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Issues

What are the issues? To answer this question listed underneath are some of the problems plaguing India for too long with no effective resolution in sight. A lot of these problems may seem very trivial, generic and obvious. But please do go thru these for the bigger picture to reveal itself:

1. Poverty: India has a huge percentage of its population living in utter poverty and devoid of the very basics of life. Statistics say, about 30% of the population lives below poverty line (BPL). To put this number in perspective as to how big this number is; this is more than 300 million (30 crore) people that is five times the total population of United Kingdom. The below poverty line (BPL) is defined for the section of population unable to have two square meals a day. These are just the number of people living below poverty line. That's not all; there are about another 30% of the population who are living in abject poverty and barely hand to mouth for their day to day survival. So, about 60% of India's population lives in poverty. Imagine the destitution of such a huge number of our compatriots.

Someone might ask, "Where are all these poor people? I only hear and watch stories about India making big strides on the economy front; markets full with all kinds of consumer goods; peoples pocket bulging with not one but a number of mobile phones (even our work maids have mobile phones); and then there is IT all over and always in news (mostly for good reason)."

Either you have been away from India for too long or do not wish to see the stark nakedness of poverty right around the corner of where ever you are. India's 70% of population still lives in rural areas and this is where most of the poor people live. But you do not have to go to the rural or village areas to witness the wretched condition of these poor people. You can find them in any urban area of the country and slums are all over the place. Biggest proportion of any urban area population lives in slum like conditions. The problem is that media gives barely a fraction of coverage to such a huge majority of population. Look at any news channel or print media and the coverage is limited mostly to urban areas and issues.

I would like to quote Arundhati Roy about the condition of these under-privileged masses:

"The only dream worth having is to live while you're alive and die only when you're dead."

Note: Please read it again so that the message sinks in!

2. Corruption: Corruption prevails in the every walk of Indian day to day life. The rampant corruption has reached the scales where it does not bother people much instead it has became the very fabric of Indian every day life. It has been said that "In a country long corrupt , liberty cannot survive". And this is what we see so starkly in today's India where powerful and corrupt are stifling the very basic liberties of the masses.

There are suggestions that because of aggressive media the corrupt people are hesitating in their evil deeds but there is a very ugly side to it that these corrupt people are now putting all kind of hurdles and are taking too long to do their job so as to make sure that they are not target of a sting operation. Worse, they are finding new ways of taking bribes like a corrupt traffic police not accepting the bribe himself but be in arrangement with a street hawker who collects the bribe on his behalf. It will be very exceptional indeed, for someone to have ever lived in India and have not had to bribe some official somewhere. There is a total absence of ideological and moral constraint.

3. Justice and Law enforcement: Going by the old saying that "Justice delayed is justice denied." and take rampant corruption it would not be exaggeration to say that there is no justice for the common man. I can give you a personal example; in my native village near Varanasi my grandfather had been fighting a land dispute with our next door neighbours for last 40 years. My grandfather died in 2004 and the person against whom the case was being fought died about 5 years ago. The case is still pending in the courts.

The corrupt and the real culprits never get brought to the books. There are so many examples, take the case of Sukh Ram the ex-communication minister in the Narsinmha Rao govt. He was caught red handed with sacks of currency notes in his possession. Nothing happened to him. Take the Bofors case, the govt must have spent millions of dollars pursuing the case but it has been going on for last 20 years with no end in sight and each successive govt. using the issue for political capital.

If you are an ordinary person without any contacts (Jugaad) and had a brush with law enforcement agencies then you had it. They pounce on you like a ton of bricks even if there is no fault of yours.

The lawlessness of UP and Bihar is reflected everyday in the newspapers. This is not to suggest that rest of the India is doing good on this front; by no means, right in the very capital of India there is so much crime (rape, murder, abduction etc.) that it does not require further elaboration.

4. Disintegrating India: The idea of India as envisaged by our fore fathers during the freedom struggle is shattered today. There is so much conflict in every part of the country that it is difficult to comprehend as to what does India stand for and where are we headed.

Communalism has reared its ugly head in so many forms that the society is fragmented. It has been promoted by all the political parties for electoral gains. They all have played the appeasement or the fear politics with religion. The acts of BJP in Godhra (Gujarat) are such a vivid example of state promoting and supporting communalism. Congress and loads of other so called secular parties play the appeasement game at the drop of a hat.

Caste and class politics is managed professionally during elections in today's India.

