In the bygone years the elections were very different from the present. Those elections were mostly fought on the sleazy agendas of cast, creed, religion and some other regional issues. People generally cast their votes based on their own personal judgment. They usually voted for the candidate of their own cast or religion, without thinking about the merit of that candidate.

Now India has changed a lot, especially in the last five years. The mentality of Indian voters has also changed as democracy matured over the years. Now when they cast their votes they also keep other things in mind. They vote on such issues that they think are more important to them, than voting for their cast member.    

Narendra Modi believes that the people will vote for the progress of India. This is the reason why he is avoiding the usual political agendas and ideologies of BJP. Instead of hailing the old issues of Hindutva, he is insisting on creating a new and strong India that could become a world leader.

Population census shows that this year there will be more than fifteen crore young people, who would cast their votes for the first time. And they have no interest in the old histories and philosophies. What they need are better jobs, exciting career options and creating their own unique identity. Modi is selling the dream of a new shining economy that would focus on development and progress. There is still the philosophy of Hindutva and Sardar Patel in the backdrop, but it is only there to please RSS.  

Modi is making such promises that people believe he could accomplish. He knows his audience. And he is trying every tool in his kit to attract them.  He first kicked off his election campaign on social media. He reached out to most of the young voters through his tweets and Facebook updates. After that he started a very aggressive road show.

Now not only youngsters support him, but the business and entrepreneurial communities are also praising his efforts. The business community believes that he genuinely want to develop an economy that could support a healthy business growth. Now they are openly supporting him.

On the other hand Arvind Kejriwal believes that all Indians hate corruption. He thinks that people are not getting their fair share due to government corruption. That’s why he is making promises about eliminating corruption from the government and bureaucracy. He also understands the importance of real time coverage that he gets due to his demonstrations on the road.

Like Modi, Kejriwal also utilized the power of social media and he registered strong presence on every social networking site. Using these tools he was able to reach out and influence the ever growing and ambitious middle-class. He became the voice of the middle-class that was desperate to be heard and have its own share of political influence.

The middle-class is growing impatient with all the political shenanigans. They need something to vent their anger and frustration against the authority. And fighting against government corruption serves this purpose.

Congress is deeply involved in all the major corruption scandals, that’s why Congress suffered a major blow. And it has become the least popular political party. This is exactly what Kejriwal wanted to achieve because it shifts the massive vote bank of Congress in his favor.

Middle-class may not always agree with Kejriwal and they may condone his anarchic ways, but it is impressed with him because of the way he has changed the game. This is the reason why AAP is attracting so much support from the people of every class. These people have been waiting for an unorthodox alternative to join the political system of this country.

After all this, Congress has to change its political strategy completely. Right now things look pretty bleak for congress. Congress has lost the votes of the youngsters and members of upper middle-class to Modi. And a large section of middle-class is supporting Kejriwal and his party. Congress has also lost its minority vote bank. And it has also lost the support of corporate world that has always backed Congress.

Recently during an interview that Rahul Gandhi gave to Arnab Goswami indicated his interesting viewpoints. He never even once mentioned religious intolerance. He avoided all the questions about corruption and always appealed to Arnab to look at the big picture. He was obviously addressing the vote banks of youngsters and women. But he doesn’t really succeed in making any impact on this group. He doesn’t look fully prepared. Even Arnab took pity on him for his poor performance and offered him some relief from his grueling questions.

We know that in the upcoming general elections of 2014 these three could be the prominent players. But there are also other candidates and parties that could challenge them. There are many other popular leaders who are not in the limelight today. Nitish Kumar, Naveen Patnayak, Jayalalitha, Mayavati, Jagmohan Reddy and Chandrababu Naidu also have the power to attract voters. They could change the results very easily through clever coalitions.

We recently witnessed how congress, with only eight seats gave BJP, who won thirty two seats, a big shock. Clever alliances could still keep Congress in the race because only winning seats don’t mean everything. Ultimately what matters is forming a winning coalition.

It is also a possibility that the party who wins maximum seats is unable to form a government, because other parties could come forward to beat them. This is the only possibility where the vast political armory of Congress could come into play. But right now the conditions are not in the favor of Congress party. Their election campaign seems to be in a pitiable state. Their huge reserve of money could not replace clever political tactics.

It even seems like Congress doesn’t really care if it wins or loses this election. The Congress tacticians are working on the scenarios after the election where they could create a new UPA-III. Is there any such possibility? Why not? The only problem is that their alliances also have a habit of joining the winning parties. Modi could use this opportunity in his favor. Or it is even possible that Kejriwal could use a completely different plan and shock everybody.

