orkut archives: Aditya: political reforms

1) Is changing the system simple?
Everyone is saying that we have to change the system.
What is this change?
is it something that is very complicated?
Well, nothing is complicated if we make some simple but critical changes.
We have to make the right changes.
Rest of the things will be done automatically, as a part of evolution.

In a dynamic eco-system, only the strongest will survive.
Right now the strongest survivor is a selfish and unethical group of people: criminals, Dons, corrupt politicians.
This is acceptable if the original intent was to create such people in our country.
But thats not what we set out to do, isnt it?
Even though, Nehru and Gandhi thought better for the country.
Their vision never got fulfilled.

So, there is a need for 2 simple but critical fundamental changes in the game.

The citizen should be the consumer and the political system has to
become service provider.

Right now, the Industry bigwigs, real estate mafiasos, and criminals are the direct customers while citizens are indirect customers and political system is service provider.
So, in that sense, political system is giving good service to its customers, isnt it?
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Changes
1) Decentralized govts and district level.
2) Preferntial vote/poularity vote at state level and national level.How these will solve our problems?

Well we can discuss on that too. If you are willing for such a discussion.
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2) There is no system which is 100% fool proof.
The question is which system has more chances for being successful in the long run

1) Autocratic\Dictatorship: One person is the king. Everything depends on what he wants, or how he achieves. There are so many examples where it is proved to be fatal. right from roman empire to hitler
2) Communist: Well we have 1 china, but we have many Burmas and Combodias.
3) Democratic: select or elect; but we have a choice.Again the question is how do we make democracy to deliver results and bring change.
There are lots of theories. And many of them are practical. We have to just adopt the best working models around the world. We can make delibrate changes so that it suits us.
Lets not try to re-invent wheel, just use the wheel, add more lines, increase the rubber content to suit us...
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2) biggest paradox
@"so ppl should change or government should plan sumthing for d ppl who wants deir work getting done easily and can take more money from dese ppl"

So u mean to say that ppl should change the govt or govt should plan something.

These both can never happen with the present system.

Now business communities, real estate agents and criminals invest alot in the political parties, so that when their party comes to power they can get things sanctioned in their favor illegally.... or in other words, legalising the illegitimate activities.
I agree that if they invest in parties transparently, there is no problem. but most of the money is black
Now all the political parties have to do, is take advantage of people's problems like, their weakness to liquor, clothes, color TVs, free rice, etc.
which will never exactly attack their main root cause.

OR

they divide ppl in terms of religion, community, language, region and locals vs outsiders... all these emotional issues.... they do emotional black mailing.

The people are satisfied for that moment, and without thinking,
they vote.

When politics are run like business, they are only concerned about their return of investment, nothing else....
for example if you invest in reliance, dont u expect return from that investment ?
Politicians make money because of loopholes in system, thats the reason they keep lopholes open. They dont want to close it.

Hence corruption is here to stay.

People find it hard to understand why loksatta needs money?
it clearly means that if people invest in loksatta it will give u back return in the form of clean and reformative politics. or else u have every right to raise ur voice. and demand! just like u scold airtel customer care!!
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3) @I have many questions to be answered?
1.Q) A common man still feels that loksatta is a party of intellectuals.I feel mass appeal is missing.
Ans) I will divide my answer into two topics
first:If you give some thoughts to each and everything that Loksatta is fighting for, it is for the commonest man
--> Free + quality Education for all: whom will it benefit most??
--> Free + quality Health: whom will it benefit most ??
--> Job-oriented Higher Education: will it not benefit your younger brother ??
--> Decentralised govt:
-------> we will elect people who maintains our town's infrastructure(MLAs can only recommend the local muncipality... did u know that
---------> Local police will handle trivial crimes
---------> more complicated things will be handled to higher levels depending on complexity
---------> independent crime investigation(politicians have no influence,as they dont need salute these As**oles

dearest friends will it not affect us?

Second:
--->Mass wants color tv. only then they will appreciate is it?
--->people want short term happiness, they are happy to spoil themselves with liquor and also spoil their children's future.
---> isnt loksatta striving for you to understand
----> still you say loksatta is not a mass party?

2Q) Whats the loksatta party stand on telangana?Make it clear.
I want to ask this question back to you
how many pieces you want india to be divided into? if each dstrict becomes a state will it solve all our problems?why is it such an important question? the problem is not whether telangana is in AP or not. the problem is the present political system gives incentives for cheating others.

