Can we prevent the commercialisation of education, health services and real estate services

• Can we use our media as an enabler of progress rather than a profit seeking instrument running with different types of biases

Are we ready to move towards the future, or we are moving towards a burnout. The bottom line is that after hundred years of independent self-governance, in and beyond 2047, our grandchildren should be able to enjoy the desired quality of life without constraints of lawlessness, energy, water, food or breathing the fresh air.

The Question of Priorities

Being born as a free citizen of India just a few days after independence, the stories of pre-independence and partition of the country heard from our parents and teachers are still fresh in mind. Being of the older generation, our behaviour is guided by considerations of compassion for others. The forces of competition driven economy, in contrast, govern the present generation, and it is no wonder that it suffers from the trait of being self-centred. Ours is still a better situation than the countries like Germany, Russia, Israel, or even the United Kingdom, where the current generation is even less perturbed by the sufferings that their parents went through during the war, and is pressing on with their life.

If our youth wants to adopt the ways of the West, it may do so but it should also adopt the tradition of becoming financially independent at very early stage in life, as it happens in the West. Our youth is presently caught in a fix between the Indian traditions of being obedient to parents and elders and the trendy independence that is the trait of the western society. The urban environment is generally ready for this transformation. The adaptation of western attire, eating habits, multiple man woman relationships, entertainment methods and life style is only one-way traffic. Unless it is accompanied by the professionalism of the West, the balance will be disturbed.

Our youth must realise that the modern education and technical knowledge only imparts egoism, arrogance, and intolerance to the personality. It is only the true and honest professionalism, those tones down an individual. And this is really the distinguishing feature of the western professionals.

It is necessary for us to realise that the value system and the beliefs of the modern generation are driven by the current competitive environment. If we try to mould them, back to the older ways of life, we are likely to strike our heads against the wall and damage may be caused to our own sentiments and emotions.

The Frustration of the Modern Generation

Modern youth is an unfinished product that is under intellectual development and has complexes. In their incomplete vision of the world, they are unable to make commitments to each other. Their unwillingness to tolerate each other is driving them to divorces and living in relationships. Whether the misunderstood calls of professionalism are amongst the causes of deteriorating man woman relationships or the intolerant mutual relationships destroy the professional career is a debatable argument.

The Perils of Social Networks

Though I am a hesitant social network operator, yet I managed to observe that hundreds of people were expressing opinions and disappointments about our personal life and the invisible reaction of the government to our woes. Without accountability or responsibility, armchair governance on the Internet hooked laptop, is fruitless. A thread of discussion, on a seemingly insignificant issue, is started on these networks with fervour and it withers away in a few days, after achieving practically nothing more than a personal ego satisfaction. Individuals participating in discussions on the Internet are not delivering content or views; they are simply establishing own popularity by appreciating every comment made by the others. The issue just expires to reappear in some other form triggered by an event reported by the media, which appears similar.

Others who do not access the social networks share their anguish during social and party discussions, and my deliberate efforts to trigger such discussions enlarged my scope of coverage in this book.

I experimented with the idea of floating discussion topics on national issues and collect opinions of people by means of a running thread of discussion on the Internet, so that some concrete deductions could be submitted to the local representative of the government. In addition to the technical inadequacies of gathering coherent information from the social networks, the real difficulty that I experienced was that people divert from the core subject under discussion and clutter up the thread of discussion beyond practical use.

I concluded that writing a book was a better alternative, where issues could be presented more cohesively.

A Citizen’s Manifesto – the Book

The recent books published by the administrators, leaders and authors on the subjects that concern our country generally focus on a few burning issues or those which are popular for the time being. The problem with this specialised approach is that issues get constrained by the coverage scope of the book and the book fails to deal with the inter-related impact of issues. In contrast, the treatment of the majority of issues in the pages of one book, gives corrective action a reasonable chance.

The book offers a coherent list of about two hundred such issues and complementing suggestions for shaking up our citizens from the materialistic slumber that they are currently in to some sort of awakening. Even if these ideas are simply kept at the back of mind while in the day to day living or at work place, the chances that we would be moving in the right direction are real. The complete list of these ideas is summarised in the last chapter ‘The Manifesto’.