Regionalism is also being used for power politics. Take the example of Maharashtra where north Indians are used as pawns for the electoral politics. There was an incident couple of years ago where by students coming from North India by trains to Mumbai for a Railway examination were beaten by Shiv Sena activists.

North-East India is a different story altogether. There are people in these states who do not consider themselves as part of India. The problem has been with long alienation with rest of the India and failure of government to integrate them in the national main stream. J&K issue is self evident.

Naxalite problem has reached such alarming proportions that there are parallel governments being run by naxals in the affected area. There are so many states that are affected viz. Bihar, UP, MP, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Orissa, AP, Maharashtra, Karnataka. The affected areas are only increasing day by day. The government does not have any comprehensive plans to effectively tackle the situation.

This is a foregone conclusion that the underlying cause of the naxalite problem is poverty. Majority of the Indian population is left out of the so called development of the basics of a sustainable human capital.

Some one has rightly said that:

"Poverty any where is danger to prosperity any where."

Going by current trends this problem is only going to grow.

5. Education: A good education for a huge majority of our children is but a distant dream. What ever good education is available is for mostly privileged (middle class and above) of the society. As per current statistics more than 50% (70 million) of school going-age children are out of school. Imagine the number of jobless we are going to have when these kids grow up and what kind of society would we be living into.

Most of the government schools are ill equipped or poorly staffed. In UP and Bihar the teachers do not even get their salaries paid for months at end.

6. Health: For the vast majority of the population there is no reliable and viable health care system. The government run hospitals are in such bad shape that nothing works. There is inadequate staff and basic medical equipments are lacking for these hospitals to be even worth calling a hospital.

Number of AIDS infections is growing at such a fast pace that in couple of years India will be home to the larges AIDS population in the world. It has already taken the proportions of an epidemic.

In this day and age when medical science has made so much progress that it's a shame that our under-privileged poor folks are dying of easily treatable diseases.

Now a days there are talks of an emerging market about India as a favoured destination for "Medical Tourism". This, when we are unable to provide even basic health services to a huge section of our society. For any society and its future generations to progress the two most important areas are Health and Education. This takes us to the next point.

7. Infrastructure: It goes without saying that for any economy to grow on a sustained pace a good and reliable infrastructure is must.

The condition of roads in any state of India for good measure is below acceptable standards. There is unmanageable traffic on our roads. Good roads are imperative for a growing economy to move goods and people smoothly and fast. What ever highways we have are so mismanaged that it makes one wonder as to has there been any planning. No traffic laws, small towns cropping up all along the highways making mess of the traffic situation, free access to all and sundry from cars, tractors to bullock carts etc. Total mismanagement.

Power (electricity) plays hide and seek in virtually every corner of India. The whole manufacturing and agricultural sector depend on reliable power supply.

We have failed to provide safe water for drinking and irrigation. We have been quite fortunate to have regular monsoons for more than a decade for irrigation. The year that monsoon fails we will see the GDP coming down dramatically. All this could be managed with water harvesting and  management. But there has been no serious initiative on this front. Safe drinking water is one thing that can eliminate about 75% of disease that are so common in India.

We all must have heard of the crumbling infrastructure of Bangalore, the despicable condition of our airports and all the politics being played around it so much so that Narayan Murthy quit from the post of the chairman of Bangalore International Airport Ltd (BIAL).

8. Population: Governments in last three decades have failed to even give a serious look at this eminent ticking time bomb. Ever since the autocratic forced sterilization drive during the Emergency period led by the potential dictator Sanjay Gandhi. All the subsequent governments have been shying away because of the potential political fall out from this issue and the inherent opposition by certain sections of society.

On top of that the discrimination against the girl child is so rampant that it is having some serious demographic issues in certain states like Haryana, Andhra Pradesh etc. The male to female ratio is seriously misbalanced.

 9. Pollution & Sanitation: Level of pollution has to be really understood by visiting any Indian city and seeing for yourself to understand the gravity of the situation.

Look at our rivers right from Yamuna in Delhi, Ganga in Kanpur, Allahabad and Varanasi where these rivers are no more than sewage drains or deadly waste of industrial output.

The air during the rush hours is suffocating to breathe in any city.

The idea of sanitation in our homes is that even though inside our homes it will be squeaky clean but right on our door steps there will be a pile of rubbish. There is no system of effective waste disposal management.

