Question is not whether Narendra Modi ji will win or not, question is whether opposition can reign Bharatiya Janata Party in below 300 and NDA below 350. That will be a moral victory for opposition. Obviously, opposition fell for the bait of 400 paar. For me a good majority in 3rd term for Modi is by itself a historic achievement. Jawahar Lal Nehru ji could win three terms on the blessings and goodwill of Mahatma Gandhi, whom he had abandoned at the dawn of independence. His ability to crush the opposition within and outside Congress saw to it that he ruled uninterrupted. He fell due to his own folly – believing in his courtiers that he was next best thing to God that happened to India. He was looked upon with awe as a great leader who had done a favour in leading his subjects, while Modi is looked upon as a friend, a brother a son who has risen from the soil like them.
Can you really advise a Prime Minister of Bharat who has achieved more in a decade than the governments of previous seven decades had achieved? One how knows the pulse of the people, has his own contacts on ground to get direct feedback from the remotest corners of Bharat by virtue of his years spent with ordinary people as a prachaarak of RSS. As he has told in many interviews, he has received lakhs of responses to his request for suggestions about he should do in first 100 days of his third term. It seems he already has a blue print in mind for his first 100 days and next five years.
However, as a citizen who has dreamt of a developed nation based on Bharatiya values, I too wish to give my two pence to this great renaissance effort. There are many issues that have not yet been addressed and need to be addressed if we wish to reach the status of developed nation by 2047 as envisioned by Modi ji. So, here I go –
Education – Change NCERT textbooks immediately for schools. Ten years have passed, an entire generation has been poisoned being taught about leftists, nurturers of violence, false history that has undermined our self-esteem, science and mathematics being taught only from western perspective. Introduce Dharmic studies and value systems without further delay. While new books as per NEP may take time, there is needs to be immediate change of books. An entire generation has been corrupted by the Marxist written books.
Education cannot be left to private parties. Government should not abandon public education under any excuse. You will not get talent from lower strata of society if they do not get chance to get educated. You cannot get an Abdul Kalam, Sivan, Dr Ramakant Panda, or a scientist like Gobardhan Das for IB or ICSE English medium private schools. Bharat has huge talent rural heartland and pockets of poverty in cities too. People coming out of expensive private colleges or foreign universities will not serve the poor because they have to first cover the cost of their education. Right to Education amendment that exempts the minority institutions should be withdrawn so every section of the society contributes to educating our young ones.
Judiciary – New criminal law procedures have been introduced. However, we need retraining of police, judicial officers, and lawyers to see that law is not used to obstruct justice but to facilitate and hasten the process of delivering justice. Mindset is the issue. Judiciary is the only branch of the three legs of the state – Legislature, Executive and Judiciary, that has no regulatory body or established corrective mechanism. Collegium is a self-serving incestuous body, that has no legal sanction and it did not exist till 1993. Collegium is a term not even mentioned in the Constitution, so it cannot be the basic feature of Indian Constitution. Government needs to introduce an idea about which case can go up to what level of constitution. You cannot have a small causes case like rent agreement crowd the supreme court bench. There must be consensus that judicial authorities must go through list of prisoners on trial and to free poor citizens who are in jails without trial for years, based on type of crime. Every development project is stalled using judicial roadblocks. Judiciary needs to be alive of this misuse.
Population Control – We may be tapering off in population growth but still we one of the most crowded countries in the world. We have 4 per cent water resources for 19 per cent of the world population. For healthy prosperous society, we need to bring in population control through public education, if not then legal coercive measures like withdrawing of state facilities and subsidies for families with more than three children.
Dharma – If we wish to save and nurture our cultural nationhood, Mandirs as the epicentre of this move must be protected and brought back to their past glory as the centres of culture, fine arts, manufacturing and commerce, dharma, and spirituality. For this, Mandirs must be freed from government control so that the contributions of devotees are used for furthering the cause of dharma and society. Let governments raise their own funds for other secular purposes. Mandirs cannot be exploited at the cost of our culture and dharma.
