by Chakresh Mishra
May 15, 2009Let us decide the agenda for the next generation
This election has posed a very big question for intelligentsia of this country. Are we having 30 or so state-wise election in place of parliamentary elections? The fact and reality points towards this as
1. No major national issue. Though there was some talk about terrorism, economy, but come on guys all of us know that not more than 10% people voted based on these considerations.
2. In era of coalition post poll alliances are formed based on state-wise situations of a party. Maya vs Mulayam, Jaya vs Karuna, Lalu vs Nitish, Mamta vs Left are main factors, not any ideology.
3. Both major national parties are way below magic figure of 272. and none is going to get more than 30% of total votes. Even in states where they are in main fight, their regional leaders are more important than any national figure. Modi in Gujarat, Shila in Delhi, Shivraj Singh Chauhan in MP are main face, not Advani or Sonia.
So the main problem of this fragmentization of indian polity is that holistic approach is missing and there is a fear that in near future any leader might prefer regional benefit over national benefit. It got me worried.
But if we ponder closely then it will turn out to be a triumph of the democracy. Democracy is “Representation of everyone’s aspirations while making policies”. And if a normal person connects himself with local issue more than any national issue then it should get representation in national polity. In this way it is the triumph of democracy, but not necessarily the best thing for whole society.
This is where role of political parties, media and intelligentsia of country comes in. It is their responsibility to make common people aware of national issues. So, I call for highlighting important issues related to larger problems than your street light and hand-pump of your locality (like environment, water security, soil contamination) in next election. So for next 5 years (or less than that 
) all of us should work towards educating common people of country for this purpose. Political education never stops, not for you, not for me. It is to make democracy work for good of all, though it is working anyway.
Comment, what do you think should be part of such national agenda.
May 16th, 2009 at 11:33 AM
hey so ww, we Know you Want India to be Defeated.
India is Doomed with congress’s victory.
May 16th, 2009 at 10:38 AM
Ha Ha Ha… I am so happy that u BJP baiters have lost. glory b 2 Congress and hope BJP and that about to die oldie coward Bal Thackeray gets routed even in Maharashtra Assembly elections ’09. Best of Luck Congress keep it up 4 desh ki pragati.
May 16th, 2009 at 9:15 AM
well, guys, congress is forming the govt again
May 16th, 2009 at 6:48 AM
Dont feel so Disheartened Saurabh. wait for a few hours, we Will Know The Trends.
May 16th, 2009 at 2:08 AM
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/general-elections-09-anatomy-of-counting/92678-37.html
Check out this piece of news from Congress owned CNNIBN.
If Rajdeep Sardesais goons have access to the nuts and bolts of election counting process (courtesy Naveen Chawla) then its anyones guess whether the counting will be free and fair !.
Congress has already won the elections….congrats to them !!.
May 15th, 2009 at 11:45 PM
I agree absolutely that for development to take place, population control is a must. There has been a slack in this area in last decade due to people emphasizing on advantage of high population in service sector.
It is of course good to have a big young population, but it is a short term gain, not a good long term strategy. We must stop and even try to reduce the population for long term benefit.
corruption, poverty all are offshoot of unmanageable population
May 15th, 2009 at 11:06 PM
First of all I congratulate Chakresh ji for this post… A great thought…
For building a nation, one must groom its gen next… every one knows… but the big question is how???
My thought is to start with the basic building blocks…
There is a big list of issues to be addressed… but on giving a close look one can easily figure out its all related… one issue is created due to another…
so where to start from????
No one can give the correct answer…
According to me, Population control and Education are the 2 most important areas to look into…
‘Hum do humare do’ was a great campaign… much more to be done…
‘Sarv siksha abhiyaan’ doing not as good as it should be…
Addressing this 2 is not an easy job… it requires long term planning… but it will have very-very long term effect.
At the end just quoting the example of Navodaya Vidyalaya, which is primarily of very poor talented students to provide free and quality education.
May 15th, 2009 at 10:13 AM
Chakresh, I have been a silent spectator of this blog for some time. Thought I would share my views on this topic:
To start with I hope you have read this:
http://claudearpi.blogspot.com/2009/04/april-27-2009-rediff.html
At one point Shourie ji rightly says Shourie ji’s words give a feeling of grave threat. And why not? The reason is quite simple and straighforward. The voter is not able to view things at the national level. As you rightly said, the voter needs to be educated. But my question is “is he ready to learn?” “is he ready to look beyond his colony or his ward?”
