Before I get into the crux of the issue, lets discredit the Left, BSP and the so called third front first. These are the very people who have and will work all their life against the welfare of the same community that shows faith and elects them to top positions.
Just a line on the two of them though,
Left on one hand are Commies who have always stood against any policy that the UPA tried to push through in the current term. Be it the Nuclear Deal, Banking Insurance, etc. All they want to show is their importance and come into lime-light.
Mayawati, the BSP Supremo. My heart cries with fear of her becoming the next prime-minister. What we can be sure of are three things: 1) The play grounds for schools will be converted to Ambedkar Parks. 2) The history lessons for our kids will talk only about Kashi Ram 3) Oh yes, how can you ignore the possibility of her statue right outside your home?
I can continue bashing the two above, but that is no serious talk.
The crux for me lies in between choosing BJP or Congress and in the end Congress was an easy choice for me. Let me reason out why.
There are 5 main agendas that can summarize what BJP has stood for and will always stand for:
1. A Universal Civil Code
By this, the BJP wants to have the same set of rules governing Hindus, Muslims and other religions in India. On the cover, it sounds a nice and reasonable idea. But in reality, it will lead to
A) Chaos and Disorder: Who decides now whether INDIANS now can marry a maximum of one or 4 times? Whosoever will now have to "change", will ofcourse retaliate and rightly so. Because Quran says that Muslims can marry 4 times, so is this not a partial forced religious conversion then? (Haha, nothing new for BJP)
B) A UCC overwrites the Hindu Marriage Act and Hindu Undivided Family act: The sole purpose of this was to protect the poor women in India from being cheated by their husbands. What will happen to them now?
2. Demolition of Babri Masjid
Needless to say, it widens the divide between Hindus and Muslims. Such communal differences are the root cause of all the hatred and the riots/blasts that follow.
3. Privatization to the extreme
Had BJP been successful to do so, our situtation in the current financial crisis would have been far worse than US. Its only because of government presence in Insurance, Banking, Telecom, Minerals that we have seen off the current storm well. With the reins in the hands of government, the checks and balances are high. There is lesser greed and this prevents haste decisions, the root cause of the financial melt down.
4. Ban Cow Eating
Remember one thing, Muslims are not immigrants in India. They have been been an integral part of India since Independence. What we can do is to impose restrictions on ourselves as we consider it sacred. But we cant force others to follow the same.
Undeniably, during its rule at the centre, BJP did initiate the Golden Quadrilateral Project and fund infrastructural development, But their negativities far outweigh the positives. Unfortunately, no party in India is the one that can be looked upto without a hinged though . What we have to choose is the best from the posibilities.
I feel Congress surely makes for a better choice.
A party of policy makers, Congress has initiated many policies in India in the last 5 years. They are the ones who strike the right balance between leniency and being nationlists and so, to run a country like India which has different cultural and religious sects at its core, we need a party that takes action against the worng doers but at the same time, doesnot sound the war bugle on every incident.
The aam-aadmi talk is not just for filling up the vote banks. They have done a lot for inluding the poor into main stream. And its completely right to focus on it. In a world where we talk about Inclusive Capitalism the governments cant stay behind and ignore the poor. This is needed not only for the welfare and upliftment of the poor, but also for the success of our nation.
But lets look at what Congress has done for India. I would not talk about the past policies in 1990's which were the reason for India becoming an open market and so much foreign direct investment in India. But of the current policies, following are the ones that impress me the most.
1. National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme
A congress flag ship programme in the current term. Under this, the people below the poverty line are guaranteed a minimum employment of 100 days in an year and unemployment wages if they donont get a job within 15 days of registering with the government.
2. Mid-day meal Schemes
There are these and other schemes by which children going to school get free meal. (Unfortunately, courruption is a parasite living in India and some of these plans dont come through efficiently)
3. Nuclear Deal
What developing India needs more than anything to keep up the growth rate is electricity and power to run the factories, manufacturing units, etc. This deal comes as a huge respite as it will tremendously increase power generation in India and reduce out dependence on the sources which are expensive, highly price elastic and are currently insufficient.
4. The government was recently praised by IMF and WorldBank for its well though response to the current financial crisis. India has largely remain insulated from the meltdown ( in terms of failing financial institutions) due to the checks and balances that were put in place by the government to regulate the financial market.
5. From 2004-2008, India's GDP has grown at a rate of 8.6% It was above 9% for the major part but has fallen to 8.6% from spetember 2008. This is a commendable growth rate. Our GDP grew at an average rate of 5.8% only during the BJP government from 1998-2004.
6. Better Tax policies
The central governments tax revenues have increased tremendously due to the introduction of VAT as well as better accounting practicies brought into place by the current government. This, for the first time helped India, substantially bring down its ballooning budget deficit.
7. Educational policies under the current goverment like reservation for OBC, SC/ST is what I support again. (I dont agree with parts of the policy, but as a whole, I support the concept) If not the government and their own nation, who will the backward class people look up to help them out of their miseries? And the best way out pf poverty, deprivation, wretchedness is education. Fristly, there are strict pointers that ensure that the 50% reservation is not mis-used (The CREAMY LAYER Concept) But secondly, I dont see why the general class people should complain. Because in most cases, the 50% seats are not filled and these are then offered to the general class people. But Secondly, there are 6-7 new IITs that are being built in India and so, the total number of seats available for general class is going up and nothing else.
Surely, people do say why IIT and why not other institutes. But here again, I see a positive. The best way to create a pool of researchers, entrepreneurs, scientists in India would be to disseminate knowledge from the best source. What India needs the least is a bulgening pool of mediocre engineers (or other majors). We need to develop the best and the brightest and to do so, the best way would be to share the top faculty and expertise that we have in the country.
This was the debatable issue about reservations in Indian Institutions, but apart from this, the UPA has lead to the establishment of many more schools and institutions for higher education throughout India.
8. Attracting NRIs to invest in India.
Never earlier did I hear so much talk about Lakshmi Mittal, Kiran MAzumdar Shaw and
other NRIs. The current government has realized the importance of these people for development
of India and have constantly made efforts to get them to invest in businesses in India by providing
them incentives such as tax breaks, lower interest rates, SEZ priviliges, etc.
A bright India, a prosperous India, an India that shines, an India that has no confines. That is what
I dream for and I hope which ever party comes to power shares the same sentiment like me, like my
fellow Indians.
1 comment:
Hi keep it up all youngester's should think alike . All the very best to u n your country.
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