2014 START NOW-GOVERNANCE MODEL
Today Indian society is badly fragmented on Bharat vs India; rich vs poor; farmers vs industry; jobs loss vs privatisation; North East vs the rest; tribal vs others and other armed conflicts in addition to caste and religion which is our inheritance. With so many fault lines,at times one is surprised as to how are we surviving as a nation for so long in a turbulent world.
India has been a harmonious, developed society till East India Company and subsequently the British decided to convert it inti a nation ob clerks by destroying our culture, values, heritage and imposing a set of rules which were alien and lower but given a boost with money power. Speech by then Lord Macaulay to British Parliament of 1835 vintage states that there were no beggers or thieves, ours was a wealthy ,culturally and spiritually advanced society far superior to that of the west and only way to rule was by destroying the basic fibre of culture and spirituality and replacing it with a new system where by we are made to believe that everything English is far superior and slowly destroy our self esteem and rest follows.
If this be true, which is quite probable then are we still following the McCauley formula very slavishly? It appears to be so. Indian thought of Yoga and most other things that are part of culture and heritage now requires certification of the west.
Our policy makers; thinkers and part of polity is educated and mesmerised by the west; elites, politicians; rich; famous any one everyone who can afford wishes to be stamped as west educated and it becomes a passport to success.
Is there then a dire need to change the mindset?
We should emulate the west in development but at our own terms in harmony with our societal and spiritual values lest we follow the same course of relearning these lessons.
Other major hurdle is the nexus amongst the power centres with little accountability. License raj via the bureaucracy and discretionary powers are cause of major ills.
Mediocrity rather than merit is another modern day ill propagated by the powers to retain their voters through fear and intimidation thereby making them permanent liabilities.
What does any society need. "A happy, harmonious and de stressed populace by and large enjoying their lives. This would primarily include economic growth in an enabling environments with adequate freedom providing equal opportunities to all in a non discriminative surroundings."
Solution lies in good governance. Humble, efficient and nation serving institutional, fair; transparent; merit based and enlightened responsive rather than elite; out of touch; arrogant; greedy, me first;
power managers what ever be their level- from a village sarpanch to the highest.
The next government of India who so ever comes to power alliance or a front needs to encompass the following as their agreed agendas.
Uplift Bharat through our very own development model.
Government creates infrastructure centrally.Decentralise control. Let the village decide - others to facilitate and monitor.
Let the industry build hospitals, colleges and other institutes of excellence and give a profitable deal. Merit be the sole criterion for selection at the higher levels. Where ever required let them run special coaching classes but for God sake don't compromise on merit.
Change the governance/ delivery model at the planning, coordination and execution level enshrining the following tiers of decision making - headed by elected representative, advised by the stake holder and bureaucracy responsible for fine tuning and ensuring resource availability. Today the elected representatives are highly accountable and under pressure to perform where the populace is active; the bureaucracy who is hardly accountable wield maximum power and there the specialist are appendages. this will ensure proper accountability and no faulty decisions for in adequate expertise.
The issue now is where do we fit in- the people like me who go M.A.D on being helpless when so much is going wrong, there are so many problems with workable solutions but no one cares because of arrogance, self centred powers and nations comes last philosophy.
Since most of us are unwilling or incapable to jump into the arena for whatever be the reasons, we can, should and must contribute by raising our voice and prevailing on the elected reps to a legally binding agenda with a time frame to perform. Through the cyberspace, print and personal interaction, in debates and other fora question the parties on development promises and how do they will mobilise resources.
