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.

The Religion we Portray - Sikhism

There are times when I feel as to why are we still having issues related to religion. Sikhs have been a race which is supposed to be the most tolerant towards any kind of caste-ism and open to religious discrepancies. I used to propagate Sikhism based on these virtues. It is Ok, if the religious place is desecrated and a whole army of troops sent in for the people to raise their voices and they have a right to be heard. But is it Ok now to openly revolt in the form of violence that is currently being shown across our television sets. It is understood that we are a hot-headed race, which has become a identity in itself, due to our history of being the warrior race. But, as a rule we are the pure disciples of the teachings of the Guru, which are now in the Guru Granth Sahib. I respect that aspect of our culture and revere the same kind of tolerance which has been taught to us through those teachings. We have a right to express our concern when our religious sentiments are not respected, but not in the way that has been done in the recent violence driven activities.

This brings me to the point that our religion has become Politicized by all these ill-meaning people out there who are just out to gain power and political mileage from these issues. The Dera Chief did a wrong thing by portraying himself as one of the Guru's, but where has it been said anywhere in the Guru Granth Sahib, that we should not portray his image? And the main point here is, do we even know how they actually looked like. Ok, even if that is there, we should have restrained tolerance and not given in to violence. We have policies in place where without going out and killing people, we ask them to do seva in the Harminder Sahib. This practice is an excellent way to teach the people humility and make them do some good for the place which is a revered one for all the Sikhs. We have never discriminated on the basis of caste or religion. All are free to come and seek solace at the Gurudwara's. The Dera's came up, when we as a religious sect deviated from this path and started pushing the people away. The people look for solace elsewhere and these Dera's gave them that. When did we become like this and why??

The Dera Chief has just tried to gain political mileage and publicity to himself by doing such an act. We should realize that religious sentiments are best left undisturbed and should not be aggravated. But, in these days of Politization by our stupid leaders we seem to have lost that tranquility that the Guru's had wished to create. These are the days of modernization, but our leaders feel that due to this, the people will get aware of issues and remove them from their positions of power. I am really disappointed with the turn of events and how things have materialized. Hope that the so-called leaders of ours learn soon and start addressing real issues than to fire up people on their religious sentiments and make them fight among themselves; forgetting the real actual issues being faced. I am really disappointed and hope these issues clear up soon. A plea to those leaders also, please refrain from using religion in your politics, keep these two separate.