In order to reach a pinnacle of pride in the year 2047, a few out of the box ideas are included.

• Introducing a fourth wing ‘Regulatory’ in the government for overseeing Legislative, Executive and Judiciary

• Reducing the number of national parties to five and regional to three per state

• Using media power to promote transparency and take over the control

• Limiting the progress and GDP in order to conserve natural resources and control inflation

• Restructuring and revitalizing our cities and getting back to villages and maha-grams

• Reduction of laws, but intensification of its enforcement

• Delegating funds to Panchayati Raj level for empowerment of villages

• Discarding the ills of religion and cricket, and managing these industries sternly

• Getting away from reservations, subsidies, and policies that weaken the society

• Engaging our enemies in knowledge warfare where we can excel, instead of military or physical warfare

• Introducing compulsory army tenure and compulsory rural service by doctors

• Installing a good leader and politician but when in opposition establishing a shadow government

• Creating a real time intelligence correlation network (RICN) to tackle terrorism

• Recovering from the bad designs of IT systems and data capture forms

• Tackling corruption using the new rules of money circulation

• Controlling the demands on energy generation

• Generating wealth in villages instead of consuming wealth by social schemes

Relevance

A Citizen’s Manifesto has been prepared by an average citizen for an average citizen of India, who no doubt experiences life as it exists in the country, but is not completely aware of the mechanisms that work behind the scene. Purposely the nitty-gritty of law, schemes or facts and figures as well as the mindboggling terms from the disciplines of economics and politics have been avoided.

It is a simple book, not really recommended for reading by the historians, economists, sociologist or the Indian Administrative Services (I*S) officers who need a much heavier dose to satisfy their intellect ; in fact it should be banned for them. This book deals with ideas, emotions, and feelings and not with statistics, reports, tables, numbers or references and quotations. Those in the seats of power or in administration of the country generally are guided by their perception of the society by looking at it from their ivory towers. Reading this book from the viewpoint of a common citizen gives them the advantage of being closer to reality as seen by an average citizen.

This book can benefit the non-resident Indians to become aware of the realities of life in India that could be much different from what it used to be when they left the country. Their decision to make a return to India can be a better informed one after reading this book.

In order to reach out to the larger segment of the society, and making them aware of what really is going on in our country, this book will be translated into Hindi and circulated at very affordable price. This will be my contribution to the welfare of tribals, rural areas and the local village administration all of whom lack information about government schemes in a cogent manner. The book is also planned for release in Bengali.

Orientation

The book by design does not go too far back in history or philosophies of ancient times, since the world is now completely changed and India cannot depend too much on lessons from history. It does use the twentieth century history since this one has relevance and direct impact on the directions in which our leaders have taken us. The one aspect of history that has not changed much is the human nature and its enticements for money, power, and recognition. To some extent, the value systems of the living three generations are mutually different; therefore, the ideas presented here may appeal to some but not to others.

The Author²

In a serious book that deals with ideologies and commentary on the current system of governance, it is necessary for the reader to know something about the background of the writer. I am an ordinary citizen from the middle class of India with no affiliations to any political party or group, and therefore my life is not tainted by any prejudice. I live in the average middle class environment provided by our government for living and I live in here without aberrations. Since my life has been spent in both urban and rural environment, while working in government and corporate sector positions, my observations of the ground realities are relevant to say the least.

Chapter Break Down

Detailed treatment of subjects included in this book is available on standard books on each of the following subjects. The book A Citizen’s Manifesto (A ray of hope for the India of 2047) only helps you to give an overview of the big picture in mind that is relevant for the governance of the country.

Acknowledgements

First, I would like to place on record my gratitude for all, repeat all, the freedom fighters and in particular, to those who laid their life in this process of getting us the freedom, which we are cherishing now. If anyone deserved to be rich and powerful, it was the freedom fighter. Poverty or misery of the families of freedom fighters is the shameful reflection of our callous ingratitude.

