The Race is on

So the Race is about to begin for Bungalow No.1 – The 7 Race Course Road, the official Bungalow allotted to the Prime Minister Of India. Incidentally, the Bungalow No.-7 is not only his residence but also the work address as well similar to 10- Downing Street or White House in the United Kingdom or the United States of America. There is a long list of leaders dreaming to enter the gates of 7-Racecourse Road but it remains to be seen who will be the lucky one that will enter into the gate of this dream-house. We don’t know the names who will enter in this prestigious house but the list of aspirants is not a secret as almost every party has declared it Prime Ministerial candidate barring of course if something extra ordinary happens and a party pops up out of the blues.  

General Elections a regular feature

It is a regular feature in India that takes place at the gap of every five years but it’s going to be an extraordinary election this time around. The fact that makes this election different from other Parliamentary elections held so far is that there is a leadership-war is on in the major opponents especially both the national parties. Besides the name of Arvind Kejriwal, a relatively new name in the Indian politics has emerged like a comet in the horizon. However the things are settling a bit now and the race seems to be in between the two top contenders namely Narendra Modi of Bhartiya Janta Party and Rahul Gandhi of Congress. The third one Arvind Kejriwal seems to have lost some of the ground for the time being, but as I said earlier that we can’t rule out something unexpected to happen as third front is very much relevant and can play its role. 

There is no denial that BJP has taken the lead in the race under Narendra Modi’ who successfully led the state elections held in 5 states and winning 3 of them and emerging the largest party in Delhi where Kejriwal performed almost as expected winning 28 seats out of 70 and toppling BJP’ hopes of forming the government. But the picture is clear now, the Congress has refused to back Delhi government on the Jan Lokpal bill forcing Kejriwal to resign from the post of Chief Minister’s post. However, Arvind Kejriwal’s unbelievable performance in the State elections of Delhi makes him a probable choice in the coming general elections for a bigger number of voters depending upon the number of candidates he fields in the coming elections. Finally, Congress has not declared it officially but if the UPA wins under the Congress leadership, Rahul Gandhi is certainly going to be their first choice as Prime Ministerial candidate.

Narendra Modi - BJP 

For the time being BJP is going great guns under Narendra Modi’s ferocious aggressive election campaigning. Modi seems to have taken over the Indian political scene with his superbly designed strategies consisting of fierce advertising, International public relation, and different event managements, well planned expensive election campaigning, involvement of social media and with the help of corporate world and his own achievements in different sectors in Gujarat state’s development story. And there should be no doubts in minds of the competitors, the results of the state assemblies held recently are showing his success story. 

There is no doubt that at one stage Bhartiya Janta Party was divided into two and the major section of the party was in favor of Lal Krishna Advani but Modi was the choice of policy makers of the BJP. They had already lost the previous election under Advani, moreover Modi was the most aggressive and natural choice as the Prime Ministerial candidate. The issue is not fully resolved as the party is still facing the resentment form some of the old leaders and if the BJP looses the election probably it would be due to their own infighting more than any other reasons. For time being Modi has succeeded in his plans by projecting himself the ideal leader of masses in the name of development and giving this country a much needed boost at all fronts. He might fall short at certain topics and there are few facts that pull him back but the Indian public at present doesn't seem to care a bit. The opposition is trying its best to bring the ghost of Gujarat riots into the picture despite the court’s verdict that declared him clean. Opposition thinks that it’s kind of big weapon in their hands and Modi has a difficult job on his hands but in spite of all such allegations, Modi has only one problem to face- ‘the Kejriwal factor’. 

Arvind Kejriwal ‘The Kejriwal factor’

Narendra Modi was almost having a cakewalk when Arvind Kejriwal made his entry into the political scene. Kejriwal emerged in the Indian political arena from the Anna movement that mainly wanted a Lokpal Bill to protect the citizen of this country from the corruption committed by politicians and government employees but governments were delaying the process unnecessarily for decades. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) sprouted by Arvind Kejriwal gave a new hope to Indian politics and he became an instant success among the masses. Now, the limelight had somewhat shifted from BJP to AAP as Kejriwal stole the show and became the latest hero of the great Indian political drama that will end with the general elections a couple of months later. 