Photo source - Wikipedia

The Right To Information means the right to know the truth about the government. Before 2005 this right to information was limited only to the Members of Parliament and Members of Legislative Assembly. They could stand up in parliament and ask direct questions, and demand an answer from the government, but the common man was unable to do so. If a common man required some kind of information from any government department, he could not get it so easily. All the government officers would ignore or neglect him, as they were not obliged to answer the questions of a common man. He would even be ridiculed for asking such questions, as the decisions and information about the government office were none of his business.

This means the government was answerable to only MPs and MLAs. They did not have any responsibility or liability towards the general public who elected these MPs and MLAs. This means the government was not required to answer to the real proprietors of the Republic. But it all changed in 2005. From 2005 the Right To Information Act required the government to appropriately respond to the questions of the common man.

Under Right To Information Act any citizen can demand to know about the working and functioning of the government. All he has to do is write an application and deposit a small amount of 10 Rupees. He will receive his answer within thirty days. If the responsible officer failed to provide the information, he could be fined for that.

Right To Information Act gave the power back to common people where it actually belonged. This act made the government more responsible and transparent. The ministers and bureaucrats became more careful about their dealings. Now whenever a minister or a bureaucrat makes a deal they are extra careful about its effects and consequences. They are afraid that the public could know about it through the Right To Information Act.

Corruption is still rampant. Biased and wrong decisions are still made. But now they have to take special measures to cover them. They could still find a way to bypass the Right To Information Act. First they find loopholes in Right To Information Act itself. Sometimes they make excuses about confidentiality, national security or privacy to cover the information. Apart from this Right To Information Act still hasn’t made a large impact on public consciousness.

Indian citizens are still not active enough to go into such minor details to expose the government follies and misdeeds. We haven’t yet realized the true power of Right To Information Act and the impact it can make. In spite of all this many government ministers and political parties consider Right To Information Act to be the biggest achievement of Indian Republic.

If the real meaning of democracy is a government by the people and for the people, then why can’t people get the right to question the activities of not only government but also the political parties. The government is just an extension of the ruling political party. The government ministers follow the commands and decisions of their party. The real rulers of the government are the political parties and their leaders. Do the common people have the power to elect the Prime Minister or Chief Minister? No, they are nominated and selected by their party leaders. That’s why party is held responsible for their good or bad decisions. It is the party that wins or loses an election.

Government ministers and bureaucrats commit acts of corruption for their parties. It requires millions and billions of rupees to run and operate a political party. They also require a huge financial reserve in order to win an election. Who is fulfilling these financial requirements? Where and how is the money coming from? Of course it comes from the government, through secret and confidential deals. When any minister is caught red-handed taking bribes, they say it was for party funds. And later when there are talks about removing these ministers, they beg their party leaders for their positions on the basis of the services they had done for the party.

They also commit the acts of corruption for personal gains. But when giving explanations or excuses about their allegations, they say that they were doing it to fulfill the demands of their party members. In the name of party funds, numerous bribes are taken. The person or organizations that bribe them are given lots of government favours. The person giving the bribe is more vile and guilty than the minister taking it, because they take ten times more than what they gave. This is the reason why there is rampant and unrestrained corruption in the government.

The tree of government corruption is deeply rooted in their political parties. Party corruption nurtures the government corruption. Party corruption is not so widely known or discussed because no one keeps its records. No one is given a receipt for the money they paid. And also they don’t leave any paper trails during its distribution. Everything happens through word of mouth. Some parties show the income of one thousand or two thousand and big parties show the income of one hundred or two hundred crores to the Income Tax Department. This is what they are showing, so think about the huge financial reserves they are hiding in their foreign accounts.

This huge financial corruption is hidden and concealed from the public because most of our political parties have become private limited companies. What is the real face of our political parties? Some are mother-son or father-son parties, while some are husband-wife or father-daughter parties. These party owners gain hefty amount of money from selling their party tickets.

This greed for money also destroys the internal unity and democracy of the political parties. There are no rules or procedures for the nomination and election of their party members and candidates. Only those members receive preference that have deep pockets, and would generate a lot of money after becoming ministers. These candidates openly violate the money-expenditure limit set by Election Commission of India. They spend hundred or two hundred times more than the allotted amount. After winning the election and becoming a part of the government, they earn that money back with interest. This is the root of government corruption.

That’s why Right To Information Act should be first implemented on political parties and it’s leaders. The ruling political party play a more significant role in the governance of India than the government. It is more important to know the hidden truth of these political parties than that of the government. If we could make the working and dealings of these political parties more transparent, the government corruption would resolve itself.

