Modi’s Biggest Blunder? – Is appointment of Yogi Adityanath betrayal of Modi’s mandate?

The keenly awaited news of who will be the next CM of UP is finally out. As usual most of the news channels with their highly placed sources got this prediction wrong too. No one really expected BJP will declare Yogi Adityanath as the CM of UP. While this may be good news for the core supporters of BJP (Read VHP and RSS members), this is a disappointment for lakhs of youngsters like me who supported Modi purely for the promise of development.

Although we should not prejudge a candidate before he even has taken oath, we can always raise doubts about his or her qualification to be a CM of the largest state of India. Yogi Adityanath may have won as member of Parliament 5 times in a row but his rhetoric against Muslims is highly objectionable. The significant rise of BJP/Modi pan India is because he was able to garner votes from people beyond BJP’s core base. For these people, Ram Mandir and Hindutva is not an issue, their expectation from Modi was he would deliver on economy, infrastructure, good governance and curbing corruption. Appointment of Yogi Adityanath signals a betrayal of this expectation.

One may argue that may be Yogi Adityanath will tone down his rhetoric and completely focus on governance issues. But for a leader who has cultivated his support base around communal rants against Muslims it will be difficult to suddenly abandon it. He is after all answerable to this very support base.

He may personally want to tone it down as he has won the biggest prize of the CM’s post but his supporters will not remain silent and he will not be able to reign them in.

I hope all my doubts and suspicions will turn out false. I will be happy if he proves all skeptics wrong. However, if he continues with the communal agenda then the blame must squarely be placed on Narendra Modi. It may turn out to be the biggest blunder by Modi, as he will risk losing lakhs of supporters including myself who have supported him strictly for development and development only.

Stand out  ideas in the manifesto’s of BJP, Congress and APP

BJP Manifesto 

Focus on center- state relationship:

As  election after election we see newer regional parties increasingly gaining strength in there respective states, there are increasing conflicts involving issues of the Federal structure of India and it is important to recognize that there are 2 engines of Power structures one at the central level and other at the state level which need to run in coordination for India to move forward and there have been many policy decisions which have been stalled in the UPA government because of the lack of trust and coordination between the center and state governments, so BJP’s inclusion of this very crucial  problem in its Manifesto is a good sign and also this is a stands out feature of BJP  as the Congress and AAP have no mention about this very important problem in their manifestos.

2)  Digitization and E governance : There is a lot of focus on Digitization of all government records and ideas of National E-libraries for students is a very practical and significant one.

3) Judicial and Electoral reforms : 

BJP promises a Judicial commission for Appointment of Judges, this has been a long pending reform bill and will improve accountability of the judges if implemented

 State and National elections together :        

This will do a lot of good for the country if implemented as it not only reduces the election  expenses for both Political parties and Governments but also avoid situations where Governments  delay or post pone certain decisions in view of the elections ( state or center)  in the middle of there term as it is now.

4) Infrastructure :

BJP promises to build 100 new cities and many more Sataliite townships, this will transform india if implemented.

A lot of focus on Roads and connectivity for Northeast, Jammu and Kashmir stets.

5) Transport and Tourism :

The ideas of Bullet trains and Tourist/ Piligramage trains are truly new and fresh ideas.

AAP manifesto 

1) Jan Lokpal bill :

AAP as expected promises a more Empowered, independent and Accountable Ombudsman that the present existing one passed by the UPA , this bill if passed is expected to curb big ticket  corruption.

2) Decentralization of Power :

AAP promises a swaraj bill which will empower the gram sabhas / Municipal wards by providing them with funds directly to implement development activities in their locality according to their needs and priorities.

3) sweeping electoral reforms :

AAP promises radical changes in the way elections are conducted in the country which includes :

 a. Appointment of Election commission  by a multi member committee rather than Government

b. Political parties to be brought in under the purview of RTI to increase transparency in the way parties are funded and how parties spend their money.

c. The existing first past the post system to be replaced with Proportional representation.

If the above three can be successfully implemented then there can be paradigm shift in the politics of our country as this would help increase the winnability of good candidates who need not resort to money or muscle power, and also will curb corruption as the source of corruption today lies in the way political parties are funded today.

