India @ 2014 elections : can we let think beyond democracy...

Thanks to the works of Naveen Jindal, the Flag Code of India went into amendments to allow Flag usage by Indian citizens. For records...Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation houses in it's campus India's tallest Flag Pole standing @ 225 feet. The sight more soothing post sun-set, where flood lights illuminate the fluttering National Flag, a distinct symbol of the country - first designed as the Swaraj flag(the charkha one) by Pingali Venkayya from Machilipatnam.

The largest electoral population goes for voting in the topic being en-cashed by the media barons... the mood is upbeat for the 2nd largest party welcome. All over, be it the oratory wars on rallies or astrologer predictions like this one; everyone's pointing to the man in the center of business & administrative appreciation closely followed by political criticism. The predictions in the link are charismatic....let's wait and watch for time to uncover the events in the largest democracy of the world.

Attempting to run through a few types of 'rule of the land' a bit here. So are we democratic :) The constitution gives direction on the state conduct. It easily let it slip into a 'Capitalistic Democracy'. Options please. 

Say Communism as in China (a friend of mine returned from Shanghai, the infra is just amazing. High speed trains as he says are giving 375kms/hr on avg) or say the form used in Russia or the democracy of Americas. See the democracy index here. The state of Kerala, another friend says is very well developed one. You hardly get to see state evils like non-accessible rurals or illiteracy or everyday survival amenities issues. Every node is connected, every node is breathing well and is rich in food & water. Basics for living are long done ! Highest literacy levels in the entire country. Has a good mix of various religious population healthily living together and enjoying own festivals in all it's fervor  Did communism achieve that milestone? Well West Bengal (another state) has an altogether different story even when ruled quite largely by Communist parties. Probably differing sub-sub-ideologies.Can a country under dictators show great guns? Germany under Hitler took about just a decade to turn around as a powerful state...Neighbors are another examples.

Or the Swiss form....where the wiki reads - "Any citizen may challenge a law that has been passed by parliament. If that person is able to gather 50,000 signatures against the law within 100 days, a national vote has to be scheduled ..... Also, any citizen may seek a decision on an amendment they want to make to the constitution. For such a federal popular initiative to be organised, the signatures of 100,000 voters must be collected within 18 months....." Lot of power in citizens. With AAP & Anna campaigns during the last few years we would have seen an amendment every hour :)

So which one is the best form of RULE of LAND which provides & allows the entire population (without any reservations) :

• Peace of mind
• Security for living beings as well as nature at large
• Healthy Food (can i add tasty :))
• Shelter
• Health care
• Education which enriches wisdom and builds skills which are contextual
• Right work (not the ones where aeronautical engineers are coding scala for a living :)) 
• Power to challenge what is wrong without creating chaos (RTI is still cubersome for it's status is not visible, one needs to ask/challenge)
• Ideals for the generations to lookup to (for inspiration & motivation without the need of a competitor)
• Fosters innovation (there can be a world without mobile phones to carry with)
• Mandatory amenities for all
• Meritocracy
• Entertainment (need a party culture of sorts :))

What else do we need ? 'Security' in context of the human population should ensure such stringent laws that it's really dangerous for heinous minds to plant insecurity(gender harassment, terror, all covered). Can the law provision such ways that everyone owns everything and still doesn't own particularly anything.

'Education' - we have got RTE in enforcement. I liked the wiki on it which read World Bank's representative saying - "The RTE Act is the first legislation in the world that puts the responsibility .... on the Government. It is the parents' responsibility to send the children to schools in the US and other countries..."

Out of the box  :

Progressive Utilization Theory (PROUT) seems interesting, for it seeks to deliver Governance which leap bounds progress in Human Civilization. Consider this : No boundaries, minimum requirements fulfilled for every body, Universe the new Country.... Economist Ravi Bhatra delivers Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar's philosophy in his books & speeches. Interesting to see someone saying there is a way out for all.

Well for now, very curious in testing the predictions of Mr. K. Gopalakrishnanji from the first link on this blog :)

Jan Lok Pal Bill : not holistic, but a good start, isn’t it?

 

For all those friends of mine who have been whole-heartedly supporting the current movement :

The urban middle-class is going to actually make use of its voting rights, had there been a General Elections scheduled this year end :) The joke of Democracy in India is largely due to this critical mass of educated population with a Chalta-hai attitude never having cared for who and what is running the country they are surviving in.

The Anna Hazare movement is changing this space very rapidly. At least the metropolitan middle-class is now AWARE of the politics around. Thanks to media, it can clearly see for itself why all Political Parties are opposing the proposed draft bill. And for the mass movement…. Anna’s aura has gone above Political System in India. WE, THE PEOPLE…. As one of the foremost legal fraternities spoke that “THE PEOPLE” comes ahead of anything else even in our CONSTITUTION. The PEOPLE(of course a scarce populace) are in fact driving the movement. There are various persons with various suggestions. When wrong output is coming out of a right system in place, it’s time to replace or correct the system.

I initially hesitated, but later completely agreed with Shri Nandan Nilekani when he replied Sagarika Ghose on CNN-IBN that a holistic approach has to be thought out and Jan Lok Pal is just one of them.

Jan Lok Pal will give the dragger in the common man’s hand, which is required for the expected services and in many cases for his/her survival. But at the same time does it save the non-corrupt govt official who is dragged into the net by his superiors? Can the draft-panel committee highlight these necessary appendices to the bill?

And of course we have the saintly people like @atul_kulkarni who want to point out that what we are proposing is to fix the output. The source is our mind.

The mood of frustration is right for all the parties; for the delay that the current Govt is costing itself. Delay dilutes the movement. Moreover Indian Masses are well-known for their forgiving & forgetting nature. A lull of 4 months from now and all the pressure will go to square one !

IAC has their rendering of the Comparitive Study between the Govt tabled Lok Pal and their ones at this place.

Got hold of a good article by Ashutosh Varshney in the Indian Express today where he is talking of how our cities have been estranged from the electoral space and under-served by politics. Though he recognizes the aftermath of such non-holistic and non-visionary movements which may ripple into a fascist and nazi like movement experienced by modern human civilizations in Europe. Loved to hear that our Country is almost the World’s first which has maintained Universal Franchise(right to vote for all adult homo sapiens) without an industrial revolution.

For all those who are yet to be aware of the RTI history, do read this article before crediting anyone for the same. The drafts by Aruna Roy and others can’t be discarded.

Have been always fascinated by the concept of a super council which governs the state. Rome & Yadavas are classic civilizations to be studied. Our local CHS functions more or less like a democratic system and we experience so many inefficiencies in such a system. No doubt the majority wins, but many times the minority has a good intellectual & visionary proposition which the short-sighted majority doesn’t care for.

Does the Urban Middle class have the guts to make it to the Parliament and handling the heavy job responsibility rather than thinking they are dreaming big keeping the ideals of either Ambani or a Narayan Murthy.

May Anna live long !

(Edited by kibin)