POLITICS

In the last 3 days, I don't think I have had as much fun in watching politics as I have had ever before. The fact that the likes of Mayawati, Mulayam, jayalalitha and Karats are losing favour and might finish off is something that not only inspires me but also leads me to believe that the Golden Age might be cometh (Read Last Blog). With Rahul Gandhi, some sort of a saviour might arrive although a lot is still yet to be achieved before any applause is due. But in times as such, any optimism should be taken advantage off.

The election results have been for the most part, a success of India's growing focus on economic and social reforms as opposed to caste or communal politics. Money, jobs, infrastructure, education have become the desires as opposed to 'dalit' supremacy, 'Muslim' minority rights or Hindu righteousness. The reasons are quite easy but is something that a 70 year old or older will not be able to understand.

India is primarily a young country (over 80% are below 50 years of age) and have been born sometime after independence and many also in the era privatisation. These people want choice, options and service which leads to better lives. Roads for travelling and transporting, trains and planes for reaching far off areas, fast food chains for convenience, super markets for choice and access to information to broaden their horizons (in order to probably prove that they are better than any other race of people).

We are a nation that is showing its intolerance of mediocrity, desire for change, and want of a vision desperately so that there is some pride. Although this might take another 20 years, some of the Ideas that occur to me in making things easy are as follows:

1. Focus on R&D to develop 'Indian' IP. We need to create a brand India which can be appreciated worldwide and something that is not to do with IT, History or Poverty.
2. Focus on Internal Security and Armed Services. I advocate harsh punishments (including capital punishment), higher security for the 1.2 billion people and would say that actually, some sort of conscription should be made mandatory. Defence spending also brings in high end technology to the country and gives terrorists something to worry about.
3. Infrastructure and development. I don't think we need to touch this too much.
4. A national policy of inclusion. No reservations, no exclusion of the eastern states, no using words like dalits (demagoguery should be punishable by death), no showcasing India as a nation that speaks different languages but a nation that speaks one common language and knows 25 others as well.
5. Development of freedom of expression. Remove censorship, legalize pornography and prostitution (this will reduce rape and STDs), broadcast parliament sessions on TV like in the US and Europe and make government records even more transparent.
6. Last but not least, create wonders of the modern world to showcase our talents. Be it metro systems, bridges, buildings, centers, institutions, etc.

I think that we shall see much of this in the future and I at least am getting excited about it.

Aditya