NEED LIST FOR MANIFESTO

PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS - 2014 For the well being of our masses, we shall target an average growth rate of 8% for the next 15 years. This will make India a Developed country in the next 15 years. Once we have sufficient income growth, the ways and means of income distribution will follow suit in the form of welfare measures. We all Indians are borne and brought up with certain moral values. We are not hard core money minded people and we do not believe in exploiting the lower strata of the people. All political parties have clear picture on this inclusive growth concept. Hence we need not unduly worry about income disparity. In fact, contrary to the general belief that we have high disparity on income levels, we are far ahead of many of the countries like China, Brazil, Indonesia, Argentina, South Africa, USA, etc on the equality index. Let us not get bogged down by loose comments like : Globalisation, Liberalisation, Privatisation, FDIs, etc have only helped the rich and not the common man. These comments and media reports are purely qualitative statements made without any supporting data. There could be temporary differences in few years. We shall look at the long term data only. Apart from identifying the major agenda points for faster growth, we shall also identify the major, social and political issues which are impediments to our growth and make sure that all political parties agree on this. There are misconceptions in identifying the right development plans. That is mainly because of the propaganda unleashed by the ill-informed NGOs and blindly supported by the mass media. We shall spread the right agenda among the public, and the political parties shall be made to commit for this agenda. We shall support only those parties who are in agreement with this agenda. Irrespective of what each party stood for, in each of the agenda points in the past, we shall ensure that they commit these points atleast now. 1) Inter linking of Rivers : For any society to prosper, water is the key. India gets an average annual rainfall of 1100 mm. This is very much sufficient for supporting the water needs of the entire Indian population. But the problem is that the rainfall is not uniform throughout the year. And it is also not uniform throughout India. About 75% of rainfall occurs in just 4 months. About 60% of surface water flow is taking place only in Ganga and Brahmaputra river basins. The result, there is flooding in certain regions during monsoon and at the same time there is drought in other regions. Sometimes when there is slight decrease in rainfall, the region which experienced flooding in the previous season / year faces drought in the next season / year. This is nature. We cannot alter the monsoon pattern. But we can easily store as much as possible and also divert the excess water to other regions by this, flooding and wastage during the monsoon is minimised even while helping the other regions which do

not get sufficient rainfall. Please note, we are talking about the excess flow for storage and diversion and not the normal flow. For achieving this Storage and Diversion, Scientists have studied the Indian Rainfall pattern and the flooding frequency of River Basins very extensively for the past several decades. Based on these studies, they have come out with a Scheme, whereby all major Rivers of India will be inter linked by 29 Canals. These Canals will be originating from Large Dams and Check Dams to be built across major rivers. These dams will also produce a net of 30,000 MW of power after deducting the electricity required to lift the water in certain uphill regions. At present, our water storage capacity at just 262 m3 per capita is one of the lowest in the world. Compare this figure with that of China at 2486 m3, North America at 6150 m3, Brazil at 3255 m3, South Africa at 746 m3. Hence, we need to implement this scheme on top priority, if we have to lift the standard of living of our teaming millions. It shall be the top most agenda. Regarding the funds required for all these 29 projects, it is estimated at about Rs.7,00,000 Crores at current price levels. Please note, all these projects are independent projects and we can take them up in groups of say 10 at a time. Each group may take about 7 years to complete. Hence we can easily complete all the projects in about 20 years. It is not at all difficult to mobilise Rs.7,00,000 crores ( which will go up with adjustment for inflation), over a period of 20 years. It works out to just about Rs.35,000 crores per year. For a country with a GDP of Rs.80,00,000 crores, allocating Rs.35,000 crores for a national project like this is not an issue. Presently, these Inter Linking Canals between each river Basins have been identified as single large open canals. This concept had been evolved at the time when the large Tunnel Boring Machines were not available. But, now with the availability of very large Tunnel Boring Machines of diameters as large as 65 Feet, it is possible to have multiple underground canals between the basins with suitable tapings at appropriate locations.. This will minimize the need for land acquisition for canals. This becomes significant when the canals are expected to cross forest land and urban areas. We must ignore all the arguments like funds problem, environmental issues, forest land diversion, etc and move forward with a clear agenda on this national project to feed all the 120 crores stomachs. 2) Nuclear Energy : Next to Water, Electricity is the most important requirement for the advancement of any society. The per capita energy consumption of India is about 800 units compared to the world average of about 2000 units. We have limited resources in terms of Hydel power, Coal, Oil & Gas. Due to the unreliability coupled with high cost, the Wind and Solar powers do not fit into the large scale grid connected power option. Hence, the only resource which can offer us the required quantum of clean energy at affordable price and also provide us the long term energy security is, Nuclear Energy.

