Future India: Reforms in mindsets

The Indian psyche is characterised by its influence in boosting its next generation by all means. All Indian parents would pay more than average fees to "pay" colleges to their son’s admission with average marks. Parents of daughters make lifetime savings to "pay" for a big dowry to get them better than ordinary grooms. We do go to extreme situations to secure better position for our children by "paying" extra. We carry this mindset for getting done any job--making ration card, drivers license, registering for gas connection etc. When there are givers, there are takers. This is the Indian psyche. We will profess to be fair citizens and want services done without payment, only for the sake of making good conversation; we want fair politics and that political parties should not acquire money for campaigning and we want transparency in college admission. But in reality, we would pay for betterment of our children’s education, by hook or crook we will buy a seat in the engineering college. We feel God treats all devotees equally, but we will pay little extra to get a special “deal” with God to secure some extra blessings, this is our Indian culture—written in our brains. Such contradictions in what we profess and what we practise defines the Indian outlook, when we come out of this mindset and bring together our theory and practise, then only we can have a fair government and society. The reformation has to come from within. We cannot profess to have reforms superficially.

Politician’s off-record remuneration comes by doing favours to private firms. Private firms should have some degree of autonomy and should not depend on favours from anyone. We want material wealth before we go for education, because how can the mind work if there is poverty? Those who represent us(politicians) we feel should have another set of values.One set for public and one for private lives In public life there has to be good values. If we reduce the scope of the powers of the politicians and bureaucrats, it would be better. Because they use their power and end meritocracy. We must know how they do this. If we can observe the movements of deciding documents of the different departments in the net, and we have an open government; then off-record actions would not be possible.

We can pay taxes only when we know that the money that we give is used constructively. We pay, with our taxes, to government employees very high salaries; these employees take bribes as an addition to their pay without any qualms about the wrong doing they are indulging in. Why? How we think what is right and how we live has vast variations, and that leads the employees to take bribes without hesitancy. If we give incentive—for moving each one of the files, he would get extra bonuses, he will work positively.

When the public is upset about the injustices, it protests. They should be able to express our opinions without protests may be by emails . As governments should, we should take their problems seriously and listen to it. Suppressing demonstration is a violation of our fundamental rights. We are a free country and not ruled by the military or police. Why do the police interfere in civic life unnecessarily? Police need to restore order and not take orders from politicians. It’s a practise for anyone who has failed to make a career, enrol in the police academy, since qualifications required for it are minimal. Without knowledge of their duties, these individuals have an authoritarian outlook and bring bad name for the force they represent. Only highly qualified persons should be chosen for responsible government cadres such as the police force. Commitment to duty to the people is the most important quality and not ability to suppress citizens or loot citizens. It is distressing to watch traffic cop take money instead of giving ticket to violations. It’s painful to see the cops act like highway robbers, taking money from drivers of private buses without rhyme or reason. What are we doing about this? Just watch and go on in life as if we did not see it. We have to survive this unfair India of today. We will be reforming our mindsets. May be future India will be a fairer and more just India.