“Politically Correct…?”

“I'm tired of hearing it said that democracy doesn't work. Of course it doesn't work. We are supposed to work it.”

-Alexander Woollcott

A quote that pertinently fits into the state of affairs in India, post 16/05/2009. Until then we may be talking on – ‘Vote for change’; ‘Who is the Indian Obama?’; ‘Which party gets to the magic figure of atleast 140 to 150?’; ‘Who joins who?’ etc……… but the relatable question we all need to understand that our problem is man-made and only we can sort them out. After all democracy is not about voting, rather it is a game of counting or a game of numbers.

While the month long political festival is nearing its culmination and all the political parties are busy in setting their equations right to form the next government, the need of the hour is to seriously and quickly get into the business of effective governance.

In a five-year tenure (under normal situation), the elected representatives dissipate their first hundred days in finding faults with the policies of the previous government and the last hundred days in preparing for the next elections. The period in between is witnessed by either the adjournments of the house or the low turn out of our leaders in the parliamentary sittings.

In my opinion, the next government at the Centre has a hard-hitting task to accomplish atleast the following Ten Commandments, i.e., to:

• Strengthen internal security of the country.
• Pump life into the shrinking job market.
• Put a tab on the price rise of essential commodities.
• Accelerate the rate of infrastructural development across the length and breadth of the country. The government should now learn lessons from the mistakes and look for more of FDI over FII in the core-sectors.
• Introduce tax reforms and expand the tax-base in the country. It will mean not only a manifold increase in our revenue earnings but also a reduction in the burden on existing taxpayers.
• Uplift the rural communities by socio-economic and political empowerment.
• Give a more socially cohesive government.
• Play a major role in the geopolitics of the region by giving amicable solutions to the regional crisis, be it in Sri Lanka, Nepal or Afghanistan / Pakistan, without being intrusive in their sovereign issues.
• Rejuvenate the environmental protection laws in the country and give leadership to handle the global environmental issues like- reduction in global carbon emissions, global warming etc.
• Work out concrete measures to check the unabated population growth and influx of illegal migrants, particularly from the neighbouring countries.

Hope the new government does more than our expectations!