A morning train at any big station leaves so much human waste on stations that the stench is unbearable and nauseating. The idea of a toilet for the railways is a hole on the train floor. As the train moves out of the platform you can see in any city people defacing by the side of tracks. This when we are talking of India striving for a place in the league of developed nations.

10. Unemployment:Unemployment  amongst the youth is a big problem that nation faces today. On one hand we have a huge number of illiterates and on the other we are churning out graduates from our colleges and universities like machines but the government does not have any focused constructive plan to address then employment issue. Instead the government comes up with Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. A scheme which will first of all be marred with the rampant corruption in the Indian administration, filling the coffers of the ones in charge of implementing it; second, this scheme is to provide employment for 100 days only, what happens beyond the hundred days for the rest of the year.

11. Urban middle class issues: Now these issues are a combination of most of the issues listed above. The urban expansion of villages and small towns is so unplanned that there appears to be no system in place. Open drains, dung, flies and animals roaming freely. No sign of municipal governance. No effective public transportation.

Ok, we have browsed through some of the major issues plaguing our beloved nation. The big question is, even after almost 60 years of independence why do we have these persistent problems with no end in sight. What ever happened to the idea of India? How do we foresee the India of tomorrow from the purview of the problems of today within the current political setup?

Is there a  Hope?

Top	What's the HOPE

Now that we have gone thru the issues that are plaguing our beloved country, lets see and try to figure out if there is any hope for the effective resolution of these issues in the current political setup and establishment.

Congress has ruled the country for the most part since independence. They are the one who institutionalised corruption that has become the bane of our society and eating away on our morals.

If I ever had a chance I would like to ask the communists, the so called protectors of poor folks, this:

"The communists have been in power in West Bengal for nearly 30 years, uninterrupted. I would like to ask them, why are there so many poor people in this state? Why are there deaths reported time and again due to starvation?"

I would also like to seek answers from the Congress chief Sonia Gandhi. The Gandhi family has represented the Amethi and Raebarelly constituency for over last two decades. This is the most prominent family in the Indian politics. Even after so many years why are these constituencies still marked with poverty, backwardness and illiteracy. If they can not provide for the needs of their own constituency how are they expected to provide for the whole country.

In essence all the political parties have given hollowed promises to the poor during every election only to neglect them every time. Here is an observation:

"Every political party has worked strategically to keep the poor, poorer. This helps these political parties sell the empty promises from one election to another, otherwise who will vote for them (vote bank). If these neglected, under-privileged poor souls are some how able to break out of the chains of poverty, they understand the designs of these parties and do not even bother to vote."

And BJP, once the so called the party with a difference, neglected the poor people as if they did not even exist and campaigned with the "India Shining" slogan during the 2004 elections and how miserably did they loose. It was the expectation of most people that once BJP came to power may be corruption will go down or at least they will do something about it. But alas, some of their top guys were caught in such big corruption cases that they failed India miserably. It makes us hang our heads in shame, how the then foreign minister, Mr. Jaswant Singh, flew along with a terrorist to Kandahar to negotiate for the release of Indian Airlines passengers.

And most of all the state supported carnage followed by the Godhra incident, in this day and age how can we even think of a party like BJP, with the ideology that they profess, to give us a stable administration for the whole of India. And where they are in power, in Gujarat, the society is so divided among the communal lines that it will take decades before the wounds heal. On the population control front the RSS chief is instigating Hindus to reproduce more. They have devised a detergent for washing blood with blood.

In essence to quote a journalist (VT Joshi) that summarises the state or inclination of Congress, Communists & BJP:

"The intra party bickering in the BJP and the fanatical propaganda in the name of secularism in the Congress and leftist camps are the manifestations of their ideological pretensions to cover up: (1) the dynastic ambitions in the Congress (2) the communist game of "conquering" the country (3) the RSS dream of taking it back to the 18th century."

For the politicians of every party acquisition of money by any means has become the priority. This has led to the patronage of unsocial elements like the mafia, smugglers, criminals in return for their money and muscle power to be flaunted during every election. As a result of this the criminal elements have openly joined the politics and have been elected in assemblies and parliament. What kind of leadership can be expected from these criminals? As observed by a noted freedom fighter, Achyut Patwardhan:

"Today the State has lost all moral authority. It is viewed as the creation of crooks, by crooks, for crooks. Nothing seems to work without the use of money, muscle power or influence. So even if we have achieved a little prosperity, people think it is 'inspite' and not 'because' of the State. Back in 1947, you could distinguish between bandits and politicians, not now. That is a measure of how far we have fallen."