3Q)Whats its stand on reservation?i know that its against reservation based on castes?but how u r going to educate the people?
Lets approach this problem differently
--> My watchman earns Rs3000, but he is spending 2500 every month for his son's hostel fees and other expenses
-----> what is the chance that he son will be employable after completing B.Com?
-----> how many ppl are competing for govt jobs? how many ppl have influence and corrupt means of getting his job?
------> what is the chance that his son will able to pay loans of his father?
-------> if he gets a good seat through reservation, will he be able to cope with high demands of a proffesional course after coming from telugu medium
---> if we understand all his problems, the solutions are clear
--------> help must be provided for the students who are really interested
---------> the present reservation system is giving students false security, they will always be dependent on reservation, even after completing education. because if they dont work hard, they will not be employable
.---------> ultimately education must provide you job and independence
---------> that is the reason LSP said it will provide 10marks extra.

we will see how this will tackle the issues raised in the above analysis
-------------> if my watchman's son gets 60% doesnt he deserve 70%? for all the hardships he has taken?
-------------> if he gets 30%, he will get 40%. will it make him an attractive student during an interview or higher studies? NO
-------------> so he will work hard and there-by he will start learning to stand by himself.
-------------> remember education should provide u a job and independent thinking capacity. this system solves both!!
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4) WE MUST ADDRESS THIS FRUSTRATION BEFORE ITS TOO LATE
I can see frustration in maruti raghuveer's heart.

Yess we have to be frustrated, if not now when more?

But we will not take arms to show our frustration.
Naxals are also frustrated about this skewed society.
And they think that blod shed is the only way.

WE MUST ADDRESS THIS FRUSTRATION BEFORE ITS TOO LATE.

Tomorrow we might enter into a civil war, if this not addressed at this crucial juncture.

We are standing at the turn of the tide.
The country is ready, we have significant no of educated people.
Independence struggle was started by a group of Lawyers.
Cant we stand and fight for equality and progress now!!

Ask the right questions, As maruti said, we have to ask for basic amenities, education and jobs.
not hindu-muslim,
not backward-upward caste
not marathi and hindi
not color tv and gold coin
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Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan at CII Young India Summit-2: transcript

youtube link: http://youtube.com/watch?v=uxzs9xscBCA

The real issue is not “Abroad”, (I am sure swamiji must have told you that in the first session in his Vedanta lecture) but, ultimately we must look into inward. If you want to conquer the world we must first set your house in order.

What is our Unique Selling Proposition? What is the single biggest factor that changes the perceptions and reshaped India’s image in the eyes of the rest of the world?

That is the educated Man-Power, people like Prof. Khanna, they went and conquered, they proved to the world that they are in no way secondary to anybody in the world. Infact, we claim that we have world’s second or third largest technical man-power pool.

But, let’s be truthful and realistic. We have the potential to have the world’s second or third largest technical man-power pool. In reality, we are grossly under-performing. Our higher education is in a mess, let alone literacy. But our higher education is in a state of collapse. A few world class management institutes and IITs do not constitute a world class infrastructure for entire country and its future if you really want to play a global role.

There is no conception of education. I am not in bother of trivia like IIM fee and things like that. I am looking at the university system.

It’s a disgrace.

We take some of the brightest youngsters and convert them into monkeys in a few years time.

And there are a few of non-monetary inputs (you don’t have to think of some hi-tech rocket science), simple non-monetary inputs. As I understand, no Harvard scholar can go back to Harvard and be a teacher immediately after his masters or his doctorate. MIT or Stanford and many others don’t allow this incestuous academic activity. They want cross-fertilization of ideas. But simply to adopt this practice does not require money. It doesn’t really require genius, it requires common sense.

I remember seeing a New Zealand university advertising for its president globally. A small, tiny country of 3 million people asking for a university president across the world.

I remember a professor in biological sciences telling me sometime back in of these Indian universities; that he was in a small little country called Eritrea (many of you might even not remember where that wretched place is). I said “how is it there?” He said “there is no comparison”. I said “is it so bad?” “No it is so wonderful compared to Indian universities”.

Eritrea Damn it?!

