Budget-playing safe

Using the success of the budget presented this year,government has to show progress/results immediately. Otherwise they would be voted out in next year's election(Election 2014) So it better be good. No big increase is good for the salaried class. The ruling class has to show immediate success. Long range effect of the programmes does not matter to them. Big portion of the treasury for social welfare programmes will give immediate relief to the poor and hence their votes can be won. But on the long range, such programmes can ruin the economic status of the government. We can spend more on developmental programmes which will have a better effect of eradicating poverty: but this will take time. Election 2014 is too close for all that. Expenditure on social welfare schemes would erode the treasury.
Those earning more than one crore a year will have to pay more tax. Otherwise tax slabs remain the same. New slabs could have been created. Tax on luxury cars and imported vehicles has been increased. But those who are rich, tax is a small expenditure. To them, it does not matter. Cost of mobiles will go up, that is not good(cost of those above Rs. 2000). As mobiles have become common man's access to the world, a price rise would curtail usage.
Banks for women will be made, now. This is positive move. Women entrepreneurs will benefit a great deal. This was done so that the budget to be called "inclusive"Women's votes have been thus roped in.One thousand crore will be spent on security for women. Rural and urban health care has been clubbed together.
Over all, more efforts could have been made to improve industries/job-creating organisations. But that would take time to demonstrate results and there is only one year to show down (Election 2014)
So people can satisfy themselves that no big change would affect them directly. But the possibility that we could have leaped forward and progressed further is gone. All cannot be pleased. Now investors will be happy.This is an investor-friendly budget.

Do people have contentment?

People’s rights are sacrificed as India industrialises. Tribal people who live in the forests of India (where minerals are found) are not aware of their rights and this needs urgent attention of the government. Unfortunately, government itself encourages corporate units to mine in these areas. And the people’s rights to livelihood are affected. How do these people live? They use the honey found in forests, they farm by ‘slash and burn’ method of cultivation, gather fruits and use firewood from forests to cook. If they are driven from their homes (forests) they have nowhere to live. What happens to the forest people? These people move to urban centres and provide cheap labour. There are many corporate units who have become rich by robbing the local people (steel plants, bauxite plants, aluminium plants, coal mining etc).

As labour force people are exploited to the fullest extent. Auto industries flourish by exploiting the “casual labour” which is cheaply available in India. The workers are bonded slaves (like prisoners) in a factory where they develop aliments due to strict orders not to move out of their position in the assembly line. Industrialisation brings comforts to masses everywhere in the world except in India. Here industrialisation has brought fullest exploitation of the people.People have miserable lives.

  To add fuel to flame, the police and the army also terrorise the weak and poor people. Anyone can be framed as a terrorist and detained for long time while tortured in jails; cases come years after wards in court. There are prolonged investigation procedures and out dated laws which make sure people do not get justice.

Dominant classes and dominant castes rule over the weak people. The minorities and the “under-class” feel insecure and have an uncertain future. The right to equality can never be realised; some are always kept suppressed. Their rights remain in paper and cannot become reality. So much needs to be done. Within few hours of session, elected politicians cannot visualise the immense number of problems of the people. The gravity of problems of people needs much much more time. We need better governance very badly; we have all resources and we cannot provide for basic needs of the people.We need  longer time for the representatives of the people to understand our problems.