Congress manifesto :

Although the congress manifesto promises economic growth, inclusive development, tax, police, Judicial reforms, these all are policies which are also promised by the above two parties as well, unfortunately there are no stand out ideas or policies from the congress Manifesto.

Possible Good is better than Impossible best

As part of the run up to India’s General elections 2014, we keep hearing from these “ Left Liberal Intellectuals” right from Ramchandra guha to Arundathi roy that the country needs some one better than either Rahul gandhi or Narendra modi, the question i would like to ask them is who is that other alternative they can suggest ? and if they do have one in mind do they think it is realistic for that alternative to win the elections? As long as they don’t give answers to these critical questions, the stance they take of neither modi nor RG is rather a lazy and easy stance to take.

As of today there are only two choices in front of the citizens of our country :

Its either Rahul Lead congress or Modi lead BJP, now lets asses these two on 3 key factors :

1. Past governance record
2. Leadership Qualities
3. What are their policies to shape the future of India

As far as Governance record of Mr Rahul gandhi is considered there is nothing to asses as he has not taken up any key responsibilities like being a minister or chief minister and yet sadly blames the system and talks of changing the system forgetting it is the congress party which ruled for 65 years and more importantly the last 10 years where if he was willing to had all the power at his disposal to change things. Worst part is he is absent during most of the debates on important legislations in Parliament and missing in action when protests like Jan lokpal movement and Nirbhaya happened. The country does not know what he stands for.

If we consider the record of congress party it self, there is no need to remind every one of the kind of indecision and policy paralysis our country is suffering after the revelations of one after another monumental scams. The congress party talks about empowering the common man, they fail to realize the Prime Minister of our country first needs to be empowered. Sonia and Rahul Gandhi’s two power center strategy has not only diminished the office of PM but also made Manmohan Singh a scape goat while Sonia gandhi enjoys power without accountability. the congress party and UPA has not only failed at the national level but even if you look at any Congress ruled states, the same symptoms of indecisiveness, populist welfare schemes rather than good governance and improvent in infrastructure and short term measure for immediate electoral gains is the norm whether it is AP,Maharashtra or Rajasthan, in all these states too the office of Chief minster is reduced to being a loyalist of the Family rather than a competent leader.

Take the top 5 states which are fast progressing states of our country, you will see that all of them are non congress ruled Govts : namely Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Orissa, Chathisgarh.

Lets contrast this with Modi’s Governance record as Gujarat’s  CM and you will find there is a lot to chew about the things he managed to develop like  24 hr uninterrupted Electricity to whole of Gujarat, Tap Water supply to even far removed regions of Kutch, consistent GDP growth of more than 8 % for the last 10 years, many Infrastructure projects and massive Industrialization as attested by the top Industrialists of our Country and more importantly people of Gujarat giving the Mandate to Modi 3 times consecutively is a proof of his Government passing with flying colors. Now what is the biggest failure of Modi which these left liberals keep refering to, its the Riots of 2002, yes agreed one has to agree whatever the circumstances the handling of 2002 riots may be considered as a failure on his part. but you dont judge a leaders capability bsed on just one incident you have to judge it in a period of time and over the last 13  years when Modi was in power not a single riot took place in a state where there are many such places where riots and curfew would go on for months every single year prior to 2002.

Now consider BJP as party’s performance and in contrast congress we can see that the CM’s of BJP ruled states are leaders of their own making and highly competent and are empowered rather than running to high command for every decision to be taken and if take look at the BJP ruled states like : Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Chathisgarh, Gujarat, they are rated high on development and strong consistent leadership, with a exception of Karnataka, there too they got rid of Yeddyurappa knowing well that it is going to effect there victory.

Not only in terms of Leadership and Governance, Modi and BJP are better than RG and congress but even in terms of the policies for the future there is a fundamental difference, while the congress party is hell bent on distributing free bee schemes like Food security bill and Right to education bill which they themselves know will not be possible to implement but do it not just to sympathize with poor people but a blatant attempt to Glorify poverty and gain votes from it where as on the other hand Modi talks about improving countries Infrastructure, Industrialization which generates employment and make poor self reliant and independent rather than helpless beggars.