We know that there are a few groups in the independent India, who consider that they need a separate State or Province and are fighting for freedom in their own context. Possibly this is because not enough has been done for those regions by the Independent India, and if someone has laid life for this pursuit, I have my sympathies because he is doing exactly what some of our national freedom fighters did. Government should bring them into the mainstream by genuine promises that show quick results as well. Nevertheless, if someone is consolidating separatist groups in order to gain power, money and eminence for himself, he must be treated with strong hands. Those who are looking for partitioning of States without sufficient justification are advised to read the history about Sardar Patel’s efforts in neutralising more than 500 provinces and states, and mend their ways.

I am indeed thankful to hundreds of friends and contacts on the social networks like facebook, twitter, linkedin, live journal, Google groups and Yahoo groups who provided ideas and criticism for my project.

My daughter Tanushree not only designed the cover of this book that depicts a ray of hope, but along with Maulshree and Jyotsna, my wife helped me with the semantic editing of thoughts. Tanushree and Tulika gave some insight to the values and beliefs of the modern generation.

The following editors, by virtue of their international experience helped me in staying within limits. The first two I have never met in my life.

• Aliya Sharafi       Toronto, Canada

• Anita Srivastava       California, USA

• Puneet Mehra       Gurgaon, India

• Tulika Mehra       Gurgaon, India

Conclusion

Had there been a Utopian world, all countries would enjoy their sovereignty with dignity, and their leaders honest and upright members of the society would play their roles for the seven or eight decades of their life in the service of citizens who are individuals of high character living as compassionate citizens in the society. Wow, what a great desire.

Based on my astute observations of the life in the developed countries, I have tried to make some comparisons while viewing the Indian situation from outside the government and suggest measures, which can effectively improve our country. The government needs to learn and practice the philosophical paradigm of governance is best when it is the least. The Government owns the means of production so it should deliver the fruits of production.

Very few pay the direct taxes but many enjoy the benefits of subsidies. Government’s magic wand can empower the entire society by equitable distribution of opportunity and sow the seeds of all round wealth generation, and alleviate poverty. Let there be wealth for all.

You may find the ideas and suggestions in this book farfetched and a bit revolutionary in nature. But then floating in the state of equilibrium is not going to lead us to a prosperous India of hundred years of independent age. We are left with just a generation trio – a term that I want to use to describe a period sixty years or three generations of father, son, and grandson to show results. Something out of the ordinary or out of the box is necessary.

And this is the argument that I am going to seize for defending myself from the long tenured politicians, rule bound administrators, smart legal experts, eminent macro-economists and religious preachers, who are waiting round the corner to shred this manifesto into a million of fragments, and make a mince meat of the author. I would like to inhibit a possible criticism that of calling the book ‘a distant dream’ or qualifying it as a bunch of impracticable recommendations, by stating that if the will of the citizens is strong, the political will to do things will emerge.

Country on the March

The Mystique of India

Image23887.jpgImage23881.JPG

Can there be a more divine way to greet the readers of this book than Namstey, Namaskar or Pranam? The manner in which we, the Indians greet each other symbolizes the religious orientation of the nation. It is our belief that the Lord dwells in the heart of every human being. When one joins hands in front of another and utters the word namstey, one pays respect to the Lord residing in the other person. If in addition one bows down a bit, it reflects his humility. Indian ideology emanates from some of the most sublime concepts of humanism and nonviolence.

The mystique that surrounds India is not merely because of its phenomenal diversity but also from the telltales of the life of the natives in the Himalayas and the tribes in the deep interiors of India where outsiders were unable to penetrate for centuries. Enough anecdotes have been passed around by word of mouth about the sighting of unusual beings in these areas. Personally, I have witnessed light images, like a herd of flames moving through the trees on the silhouetted peaks in summer months, which are believed to be Gitthu Rakshashs (dwarf monsters) in the village of Mohal in the Kullu valley. Of course, I know that it is just a scientific phenomenon of refraction caused by hot air rising up in summers to cause friction in the leaves and branches, but the locals will not dare visit these areas even in broad daylight in spite of the lure of money. The fabled tradition of Sati, where a newly rendered widow jumps into the fire of the pyre of the dead body of the husband, is as much a mystery to us as an Indians as it may be to a citizen of another country. The black magic of Bengal is yet another example of the mystique nature of the country about which we hear only in stories.