Normal life threatened by bomb scares

There are constant threats to the general people's lives. When normal life is threatened by bomb scares, people are not able to live in peace. The general population has a simple life. People do not harm others and go about living out their lives normally. To keep the police on the edge, there are frequent bomb scares made by forces outside India. There are neighbours who do not want peace here. When bombs explode, there is chaos, people are not taken to hospital on time. Lives are lost, anguished people do not know whom to hate. The politicians make a name-sake-visit to the hospitals where the injured are admitted and assure a compensation of may be one lakh each etc etc. Media will give coverage for a while for it needs fodder, till another event takes place. Life goes back to normal. But it makes one think, why are all these mass murders taking place? What did the Indian people do to deserve such threats to peace? Can we fence away terrorism? Peace is cannot prevail all over the world, for it cannot be passed on. But terror is passed on easily from one nation to another. An environment of global terror will prevail, if not contained. All human cultures are not capable of peace, non-peaceful ones have moved terror into peaceful nations.
If individuals who inflict terror are given a way to express their opinion, they will not indulge in terror making.All have not been educated enough, there are individuals living on the edge-- and who want similar disposition for others. We must catch the uneducated persons who inflict terror and transform them into normal people. Otherwise many many normal people's lives will be terrorised.
A public place like a market is most vulnerable. All sorts of people come here. And we cannot control who will come where. We really cannot eliminate a market. All things cannot be home delivered. It is scary to step put of one's home. That's life.If these threats continue what would future be like? How can students go to schools and colleges freely? Can we go to work in peace?

Farmers are suffering

Farmers are suffering terribly as they cannot make a living with declining outputs.Farmers put together their hard work and the power of the sun and bring forth a harvest. We buy their hard work with little money and we consume it. This harvest is so vital to our existence. When this is such an important profession, we must pay a little more attention to the farmers and their problems. Farming is precarious. Much depends on water supply which is weather dependent.Climate determines whether they will get a harvest or not. Farmers make loans to farm--to buy seeds and farm equipment. When the results are bad, they are too poor to repay the loans. They are sunk in debts. Despite bumper crops in two consecutive years, farmers cannot make a living.They can sell to governement only; minimum support price is too low.Cost of inputs have gone up.

Dozens of farmers in Andhra Pradesh (Guntur district) have committed suicides. They had to encounter losses in crops (like chilli); And they already have debts from previous seasons. They did not have land which they could have sold. They had rented fields to farm. Now, their families suffer further. Many farmers had sold their vital organs like ‘kidney’; so that they can make up for the debts. There also they are cheated. They are given one lakh as payment while it costs four lakhs.

In the state of Maharashtra, drought has hit farming. 6000 villages in 16 districts have been affected so far. Farmers and their families are moving to urban areas to make a living. They work as labourers making pavements in cities.700 crores have been given to the state by the central government to solve the water crisis; so that drinking water is provided to the people who need it. Problem is ecological –a disaster which cannot be solved by money or political power.Problems looming over India are bigger than what is easily visible. Even if the government provides food to the people by food schemes, only God has to give water to survive. Even if the government gives loans, the unpredictable results from harvests will make their life tougher.

Industrial workers strike

Two day “strike” has been taking place all over India by 11 trade unions participating in protests. Banks and businesses have been closed. Workers want their rights, and they want to make amendment to labour laws.In industrial cities like Noida, protests became violent. About 70 persons were arrested.  Few factories were vandalised and looted. This is a national loss. Such mob behaviour was cause by hooligans who had come from outside.

Workers have been enduring pain inflicted by their bosses—long hours of work, difficult demanding workload, less pay, and gruelling conditions. Government’s economic policies, and labour laws and inability to control inflation were the reasons for the protests. While work has increased, pay has not increased.Their basic living condition is poor and on top of that the have debts. Those on daily wages would not get their income for these two days; they have to pay for food bill with their daily wages. It is a loss to them and their families who depend on these wages.

Trade unions’ demands are same as usual. They want employment for those unemployed, they want better enforcement of labour laws, they want social security, they want to stop contractual labour, they do not want ceilings on bonuses, they want more benefits of employee funds, they want assured pension and they want that all trade unions be registered. All these welfare schemes are possible with higher growth rate, and that is what government is trying to achieve. The legislation like Minimum wages Act, Factories Act (amended in 1987) and Industrial Disputes Act have to be modified. All workers must come under the Minimum wages, casualization of labour is a big problem. And minimum wages must be revised.Any dispute between the management and the workers must be resolved immediately, otherwise these protests will come up endlessly. How to convince the protesting people that we too want higher economic growth? Future is depends on how we resolve conflicts between the poor workers of India and the owners of factories/businesses.We  must realize that workers are the central part of any industry and that their welfare is the welfare of the industry. In eagerness to please the corporates, tax concessions are made.In a hope that industrialists will invest their profits and make more industries. But they just want to make more and more profits and ignore the rising needs of the workers whom they had employed to make big profits.

