Dad's Thoughts on the Election Manifesto

Dad sat down one day after he got a request to review the Election Manifesto of one of the contesting parties. These are what his thoughts and expressions hold:

"I received a copy of Congress Manifesto for the coming elections with an invitation to participate in interaction on it with their coordinator. Given below is my reply to him." - Dad

Dear Mr. XXX XXX [don't want to put names :-)],

Congress Manifesto is very well written. It enlightens those who are young and uninitiated, but is a repetition for quite a number of us who have lived through these Sixty-One Years, experienced the happenings and borne the hard times, the troubled times, initially the humiliating and then morale boosting costly wars, the reform oriented policies and their outcome, the growing uncertainty of security, insurgency, communalism rather than secularism, leading to frustrated terrorism at the culmination stage.

I am not into politics but am an educated, literate, aware and a practical, logically thinking person.

Whatever history you may quote, till now it belies a Stabilised, Sustained Policy on Governance. To generate any confidence in our class of people, you have to come out with a Strong Governance Policy and abide by it, based on a schedule to implement and to be announced to public.

A lot of populism has gone on for all these Sixty-One Years which has led to fragmentation of society on aggravated religious and resultant communal basis. Unity in diversity is suspect and based on more opportunism rather than confidence – confidence of justice and conscience.

Criminality and criminals are the ones to have become national leaders – with consequential lack of perceptive ideas resulting in degenerative and self oriented, corrupt, irresponsible and unaccountable government machinery. They only serve themselves.

The bureaucracy, by and large, is on its own, is manipulative, self aggrandizing, uncommitted to their responsibilities towards the State, without any control by the so called leaders.

This is the type of leadership, less some exceptions, which has been nurtured by the party, longest in power. Others had this as the IDEAL to follow, as and when they came to power.

Manifesto should have a NATIONAL Agenda and a Political Agenda. Both should be Prioritised, with a worked out implementation schedule. Only then can a Party get down to brass-tacks and later at the end of its term , claim any successes. Delayed justice, they say, is justice denied; therefore whatever you project as achievements, are of no value if they have not come in time.

We have inherited colonial ideas which are being fanned by the powers that be. We disbanded over Six- hundred states (Rajwaras) with lot of aplomb, but over these Sixty-one years, have re-energised them in a changed mode. All these years, has any effort been made to update the Governing Rules of Administration, Judicial, Army, Police, other National Organisations?

A very comprehensive National Reforms Commission under Justice Sachar has still to see daylight . A pragmatic National Policy would have resurrected and implemented it in these last over forty years from its languishing archival shelf. Why is the Education Policy still State based? Why isn’t there a National Police force? Why should the IAS be still State Cadre based and yet be called Indian Administrative Service? These are just a few examples of lethargy and self interest in governance. Nobody is thinking national. Why is the Water control still with states? By now, in our predominantly monsoon based agriculture, why have we not connected the rivers in a national grid to conserve, redirect and utilize water in a more effective manner?
National Health Insurance is only in the Metros; what happens to the rural folks? Did it have to take these Sixty – one years to think of them? Isn’t it a fact that our so called leaders used them as ‘bonded estate’ for building and enlarging their own interests?

Lofty ideas and high sounding words are NOT essential for Governance. Practicality and enforced implementation is what is required. Incentives and penalties are required. Responsibility and accountability are required. Action is required. Timely Results are required.

If your Manifesto can be simply worded:
To do, By When, How, Through whom, Fix Responsibility, Get timed feedback, Review and Respond, then you will be clear and be able to get the right votes.


Hope the above puts some things in perspective and our Party's start actually implementing what they say and not just making a show of things.