The sight of gushing icy waters of rivulets flowing through the wilderness and silence of the unexplored forests brings anyone’s vibrant emotions to peak, before cooling them down to tranquillity as they merge into the quietened river of the valley. If you ever sit down by the tributaries in the serene jungles of the Himalayas, even today when the state of ecology has raised a few eyebrows, you could still transcend yourself into higher levels of ecstasy than any artificially prepared resort can provide. The chirping of the birds and the sounds of the brooks trickling over the stones can obliterate the need for complicated music coming through a hi-fi audio system. The luxury of watching the stars in the reflection of the shimmering waves of rivers is many shades superior to any artificially prepared illumination in fountains or discos. Fortunate as I am, parts of this book were conceived in this atmosphere and settings.

While at the topic of wilderness, it is interesting to know that Rhinoceros inhabited the North Indian plains as late as the sixteenth century. Villagers in Belarus personally asked me if snakes and monkeys still frequented the roads in India. Marble rocks of Jabalpur, the national parks of Bandipur, Gir or Jim Corbett, the deserts of Rajputana, the state of Rajasthan as it is known now, provide exhilarating experiences as good as any other famous wilderness resorts of the world.

In India, clans and villages exist where the locals are unaware of the Indian law and follow their own law and traditions. In the valley of the tiny but mighty river Parvati, a legendary village known as the abode of the mythological angry sage Parashuram of the Ramayana fame, is reached only by foot after many hours of climb. A visitor can only be allowed in by the designated authority of the village. He will eat only in the designated Central plaza and he will not be allowed to visit anyone’s home. This is a simple example of tradition that has been kept for years. The twinkle of the stars that is visible from over the lush poppy fields, here at night is a proof of the cleanliness of the air above this peaceful peak of the snow-clad mountain.³

The ideology, mystique, wilderness, traditions, strength, resources, knowledge and many other aspects of existence for which India was called the golden country in our history books, are making way for the modernized materialistic progress with vengeance, that I personally do not like. The increase in population is having a telling effect on the status of natural resources like land, water and forests. Our politicians will have to apply their best brains to manage the conflicting effects of population, resources, progress and poverty in the melting pot of materialism. Our qualified, innovative and spiritual work force will help the leaders by building and forcing their political will for this purpose.

A Bit of History

India is on the march striding from a colonial rule to under-developed, developing and in future a developed country. Its being on the BRICS list is a testimony to its success.

Pre-Independence Period

Beginning from the second Millennium BC, India had its share of conquerors from the northwest. After overrunning the north and Central India, they either went back or settled down here. India at that moment was fragmented and ruled by many unpopular rulers. There was no centralised government, as the communication system did not enable it. In the sixteenth century, Mughals taking advantage of this situation conquered several States to form what we can call a worthwhile centralised government. This unification flourished the agriculture based economy of India and in addition contributed a new culture in the form of a religion ie Islam.

The Europeans, primarily the English, arrived in force in the early seventeenth century and by the eighteenth century were well entrenched in the affairs of the country. India was forced, for the first time, into a subordinate role and its economy came to be based on industrial production rather than agriculture. Many of the craft or cottage industries that had long attracted foreigners to India suffered extensively under competition from new modes of mass production fostered by the British. Modern institutions and universities, and technologies such as railroads and mass communication, broke away from the Indian intellectual traditions and served British economic interests. A country that in the eighteenth century was a magnet for trade was degenerated by the twentieth century, into an underdeveloped and overpopulated land moaning under alien domination.

British rule in India however cannot be dispensed with as imperialistic. In fact, it contributed admirably to the unification of the country. If we can ignore, for the time being, the colonial nature of its administration and the oppression of the locals in India, we can appreciate their initiatives on consolidation of the country by means of a common language, compilation of land records, and enactment of the land acquisition act to facilitate building of railways, roads and other infrastructure. A very special mention must be made of the systems and procedures set up by the British for enactment of law, governance and the establishment of a well-oiled bureaucracy.