 

New bonds without old bondage

We had won independence from United Kingdom 65 years ago. We could not be kept in bondage. Since then, much has changed. Yesterday, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom had visited India for future prospects of trade and investment. We talked about bilateral issues---trade. Indian entrepreneurs have opened enterprises in the United Kingdom and have prospered. While India invests in Great Britain, they invest here. To get the economy moving, we have to carry on investing and trading.
Our colonial past has not affected our present relationship. History is history.He had visited our national monument where a British General (Dyer) had opened fire on the common people in a meeting(in 1919).He felt that it was shameful. But he never apologised to the relatives of those killed, who were waiting for him to say sorry.He did not. Dwelling on our cultural past cannot help our present economic state. Common history or no common history,those events were over long ago; to survive in present economic environment, we have to make them our trading partners all over again.Even if we do not agree on our views on present conflict zones, we feel we have to take steps in positive direction.Those views can change sooner or later.Indian diaspora in United Kingdom are doing well and they have been instrumental in improving our ties.
Future depends on forgetting history and making new partnerships to overcome hurdles in economic progress. We must come out of this stagnation. Not just with this European ally, we must improve ties with others also. World has become our neighbourhood now.    

Hurdles to progress--Bureacracy

Indian bureaucracy is the major obstruction in India’s progress. Farmers always work hard and have produced bumper crops. And our agricultural ministry and its authoritarian officers do not have proper plans to deal with the storage of food grains. Labourers work hard and make infrastructures in India, and toll highways are not used well. Workers in Indian industries are hard working but the government officers who have to provide them with employment opportunities do not take required efforts. Many mining towns are out of business.What government officers know is ----how to calculate their own income and emoluments, how to make plans to avoid tax, and how to make use of government concessions to travel; basically how to enjoy the perks of their government jobs. Progress of the people and the country is of no concern to them--that is they do not care.

If there is a reason to give reply to their activities or lack of activities, they hire an adviser or a consultant to make a letter explaining how their office does not have the power to do the needful. They make their advisers a credible explanation to their laziness in handling office duties. If they had to answer a questionnaire from higher officer, they would tell the adviser to answer that too. 
 
They are highly indecisive lot. They would go on postponing making decision. They are capable of "book-keeping" or archiving. All correspondences and data can be archived by computers. With emails, all correspondences can be sent fast and answered fast. That would not be done by governments officers, as procrastinating is their favourite activity.
Mandatory activities of the officers should be monitored constantly and their duties must be delineated. Otherwise the entire bureaucracy would spoil the government's functioning and bring the country to a standstill. There is need for structured reforms and government officers' activities must be updated constantly. Officers must be re-trained to work with computers; and eventually parts of bureaucracy must be "phased out". There is no need to support a huge inefficient bureaucracy. Such a useless ineffective bureaucracy is a drag on the growth of the nation.

Levels of hierarchy at office is strictly observed. They know how to shout at their inferior ranking staff, and snubbing any suggestions. Army like environment is observed in dealing with the lower ranking staff.  Insult and hatred are inculcated among the lower level staff, making the office atmosphere intolerably painful for lower staff. Officers are very good in mistreating supporting staff--as  treating lower staff badly is their specialisation. Even slaves would be treated better.  Dominant rude behaviour hampers office activities. There are ego clashes, which lead to verbal fights.Using rough words in office must be forbidden. Indians have a trait---they do not perform well in groups.Full stop. 