The second example of educational …… for instance, the system of electives was started in Harvard some 130 years ago by Charles Elliot. Even today when you go to undergraduate, postgraduate schools in this country, I am sure many of you all have gone, you have this pre-fabricated set of academic curricula: CBZ, Bi-PC and some of the nonsensical combination without a perception of anything that matters, without adding value and making new decision makers and without making new wealth creators in the true sense of the term.

Or take the examinations, all that matters is

• ignore the last years question paper,
  
• mug-up 3 preceding years question papers and their answers

and you are sure to get 75% grade, and you consider yourself masters in so and so subject.

We have to significantly alter the nature of education because that is our unique-selling-proposition and future is going to be shaped by education.

And ofcourse healthcare; the regional inequality; take the state of bihar, its per-capita-income is already under 1/4^th of India’s richest state among major states and that is Maharashtra. And this ratio is going to be 10:1 in next 8-10 years at current rate. We cannot afford that.

Population: happily some states are showing the way through a few strategic initiatives, notably the states of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh in recent times. We can do it, but we have to do it across the country.

But finally, can a modern economy co-exist with medieval polity?

Some 25 years ago, in an American journal was talking about American medicine came out with a wonderful expression “doing better and feeling worse, is this an apt description of American medicine?”

Well that may or may not be, but I think that’s an apt description of what Indian is doing today. We are certainly doing better but we also are feeling worse in many respects. We don’t deserve to, we don’t need to.

We can make a difference only if there is a significant political reform because economic reform is absolutely necessary but not sufficient.

Corruption has come down in some areas like telecommunication, railways and many other sectors. The range of goods has expanded, the choices are greater, and the prices are stable. We are happy.

But, corruption has shifted to more dangerous areas; take the telgi’s stamp paper scam, take Sachindra Dubey’s murder in Gaya, take the leak of question papers by Sanjeev Kumar (I don’t know if you have read in newspapers, that fellow’s annual income was 100 crores; from examination leaks alone. And his dream was to become next MP, and he would surely been next minister, why only an MP?), ofcourse the take the case of arrest warrants issued against the president of India and chief justice of India for 40,000 rupees.

This issue is not about corruption, the issue is about

shifting corruption from economic areas of decision making to sovereign spheres of decision making,

from where the state cannot be rolled back.

That can and must be addressed, but only through significant political and governance reforms. If we really care for economic growth, if we want to be global champions, if we want to be among six global powers that Kissinger predicted, then we have to set our house in order. And one of the most ingredients is going to be the way that our polity is shaped.

We must make sure that our integrity and survival in public office are compatible.

Some 15 years ago in the then soviet union, similar conditions prevailed. There was a very popular story in those days; I believe in Moscow ration shop, some 200 people queued up to get few crumbs of bread. They waited and waited, and waited for hours; A super power, No Bread; A young man lost his temper and ultimately he walked out and stormed out protested “I will go and kill the secretary general”. The others waited; still there was no bread in sight. He came back after 3 hours; they all gathered around him asked him “what happened, have you killed the general secretary?” He said “I went there to kill the general secretary, but there was a much longer queue waiting there” They simply waited; they didn’t do what was necessary in time. They hoped somebody somewhere would take care of their problems. The day of reckoning came in 1991 the nation (you know what happened) became fifteen fragments. Soviet Union is a pale imitation of its past. Russia is now floundering, it will come back surely, but there is lots of needless suffering.

We will make a substantial impact on the world in next 50 years. This century could well be India’s along with china’s but only if we now act decisively with clarity and conviction.

Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan at CII Young India Summit-1: Transcript

youtube link: http://youtube.com/watch?v=FytTv4Jgn7o
Not too long ago, we were a nation full of self-pity, self-flagellation and a sense of doom and deprivation. In over 12 years of time, I think significant changes are evident today, earlier we talking about them, but now we are seeing some of them.
I remember some 20 years ago, when I was special officer of India’s largest public sector undertaking at that time, about 8000 crores of investment in Vishakapatnam steel project, until that time I was a great socialist like many of our generation were. Many of you would laugh at us to think that there actually could be some socialist thinkers and believers, some 20-25 years ago. But that stint cured me of many of those illusions, because I then discovered that public sector was nothing but private sector of those in public office. But that knowledge dawned on the people of this country at large; and the governance system almost a decade later. We were very slow, but mercifully it happened even if it is out of compulsion though not of conviction and things started changing, that’s the reason why we are now discussing what we are discussing.
If Sanjay Barau talks about “how to take on the world?” on equal terms without a sense of fear or reputation also with a sense of ease: “Giving and Taking”, fulfilling our obligations, accepting the challenges and becoming a major power.
Or if Dr. Khanna is talking about potential and promise, and changing our nature and our perception: not only self-perception but also global-perception of India: From a caged tiger (A famous “Economist” issue of 4th of may 1991, some of you might have read, but for many of us of slightly elder generation; that was one of most defining pieces of journalism; one of the most spectacular pieces of journalism. Talking of our promise and potential of our problems) to playing a majestic elephant, hopefully.