British administrators, driven by the need to regulate the many social groups they encountered in everyday administration, took advantage of the age-old Indian caste system and created lists or schedules of different caste groups. They emphasized and formalised the tradition of marrying within own caste in order to contain the society in small groups that could be ruled under the doctrine of ‘divide and rule’, a view that enabled them to exploit sentiments and establish the imperialistic model in India. The formalisation of the caste system has a monumental spill over impact from pre-Independence to post-Independence era. It laid the foundations for the reservations clause of the constitution that has done the maximum harm to this country and is continuing to do so.

The British rule also caused the Indian community to fall into the trap of industrialisation and materialism on one side, and drift away from its spiritual orientation on the other.

A Word about the Freedom Struggle

There were two basic approaches for seeking independence. One a hardliner approach that was adopted by Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, for which he formed the Azad Hind Sena or India National Army (INA) with Japanese assistance, and his slogan, was ‘give me blood and I will give you freedom’. And the other, closer to the Indian values, was that of nonviolence and noncooperation used by Mahatma Gandhi. Each must have influenced the minds of the British in its own way, to return the sovereignty back to the people of India.

For the sake of accreditation, here is a representative alphabetic list of some of our esteemed freedom fighters out of the thousands. Details of their contributions are available on the Internet. The others cannot be listed in this book for the reasons of space.

• Bantukeshwar Dutt       Bal Gangadhar Tilak

• Bhikaji Cama       Bipin Chandra Pal

• Chakravarti Rajagopalan       Chandrashekhar Azad

• Dadabhai Naoroji       Dr Rajendra Prasad

• Gopal Krishna Gokhle       Iron man Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel

• Jawahar Lal Nehru       Khudiram Bose

• Lal Bahadur Shastri       Lala Lajpat Rai

• Mahatma Gandhi       Mangal Pandey

• Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad       Morarjee Desai

• Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose

• Rajguru       Maharani Lakshmibai of Jhansi

• Raja Ram Mohan Roy       Sarojini Naidu

• Shaheed Bhagat Singh       Sukhdev

• Tantia Tope       Vijay Lakshmi Pandit

Post Independence Era

On independence in 1947, the British left India in terrible condition. The country had a rudimentary scientific and industrial base. It had a rapidly expanding population that lived primarily in villages and it was divided by gross inequalities in status and wealth.

Gathering Our Wits

The first task of the independent India was to educate the vast spread of the country, including the chief ministers and the members of parliament, about the importance of towing the line of national policies under the paradigm of Centre and State relationship. It was a country of segmented society, illiteracy, food shortage and other constraining factors pulling the leaders apart in different directions.

Initial Gains of Vocational Training

Building on the education system bequeathed by the British, India established an infrastructure of universities, basic and research institutes that generated large number of English speaking engineers, scientists and doctors, perhaps the largest in the world. This is something that we need to focus on even in future. If we can manage to keep our education system in tune with that of the growing requirements of the country and if we bring in more individuals from the rural and backward areas for technical deployment our dominance in the world cannot be equalled.

Socialistic Approach

Under the leadership of Nehru, India addressed its economy through a combination of socialist planning and free enterprise. His nomenclature of the term ‘socialistic pattern of society’ was a good compromise between capitalism and communism. During the 1950s and 1960s, large government investments drawn from the exchequer caused India to emerge as one of the most industrialized nations in the world. Considerable expenditure on irrigation facilities and fertilizer plants, combined with the introduction of high yield variety seeds in the 1960s, brought in the Green Revolution that later enabled self sufficiency in food grains.

However, the initial success of the socialist model of development nurtured complacency and delayed the experimentation of liberalisation. Government-owned large establishments, the Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs), controlled heavy industries such as iron and steel, mining, electronics, cement, and chemicals. Telecommunications media, railroads and eventually the banking industry were nationalised. Import substitution policies, designed to encourage Indian firms and push out multinational corporations, included strict and time-consuming procedures for obtaining licenses and laws that prohibited firms from operating in India without majority ownership by Indian citizens or corporations. These rules were instrumental, for example, in driving Coca Cola and IBM out from India in the 1970s, leading to the growth of an indigenous industry.