Through computerisation of office activities like 'file transfer management systems' and 'office automation procedures, slown processes can be checked. There should be strict vigilance of roles played by government officers. Are they working? If so how many files have they processed; what is the quantity and quality of their work? When found that they do not do much, they government can give alternate activities like teaching. India still has multitudes of illiterate people and teachers are urgently needed, inept government officers can make people literate.

The government’s bureaucracy is a huge national waste. All the salaries paid to them is valuable money that has been lost down the drain. Human effort has to be channelised in an effective way for a nation to grow. National wealth is squandered by a huge inefficient bureaucracy. This must be stopped; only then India will progress and have a good future.

Experiments in lab called economy

We have run-away inflation, skyrocketing prices and angry people.We have mismanaged our economy. And we have quipped our failures as 'our way of making inclusive growth possible'. We feel that we have given benefits evenly to the people.Experiments in inducing growth in sectors like power has not worked. Concessions to different coal companies and hurdles in mining, have affected the growth of power sector.Experiments to induce growth is big failure resulting in loss for the nation.In the aviation sector, banks were encouraged to give big loans to airlines, and these loans could not be repaid. Bankruptcy was rampant.Then the bank loans were classified as troubled assets; ultimately banks had to suffer big losses.
Public private partnerships were encouraged to make big infrastructures which were not feasible. Costs of making the infrastructures rose so high that government had to give money to prevent bankruptcy.Otherwise the making of infrastructures was brought to an abrupt end.Some of the "toll" highways did not get any users as the tickets were priced too high.People stopped using them. Profits did not materialise as projected. Government had to bail out.The cost of making of airport at Delhi was so high that a "development fee" was charged from the unwary passengers who used the airports.The airport charges were disliked by all who stopped by Delhi.At all new "experiments" in economy, patchwork was done, so that we would not sink further.Our government has affected the growth of our economy by coming up with new tax laws which did not work.
So, now what are we doing? We are trying to go all over the world to encourage investment in India. We can do that from here itself, the air fare could be saved. We have provided manpower for the world, our IT professionals are making growth possible around the world. We can do it for our land too, provided no new laws or experiments are made. 

Capital Punishment is cruel

As human society, we have evolved many institutions for peaceful life together. There are few which are very cruel and still reminds us that we have not come out from the Medieval ages. One these is the capital punishment. 140 nations have abolished capital punishment. Only 58 countries have not abolished capital punishment, and India is one of these countries which still have capital punishment. Generally we do not give this punishment. Even if the Supreme Court had announced the capital punishment, the head of the Republic shows mercy and forgives the convict, reducing the punishment to life in imprisonment. This has not happened, for some reason. Many convicts are "hung" now. This is very very cruel. Just imagining it gives one shivers.We are a brutal society which still has this horrible punishment.
It is the cruelest way to die.We can see beyond what is ordinarily visible. Death as punishment for murder does not work as a deterrent. There are those who are on a suicide mission "to kill and then die" Giving death penalty will only act as a motivation for other similar individuals. Death sentence incentivizes criminals, as they become a "hero" or a martyr. Some humans want to conform and some want to rebel to "try-out" the limits of social sanctions.They can be motivated to live a peaceful and simple life. Some like to be immortalised by getting the award of death sentence. They too can be reformed; we can show them new reasons to live. The human mind is resilient.

It is not correct to end life of a human being. He can be useful even in jail. Convicts are taught skills like carpentry. Some convicts are used as labourers. They can be useful to society when they are taught skills.Their behaviour can be modified. They can be reformed. All human activities are learnt. Even if has learnt crime, he can change himself and can lead a crime-free life. We have to teach him how. Human mind can be changed. If given a life in imprisonment, he cannot harm anyone. In single confinement, he cannot influence anyone. We need not finish his life; the finality part of it hurts us deeply. Once given capital punishment, we cannot undo it. If later on new evidence comes to light, then we cannot do justice to the lost soul.