But were are we now in terms of geo-political terms, I thought that Sanjay would take some of these, so may be I would go into some of these specifics, he gave you a broader picture of India, its future, its potential, its promise and its challenges.

Three days ago, I was talking to a very perceptive American about India’s role within our own neighbourhood. He said “You know, if India starts negotiating with Bhutan, then India will end-up becoming Bhutan”. That started a chain of thoughts in my mind. Somehow we still have not come to believe that we matter bigger than Bhutan or Nepal or Bangladesh or Pakistan. Somehow when we deal with Bangladesh for instance, we all the time look at ……………….., we somehow try and rob it, not realizing that there are actually gains to be made for both of us, and we need to be generous; not merely out of charity, but out of enlightened self-interest.
Look at the Asian highway, its one of the most promising things for this country. For the first time we are looking at the east. We are now looking at linking up with south-east Asia in a substantial measure. Look at our own states; UP and Bihar: some of the most backward in the world, some of the most populous, some of the most densely populated in the world. And I do not see any significant political solutions in the next few years. They are possible, but they are not practical given Indian constitutional and political constraints. One way to really re-shape the future of something like 280 million people in those two states alone and may be if you include Bengal, north-east and Orrisa, you are looking at something like 400 million people, that’s a large number. To reshape their future is, linking up the Southeast Asia, and road-link is the critical one. And we still could not make Bangladesh understand that it is critical for their future as well as important for our own future. We still have to go through Siliguri; a very torturous route. And still we cannot be linked up the way we ought to.
Take the case of Nepal: I am agnostic, I don’t care a damn for religion, but there is a natural link between Nepal and India, and yet when you go to Nepal there is somehow a perception that India is a bit of nuisance. Nepal is a very reluctant ally. Many Nepalese think that Indians are big brothers. And from a purely economic-stand point-of-view, Nepal has excellent terms of trade like textiles, garments, etc. If Indians know how to invest in Nepal, have a good relationship with Nepal, have a good feeling for them, look at their future, then Indians could take great advantage of those terms and then give benefits to Nepalese people and Indian capital. And maybe even Indian workers, because there are no real barriers between Nepal and India. Or take the problems of internal security within the country, naxalites in Andhra Pradesh: Peoples’ War Group to the whole belt spreading up to Nepal Maoists, there are links. If we trust them, if they trust us not merely fear us, maybe together we can confront the challenge effectively.
The point I am making is, if we have to make significant geo-political contribution and play our rightful role, first, we must look at our neighbours. If only because we are infinitely bigger, for the far greater civilizational sense, with much greater level of confidence, we can afford to do that on terms not necessarily in the short-term equal, it shouldn’t be, it need not be. Eventually we will all gain, because India cannot prosper if South Asia cannot.
Lets look towards west, Pakistan ofcourse the problems are well known. But go back a century or more, in those days (I don’t know how many of you are aware, but) much of the global politics were centered around warm water ports; the requirements of warm water port for Russia. The czarist expansion of Russia, the occupation of central asia, and somehow getting a corridor to Arabian sea via Afghanistan. That’s why the then british Indian govt of fought three Afghan wars, inorder to conquer and control Afghanistan. Ofcourse they were all doomed to failure ultimately. But issue is even today, “how do we somehow establish linkage with central asia”. Which is no longer a part of soviet union. “how do we make an impact”; that means we have to deal with Islam, we have to deal with terrorism, we have to deal with a host of other factors, because Oil, Natural Gas and many other things that are of strategic importance in the next 25 to 30 or 50 years. They are all going to be dependent on what do we do on the west for this country. There is much to be done; there is a lot of that you have to understand. I don’t know how many of you would name five central asian republics once part of former soviet union. I don’t know if many of the Indian people and businesses have actually are going there and trading with them, interacting with them, understanding them and trying to shape their countries and shape our own relationships with those countries and therefore our own future.
And ofcourse China, Sanjay made significant points but let me make one point which is optimistic, despite all the unfavourable comparisons, one good thing that’s happening is, our own sense of long-term vision. 20, 30 or 40 years ago, we all used to say, what all be the failings of china, that’s a country with long-term national vision. They look themselves at themselves and look at the world in terms of 50 years, 100 years. They have truly long-term national vision, but we always look at today, tomorrow, somehow manage survive.
But I think happily, we must give it our political system across the spectrum, its not this party or that, we now are looking towards the long-term. For instance, national highway project, the sagaramala, the asian highway that I talked about and significant diplomatic initiatives of look-east policy as-well-as looking towards central asia and west asia, and even our relations with china and rest of the world. All these are now shaped by a sense of longterm.