Culture – Culture ministry needs to be empowered with more funds. We are immensely rich in our historical heritage that makes us proud keepers of this national cultural wealth. ASI must be given teeth and funds to maintain all the ancient structures. Allowing some entities to fund Mughal structures but not having similar facilities for other ancient monuments is a strange phenomenon. Government should open sponsorship to maintenance of historical sites. Countries world take care of minutest pieces of heritage, but we just let them go waste. Many monuments are in shameful disrepair. Rather than spending on new sculptures of Shivaji Maharaj, for example, it would be ideal to repair and maintain all his forts, provide excellent road sand facilities that will increase tourism and adventure tourism and inspire people. These heritage sites should tell stories about our history.
Development of human settlements – Smart City projects have not picked up the way many other ideas have. Need to relook at urban development. Rural development needs to be upgraded. Bharat has travelled quite a lot in this direction in last decade with nearly every facility that an urban citizen gets like power, water, homes, and road connectivity. But more needs to be done in farming to make it worthwhile to stay back in villages. Cities cannot take the load of mass migration. Cities need to be decongested with peripheral towns. You cannot do it as long as politicians keep selling FSI, permitting 5x floor rises on the same piece of land. New commercial buildings must not be allowed. Those who are there must not be allowed to be rebuilt with much higher floor and space. In today’s well connected world, you do not need to sit and work in mega cities and it has already been proven after telecom revolution and Covid. On paper allowing more floors and space looks free, but of course everybody is making money including the politician and bureaucrat who devises such plans. Urban infrastructure is bound to collapse. Life is going to be hell. For smart cities, you need smart officers. Either train them and make them accountable or drop the idea.
Water resources – Tightly connected with growing population, especially urban population, need for water is multiplying. We cannot deprive our rural and tribal brethren of water to feed millions in cities. Reviving water bodies, raising water levels, and nurturing the catchment areas of rivers need to be prioritised. It is not 100 day plan. But this is a 5 year target with start within 100 days. Water can be a major cause of social friction and conflict. Interlinking of rivers needs to be relooked into and revived where it has no side effects on environment. Sabarmati river linking to Narmada has proven a boon.
Environment – Modi ji has done excellent work on climate and environment by reducing our dependence on fossil fuels slowly but steadily. However, much delayed development of infrastructure is taking its toll on forest lands. Though, there is no way possible to stop this development as it affects the livelihood of poorest of the poor, we need to recharge the nature. Afforestation has to become a public movement, just like Swachh Bharat. Himalayas our major source of water for the most populated part of Bharat. They cannot be treated as they were for long. Climate change has made them fragile. A special commission needs to be formed to study the entire Himalayan ecosystem and ways and means found to safeguard it as much as we can. If it means giving up certain infrastructure development in certain areas, or downgrade it, so be it. Destruction or degradation of Himalayas can mean serious threat to our lives.
Agriculture – Agriculture is the life breath of Bharat. Due to politicisation and vested interests one chance to reform the field so farmers feel attracted to carry on their ancestral profession rather than abandon it was lost in last term due to obdurate and vested political leaders. Farmers need to be educated and another chance for reforms must be taken, taking every stake holder in full confidence, without hurry. Food processing, exports, warehousing, alternative procurement models, contract farming, cash crops, environment friendly farming that will yield better results and right crops need to be propagated. Agriculture ministry needs to be re-organised and repurposed for this to happen.
Technology – Unstoppable growth in technology can make or break humanity. There has been talk all over the world to have some kind of ethical ombudsman that will draw ethical and moral lines where technology must stop. Whether it is cloning or AI. We cannot sit in a train hurtling towards a destination we are not aware of but having no control over it.
Nurturing social institutions that make our civilisation – To stop a reverse march to primitive society, we must nurture our institutions of marriage and family. They have made Bharatiya civilisation and its members what we are today and that has helped us survive worst invasions. They create our value systems and preserve the society. Government needs to create multiple bodies that will nurture these institutions and educate our people the importance of these institutions so our people are not blown away by the winds of ideologies that are about to overwhelm the western civilisation.
Mechanism to listen to people – Modi ji’s media platform and option of nominating Padma awardees an excellent example of listening to people. This can be broadened to bring in community discussions on developmental issues. A management consultant friend of mine tried this experiment in hundreds of places when Modi ji had just become the PM. It produced surprisingly interesting results. Unfortunately, he had to abandon it due to lack of funds. Neither corporates nor government supported it. Development policies should be influenced by the views of the targeted beneficiaries, not by a few people sitting in chambers.
What has been achieved in 10 years is spectacular. That is why it gives us courage to talk about next ten years and above 11 steps can help democratise the benefits of development further.
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