I am afraid not. Prior to elections, I was talking to some of my friends about the same issue. Most of them directly or indirectly answered “I am least bothered!”. Some of them were completely oblivious to the importance of national issues. The reason they say “if all states develop by themselves, the whole country will develop!”. This argument is a bunk! For example, take India’s fav game cricket. BCCI has been a battle ground of Kolkata and Mumbai for a lot of time! Is there some sanity in BCCI’s thought process? Would they ever come up with some wholesome plan to make domestic cricket better? I guess not.
India as a state has been propogating regionalism. The very notion of linguistic division!
In my view, IT and BPO has been to an extent nulifying this effect. However, IT and BPO, by propogating western lifestyle has also created another point for the regionalism to grow.
I think this is how we can handle this issue:
1) Encaurage professors of different language to teach in a completely different state. This has been a tradition in Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra and Tamil Nadu. The example of Thyagaraja, Dikhsitar and Syama Sastri is a great example in this regard. All the three of them are contemporaries based in Kerala but contributed in different languages. It is given time and again to show the deep relations between the four southern languages. This kind of close relationship should be built from Kashmir to Kanyakumari, from Surat to Itanagar. Special packages should be announced to professors who are willing to teach languages other than local languages across the country.
2) IT and BPO might be building some by making people work in different regions. To keep the local cultures intact, the companies should be encauraged to give free classes to the new employees in teaching local language (atleast spoken in form). The state govt may even partner with the company in giving these classes to the new employees so that atleast the local language is learnt. Irony is “if a company needs to send an employee on a long term trip to a differnt country, he is given extensive 3 week training about the place and local cultures”. Today in a country such as ours where the differences exist even in a few kilometer distances, isnt it logical to train the new employees about local culture?”
3) Bharat Mandirs. The concept of Bharat Mandir is a brain child of Advani ji. We call our motherland Bharat Mata. So why not worship Bharat mata? The feeling of national integrity will be there if one find Bharata Mata’s picture along side ram/allah/jesus or who ever it is he/she worships. Why shouldnt people be encauraged to build bharat mandirs?
4) Teaching how closely knit each state is to another from the schooling itself. Today, when we speak of Tamilnadu and Karnataka, first thing that comes to mind if Kaveri water and Hogenakkal. When one speaks of Maharastra and India, we talk of Almatti dam. Every state has problems with its neighbour. Why dont we speak of close relations between states? For example, R. Ganesh is a Kannadiga. He is Metallurgy PhD in IISc. He learnt as many as 14 Indic languages and lots of foreign languages. He is an expert in Prakrit. Yet he does his literary works in various langauges. He did Shata Avandhanam in Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Hindi and even Sanskrit. Such experts should be encaurages by conducting regular speeches in neighbouring states.
These are what I think are urgent necessity and may be Shourie ji is right, when he says “Parliamentary System is not good for India”. I havent read this book “Parliamentary System” yet. But I read the foreward in a book shop. We need to take such inputs and discuss further.
And BTW, thanks for a nice platform of this sort. I thoroughly follow all the comments in here as I find them quite informative and enlightening.
May 15th, 2009 at 9:57 AM
Your concerns are valid. If you look @ the election rallies parties have discussed development. But how many people really attend these rallies?
Dont you think the media should set the agenda for the political parties? The media didnt discuss party manifesto’s. Vision documents. It was a touch and go affair. Just a formality. All that one got to see in media was the varun episode, speculation on who’s getting how much, which party will go with whom etc etc.
May 15th, 2009 at 3:45 AM
Three points
1. Why hung verdict? Because politics has become a hide and seek game. This time we will have atleast 33% MP’s who will enjoy votes of less than 20% electorate. So propotional representation is necessary to be introduced now.
2. To call this election as issuless is wrong. Blackmoney is a big issue. I dont think that after independence thate was or can be bigger issue than this barring emergency. Do u consider death of Indira or Rajiv as issues.
3. Indians will always be issuless as we have only one issue; that is issue of self. We have a long history of Jaychands and Mirjafars. A fit harsh I am but this is truth.
3.
May 15th, 2009 at 3:31 AM
Education is indeed a prerequisite to ensure that people understand the benefit of democratic principles and can’t be swayed by fast talking politicians or anyone focussing on regional benefits over national benefits. Must focus on strong economy and economic gains need to trickle down equitably to people in all classes. Genuine separation of state and relegion will be a catalyst towards people thinking of them as Indians first.