Do we have the right to take away life? At esoteric level, all religions teach us to live in peace. All religions teach coexistence, even with many differences among us. Giving death sentence is not a peaceful solution. It is the cruelest punishment ever thought of. We live in the land where Mahatma Buddha lived and preached. We cannot forget "ahimsa" and our thoughts cannot allow for death of a human under any situation. Gandhiji also taught us that "an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind" We cannot take away a life as punishment for murder. Then we are also committing murder jointly.It is not correct to put someone to death.Death sentence is just not acceptable. Doctors try so hard to save a life.Teachers work hard to shape a mind.All workers work in an effort to support human life.All of us work so that life is better for one and all, we farm, we produce we market, and we manufacture for benefit of all mankind. None of us work to end someone's life(may be a lawyer would).We all want to preserve life.We do not want death for anyone. Codification of such cruel punishment is a shame on our culture and society.We must end the death sentence.

The Religious Mind

Religion finds expression in several congregations. And the "Maha Kumbh Mela" is an event every wants to be part of. When our religion is our way life, we do not have any structured systematic unions of devotees. And the "Khmbh Mela" is one way we get united and celebrate the gift called life--our religion. People pray for good after life and pray for "Moksha" or the salvation when the soul is emancipated from re-births. In reunions like the "Kumbh Mela" Hinduism seeks to revive itself, and re-emerge among modern people of India.It is held every twelve years.All sins are washed away by a dip in the holy river Ganges.
When people get killed in a stampede, it is because there is lack of crowd management. Lack of proper guidance in crowded events leads to stampede. This could be avoided. When people congregate in huge crowds, they are risking their lives. And a massive event like this religious congregation has resulted in deaths of three dozen people. But for these deaths, people merrily enjoyed the “Maha Kumbh Mela” This is a way for all devotees to unite and pray together. Crowds were managed well except for the stampede in the railway station.People went for a "holy dip" in the river Ganges early in the mornings.The people who had this holy dip consider themselves to be the most blessed.It is a blessing to have come out of the crowd and have had a safe journey home.

Redefining courts---ecourts

Social control become possible only when we can ensure an efficient justice delivery system for the people. We can do so with good courts. But biggest problems is in resolving disputes and in solving crimes come because of delays in judicial procedures. That is solved by e-courts. There are 14,209 district and 'Taluka' courts in India. Computerization has taken place in 12,229 of them. In 11,810 courts software has been installed and they are ready for use. The application software has been developed and standardized by E-committee of 'e courts' project. Now the transition to 'e courts' will be made smooth. Case management system will make this transition easy. Judicial information grid has been made.Websites have been made.All district courts have access to information through the internet.
All Judicial Officers now have laptops. They are being taught to use the laptops and are now orienting themselves to access information in the websites. To introduce the changes, 'Change Management Program' has been made.Within four months,all Judicial Officers will be using computers which has revolutionized their profession.E-committee has conducted awareness program to Judicial officers and carried out training. 60 master trainers will give training in an effective way.E-committee will teach them to use the special software designed.High court are now entering data on court cases.
Justice delayed is justice denied; over 43 lakh cases are pending in the India's courts.Such monumental numbers can be dealt by computerization alone.There is no other way. Accurate data must be entered for this to work.Data is being entered on a daily basis, as they are filed. Police stations have been connected, you can find out if a convict would be given bail, and when he can be bailed out.A litigant can know when his appeal will come.Litigant can monitor his case and avoid paper work.There is going to be digital signature of the judge when case is over. All this will will speed up the litigatory process and provide district and 'Taluka' courts greater transparency.There is going to be Complaint Management System through which you can seek redressal.  Computerization would be done very rapidly,so that all courts become fast track courts.Taking technology to the people is the way to overcome hurdles to progress.Modernization has been made from the viewpoint of the citizens.That is, it is citizen centric. India's future is bright, thanks to technocrats who have brought good governance through most modern technology in most needed areas.Addtional news on this topic was written on July 19,2012 in this blog under the title,ICT enabled courts.