Adam Smith said that wealth cannot be created but rather it is destroyed when governments become entrepreneurs. Nations must not completely focus on economics but devote larger time to the welfare of its citizens.

Ignoring this golden tenet, Indira Gandhi not only continued the policy of socialism started by her father but devised means to provide monetary feed to the ill performing giant PSUs created by the government. She used easiest of the options for generating money; by increasing taxation. She also played games with the land acquisition laws, and by varied types of constitutional amendments took charge of the property belonging to people. Her action of abolishing the privy purses of the erstwhile provincial princess, which was a deal during their accession to the Indian Union by Sardar Patel, will be viewed in the history as the most deceitful act of an elected democratic government.

The government seemed to have lost control of the governance and its nervousness was reflected in the continued pursuit of creating artificial money and investing it in loss making projects. Overindulgence in non-planned expenditure was accompanied by large kickbacks received by the highest-level ministers in the process of procurement or in granting licences. It was socialism progressively degraded to its worst form; means of production owned by the government and fruits of production going back to the government.

Liberalised Approach

By the late 1980s, the disadvantages of the centrally planned economy began to outweigh its benefits, as was also seen in other socialistic countries like the USSR, Cuba and North Korea. Inefficiency in public sector firms, lack of entrepreneurial innovation, excessive bureaucracy, and the inability of the Indian scientific and technical apparatus to transfer technology to marketable goods kept many Indian firms from being competitive in international markets.

To circumvent these perils, the national and state-level governments then liberalised licensing requirements and eventually rescinded rules on foreign ownership, while taking steps to scale down government market share in a number of high technology markets (disinvestment). Multinational firms began to re-enter India in the early 1990s and the foreign exchange reserves started to build up.

On the face of it, liberalisation appears to be a forward-looking step, but recently it has been pointed out by the media that the so-called Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) might actually be the recycling of Indian parallel money via the tax havens abroad.

Political Turmoil

One credit that Nehru certainly deserves is that he achieved dominance of the Congress party on the political horizon of the country. It must have been the success in governance of congress party, that people continued to vote for this party and gave it the stability that it deserved. In comparison, our twin Pakistan lagged behind.

Whatever the euphoria about Indira Gandhi might have been at those times, the historical evaluations of her directions for the country cannot be considered prudent. Without doubt, she can be considered as a person who derailed the progressive path that her father had adopted. The tracks that she set up were shaky and lay on softened grounds of politics.

Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) was founded in 1980, under the direct leadership of the confirmed bachelor Atal Bihari Vajpayee, a great orator and a humorist poet, and Lal Krishna Advani. BJP shared power with Janta Dal led coalition of Vishnu Pratap Singh’s government in 1989.

On the issue of Ram Janmbhoomi temple in Ayodhya, of the Ramayana fame, LK Advani was arrested in 1990 and BJP withdrew support to let the government fall. In 1991, some remarkable steps were taken towards liberalisation by the government, primarily due to the pressure from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). In 1996, the BJP became the single largest political party in the parliament, with the Congress at its lowest tally ever, but could not prove majority on the floor of the parliament and had to step down within thirteen days.

After some interim governments, BJP came to power and remained in power in the form of National Democratic Alliance (NDA) for a year but fell apart due to the withdrawal of support by Jayalalitha from Tamil Nadu. It is a pity that the BJP was unable to muster the required MP strength for saving the government in the parliament.

Further Liberalisation

During this period of NDA government, two major developments took place. The Prasaar Bharati (Broadcast Indian) act was passed that gave the government owned media channels more autonomy and made them competitive with the commercial channels. India conducted five nuclear tests and established its might in the eyes of the world community.

During the third tenure of AB Vajpayee as Prime Minister, there was a major shift from socialism to liberalisation. Disinvestment and privatisations of PSUs, liberalization of trade under World Trade Organisation rules, opening the skies to commercial airlines, foreign investments and ownership, and establishment of Special Economic Zone (SEEPZ) took place. By giving special attention to information technology, which was fortunately supported by a record agricultural growth the government was doing well.