Some of us might argue that, there is a lot happening on the economy front. I agree, but the model that is being followed is that of a Filter or the Pyramid structure where by it is expected that the fruits of these reforms will ultimately trickle down to the dire needs of the poor, under-privileged masses of the country. But what has happened is that the rich have grown richer and the poor still poorer. Of course there is the middle class that has benefited most from this. But please remember that 60% of India is still poor. Here is another observation related to poverty:

"If your neighbour is not well off you will have no peace. This logic can be extrapolated from a household, locality, village, town, city, state up to a country."

The above observation explains the migration from the rural areas of country to the cities and towns and the problems resulting of housing, slums, employment, crime etc. If Pakistan and Bangladesh are not stable India will keep on having problems. Another very stark example of this philosophy is the North America. USA has a very peaceful border with Canada because Canada is doing well but look at the southern border of USA and you have all kinds of problem emanating from Mexico and other South American countries.

So in India it is very important that we take care of our under-privileged masses, if not for a greater cause then at least for our own selfish needs.

One very important observation that I would like to make about the economic reforms currently being talked about a lot. The general wisdom is that to bring people out of poverty there needs to be investment in the areas of education, health, employment, infrastructure etc. The governments devise plans for these investments; like the most recent one is Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. There has been no dearth of planning in last six decades since independence. But the very basic problem is with the implementation of these plans. The only effective way of ensuring that these plans get implemented as they were intended is by reforming the delivery system. This calls for:

• Administrative Reforms

The other very important area that is linked with the above argument is that of:

• Judicial Reforms

The current priorities about the reform are wrong. Pursuing the economic reforms without administrative and judicial reforms is just like putting the cart before the horse. This can never give a sustainable progress and development.

But to really bring about the administrative and judicial reforms in real sense there is need for a strong and courageous will by the political establishment of the country which calls for some bold initiatives. For this to happen there is the imperative need of:

• Political Reforms

This means that the current political parties reforming themselves. Now who among all the political parties would be willing to take on the political reforms? I bet there are none. And this is why I say there is no hope in the present situation.

There is light at the end of tunnel but it is that of an oncoming train and not a ray of hope. We as Indians need to respond to this situation. Status quo is not an option.

This takes us to our final part: The Mission

Top	The Mission

Thoughts of change in the sense as to what is wrong with the country and what needs to be done, have always been there. Whether in the media, in the drawing room conversations , in the govt. offices (people not working but talking politics) or at the street corner tea shop. This is more prominent and more of a rule than exception in the Indians living abroad. When ever couple of Indians gather after usual niceties the conversation for sure turns to the problems in India. These conversations go on for long and cover mostly all the issues facing India.

We all have ideas as to what needs to change or how can the dire needs of the poor, under-privileged masses of the country be catered to. Without going any further about this basic desire in all of us, I would now be brutally frank that none of us have come out and actually done any thing in real terms to take on these issues head on in an organised way. We are all basically hypocrites, all talk and no substance. Yes, I am accusing us of being hypocrite.

Now, some of us might say well, I have done this charity or I am engaged in that social work or I am always following the laws of the land and pay no bribes and so on. But let me ask one thing, do you genuinely think what you are doing is going to make any difference and even if it does how would it fit with the bigger picture of India as a whole. Given the scale of issues, for every hand that we help there are thousands other that cry out for help. Even the biggest charitable works happening in India would not be able to change the fortunes of the vast majority for next several decades. All the issues are so intricately inter connected that it makes one wonder as to where do we start. Do you start at corruption or is it poverty or infrastructure or education and so on? It's a vicious circle.

Ok, now I am going to propose the mission . We have to come out on the ground of Indian politics and confront the issues head on from the seats of power, in the states and the center, only from there can any thing worthwhile be done effectively. Let me make it absolutely clear as to what would be the outcome of this mission, movement, revolution or whatever name you want to give it:

"Provide a real viable pan Indian political alternative. An alternative that gives India a new positive direction."

This will be the mission for our second freedom movement. During our freedom struggle for independence the enemy was outsider and clearly defined. This time the enemy is within and not clearly defined. We have to fight our own people (mainly the corrupt, powerful and political class). This will be difficult.

