Let’s make India better!

First ever individual gold medal for India in Olympics! I really got emotional when I saw the tricolor going up and heard the national anthem.

a) National Carriers (Airlines and private bus operators) can not just cancel flights/buses and put passengers in misery. If they do, they have to provide them a place to stay until they find an alternative arrangement for the travel or reimburse them with the going fare to travel to the destination. I have experienced this twice with SpiceJet and it was a terrible experience. I do not want to hear the reasons for the delay. You are in the business and you need to add those delay risks in your schedule and tell me the actual ‘expected’ time.

b) Autos can not ask for more money for carrying passengers to a place within municipal limits. Autos can not deny to go to any place with in municipal limits.

c) Police can ONLY manhandle if :
- There are two independent witness
- The person has more than one criminal/corruption cases file against him
- There is a proper warrant against the person
Police CANNOT abuse or manhandle a person otherwise. If a cop does this, the person can file the complaint and the action will be taken within one week!

d) All the results of PILs must be published in ALL national dailies on the last page covering 1/4th of the page for at least two days in succession.

e) Public roads CANNOT be used for political rallies or private functions (Religious festivals, marriage processions etc).

f) No more than 5 cars can be used to give security to politicians.
- The procession cannot be carried in peak hours (morning 8pm-11pm and evening 4pm-8pm). No road can be blocked for more than 10 minutes.

g) Increase the traffic violation fees by more than 5 times. Make every cop accountable to some minimum amount they need to recover from every month in penalties. Give them 25% of the excess penalty as bonus. Do the same thing for raiways, traffic inspectors and all similar services.

h) Reduce the airline, train and phone quota for politicians, government employees. The service can not be extended for more than 3 family members (Spouse and 2 children). All facilities to have a cap of 10% of the salary as upper cap.

i) I should be allowed to do whatever I want, where ever I want. Freedom of expression. No more moral policing!

Any more to add?

New India,  lots of jobs… like US, lots of money… like US, Busy schedules… like US, lots of TV Channels… just like America, Pizzas, burgers, multiplexes, pubs, discotheques, fancy clothes, designer wears, lots of booze, wines, amusement parks, .. all like US.. few more things that come as part of this “inclusive growth” are children shootouts in school.

What is wrong with us? Are we so fast in catching up in all the wrong things with US?  Do we really need that screwed up western education methods for primary schools? Add to this that we have developed these fancy schools where the buildings are air conditioned, earthquake proof, holidays in Europe, prom nights and what not. We see kids spending hundreads of rupees and time on cafe coffee days talking about sex, booze and smoking. Is this what we are giving our future generation?

I want to write much more on this topic but I am just too depressed by this news. I think we need to copy one more thing from America. We need to copy the phrase “God bless India”!

I am a great admirer of Dr. A.P.J. Abul Kalam and really believe in his philosophies and vision for India. I am sure many of us have already read his much talked about speech often circulated through emails. I just thought no blog about India is complete without this speech. Whenever I read this, I get goosebumps and get inspired to do something for India. Here it is from one of the great men of the present era -

Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam ’s Speech in Hyderabad:

Why is the media here so negative?
Why are we in India so embarrassed to recognize our own strengths, our
Achievements? We are such a great nation. We have so many amazing success
Stories but we refuse to acknowledge them. Why?
We are the first in milk production.
We are number one in Remote sensing satellites.
We are the second largest producer of wheat.
We are the second largest producer of rice.
Look at Dr. Sudarshan , he has transferred the tribal village into a Self-sustaining, self-driving unit. There are millions of such achievements But our media is only obsessed in the bad news and failures and disasters. I Was in Tel Aviv once and I was reading the Israeli newspaper. It was the Day After a lot of attacks and bombardments and deaths had taken place.  The Hamas had struck. But the front page of the newspaper had the picture of a Jewish gentleman who in five years had transformed his desert into an orchid And a granary.   It was this inspiring picture that everyone woke up to. The Gory details of killings, bombardments, deaths, were inside in the Newspaper, buried among   other news.

In India we only read about death, sickness, terrorism, crime. Why are we so NEGATIVE? Another question: Why are we, as a nation so obsessed with foreign Things? We want foreign T. Vs, we want foreign shirts. We want foreign Technology.

