By Dr Amrit Patel:
It should be a matter of self-introspection for all political parties and Government of India to better understand how people, political parties and the Governments of countries viz. Germany & Japan [totally devastated in 1945], Israel [born in 1949 among enemy countries], South Korea, Taiwan & Singapore[newly industrialised countries] and China [communist country] demonstrated their proven loyalty to their nation[keeping nation’s interest above all], strict discipline and ethics/moral values, among others, that have enabled them to establish their nations’ unique and unchallengeable identity in the World as advanced countries.
Unfortunately, political parties and the Government of India during the post-independence era failed to show the needed concern and commitment for human development of their people, despite the fact that India is endowed with unfathomable natural, physical and biological resources viz. land, water, forests, minerals, metals, gas, hydrocarbons, among others. Somehow or the other, the theory of absolute power corrupts absolutely proved to be true for India since the congress party, under the absolute leadership of Nehru-dynasty, ruled the country for over four decades. The party only concentrated to capture political power and form the Government, defeat no-confidence motion tabled against it and overthrow the Government of the opposition in any case just to recapture the political power. All these destructive techniques facilitated the party and the Government to siphon out the tax payers’ hard earned money by way of a series of financial scams and frauds right from early 1950s till this day, and criminal wastage of these financial resources by way of implementing a plethora of welfare schemes & programs pre-fixed by Nehru, Indira Gandhi & Rajiv Gandhi, among others, just to mobilize votes and capture/continue to be in power at the enormous cost to the nation and its future generation. Even enormous amount of financial investment out of public funds has been made in Rae Bareli and Amethi election constituencies since late Mrs. Indira Gandhi’s time and still continues depriving/starving many deserving districts in the country.
Over a period of time, several institutions were established and private sector companies nationalized and manned by innumerable staff and incurring huge expenditure [which the nation cannot afford]. The government does not have any concern and commitment to provide services to the people for which they are in existence, leave alone good governance, transparency and accountability. Elected legislatures and the Government staff have become non-responsive, arrogant and corrupt just to live a luxurious life. As against this, a significant number of people in the country are unemployed [youths of 23 -35 years are disillusioned and directionless], many households live in abject poverty and are under-nourished/malnourished, death rate is high due to infant mortality, accidents, diseases, natural and manmade calamities for which authorities and institutions have no concern and commitment. Government’s failure is conspicuously reflected in the ineffectiveness of facilities/services for education, health care, drinking water, sanitation, drainage, electricity, roads, transport, communication, among others, which have direct impact on the quality of human life. Most adversely affected households are in hilly, tribal, desert, drought & flood-prone areas.
It is a matter of research as to how much India could have progressed if the estimated annual tax amounting to Rs.14 lakh crore were used to create much needed infrastructure that can accelerate the growth of agriculture and significantly improve the quality of life of poor rural and urban households and facilitate achieving the mandated United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals by 2015. Service sector grew manifold at the cost of agriculture and returned service tax of Rs.1.32 lakh that Government, however, could not use productively to organize unorganized retail trade and service providers.
It is now time for all eligible voters of the 2014 parliamentary election to read the obnoxious mind and the perverted thinking of the Congress party in particular and politicians of other political parties associated with the Congress directly or indirectly as is reflected from their following a few disgusting statements humiliating and hurting the people of India.
People will forget the coal scam like they forgot Bofors —Sushil Shinde
People join the Police and Army to die — Bhim Singh
Our soldiers were not killed by Pakistani army but by terrorists wearing the uniform of Pakistani army — AK Antony
If there is no water to drink then should I pee in the dams to bring water? — Ajit Pawar
Inflation is high because people purchase gold – P. Chidambaram
Money doesn’t grow on trees — Manmohan Singh
We do not have a magic wand that we can control inflation — Manmohan Singh
By killing cows we do not harm the country. If we do not kill cows, India will face a huge problem – Sharad Pawar
If Sonia ji says, I will even sweep the floor — Bhakta Charan Das
East India Company came to loot India 400 years back. I again invite you to come to India for the next 200 years.
There will be a huge reward for you – P.C. Chidambaram, London 1999
Mother India is a demoness – Azam Khan
People can eat their fill in five rupees – Raj Babbar
If we start protecting cows, the world will say that we are taking India to the 15th century – Nehru, 1952
The poor are responsible for inflation – Manmohan Singh
This country is at risk not because of Islamic terrorists but because of Hindu terrorists – Rahul Gandhi
I will not say Vande Mataram – Hamid Ansari
Soniaji cried a lot when the terrorists were killed at Batla House – Salman Khurshid
When a big tree falls, the ground shakes -Â Rajiv Gandhi on the murder of 4,500 Sikhs
People are eating more that is why inflation is high – P.C. Chidambaram
There is no such thing as poverty in India . It is a state of the mind — Rahul Gandhi
Narendra Modi is a dealer in death – Sonia Gandhi
I can become a parliamentarian any time I want. It is a small thing for me — Robert Vadra
People from UP are beggars. They go to Punjab and Gujarat to beg – Rahul Gandhi
The congress party never bothered and escaped from its accountability for 17 riots that took place between 1947 and 1992 in several areas in States ruled by the Congress viz. [i]5000 to 10,000 died in Bengal in 1947 [ii] 200 died in Ranchi in 1967 [iii] 512 died in Ahmedabad in 1969 [iv] 80 died in Bhiwandi in 1970 [v] 125 died I Jamshedpur in 1979 [vi] 2000 died in Moradabad in 1980 [vii] 5000 died in Nellie, Assam in 1983 [viii] 2733 died in Delhi in 1984 [ix] 146 died in Bhiwandi in 1984 [x] 300 died in Gujarat in 1985 [xi] 59 died in Ahmedabad in 1986 [xii] 81 died in Meerut in 1987 [xiii] 1070 in Bhagalpur in 1989 [xiv] 300+ died in Hyderabad in 1990 [xv] 900 to 2000 died in Mumbai in 1992 [xvi] 176 died in Aligarh in 1992[xvii] 175 died in Surat in 1992
It is equally surprising in a democratic country that the present Government led by its Prime Minister, a world-renowned economist and with an unstained administrative career record, acted very fast to issue Government directives & orders and even reversed the earlier ordinance in the process of being proclaimed when Shree Rahul Gandhi, the Vice-president of the Congress but not a part of the Government, shows his concern.
The voters may consider to vote for the party which can commit to provide and fulfil, inter alia, the following:
[i] Election manifesto focusing to fulfil, 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
[ii] Since the winning party will inherit from the UPA Government the worst status of the economy, the party’s economic policy shall have to focus sharply to correct and reorder all that the UPA Government has damaged 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 self-employed with dignity
[iii] 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 the people of the country
[iv] Legislating to provide constitutional and autonomous status to the Election Commission, CVC, CBI, IB and 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, among others
[v] On lines of the constitution of the USA ,the winning party 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 independency 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 50 is headed by the elected members of parliament and Rajya Sabha. Thus, ministers are mis utilizing the ministries 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
[vi] Introducing judicial and electoral reforms based on recommendations of all previous reports of Law Commissions and Election Commissions respectively
[vii] All out endeavour must be made 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.
[viii] 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 and use savings 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
[ix] The party must consider to reduce the salary, diem allowance and all other perquisites to 50% from the current level and also consider to extend the duration of the parliament by 50% from the current duration.
[x] 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.