Humanity

 

K. Madan Gopal

E-mail:kmgopal52@gmail.com.

 

Democracy, Elections and freebies

India the land of rich resources is also the world’s largest democracy in the world with its human population beating China to acquire the top slot. The country with diverse cultures, languages, traditions, practices is also recognized by the world for its rich historical heritage.

Since it was liberated from the clutches of British Rule on 15 ^th of August 1947, the country goes on election mode every 5 years and quite a few times much earlier due to political fights, instability in governance and many other reasons which are typical of the country.  During every election the political parties bring out a manifesto which in other words can be said to be their plan of action if they come to power for the next 5 years.

 If one looks at the manifesto of all the political parties which are National ,or regional and that of Individual candidates(sometimes)  all are aiming at developing the country and thereby making this country a better place to stay for its citizens. After Independence from British Rule it was ROTI,KAPADA & MAKAAN. Later as the years passed many more concerns joined to the above like better civic amenities, Roads, Railways, Airways, Transport, Communication, agriculture, Manufacturing, creating Jobs, curbing corruption, etc, etc. the list is quite big and it is not my priority to list as one can find the details in the political parties websites.

The issue that is of concern is about the promises in the manifesto. Have the parties which have ruled this country after Independence able to fulfill at least 25 percent of their promises in the manifesto if not more.  If so why even after almost 8 decades of Independence the problems faced by the common citizens more or less remain the same. Even today there are people who cannot afford three meals a day, or are homeless and can be witnessed in all major cities as they sleep on the footpaths, Youth jobless, the gap between the rich and poor widening up, wealth being in the hands of few privileged citizens. People taking up politics as a profession to earn and the wealth of politicians geometrically increasing every 5 years is a common sight.

In addition to all the above in the 1980’s a new trend began of freebies which probably can be credited to the politicians from Tamil nadu and the undivided Andhra Pradesh.  Since then it has caught up as wild fire all over the country in most of the states. Let me now recollect a famous proverb in the management circles often quoted to encourage youngsters to improve their performance in the company. The proverb goes like this “There is nothing like free lunch in the world”.

Now as politicians are looking at the country as a company which they are going to govern for 5years to increase their wealth and assets in their true colour but portrayed exactly with a opposite face value, its time for all of us to take a look at their manifesto of freebies.

As nothing is going to be free in this world it is the 3 percent tax payers money with which they are going to play with to come to power with all the freebies promises.

We have many examples of countries across the world which have offered freebies to their citizens and have resulted in a crumbled economy and have gone bankrupt and are today struggling to meet the basic demands of their citizens. Our Neighbor Sri Lanka is one of the best examples. Sri Lankan Politicians extended undue freebies on a competition among themselves and the result is collapse of their economy. Srilankans are suffering to meet their basic needs in their country as the commodities have become scarce and the prices have sky rocketed. In our neighborhood we can witness many countries whose economy has plummeted due to various reasons including freebies and the citizens are put to difficulties and pain for their daily needs and are leaving their countries to safe havens.

It is the need of the hour for our political parties in the country to place the interest of economy of India as first priority and then decide about the freebies, if not very soon we may fall into the same trap as that of our neighboring countries. The face value of all political manifestos is development of the country. Does extending freebies promote development of economy of a nation? The experience of politicians in many countries across the world only indicates that they have been able to retain and enjoy power for themselves and ensure their own growth and development at the cost of common man by fooling their own people while driving the country’s economy to dust. It is time for common man to realize that only if the country’s economy is growing and healthy then their personal economy would grow if not the day of collapse is in their front.

It is time to question the political parties as to from where they are going to pool the resources for freebies without effecting the growth of economy of the nation to meet their promises or else it would result in fooling the common man. (To win the elections)has they will not be able to keep up the promises if they consider the nations interest. Remember there are politicians who frame policies which has a facevalue of development of nation but ultimately result in downfall of the economy of the Nation as the politicians economy quadriples. Let us not forget that two decades back we had to pledge all our gold resources to a foreign country for our survival due to the wrong policies of the political party which ruled us. Let us wake up to the situation and act in the interest of the nation and say no to freebies. Dignity of the common man lies in his earnings and spending contributing to the growth of a nation, and not falling prey to the freebies to  accept them and show the world that Indians remain beggars even after 8 decades of our Independence. Ask for policies that can create job opportunites to meet the growing demand of increasing population, improving the infrastructure of the state and creating diverse avenues for our youngsters to showcase and prove their talent and skill for betterment of a Nation. Respected life for senior citizens by taking care of their basic needs, dignified life for women, problems in administration especially rampant corruption in Govt. offices,  Law and order, Modernizing judiciary by identifying the problems, bringing in new laws that are the need of the hour, Recognizing the fact that justice delayed is justice denied to name a few issues which are plaguing the nation, addressing the real issues in their manifesto can be a good beginning to the country and can go a long way in promoting a better  life to  the common man.