Ok, what does it mean for us (you and me):

• This will be the second freedom movement. What do we work towards:
  • Freedom from poverty
  • Freedom from corruption
  • Integrate the country
  • Infrastructure for sustainable economic development
  • Provide justice & law enforcement
  • Universal education & health care
  • Population control
  • Pollution control
  
  
• The mission is of selfless public service through politics and not of playing power politics for distribution of favours, self-advancement or patronage.
  
  
• Some (I am contemplating about 10) of us would need to come forward to form the core group to lead the movement and be the guiding force. This leadership would need to put the country before everything else.
  
  
• The movement would focus at India as a whole. It will be a pan Indian movement from North East to Gujarat and from Kerala to Kashmir.
  
  
• The core group would need to make the biggest sacrifice. We would need to devote 100% of our time and energy for this mission.
  
  
• Apart from the core group we would need the support of like minded individuals & groups to help us in various organizational activities.
  
  
• We would need to work on the ground, within the interiors of the country, in the villages, with the down trodden people, with the youth of the country.
  
  
• We will mobilize the youth of the country and provide them a platform so that they are the leading force of this movement.
  
  
• This movement will provide a unified platform for like minded organizations, groups, individuals etc.
  
  

This might sound too ambitious and difficult but I have very firm belief that there is a vast majority of us who think of good for India. There are lots of good people who are aching for a platform. There is an under current amongst majority of our youth who think good of their country and who want to do good. I sincerely do believe that to start with some of us would have to come out in open and provide a platform for all the good people and organisations. I understand that this will be difficult but then, some one has said:

"That what is good is difficult and difficulty is what one tends to avoid."

Note: Please read it again to get the gist of this statement.

So, for once let's not try to avoid or by pass the issue.

Now, why should we do this? Because, if you are reading this then the only hope that India will ever change and be able to rid of so many problems is from YOU:

• Mahatma Gandhi said:

  "We must become the change we wish to see in the world."

• Nani Palkhivala, a great Indian and the eminent constitutional expert believed that:

"Our republic would have a new lease of life when younger people, with well-equipped minds and with the ability to have a bright career outside politics, take to public life as a matter of national service."

• Read this fantastic article by Rajendra Yadav as to why we are the only hope and why we should work together for the change. Pay special attention to the section where he talks about the hope from the middle class.

• We must do this for the sake of our country. We have to stop being cynical about the issues facing India. We have to stop criticizing. Enough of whining. Let's do something about it.

• We must do it for our future generations.

• We will never have enough money or safety for our loved ones to pursue this. Now is the time. We have achieved enough for our own selfish needs. Think "What would you do if you weren't afraid?".

• Let's work hand in hand. Let's work together. I have firm belief in the saying:

"A dream that I dream alone is but only a dream. But a dream that we dream together is reality."

In this mission one plus one does not only make two but it can make hundred only if our resolve is strong enough.

There indeed would be difficulties and sacrifices would have to be made. Nothing bigger has ever been achieved without making even bigger sacrifices. I have great faith in the Indian masses and human beings in general that if our intentions are good we will find support from all the avenues.

Now you will either step forward into growth or you will step back into safety.

Which way are you headed?

Let us know what you think. This will help us reach at a decisive conclusion and form an opinion towards the next logical steps. Please provide your feedback

 

Top	What Next?

A lot of you must be thinking that well it sounds all very good and inspiring but how are we going to do this and there will be tons of other questions and apprehensions. To this all that I would say is that as a first step we need to come together and once that happens we can work out all the operational details.

Any such task as described in the mission section has three important aspects:

Need: What is the need?

Lead: Who will lead it?

Feed: Who will feed it?

I have tried to answer the first question of Need in this website.

I have also built the case for Leading (that will be us). I have been consulting lot of different sections of Indian society to gather their input. I have met a lot of them personally. These include:

• Close friends
• University students & professors
• Village level activists
• Media professionals
• Intellectuals

But again it is not humanly possible to contact lot of people from wide section of society in person. Therefore I have built this small website to collect the views and input.

Once I have had enough input in couple of months time I will analyze the input with some friends who are helping me in this venture. If we do decide on taking the next logical step be sure that we will contact you (double check the email address that you provided in the feedback).

The last aspect of Feeding i.e. finances still needs to be answered. But we are not concerned about this at this time. For a mission like this finance can never be a hurdle. It might look like a big hurdle at this time but, if a need like this is justifiable and there is a dedicated group of us to lead from the front, it can be worked on and pursued.

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