Lost childhoods

Many children get lost in the crowds and are never found. They never return to their homes. Missing children have very very hard lives, they become child labourers or beggars; later on they resort to crime. Many times they are victims of crime.Last year alone 71,000 children were lost and search is still on.On August 10, 2012 Supreme Court had issued notices to state and central government that this is the most urgent matter; and that these missing children are small and cannot express their own plight, they should be heard.40% of the reported missing children are never found. Not all missing children are reported;when little boys are lost, it is reported immediately. If girls are missing, there are very few who report it; taking care of girl children is held as a burden in patriarchy.Missing child is lowest in the priority for a big family. Most important aspect of the missing children is that these children are from poor families.There is lesser response from the police. Children are from vulnerable background.Police should not ignore it;it is compulsory to register it;FIR is made.There is no law on how to deal with missing children. This is the biggest hurdle.So the law is missing is the case of the missing children.Missing children have not been defined in any law in India.
Missing children do not go missing in jungle or from a rural place, they are lost amid well connected urban areas with good road networks and railways.States in border have more children missing than others. And they are never traced or found.Mafia of eunuchs recruit them many times.
There is computer linkage among all police stations in India, by which photos of missing children are displayed and constantly updated. Ministry for Women and child Development has has "child tracking" project which traces children in 14 states in which it was made available.  Where there is child tracking applications available tracing the missing child becomes easy. In those states where this is used, missing children have been restored 30% more cases(90% rescued instead of 60%).The "Bachpan Bacho Andolan" as voice to the plight of missing children had made a PIL and had asked "why are these children missing?". Every day 14 children are lost in New Delhi alone. They end up as servants or child slaves. They are treated cruelly and they are deprived of basic needs. The issue of missing children overlaps with human trafficking. Children grow up "missing" living in the streets and never have had a home, they never have had a childhood; they end up as criminals or as victims of crime. Victims becomes criminals when they grow up.This  is very sad.Some times gangs are involved in kidnapping children.Girl children are used as domestic servants and sold for profits.Then the cases becomes bigger and CBI has to deal with them. When families look for their missing children, then there is hope. But these children are from poor families who cannot support them, so they do not look for them.Many come from border countries as refugees.We can give 'right to education' to a child but can we allow it to languish in the streets,? We have only guaranteed them right to perish in the streets.To see a poor child alone in the streets is most the depressing sight. A human child is too precious to be wasted away.Government has to make more juvenile homes and teach vocational skills to these children.Till they are adults they could be given a small pension.If we do not spend on them now, we may have to pay dearly when they grow up. Rehabilitation is most needed.As adults they must become good citizens as they too are the future people of India. In the future they will be asking us "what did you do for us then(in 2013). And we will have no answer.....  

Country of contradictions

We are in doubt.....are we truly a free country?....A music band comprising of girls was started.Soon after that their lives were threatened. Now they have stopped singing.This is not a small thing. Our freedom of expression is being controlled. A good art exhibition was held in the city of Bangalore in India; protesters try to shut it down as it bothers their religious feelings.Following this objectionable paintings were removed. Police now,invigilate the exhibition.Is such policing necessary in a free country? If a writer writes a great novel, he is persecuted by his own community; there is threat to his life. If a painter paints an extremely good painting, he is exiled because his painting is hurting the religious sentiments of the people. If there is good movie released (cleared by the censor board),its screening is postponed.Soon  religious leaders intervene and cut away sensitive scenes, they are not the "censor board". How could they do that? A good writer (whose comment is torn out of context) is in the middle of controversy regarding reserved category and corruption in India. His comments are disagreeable to the political class.An accomplished movie star is offered citizenship in a foreign country;he is asked if he want to leave for a foreign country where his ancestors had lived. This is his home country, why would he want to leave?
What is all this? Are we not a democracy? Can people not write, paint, sing, comment, and act as they please. Some word or some music will not be liked by a few persons; that does not mean we cannot have the right to expression.People can have sensitivities to anything and everything.  Nobody can say anything anymore. We are free yet we are tense on what restriction would come next. And we stop ourselves from talking about what we feel.This does not feel right.