Fall of the NDA

The NDA government earned a reputation of giving a good direction to the economy of the country, yet it failed to impress the people in rural areas and those below the poverty line. They could not comprehend the empowerment that the government was carrying out; they expected some direct benefits like loans and subsidies. NDA government must blame itself for not stepping out of their ivory towers and not establishing contact with the voters and therefore it suffered a shock defeat. The lowering of the direct tax burden of the middle class too was of no avail, since this class generally did not participate in voting.

In the broader perspective, the BJP government has come to be known as a Hindu fundamentalist party with a single point agenda that of constructing a Hindu temple at the birth place of Lord Rama. This reputation is caused by its failure to project the party’s real image. For the citizens the party seems to be a bit disintegrated, since there is always a tussle for the name of its Prime Minister. Whenever something is heard about this party on the media, it generally relates to its internal tussles and disputes. The citizens would like to hear about its doctrines, manifesto, policies, and plans, but these are not forthcoming.

The party’s woes are further aggravated by the fact that the credit for projects and schemes started by BJP have been seized by the next ruling party ie Congress, due to the NDA’s sudden death. Examples are the golden quadrilateral configurations of express highways linking the four corners of the country, the modernisation of airports and enrolment of children in primary schools.

The good work done by the BJP government would be marred in history by the following unfortunate incidents

• The party was constrained to release terrorists as a bargain, for saving the lives of hostages in the hijacked Indian Airlines plane to Kandahar. It was gossiped that a certain Swiss Bank personal relationship manager was on board.

• Terrorist attacks on Akshardham, Raghunath Mandir temples and the bomb attack on the Parliament house took place in the tenure of this party.

• The name of the BJP president was involved in accepting bribe from a faked up defence supplier, in a sting operation conducted by Tehalka.

The Current Government

After the shock defeat of NDA in 2004, Manmohan Singh took over as the prime minister, and is in power till this book goes to print. As on date, the Indian National Congress party is working as a coalition government under the name of United Progressive Alliance (UPA), undoubtedly a very promising name. The living trio of the Gandhi dynasty – Sonia, Rahul and Priyanka – have to their credit the ability of maintaining a stable government in the centre, running it from the outside.

The stability of the present government is no more a matter of pride since its performance on economic and governance fronts is mediocre. The country while on its march to the centenary celebrations of independence has struck a marshy stretch on the road to progress. Unfortunately, in spite of a very high reputation of personal integrity, the people of India have downgraded our present Prime Minister from the position of a great economic wizard to a weak administrator of the government.

Prime Ministers of India

Instead of text description of what each prime minster achieved during his tenure we preferred to include a table that contains gist of their work.

Stocktaking

India today is not as backward as it was just after the independence, and we are proud about its overall progress. However, the progress should have been orders of magnitudes higher, since we had the wherewithal but we lacked honest professionalism. The progress does not stand anywhere in comparison to South East Asian countries.

Leaders always try to take credit of the progress by quoting selected events or achievements. Their downplaying the opposition for the failures is nothing more than political talk. It is important that unbiased stocktaking be carried out at this stage in order to decide what mid course corrections are required.

The Positives

BRICS – India is one in the consortiums of five countries – Brazil, Russia, China and South Africa – that are considered the leaders of the future economy of the world.

No more a poor country – The presence of Indians as individuals on high positions in the United States, Canada and some other countries is something to be proud of. The properties owned by Indians abroad, the money lying in the Swiss banks and the indulgence of our rich in international tourism overrides the reputation that poverty exists in various locations in India.

India is an attraction – Going by the foreign direct investments, selling of the products in India or by the prevalent inward tourism, it is apparent that this country being a large consumer base is a definite attraction. Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) and other indicators of progress are now moving from urban to rural areas.

Overall progress – Perpetual increase in GDP growth rate, improvement in education density, increased use of mobile phones by masses, empowerment of women in all fields of life indicates great achievements by the government. The parameter of number of persons below the poverty line as percent of total population has decreased slightly.

The Independence of media – The Indian media does not suffer from the government control or censoring of programmes. The fact that it has trickled down to every house, including the rural areas, where electricity service is provided speaks high volumes of our progress.