Most people thought his aggressive style of functioning from the road along with large gatherings was okay but once he took over as Chief Minister of the State he should have acted more sensibly and he should have concentrated on proper governance rather than giving it dramatic touch. That was a little too much for people who wanted things to go by the rule books, public in general loved it though. Now, he is no more in seat of power and that would probably give him a chance to reschedule his working style and expand his party to different corners of the country with everyone looking and waiting to join him eagerly.

Rahul Gandhi leading the Congress

Congress as per their tradition did not declare any Prime Ministerial candidate but that is part of their culture as Nehru Gandhi family is the only choice for the party so Rahul is the natural choice for them and stage is all set provided their collision wins enough seats required to form a government in the center. However, they once announced his name well, almost and then suddenly the denial appeared through the press conferences but that was probably to test the water. This experiment brought a mixed bag for the party, the party members shouting ‘Yea’ in welcome, but the public reacting indifferently. Rahul has a lot to say about country’s future but he has nothing to clarify about the bygone regime of the party.

Rahul Gandhi in his interview to a famous Indian TV channel was seen puzzled, fumbling and almost ducking under the questions which further increased people’s doubts in his abilities, efficiency and his intelligence level to takeover as Premiership of this country. The ghost of 1984, the Sikh massacre is still haunting the party and that is another point that brings Congress on back foot. The attitude shown so far by the youngest leader of the oldest party of the country does not seem to impress the masses anymore of this country that is stuck in mud of corruption up to the neck.

Conclusion

As described in the beginning the names are here for everyone to see and choose from, unless of course, something unexpected happens and the country has to look for someone from the wide list of smaller regional parties that will decide the fate of 140 Crore people of this country. Let’s all pray that the ablest person wins and enters the doors of 7-Race Course Road for the safe and healthy future of this country.  

I believe in socialism but do not reduce the disparity between the salaries of big and small officials and the difference of income between the rich and the poor, though this difference is perhaps greater in India than in any other civilized country. In the first instance a person should say whatever he thinks proper, whatever he is or not able to achieve it. There are difficulties in actual practice, especially in these matters. In personal matters if a person preaches something to others but not act on it, that is wrong. But as far as society is concerned, the thing might not be within his control. There might be a thousand factors to be coped with. So a person says something in an effort to change the opinion of the society. You might call it propaganda, publicity or teaching. In my opinion this expression is generally a step ahead of actual practice. As for the difference in salaries I feel it has no connection with socialism. I think it is wrong to treat them as synonyms. In my opinion it is basically harmful ton think in this way every time. I agree that there should be less disparity among salaries. But to see socialism in reducing disparity is not to understand even the A B C of socialism. I get irritated by such things.

Does socialism mean cutting people's heads, noses, ears and pockets? That would be the socialism of poverty; but the very term socialism came into being when some wealth was produced in the world. When there is no industry about hundred years ago there was no mention of socialism. So it is a basically wrong thing. I agree that equality of opportunities is the ideal of socialism. But even there it does not say equality of incomes. Equality of incomes at a very late stage, when there is no much wealth in the world that there is no necessity of paying salaries to anybody and every can just pick up whatever he needs. That would mean enough production for the needs of all. That is another matter. But there is no country including Soviet Russia where this difference is absent. They give more incentives in the form of greater salaries and more facilities. Of course it is true that there should be an equality of opportunity in accordance with individual capacity. Secondly, it is agreed that there should be no difference of high and low in the world, at least it should be as little as possible. But socialism is only the culmination of this. You can not start with this point. For if you do, you immediately check the strength of grow. You check the capacity of the country and make the people feel that they are being made fools so that they may remain on an equal level.

On the other hand, you may remain cut off from the world and live as it were in a cage. Then you can do whatever you like. But when you come in contact with the world you can not avoid progress. Many of our very good scientists and engineers go out of India and remain abroad, for we can not stop them. We can not make them work by wringing their necks. Further, some things are necessary also in the interest of efficiency. For example, a scientist might not be able to work at a low remuneration. Therefore, you have to prescribe certain minimum. For the work of people like scientists is of a higher level. We have to create levels. But as the general level goes on increasing, this difference in wages diminishes. On the other hand, maximum remuneration at each level should also not be too high. It should be brought down. These adjustments are necessary and therefore have to be made.

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