We are evolving a new order

We are constantly evolving as a state. The political parties often do not share ideologies and split into smaller ones. Then there are which change their ideologies as exigencies make them. Some parties evolve due to a movement, and then the cause or spirit the movement is forgotten. All want upliftment of the poor, increased industrialization  development etc, but how they appeal to their voters is different. One cannot  even group them as 'left' or 'right' wing. Only commonality is that they are products of election machinery. Most parties breakup easily because one leader wants to dominate and keep the entire party under him/her. He/she wants to address the needs of his people his way. So there has been rise of innumerable parties and innumerable ideologies. But there was always party loyalties; voters devotedly vote for their party only. From 1971 to 2004, those who had affiliation to a single party has gone up from 5% to 15% So political parties will be always there and their steadfast supporters will always be there even when times change.
 We do not have a single truly national party, as this is difficult to evolve in India. We are so diverse, our needs are so varied, that homogeneity in appeal is difficult to attain. At local level, local people vote on local issues, and parties begin this way. Mainly these grass root parties are representative of the people. Large number of political parties does not mean that they not representative. They are representative. We have bigger choice. But different groups come up with similar policies as basic needs of the people is same everywhere. In the state of Andra Pradesh all the parties had come together to pass the "sub-plan" for upliftment of SCs,STs and tribals.
People want to vote to a person representative of them. If elected person is one  among them, voters have more satisfaction. But we need a fixed model through which we can make associations with different organizations(research and development of resources) so that we can make better policies for the people. Leaders have to collaborate with sociologists, statisticians, technocrats and other advisers.  Movements are essentially protests of the people. They should not be used as political capital. Problems of the people must be understood. .
Paid media also generates movements. Stiff resistance should be given to this Media is supported essentially by corporates. If movements created by the media is used in the development of a party's ideologies, soon it will wear out. Hollow parties without deeper values cannot last long.
Often protests are taught to the people. People themselves do nothing when their rights are taken away from them as they are not educated enough to know the repercussions. The plight of the people is used as political capital, then this cannot last long as newer protests and newer movements will be generated. And so many newer parties will be lost in chaos.
Coalition  government comes about in an environment like right now. And this has come to stay in the Indian political scene.With media scattering our attention at all times, many are disillusioned about political state of India. Many are worried about the future of political party in India. We need not encourage such disillusionment. Political parties will work well in India, no matter what. We cannot describe present state of the political party, but it will always be evolving into becoming more representative of the people.     

Land Acquisition at mid night.

New method of land acquisition has been explored. When armed police violently came at 4 A.M in the morning to acquire land, the common people--women and children were the worse hit. About 10-15 people were hurt when the local officials 'lathi-charged' at the people who were protesting. As part of 'anti land acquisition' protest, the rural people had made a human wall to resist acquisition. Local people grew 'betel leaves' as it was their source of livelihood. But a privately owned steel plant in their locality needs the land cultivated by them. The people were part of movement against land acquisition. When they opposed the acquisition physically by making a "human wall", they did not expect that the police would pounce on their with their "lathis" They were removed and land was acquired for the steel plant, POSCO. Their betel leaf vines were removed physically and the land was cleared. For last one and a half years, people have been opposing it as it would affect their livelihoods; betel leaf farmers cannot work in steel plants. They were given cheques for their lands immediately. Such action for land acquisition was hated by the Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti(PPSS) But nothing can be done when they are physically removed from their lands.Already 2000 acres have been acquired and 700 more acres are left which the natives do not want to give up. These pieces of land provided livelihoods and residence to so many people; after becoming a steel plant the private firm(made from the land) would employ only few people but would make big profits. Steel plant would employ skilled people from somewhere else.Locals would be then left out.
When people are evicted in the name of development,it is very painful. Is development against the people for whom it is meant for? Where will these people live when removed from their lands? What will they do for a living? They only know how to farm betel leaves.
Development brings comforts for the urbanites--piped water, electricity, good roads, good schools, shopping malls etc. What does it bring for the rural people? landless ness. They are now nomads who have no place to go. Is this what future India going to be like? If people's rights are transgressed on the name of development, is development worth it?