Why this obsession with everything imported. Do we not realize that Self-respect comes with self-reliance? I was in Hyderabad giving this Lecture, When a 14 year old girl asked me for my autograph. I asked her what her goal in life is. She replied: I want to live in a developed India .   For her, You and I will have to build this developed India . You must proclaim India is not an under-developed nation; it is a highly developed  nation. Do you have 10 minutes? Allow me to come back with a vengeance. Got 10 minutes for your country? If yes, then read; otherwise, choice is Yours.
YOU say that our government is inefficient.
YOU say that our laws are too old.
YOU say that the municipality does not pick up the garbage.
YOU say that the phones don’t work, the railways are a joke,
The airline is the worst in the world, mails never reach their destination.
YOU say that our country has been fed to the dogs and is the absolute pits.

YOU say, say and say. What do YOU do about it?
Take a person on his way to Singapore . Give him a name - YOURS. Give him a face - YOURS. YOU walk out of the airport and you are at your International best. In Singapore you don’t throw cigarette butts on the roads or eat in the stores. YOU are as proud of their Underground links as they are. You pay $5 (approx. Rs. 60) to drive through Orchard Road (equivalent of Mahim Causeway or Pedder Road) between 5 PM and 8 PM. YOU come back to the parking lot to punch your parking ticket if you have over stayed in a restaurant or a shopping mall irrespective of your status identity… In Singapore you don’t say anything, DO YOU? YOU wouldn’t dare to eat in public during Ramadan, in Dubai . YOU would not dare to go out without your head covered in Jeddah . YOU would not dare to buy an employee of the telephone exchange in London at 10 pounds ( Rs.650) a month to, ’see to it that my STD and ISD calls are billed to someone else.’YOU would not dare to speed beyond 55 mph (88 km/h) in Washington and then tell the traffic cop, ‘Jaanta hai main kaun hoon (Do you know who I am?). I am so and so’s son. Take your two bucks and get lost.’ YOU wouldn’t chuck an empty coconut shell anywhere other than the garbage pail on the beaches in Australia and New Zealand . Why don’t YOU spit Paan on the streets of Tokyo ? Why don’t YOU use examination jockeys or buy fake certificates in Boston ??? We are still talking of the same YOU. YOU who can respect and conform to a foreign system in other countries but cannot in your own. You who will throw papers and cigarettes on the road the moment you touch Indian ground. If you can be an involved and appreciative citizen in an alien country, why cannot you be the same here in India ?

Once in an interview, the famous Ex-municipal commissioner of Bombay , Mr. Tinaikar , had a point to make. ‘Rich people’s dogs are walked on the streets to leave their affluent droppings all over the place,’ he said. ‘And then the same people turn around to criticize and blame the authorities for inefficiency and dirty pavements. What do they expect the
officers to do? Go down with a broom every time their dog feels the pressure in his bowels? In America every dog owner has to clean up after his pet has done the job. Same in Japan . Will the Indian citizen do that here?’ He’s right. We go to
the polls to choose a government and after that forfeit all responsibility. We sit back wanting to be pampered and expect the government to do everything for us whilst our contribution is totally negative. We expect the government to clean up but we are not going to stop chucking garbage all over the place nor are we going to stop to pick a up a stray piece of paper
and throw it in the bin. We expect the railways to provide clean bathrooms but we are not going to learn the proper use of bathrooms. We want Indian Airlines and Air India to provide the best of food and toiletries but we are not going to stop pilfering at the least opportunity. This applies even to the staff who is known not to pass on the service to the public. When it comes to burning social issues like those related to women, dowry, girl child! and others, we make loud drawing room
protestations and continue to do the reverse at home. Our excuse? ‘It’s the whole system which has to change, how will it matter if I alone forego my sons’ rights to a dowry.’ So who’s going to change the system? What does a system consist of ? Very conveniently for us it consists of our neighbours, other households, other cities, other communities and the government. But definitely not me and YOU. When it comes to us actually making a positive contribution to the system we lock ourselves along with our families into a safe cocoon and look into the distance at countries far away and wait for a Mr.Clean to come along & work miracles for us with a majestic sweep of his hand or we leave the country and run away.
Like lazy cowards hounded by our fears we run to America to bask in their glory and praise their system. When New York becomes insecure we run to England . When England experiences unemployment, we take the next flight out to the Gulf. When the Gulf is war struck, we demand to be rescued and brought home by the Indian government. Everybody is out to abuse and rape the country. Nobody thinks of feeding the system. Our conscience is mortgaged to money.