How we are still a developing country ??

We normally hear questions like "Why we are still a developing country?" but turning the way we ask questions can change our outlook. "How" directly questions the "Action", while "Why" questions the "Idea\Thought" behind action.

I have started re-reading one of my favourite books on Indian Economy, “India Unbound”. I had read this book at the time when I had just received my first salary. I must admit that this book has changed the way I look at our country, its economy, its diversity, its irony.

The following is an edited excerpt from this beautiful book.
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"When India got independence, the economists’ main question was not “If India would take off economically” it was “when”. The economists predicted that investment rate would increase by 10-12%. And the investments rate in India was well over 20% for next 2 decades. But we failed to transform the society. Why?
There were six main reasons for this deception. (please note that Action is in bold(how), results of action is italicized and underlined(why), to signify the way we ask questions)

1) India adopted inward-looking, import substituting path rather than an outward looking, export promoting, thus denying itself a share of world trade and prosperity that trade could bring postwar era.
2) It setup massive, inefficient and monopolistic public sectors. The public sectors were denied autonomy, the productivity was very less, the capital-output ratio was poor
3)It over-regulated the private enterprise with worst controls in the world. This diminished competition in the market. Hence there was no reward for innovations.
4) It discouraged foreign capital and denied itself the benefits of technology and world-class competition. We could not advance technologically in many fields of science.
5) It pampered the organized labour to an extent that the productivity was very low. Most of the PSUs are under loss and wastage of taxes.
6) Ignored the education of children especially for girls. No need to say how important it is for us.

The Indian rulers stubbornly persisted with the wrong model of development. Especially during 1970s, it was pretty clear that Indian approach was leading India to complete economic disaster.
It did not encourage growth of industry, denied Indians jobs without which the people could not come out of poverty.
It is very ironic that this order was created by the same people who were admired widely. In the name of the poor they refused change the course. Ultimately this approach did very little for the poor.

Many other countries which were in similar state as India (when it got independence) moved forward, while India was still under the inferiority complex. Eastern countries used better approach to alleviate itself from the poverty. China which was in much more difficulties too improved the lives of its people.
Our failure is not because of bad ideology but was because of bad execution.

How does India compare itself with the rest of the world?
1) India’s percapita income is $450, 162nd in world development report of 2000-2001.
a) In 1960 it was higher than China, now it is less than half of china’s.
b) Now it is $700, that is because of the effects of economic reforms
2) Half of the Indians are below poverty line: less than 1$/day
3) 1/3rd of world’s poor are in India
4) Life expectancy of an Indian is 63 years. Lesser than poorer countries
5) 65/1000 infants die.
6) 2/3rd of Indian children suffer from malnutrition and under-weight.
7) 71% do not have proper sanitation.
8) 4/10 are illiterate.
Therefore India ranked 134th of 174 countries on the UN development Program’s Human Development Index.
Other countries with similar historical and political backgrounds have done much better.

Who is responsible for all these criminal negligence?
Definitely the Indian ruling elite: The politicians, MPs, senior bureaucrats and economic planners
They have no humiliation that India has lagged behind in the list of third world countries, while the east and southeast nations have gone ahead.
They feel no shame that other countries with fractional human and natural potentials have gone on to create prosperous societies.

When individuals blunder, their families would undergo unfortunate sufferings.
But when rulers fail, it’s a national tragedy."
-GC Das, India Unbound
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