Affordability of Indian goods and services – It is well known that many large international retail stores are sourcing their products from India for cost effectiveness. Our Business Processing Outsourcing (BPO) establishments, and there are many of them, are popular in all countries because our people can easily adjust to the English accents of the foreigners.

Infrastructure – The realisation by the government of India about the feasibility of Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) model has given a new impetus to the development of the hitherto neglected infrastructure. Anyone arriving in India now, is pleasantly surprised by the airports in the country. The metros in Delhi and Kolkata will be joined by similar service in Mumbai soon. Large number of express and superhighways are coming up gradually.

High density of luxury goods – Cars, motor cycles, mobile phones, television sets, and white goods have recorded a very high density of usage and popularity.

Cine India – The fact that thousands of Hindi and regional language films are produced in India and hundreds are watched in foreign countries indicates the general high popularity of entertainment with the Indian citizens. Indian films are different from those of the Hollywood in one main aspect, the presence of at least half a dozen new song and dance compositions in each film.

Improvements Required

The political system – Needs tremendous improvement in order to make it free from the parochial, caste-based biases. It also suffers from criminalisation and very high monetary involvement.

Inflation – has caused very steep rise in the prices of essential commodities, and that affects the lives of poor people adversely. In spite of numerous major discussions in the parliament during the last few years and increase in the rate of interest announced by Reserve Bank of India prices have not come down

Inert laws – The recent upsurge in the reporting of scams, scandals and the unpunished corrupt is a bit of a strange phenomenon for the spiritual people of India. A country where self-controlled behaviour dominated for ages is now oddly showing no concern or respect for even the enacted laws. The parliament’s obsession with enactment of additional laws is not a substitute for the performance of the executive or the enforcement agencies.

Pending punishments – The government is generally silent, but occasionally it gives unconvincing reasons for not executing many convicts who have been sentenced to death by the Supreme Court of India.

Loss of faith – Our high profile institutions like the Central Bureau of Investigation, the Forensic Examination system, the Enforcement Directorate, the election commission of India, the Telecom department for call tapping activity and even the Judiciary have all been diluted to a level that the public has lost confidence in their independent functioning. This should actually be the hallmark of these institutions.

Voting oriented economics – The taxpayers’ trillions of dollars have found a few main spending avenues. Unbelievably large amounts are spent on the so-called welfare schemes that provide temporary benefits to vulnerable people who remain completely devoid of permanent empowerment due to this policy. Even if we presume that half of the expenditure on schemes like NREGA, PDS and food security reaches the end beneficiary, the rest is unaccounted for.

Terrorism – Some of the world’s largest terror attacks took place in the country during the period of the current government. The innocent people of the country are now inert to the assurances given by the top most leaders of the country, ‘that the culprits would not be spared’. I think the word ‘not’ is not intended to be in this promise.

Arrogance – The most disturbing recent development is the arrogance demonstrated by the government in its stand that whatever is being done is by the consensus of the elected members of the parliament, who represent the will of the people. It takes a position that executive and judiciary are subservient to the parliament. The extreme form of this arrogance is in the form of a challenge thrown in that states that for any citizen to raise voice he must wait for the next elections, get elected and then speak.

Traffic – The traffic offences should not be condoned by interference of the influential people, and the youngsters must observe driving discipline in order to make our country safe for driving.

Environment – India suffers from the ills of heat and dust and these are manifested in lack of rain, pollution and other difficulties. Progress should be moderated to an extent that it does not tell upon the availability of natural resources. Population and education – Population is an asset if people are adequately trained for the tasks that the country expects them to do. Population is a high potential resource.

What Lies Ahead

One cannot make any prediction for the four decades in future but going by the current trends and researches in the pipeline, the following list presents a few indicators of the shape of things to come in the world scenario. Trends that are popular with the youngsters but they equally affect the older folks. Some of these have trickled down to the rural areas as well. We need to prepare ourselves for these changes.

No post or telegraphs service – In the cities we have seen that the paper mails have shrunk to only the advertisement pamphlets, bills, wedding cards, payment cheques etc. Even the greeting cards have vanished. In the villages, money orders are continuing because of the non-availability of banking services to the villages. Is there a chance that the