“Ask what we can do for India and do what has to be done to make India what America and Other Western countries are TODAY.”  

————————

John F Kennedy also said this in his famous speech, “ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country. ” Here is the link to very inspiring speech.

I am totally against reservation. I reprimand and hate people who like to create a case for reservation for selfish gains. Reservation has not done any good to any strata of Indian society. Its been there for 60 years and only people who have benefited from it our crooked politicians! They have abused this word for their petty gains multiple times. I believe in equality. Be it any person of the society. I just approve of scholorships and that too for the economically underprivileged. Democracy and law must treat everyone else as equals.

There is seemingly other side which is going wrong. One student at AIIMS topped the class and he should have been given a chance to choose whatever position he wanted. It seems, the position went to the second ranker who was a general category student. This is equally “wrong”! How can anyone do this to a deserving candidate? This will make things worse.

Rajasthan just had a fresh case of casualties under the name of reservation. Gurjars (a tribe in India), wants to be included in the scheduled tribe category so that they can harness the fruits of reservation. They did not talk about better education, better hospitals but reservation. Why? Because one of the politicians lured them into it to get the votes.  So why government is not doing it? It seems there is a bigger tribe called “Meenas” who are under the ST category. If government includes Gurjars there too, it will decrease Meenas chances to get the reservation benefit. I just hope that this issue bring up the problems with reservation and some one will think about the alternative solutions. Well, I can just “hope” right now and I am sure nothing will change so soon.

So whats the solution?

Only solution for a person to get a secure job and long lasting prosperity is education. Education will give every person  awareness, knowledge, self esteem and ideas to make his/her life better. Government must spend the required money on setting up educational insitutions where in education till 9th standard must be totally free. Anyone and everyone can come and attend the classes. I totally believe that increasing the schools and judicial courts/judges by 10 times will have a much more positive impact to our country than any other measure. Some NGOs like Akansha are doing a terrific job at it. We need to have many more such organizations and help our country to do away with these evil practices of reservation and the likes of it.

The unconventional head of state Dr APL Abdul Kalam once again sowed the seed of a important political debate - The need for two party system.

We have been having these coalition governments since 1989. Political parties supporting from outside, inside, under, over and what not. Politicians get sold and bought to be in power. Some one said, “Democracy is like the art of running a circus from a monkey cage”. In India, it is almost like running the mafia. UPA government supporting the Mayawati BSP government when even the ideologies (apparently political parties are supposed to have one!) do not match! All vote politics and nothing else.

A system of two parties will at least decrease all these selling and buying of netas. I am not saying it will totally eliminate it, but I am sure it will decrease it. Keep more rules like a neta can not have criminal charges, can not stand for election if he has changed a political party in last one year and it will make it even better. Two parties system also separates one party from the other in terms of ideologies and voters clearly know what one party stands for.  It is not panacea for all the problems. USA has two parties and an ass like George Bush got elected the second time. But it is better than what we have in India. I hope some one takes it seriously and works on it.

A country that has 1 billion population, 26 crore people living under poverty line, not enough potable drinking water for everyone, basic infrastructure problems of roads, power and education, so many court cases in backlogs.. what is the most important thing that we really need? I would think moral policing. Don’t agree with me? At least our government does! Government really needs to make sure what we are viewing on the television, if I am close to my spouse in the public and if I am dancing in the pub after 11PM!!! This is the MOST IMPORTANT thing that needs to be addressed. If Richard Gere, the guy who comes to India to help the country fight against AIDS and other issues, how dare he kissed Shilpa Shetty? (Though she does all “moral” things at screen with our supposedly “patriotic” heroes but thats besides the point) Now this is a BIGG problem! We need to get our guards up and fight against it. What crap!

I heard a even more surprising story yesterday. Google employees in Bombay were attacked by Shiv Sena supporters because there was some raunchy content on Orkut! They beat up the security guards and by mistake beaten up the Yahoo employees thinking they were working for Google. It sounds funny but is this kind of crap we want to live with? Police coming in the Chennai pubs and beating people? Schools and colleges defining the dress code? Bangalore pubs getting closed at 11PM? Government banning AXN and FTV? Is it democracy or autocracy? Just give us a working infrastructure, environment to live a comfortable life and leave the moral policing on us. We know best what is good for us.