Having said this about Modi and BJP, i am no way saying Modi is perfect, no he may have many short comings, there are many factors on which Gujarat fares badly but important thing to realize is there is no Perfect option available, there is only a better option available in such circumstances important remember is

  “Possible Good is better than Impossible best”

Looking at the present scams in India reminds me of a quote from Ayn Rand which fittingly describes the current state of affairs

“when you see money flowing to those who deal not in goods but by favors,
    when you see that men get richer by Graft and Pull than by work,
    and the law does not protect you against them but protects them against you,
    when you see corruption is being rewarded and honesty becomes self sacrifice,
     you know your society is doomed “

Let’s not be too pessimistic and look at the brighter side of it, we can see that even in this poor state of affairs our Judiciary and Electoral systems are functioning independently and have restored some credibility but the question is that enough? No certainly not, it’s not practical in any country to approach the courts for day to day issues like obtaining ration card, driving license and we can’t afford to wait for 5 years to vote out a corrupt government or leader.

Moreover corruption or any malpractice is not function of individual person’s or particular political party’s morality, it’s about the system’s loopholes which need a fix. The solutions for these lie in institution building and strengthening our systems which does not allow a bureaucrat, a politician to ask for bribe and for corporate’s to offer bribes.

The solutions for these are obtained by a multi fold approach which includes taking measures in minimizing the dependency of the people on Government based public delivery systems to eliminate corruption faced by common man and bringing strong anti graft laws will ensure transparency at the top level for the big ticket corruption.

So corruption India can be categorized in to two kinds:

1)      Low Level Corruption

2)      High level or big ticket corruption

 Measures to eliminate low level corruption:

Low level corruption means the corruption which a common man faces on a daily bases for obtaining his basic needs like ration card, Passport, License, opening bank account etc. so in order to reduce corruption at this level we need to minimize the interface between the public and the government for these services there by effectively reducing the need for the people to depend on government for these services and as a result of which there is no scope for corruption. To achieve this, the following measures need to be taken:

 1)      Minimizing  the Interface between public and Government

This can be achieved by the use of technology where in every citizen of the country is provided with their identity in the lines of the “Social security number”

in the USA, what this kind of system does is by just giving this number your entire record can be traced and reduces a lot of paper work and empowers many poor people for whom all the paper work for each and every service they require may be overwhelming due to which they depend on that PDS officials.

2)      Empowering consumer with more choice :

More choice can be created by privatizing the many public limited services as privatization creates more choice and results in competition among the different players involved there by empowering the people to choose a company which gives them the best value, take the example of the telecom sector where 10 years ago there was only Government run telephone company was operating it was difficult for people to obtain a new connection where as today when there are so many private operators due to the heavy competition just a phone call is enough to obtain a new connection.

3)      Simpler laws :

In India to start a business or to even build a house there are numerous layers of departments and licenses to be obtained and getting all these done can be a herculean task than the business it self and exploiting these archaic system bureaucrat’s pressure the common man for corruption. Compare this to a system in USA where to build a house all you need to know is a set of guidelines given in a book let and follow them stringently and at the end of your construction there is only one officer who inspects it and approves the house if your house meets the requirements, so if we can replace these archaic laws with simple laws it can reduce corruption to a large extent.

 Measures for Big Ticket corruption:

Big ticket corruption refers to the corruption at top level like the 2G spectrum scam and coal block scam. To eliminate this we need the following measures:

1) Lokpal with Lokayukta law: A strong anti graft law like the lokpal which also includes the lokayukta’s for the states and which is independent of the Government is the need of the hour.

2) Transforming Politics: last but not the least in order to achieve all the measures above we need to transform the way our politics function because the solution to all our problems only lies with politics and for the transformation to happen we need leaders of society to enter politics and we need more active participation of public especially the educated class, middle class and Youth to participate actively and forcefully like we did in the Lokpal movement.

                                                                                                                                                                                   Vidyuth.