Who leads us? Is democracy working right?
There will be many people who shall be offended with the question. There shall be even more who will be of the opinion that democracy is the best thing to ever happen to India. I am not disagreeing with this opinion, but what I am saying is important, and it surely deserves a thought at least.
In India, the education policies are decided by those who have never taught a day in their lives. The defence policies are decided by those who have never been on the field and have no idea how grave situations at the border can get. Welfare of poor is looked after by those who are not even remotely connected to poverty on date. Consent of a minister, who has practically no idea about cyber security, is needed to pass the bill on Digital India.
Notice something common here? Give it a thought. Who are our leaders? What qualification, what experience do they have to become our leaders? There are no answers. How they become leaders of the biggest democracy of the world is not a mystery. It is a well known fact that elections take place every 5 years and different leaders contest the elections. Then, the citizens of the nation cast their vote to decide who is capable of becoming the leader for 1.2 Billion people. But have you ever thought of the fact that we don't even have a real option?
In India, there are ONLY 2 political parties with a national reach, all others are confined to local regions only, bound by linguistic and cultural barriers. One of these two parties has a Prime Ministerial candidate for the 2019 elections as a person who was born with a golden spoon. The other has a tea vendor, who is working for the nation currently. But where is the best? There is no best, and this is the harsh reality.
For some time, let us even consider that Narendra Modi is the ideal Prime Minister of India, though he is very far from being one. Now, what cabinet ministers does he have? His defence minister resigned so that the party could form a government in Goa state. The HRD Minister appointed when he won the elections in 2014 is charged with possession of fake degrees. With this grave situation, I don't think even an ideal Prime Minister can do anything to improve the situation of India. Defence, Foreign Affairs, Human Resource and Development, Railways, Finance, Home, Electronics and Information Security are some of the very important ministries which cannot be ignored at any cost. Not that any other ministry is any less important, but these deserve very vivid people at the head position. Now the problem is that we don't have even a single option whom we can elect to give all these ministries what they deserve.
Some of the above mentioned ministries are in a pitiable situation currently. Then, why do we even say that we have democracy? Democracy provides power to the people. We only get to choose among two sub-standard choices. Even if there is a third choice, it won't be up to the mark. This is where we are wrong. Collaboration, not competition, is the need of the hour. Unfortunately, some people don't tend to understand this small thing. We have highly qualified, experienced, knowledgeable and skilled leaders in the parliament of India. But the problem is that they are busy fighting against each other rather than working for the welfare of the nation. Is this what Democracy is all about?
Even North Korea hosts elections regularly. They give one option to the people, we give two. But it makes practically no difference as both our options are sub standard. Yes, we are better than North Korea. But are we happy to be in this position? I don't think so. We need to improve. We need to give all the power to the skilled and talented people, willing to work for the welfare of the nation. Opposition was meant to keep a check on the powers exercised by the ruling party and not to contradict every statement the government makes. This is inappropriate and must stop at the earliest.
We must have ministers who are capable of handling issues. A HRD Minister must have some teaching experience, so that they are able to predict the feasibility of a proposed change in the system before it is implemented. This will ensure that we don't commit another blunder like the CCE.
Mr Manohar Parrikar was a fantastic defence minister, and the Surgical Strike at LOC in 2016, and the strikes in Myanmar have proven the same. But then, why did he have to leave the designation of a Central government officer? Is our nation so weak that we cannot provide him with sufficient to fulfill his needs when he is the Defence Minister, he needs to leave the post to become the Chief Minister of Goa for the same? Why is the constitution of India not flexible enough to be able to allow the same person to hold both these designations?
The rules that were once framed to keep India from becoming a dictator government are now being used to stop any development. This is unfortunate.
In India, the education policies are decided by those who have never taught a day in their lives. The defence policies are decided by those who have never been on the field and have no idea how grave situations at the border can get. Welfare of poor is looked after by those who are not even remotely connected to poverty on date. Consent of a minister, who has practically no idea about cyber security, is needed to pass the bill on Digital India.
Notice something common here? Give it a thought. Who are our leaders? What qualification, what experience do they have to become our leaders? There are no answers. How they become leaders of the biggest democracy of the world is not a mystery. It is a well known fact that elections take place every 5 years and different leaders contest the elections. Then, the citizens of the nation cast their vote to decide who is capable of becoming the leader for 1.2 Billion people. But have you ever thought of the fact that we don't even have a real option?
In India, there are ONLY 2 political parties with a national reach, all others are confined to local regions only, bound by linguistic and cultural barriers. One of these two parties has a Prime Ministerial candidate for the 2019 elections as a person who was born with a golden spoon. The other has a tea vendor, who is working for the nation currently. But where is the best? There is no best, and this is the harsh reality.
For some time, let us even consider that Narendra Modi is the ideal Prime Minister of India, though he is very far from being one. Now, what cabinet ministers does he have? His defence minister resigned so that the party could form a government in Goa state. The HRD Minister appointed when he won the elections in 2014 is charged with possession of fake degrees. With this grave situation, I don't think even an ideal Prime Minister can do anything to improve the situation of India. Defence, Foreign Affairs, Human Resource and Development, Railways, Finance, Home, Electronics and Information Security are some of the very important ministries which cannot be ignored at any cost. Not that any other ministry is any less important, but these deserve very vivid people at the head position. Now the problem is that we don't have even a single option whom we can elect to give all these ministries what they deserve.
Some of the above mentioned ministries are in a pitiable situation currently. Then, why do we even say that we have democracy? Democracy provides power to the people. We only get to choose among two sub-standard choices. Even if there is a third choice, it won't be up to the mark. This is where we are wrong. Collaboration, not competition, is the need of the hour. Unfortunately, some people don't tend to understand this small thing. We have highly qualified, experienced, knowledgeable and skilled leaders in the parliament of India. But the problem is that they are busy fighting against each other rather than working for the welfare of the nation. Is this what Democracy is all about?
Even North Korea hosts elections regularly. They give one option to the people, we give two. But it makes practically no difference as both our options are sub standard. Yes, we are better than North Korea. But are we happy to be in this position? I don't think so. We need to improve. We need to give all the power to the skilled and talented people, willing to work for the welfare of the nation. Opposition was meant to keep a check on the powers exercised by the ruling party and not to contradict every statement the government makes. This is inappropriate and must stop at the earliest.
We must have ministers who are capable of handling issues. A HRD Minister must have some teaching experience, so that they are able to predict the feasibility of a proposed change in the system before it is implemented. This will ensure that we don't commit another blunder like the CCE.
Mr Manohar Parrikar was a fantastic defence minister, and the Surgical Strike at LOC in 2016, and the strikes in Myanmar have proven the same. But then, why did he have to leave the designation of a Central government officer? Is our nation so weak that we cannot provide him with sufficient to fulfill his needs when he is the Defence Minister, he needs to leave the post to become the Chief Minister of Goa for the same? Why is the constitution of India not flexible enough to be able to allow the same person to hold both these designations?
The rules that were once framed to keep India from becoming a dictator government are now being used to stop any development. This is unfortunate.
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