Richard, Google, We are ashamed and embarrassed for what happened. Please be assured that common man is with you. Our intellect and reasoning is still intact. We just do not know how these clowns and corrupt politicians get elected and make fun of our democratic system. It will take time but we will figure it out.

Talking about Orkut, it seems two girls in Brazil were on Orkut and they made friends with a complete stranger. One of the girls agreed to meet with him and got raped. When the other girl was asked questions about this online behavior, she said, “The risk of getting raped is far far lesser than passing your life without getting noticed!”. Again, can we blame Orkut for it? It will be like Burkhas are safer for women and it will save them evil men. I do not think that rape rate in Burkha countries is lesser than non-burkha countries. The only way to deal with it is by empowering women, creating a safer environment, better law enforcement and a better community. Anyway, this does ask for a separate debate and I will reserve it for another posting.

Update : Arun gave me some interesting links on the same topic. Vir Sanghvi wrote an article on moral policing in Hindustan Times.

Pratap Mehta wrote on Indian Express.

Democracy is supposed to be of the people, by the people, for the people. Is it really working in India? It does not need a debate. Every common person will agree to that it is not. The current debate who should be the president is a classic example. The politicians that we have elected have an opposite perspective to the common man. More than 2 lakh people have voted on NDTV in favor of Dr Kalam. Close to 50% are in favor of Narayan Murthy or Dr Amartya Sen. Where as all the politicians want the sovereign power to be a person who will not be an impediment to their dirty politics. Is it really democracy?

We often hear about public interest litigations raised by several individuals and groups. I always wondered if I can do it and if I am eligible to do it as well. While I was searching for this information, I found couple of good links. From virtualpune:

What is a PIL?
Public Interest Litigation (PIL) - litigation for public interest. PIL was started to protect the fundamental rights of people who are poor, ignorant or in socially/economically disadvantaged position. It is different from ordinary litigation, in that it is not filed by one private person against another for the enforcement of a personal right. The presence of ‘public interest’ is important to file a PIL.

A PIL can be filed when the following conditions are fulfilled:

• There must be a public injury and public wrong caused by the wrongful act or omission of the state or public authority.
• It is for the enforcement of basic human rights of weaker sections of the community who are downtrodden, ignorant and whose fundamental and constitutional rights have been infringed.
• It must not be frivolous litigation by persons having vested interests.

Who may file a PIL?
The Supreme Court (SC), through its successive judgements has relaxed the strict rule of ‘locus standi’ applicable to private litigation.

Any person can file a PIL provided:

• He is a member of the public acting bona fide and having sufficient interest in instituting an action for redressal of public wrong or public injury.
• He is not a mere busy body or a meddlesome interloper.
• His action is not motivated by personal gain or any other oblique consideration.

How to file a PIL:
A PIL may be filed like a write petition. However, in the past the SC has treated even letters addressed to the court as PIL. In People’s Democratic union v Union of India, a letter addressed by the petitioner organization seeking a direction against the respondents for ensuring observance of the provisions of famous labour laws in relation to workmen employed in the construction work of projects connected with the Asian games was entertained as a PIL.
The SC has encouraged the filing of PIL for tackling issues related to environment, human rights etc.

Some more information is available at corecentre.org

India has immense potential for tourism. With all the disagreements and debates on the actual number, number of tourists in 2006 were approximately 4 million. The earnings from tourism is quoted as 5 billion USD. I am not sure if government includes business travelers in this number as well. I hope not!

It is also estimated that 60% of the tourism comes from North India. Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan, UP(Agra) and Himachal Pradesh being one of the top states from North and Goa being the prominent one among all the states. There is so much untapped tourism market out there. North East, Southern India (Kerala being one exception), Lakshwadeep, Andman Nicobar and many more. They need some serious marketing and uplifting to become attactive tourism places. Tourism can be a real good boost to the economy and can feeed so many families. Government did increase the advertising budget to 65 crore ruppes. Is it good enough? Not sure. But we have started to seeing its effect. Below is the advertisement created by Madhya Pradesh (MP) Tourism Government. It is very interesting and fun to look at for sure!

In order to boost tourism, just the marketing is not enough. More number of airports need to be developed, more hotels need to be built and a better services industry need to emerge. According to the report at India Tourism site, Tamilnadu has the highest number of travel operators and agencies! I am very sure the number needs to grow by manyfold to grow the tourism pie. If the government provides the right infrastructure, the market economy will automatically create these travel operators and agencies.