But the real question is do our politicians want a pure, corruption-free government? If they really want to end the government corruption, then why do all these opposing political parties stand united on the issue of keeping the political parties out of Right To Information Act? The party-secret is more important than the government-truth.

Photo Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_Information_Act

Photo Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_corruption

Photo Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rupees

Every epoch has its own economic structure and the characteristics of the structure in a country depend upon how far the country has progressed. The capitalism of today is not the same as the capitalism of the nineteenth century. It has changed. Many things which one advocated on behalf of socialism have now been universally accepted. Therefore, there is no question of choice between the two. It all depends upon how far the people have progressed. It would not suffice to dub people as socialist or raise socialist slogans or make a law. What is appropriate for a people depends upon the progress of their eco0nomy. They have to make efforts to go ahead. Besides, the present age is a complex and the people of the world attained different levels of progress in different parts. At the same time they know of the achievements of one another. Had they been completely unaware of one another's conditions, it would not have mattered. That is why this tussle keeps going on. Basically capitalism was a stage in economic progress which at one time greatly helped the world to go ahead. In my opinion that age is over. The new age that is coming is heading for socialism. At many places capitalism itself is taking on or will take on on the form of socialism. At many places capitalists call themselves socialists. The greatest capitalist country of the world, America, is in actual practice far more socialistic than we are, even though it may not believe in the principles of socialism. For the whole world of today is going in that direction. America says sincerely that its ideal is a classless society. But this is also the socialist ideal. It is useless for us to talk of socialism and communism. We have got castes and thousand other things that divide us. It is ridiculous to talk of big ones. Still the world is going in that direction of socialism, and we are too stumbling towards it. Some day or other we shall reach there.

Communism is also adjusting itself. Communism is, as a matter of fact, a plan of society. There is a little difference between communism and socialism but not much. As it is, there is may types of communism. But by and large it means a method, a method of war, violence and rebellion, to bring about that plan of society.

In some places these things are there to a greater extent, in others to a smaller one. Take for instance Soviet Union, the biggest communist country. The Soviet Union has progressed very rapidly and continues to do so. It has now become stable society. Its over all remains the same, but there is now no questions of her continuing her old methods. China, however, is a different case. In China so many things are having which have not being approved even by many communities themselves. Communism has one meaning at one time and another at another time. Religion is another such term. There are some religion that teach for forcible proselytization. But they too get cooled down and accept the situation. It takes all types to make the world.

In the current election environment not only politicians but also intellectuals are totally neglecting the topic of innovation. We haven’t yet understood that the culture of innovation has to be developed and nurtured. We should create such policies that would facilitate the growth of innovation.

Economic Growth Facilitates Social Development

In our country you could see many strikes and demonstrations to protect our political, financial and social right. But what we are unable to understand is that in order to protect these rights it is necessary to have financial and economic growth. When a society is financially stable then it can concentrate its resources on solving its social problems.

The political parties talk about great policies to help the voters. They make promises to build better roads, schools and hospitals. But what they fail to inform us is that these policies and services are not free they come at a price. Only through wealth creation we could achieve progressive infrastructure and social development.

Innovation Facilitates Economic Growth

Innovation is the key element when it comes to wealth creation. When we focus more on research of new technologies, then we can create new economic opportunities. U.S. and UK became such great economic power because of the easy availability of useful and innovative technology to the common people. These countries first became financially stable and self sufficient through innovation in technology and economic growth. They got their civil rights after they became a developed economy. This sequence is important. The right technology builds market and these markets then generate money.

Due to a single company like Microsoft U.S. added billions of dollars in their reserves. There are many such companies in U.S. and they all focus primarily on innovation. It is same in Germany. First they innovate and develop a new technology and then they use this technology to create a new product or service. The companies that invest most in innovation make the most profit. The same is true about countries. These are the steps towards economic growth. When we can create public awareness about the importance of innovation then we can facilitate its growth and ultimately grow as an economy.

Failure of India

It cannot be said that Indian society lacks innovation. Many people develop innovative products through their imagination. But their imagination and inventions doesn’t get the media attention or public support. They can’t convert their innovative technology into a commercially manufacturing product. This is the failure of India. When a country doesn’t nurture and appreciate its talent then it cannot grow. The government should create such an environment where the spirit of innovation could be encouraged. This will help India in achieving new heights in the field of science and technology.

Innovation Should be Appreciated

China understood that it cannot compete with U.S. and UK on production alone. That’s why they focus primarily on getting more patents. Innovation could flourish only in society that supports and appreciates it. But our politicians are completely ignorant on this topic. They still ask for votes on the cheap and age old agendas of free electricity, toll free roads and cheap food grains. And the sad thing is that the voters also support these agendas.

Photo source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invention

Photo Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emerging_technologies