Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Entitlements

Vasu Reddy From Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

India has been run on political entitlements since 1947. For some reason the country continues to favor the privilege of the past or privilege of the family in looking for leadership at every level of the country. From the smallest village, town, city, state and the country; at every level politics are typically run as entitlements, and the country despite being the largest democracy continues to push through political entitlements. We love to keep talking about the legacy of someone or some family, and always are looking backwards on the glory of the past, and try to recapture the glory of the past in the current generation of people who represent the past.

While the value of remembering the past and the people who we look up to, the idea of a current generation of people are the same representation of people of the past is far from real. The claims by almost all Indian politicians at every level of politics, is difficult to miss even in this age of mass media and 24/7 coverage. The politicians simply will claim their right to be in the race as the legacy of their fathers, and will only use the past to constantly remind the voters of the totally irrelevant record of members of their family. To be on the record, India really doesn't have a record to boast of anything in any sector. It is a country of more than a billion people, and much of them live under desolate conditions. India is the largest democracy on the planet, and perhaps its only claim is to being the largest free society.

India is a country of contradictions, and people of easy gullibility. Contradictions exist with everything in its people, places, geography, languages, traditions, caste, religion, wealth and whatever human conditions that can possibly exist and distinguish people. Despite the contradictions, people simply find common ground and by and large live and let live in peace. In fact the contradictions add to the beauty of the country and its diverse and difficult fabric. Not too long ago, India really was a much larger country with multiple countries evolving with in the short span and now have become hostile neighbors. Whatever you do and however you view India it is still a cosmos of great diversity which is held together with sheer intensity of its people's will.

While the country makes great strides at becoming a global power with its democracy and the sheer size of the population, and its diversity, it really has never deployed all of its human minds and vast natural resources to the best use. It we forgive the invaders and conquerors of India until the independence from the British in 1947, even the newer India has never been able to find leadership that will truly devote the country's human and natural resources to the best use of the people of the country. India is constantly engaged in either useless wars or infiltrations, and large scale scams which simply destroy the country's ability to best deploy its resources to best serve the country's ever expanding population.

We also have the population, which is simply oblivious to the leadership and its doings. When we did not have mass media and relied only on radio and news papers, it was given that the people fully were not informed of the deeds (misdeeds) of the people in power, or it took a long time of the public to be informed of how their wealth was being squandered. In 2014 it is difficult to imagine that people don't know what is happening? India has 100% mobile phone use, 100% people have access to TV and mass media, and we still follow the words of few without personal evaluation of what they are saying and what they are really doing (or what they did when in power). There is no magic to meeting the country's needs, it can be as simple as use all of its resources without scamming and abuse. That could mean that politicians will really want to get elected to serve people, and almost all of Indian politicians are absolutely uninterested in public service. Politicians are in for only to scam or take an ego trip after achieving wealth that is beyond a person's means.

Wealth and history in democracies do have a lot of intrinsic value and Indians are no different than others in having the respect for both. The problem is not with wealth or history, but the Indian problem is with the politicians entitlements to the legacy of their families and their past politics. If the people of India really look at the worst possible legacy of every government that has been in power, and every government that has squandered public wealth and country's past since 1947, they would simply start looking at the future of the country without the entitlements to any person of the past and start to look at what would be best for their future.

Tuesday, April 08, 2014

Two Point Agenda

Vasu Reddy From Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

The Indian elections are here and have begun for 2014. The process is drawn out for a couple of months covering the nation, and there is probably little speculation on the outcome of this election, except rhetoric from the politicians. The time leading to the first ballot has been with little new hoopla, and we have only heard the same old personal bashing, and nothing that offers a brand new agenda to deal with great Indian population and great Indian needs.

The recommended two point agenda for the new administration is quite simple and should be easy to embrace and implement.

1. No New Scams
2. No Nepotism

1. No New Scams – The great nations wealth and resources have been squandered for years and years of scams in every aspect of national management and state and local management in India. Everywhere and anything that is being built or developed, has been embroiled in scams and the new government should strictly adhere to no scam politicians and policies. This will immediately help rebuild the confidence of people in government and more so will deploy the scarce resources of the country into the needs of the country. Politicians have been investing huge amounts of money into party fund and campaigning to get elected and they need to recoup the money that has gone into electioneering, and the ones who don't get elected also have invested heavily into the elections and they also at some point will need to look to recoup their investment into politics. Now if we stop the recouping of investment into politics, that will be a start to the deployment of public resources for public welfare, rather than scams. How it can be done, what needs to be in place to stop the scams, and how the country and its electorate will manage the scam free society is for the Indian public to manage.

The public service aspect of politicians has been long forgotten in India, and once the politicians come into politics for public service and not scams, then we will probably see the resources going to public needs, rather than scams. How do we get there, and how do the public influence the politicians to really be into public service, it is a matter for changing the human nature and expectations. The love for democracy and freedom of the human spirit drive all humans, and India is the largest democracy on earth and it deserves a scam free society. While we want to be scam free, we should also be free of demands that are unreasonable on individuals competing for public office. The splashing of negative advertisements, indecent comments on others and constant bickering on what others are doing can be avoided by people, and encourage the agenda of the party and what the party can do to better manage the resources and how the party can provide services can be made more appealing. All people are willing and wanting to live in a free and democratic society, so they will have to figure the direction to a scam free society. It is their time now for electing representatives that will deliver just that.

2. No Nepotism – The root cause of most of the problems we have in politics is nepotism. It is entrenched in Indian politicians that they are entitled to positions of power because of their relatives hold or held higher positions, or elected positions. Just about every politician has a baggage to carry with family and friends constantly looking for favors. It is impossible to say no to a member of the family or a friend and if politics continue to foster nepotism, it will be impossible to be neutral in making decision that will impact the country and its citizens. India should elect individuals based on their merits and representations rather than whose family they belong to. It doesn't mean that politicians can't have relatives that are already in politics but that doesn't mean they have a birth right to getting the seat of power because of their lineage.

The 2014 general elections are here and in full force, and India is 100% sure to have a new PM as the current PM has elected to retire. It is also certain a number of new politicians will be elected to represent the great nation and its people. It is time to be scam free and nepotism free, and make people the first and foremost priority.

Cinema and its Magic

Vasu Reddy from Chicago vasureddy@aol.com   While in my college days in India, there was no internet, not much television except single chan...