By Dr. Amrit Patel:
People of India, more particularly middle class, have suffered unbearable pains under the latent dictatorial rule of the UPA Government and now their limit to tolerate the sufferings further has been exhausted. The Congress party in its rule over five decades has given to the country nothing worth except hundreds of programs and schemes prefixed by the names of Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi out of honest tax payers’ money and mastered all nefarious and unethical techniques to win election and dislodge the Government to recapture the power. The BJP has been a witness to this phenomenon for quite some time. Now, it is opportune time for the BJP to win 2014 election and demonstrate its political will, honesty, integrity and commitment to deliver good governance of rule by law establishing the highest moral standards that can give due recognition and identity of the country with 1.27 billion people in the world of over seven billion people. For this purpose, the BJP may need to have a vision and a well laid out strategic action plan to accomplish the mission to win the 2014 election and deliver.
Let the BJP, as a political party committed to good governance prove Sir Winston Churchill, war-time Prime Minister of England wrong who said in June 1947, “Power will go onto the hands of rogues, rascals, freebooters; all Indian leaders will be of low caliber and men of straw… They will fight amongst themselves for power and India will be lost in political squabbles” when Mr. Clement Attlee, then Prime Minister of United Kingdom in June 1947, introduced the Indian Independence Act in the British Parliament. And pledge the pious wish of Dr. Rajendra Prasad which he expressed in his speech in the Constituent Assembly on the eve of the adoption of the Constitution aptly emphasizing among others, “India needs today nothing more than a set of honest men who will have the interest of the country before them…”
While it is worth appreciating to note that the BJP is now planning a strategy to win 272+ Loksabha Seats in the forthcoming election in May 2014. It is in this context essential and desirable for the party to read the writing on the wall and reorient party’s role and vision to meet with the exploding expectations of all sections of the people, viz. youths, women, common men, middle class, retired and seniors, among others.
The BJP in its serious efforts to win the 2014 election and form the Government may need to understand very clearly and consider following:
– The BJP as a national political party with lakhs of intellectuals can learn how Germany and Japan in a short period re-established their identity in the world when they were totally devastated during the Second World War in 1945.
– The Congress party in its five decades of rule has ruined the political and social fabric and economic, technological and military capabilities which the BJP will need to reconstruct learning lessons from Germany and Japan.
– At the very first instance, BJP needs to consider the fact of life that people of this country are not at all interested in building the Ram Mandir at this critical juncture when they will like to be emancipated from perpetual hunger, malnourishment, malnutrition, poverty, unemployment, among others, as enshrined in the United Nations Millennium Development Goals.
– The BJP’s intellectual leaders can debate among them and consider to apologize for whatever has happened during the Gujarat riots in 2002 on lines how Germany and Germans have done in case of Holocaust and Jews and Japan to the Philippines in the interest of well-being of their future generations.
– Party leaders and workers must forget all differences among them and its several outfits, viz. RSS, VHP, AVP, SWADESHI Movement, Bajarangdal in particular and concentrate to emancipate the people of the country from the sufferings of over five decades under the congress rule.
– Through better understanding and effective coordination among all outfits of the BJP, the party should be able to contact all eligible voters in country’s 6,338,588 villages and 6311 blocks and convince them to vote for BJP for people’s enrichment of quality of rural life.
– The election manifesto must focus to fulfill, in a time frame and through well designed policy, programs and their transparent implementation, people’s long awaited minimum needs, based on respective regions and States, viz. life sustaining infrastructure such as schools, health centres, road, transport, communication, drinking water, sanitation, electricity, among others, ensuring people that the institutions and their staff shall be responsible to deliver services to people on time with greater degree of efficiency, transparency and accountability.
– Since the BJP will inherit from the UPA Government the worst status of the economy, the BJP’s economic policy shall have to focus sharply to correct and reorder all that the UPA Government has worsened, viz. food inflation, fiscal deficit, current account deficit, rupee devaluation, slackening economic growth/inclusive growth [balancing agriculture, industry, service sectors], attacking hunger, malnourishment, poverty, unemployment, enhancing skill of youths through vocational training that can help them get self-employed with dignity.
– Comprehensive review of our constitution, effectiveness of our election system, planning commission, finance commission in particular and introduce necessary amendments to make them effective in the light of changing needs of the 21st century and meeting with the aspirations of people of the country.
– Legislating to provide constitutional and autonomous status to the Election Commission, CVC, CBI, IB, RAW on lines of the CAG such that none of them has to beg and depend upon respective ministry for funds, recruiting the staff, filling vacancies of retiring staff etc.
– On lines of the constitution of the US, BJP can consider to legislate that the term of the PM and CM shall be only two each of five years and none of the elected parliamentarian or the legislators shall be the Minister as it has a conflict of the role between the political party and the in-dependency of the Government. Unfortunately our constitution makers failed to anticipate the drastic conflict of interest between the Government and legislators. This is because the Government representing each ministry numbering about more than 90 is headed by the elected members of parliament and Rajya Sabha. Thus ministers are mis-utilizing the ministry for their selfish motives, making money, mobilizing votes, among others. India should have a system like in USA, where none of the 23 secretaries and 23 deputy secretaries [as we have ministers] is elected representative viz. from Senators or House of Representatives. The role, functions and responsibilities of Senators and House of Representatives is to pass Acts and that of Secretaries is to meticulously enforce the laws exhibiting clear and unambiguous separation of Parliament and Government. Same should be in all 29 States of the Indian Union.
– Endeavours must be to minimize the intervention and interference of the ministers and the legislators in the administration of the Government which will be thin and lean to enforce rule of the law.
– Of late there has been unethical and lavish practice of taxing the people and the industries just to meet with rising administrative and ministers’ expenses day in and day out for most of unproductive and personal purposes. This has to be necessarily contained to the minimum to facilitate people and industries to have improved standard of living and invest in their children’s education, health and well-being as also reinvest for country’s economic growth. The party may consider to reduce to 50% the salary, Diem allowance and all other perquisites from the current level and also consider to extend the duration of the parliament to 75% from the current duration. Last but not the least, the party should not field any candidate who has declared in his/her affidavit any type of crimes, financial frauds, amassing assets and wealth much beyond reasonable limits and duly assessed and approved by the income tax authorities, defaulters of filing income tax returns and complying with national laws of obtaining PAN card and supporting all transactions by PAN card, among others.
– The party shall have to demonstrate the message of Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Patel in terms of very simple living and high thinking and introduce the courses on their life and struggle for political independence of the country in primary and secondary schools through consensus and encourage students to promote research on their dedication and sacrifice for the country.