Women's security is now top priority

Protection, security and support of women is the most important in any civilised land.Time bound action Plan has been made to strengthen police and government's administration to deal with crimes against women. Police force will be re-trained starting now.And most important part of institutionalising change is in treating offenders in sexual assault cases.Comprehensive  laws on punishments  have now been made. An ordinance has been promulgated by our President based on recommendations  made by Justice Verma.This ordinance deals with amendments in criminal procedures. Quick action will be taken in such crimes. Gender sensitive response mechanism are going to be made. In six months the ordinance will become law. The ordinance is made to amend the Indian Penal Code, Code of Procedure,1973 and Indian Evidence Act 1872. It is called Criminal  Law (Amendment) Ordinance,2013. And it has come into effect from this instant.This is going to bring phenomenal changes in upliftment of the status of women in India. Death penalty (for rape and murder of victim) will be the punishment. Such strong punishment will stop crimes against women. That is for sure, after death, rapist cannot inflict pain again.
In colleges and universities located in two tier/three tier cities and rural areas, women students complain of living with constant threats; there is deep-seated hatred/resentment against women because they are held to be "competition in job market"Women are also harassed at workplaces frequently. Long term social control mechanisms are needed to change mindsets. Total change in attitudes towards women must come about.
Now women need not feel insecure at all the time.Things will change as law has come to their aid and police forces will become more sensitised to this trend.
There are some setbacks as marital rape is not dealt with by this ordinance. Reviewing exemptions(of Armed Forces and Special Powers Act) are not dealt with.Politicians who are charged with such crimes are not stopped by contesting in elections.This is not good.Ordinance is open to alterations as needed.There is hope that all will be checked by law........ 

Euro-centric Forum

Meeting at Davos reveals that there is renewed attempt by European nations to conquer the world all over again. Leaders of the European nations ask why population of India is more than all the countries of Europe put together.They cannot affect population of India in any way. But they  feel that they are threatened by this.They feel that they cannot preserve their "culture gene"due to this.
How is population of India affecting them? We are not asking for anything from them. We have policies to deal with our problems ourselves.We have achieved bumper crops, we are providing for the poor through social security schemes, we provide medicine for our poor and we are a self sufficient economy,
The policies of the forum are Euro-centric, so instead of calling themselves World Economic Forum, they can be called European Economic Forum.Domination of world especially the third world countries is primary in the mind-set of such forums.
They reflect the fact that there is a long way to go before we really have a peaceful community of nations.Frequent words for addressing themselves are "fellow Anglo-Saxons". This is outrageous. We thought we are fellow humans.They are not united for common good. They are united for more sophisticated domination of the world. It is crisis that is uniting them. Economic downtrend has given them no alternatives but to unite against the developing world. Self interest is against humanity.The truth is that they are keenly looking for resources. They are looking for new ways to exploit the unwary, weak countries. We, Indians are too intelligent to be made slaves all over again. Demographic problem in Asia is of no concern to them, why are these issues on population brought up in a forum? At all times attention is on Europe's crisis and not world which is in crisis?
Another phrase frequently used is "our resources are between our ears" That means that they have intelligent brains.So these people are trying hard to think how to exploit the resources of Asia? We also have intelligent brains! Europe is not the world, they must know that.