We have our indigenous Nuclear power program taking off with 22 reactors operating and many more under construction. Parallaly, with the Indo-US-NSG nuclear deal in operation, we have received enough fuel for all the running power plants and all are running at more than 80% capacity now. We have also kept sufficient inventory for the upcoming reactors. Also, many of the foreign companies have come forward to set up nuclear power plants at competitive prices with attractive credit terms. Our stiff stand on NPT is no more an impediment for the rest of the world to do nuclear business with us. We shall ensure faster growth of nuclear power by encouraging both indigenous and the imported nuclear power programs. We shall speed up the implementation of the on-going projects and also take forward the on going dialogues with the foreign companies for the supply of nuclear reactors at competitive prices at terms acceptable to us. We shall encourage our Private industry participation in setting up nuclear power plants through suitable Joint Ventures under the overall control of NPCIL / AERB. On the Nuclear Liability issue, it is simple common sense that any equipment supplier in any industrial activity will guarantee for the design, integrity and workmanship for a limited period, say 3 years max, and not for the entire life time of the plant. All the equipment are subjected to various tests at conditions which are atleast about 50% higher than the intended operating conditions. These Tests are conducted for individual equipment at the shop and are repeated after installation in the plant before the equipment are put into service. If there are any flaws in the design, material and workmanship, it will automatically show up during these tests. Despite this, if an equipment fails in a plant during the operation, obviously the equipment has seen some parameter which is beyond the design basis. This could have happened either because of natural calamities or because of mal-operation by the plant operator. In either case, the equipment supplier is not at fault. Only the operator has to take responsibility. This is the practice followed throughout the world for all equipment supplies across all industries, be it coal power, oil & gas industry, aircraft or shipping. Nuclear energy need not be an exception. The plant operator will be responsible for the safety of the plant, employees, the public and the environment. This is a universal practice. There need to be no confusion on this issue. In line with this understanding, we need to amend the current Nuclear Liability Bill and remove the Supplier's Liability Clause which is holding the finalisation of Nuclear reactor deals with Russia, France, USA, Korea, etc. 3) Thrust for Railways : In the past 3 Five year Plans, we have given sufficient attention for the Road sector and we have connected all Metros and District Head quarters with international quality roads.

Now, we need to develop Railways in a big way apart from Coastal Shipping and Inland Waterways, which are discussed in the next point below. Priority shall be given for the completion of all ongoing projects. New projects, if need to be started now itself, shall be with the participation of concerned State Governments only. Since Private participation in railways has helped in many areas, it shall be further encouraged in all areas wherever they can be involved. Privatization per se is no more an anathema as we have seen the benefits across all walks of life. We believe in coexistence of both Public and Private companies for a healthy competition. The on-going Dedicated Freight Corridor Projects shall be accelerated with higher funds allocation. Wherever possible, the existing lines are to be modified for the Freight service and the new lines shall be developed as passenger lines with high speed rails and longer radius curves. Railway safety shall be upgraded with the installation of anti-collision devices and improved communication facilities on-board all the trains. Electrical short-circuiting issue needs to be analysed and suitable modifications have to done to avoid fire in running trains. The track failures near weld joints due to hardness pickup is increasing at an alarming rate. It needs to be addressed with Post Weld Heat Treatment or welding consumable modifications. All the long distance trains are to be made non-stop. More number of Chair car trains shall be introduced in the medium / short distances below 500 KM. More number of Double Decker Coaches are to be introduced in the medium / short distance trains with the capacity augmentation of the existing Coach factories. The production capacity of the Wagon manufacturing units in Private sector shall be enhanced substantially to take care of the growing wagon needs as a result of the introduction of more goods trains in the Dedicated Freight Corridors. The production capacity and the individual engine capacities of our loco engine manufacturing plants shall be substantially augmented to take care of the growing needs of high speed passenger trains and heavy haulage goods trains. We shall concentrate on improving the train speeds to 150 KMPH on all trunk routes and we shall not look at fanciful high speed trains running at 350 KMPH for short distances which cost fortunes. 4) Importance of Coastal Shipping and Inland Waterways : Since Water Transport has the lowest fuel consumption for every Ton.KM of transport, and we are fortunate to have 7000 KM of Coast line, we shall encourage the Coastal Shipping along with the Inland Waterways in a big way. We shall resolve the Sethu Canal issue before the Supreme Court and complete the balance work so that we can run Ships between Haldia and Kandla via Sethu Canal as early as possible. Ships running between these two ports are to touch all the 10 major ports enroute. These ports shall be connected to the minor ports by feeder vessels. All the ports have to be effectively connected to the nearest towns / cities by railway lines and Inland Waterways.

The Coastal Shipping / Inland waterways coupled with the impetuous given for railways as detailed earlier, will ensure substantial reduction in our road transport requirement thereby reducing our petroleum products consumption. 5) Ethanol as Transport Fuel : Crude import is a major issue confronting the Indian economy. We must squarely address this issue to ensure our long term growth. Also we must get away from the current situation of 80% dependency on imported crude for our transport needs from the energy security perspective. In order to solve this problem, apart from the diversion of traffic from road to train and shipping, we shall also have an alternate fuel source. We shall not be complacent on the myth that Peak Oil will never come as postulated by many in the light of new Oil and Shale gas finds in USA. New oil will keep coming, but at what cost ? If we are not prepared with an alternate strategy, we will continue to work hard and earn to develop those countries which supply crude oil to India ! This is not an exaggeration. This is what is precisely happening in India in the past 4 years. With the crude price stable at USD 100, half of our hard earned foreign exchange goes for import of crude only. If only we could have saved even 25% of this 150 Billion Dollars, we would have had Rs.1,50,000 crores to spend on development projects every year. We need just Rs.35,000 per year for the River Inter Linking Projects. We shall not continue to repeat the same mistake for ever, and we must find an alternate. The obvious and well proven choice is Ethanol. It has been amply proved by Brazil and in our own country. We need not re-invent the wheel. Hence, we must accelerate our Ethanol blending program. We shall encourage more sugarcane cultivation in Southern States where the Sugarcane yield is substantially higher compared to other States due to their near uniform solar irradiance throughout the year. With the better sugarcane availability, the existing sugar factories shall be allowed to expand their capacities and they shall be allowed to set up more Ethanol plants. These sugar factories with their Electricity Co-Generation and Ethanol production can be viewed as some sort of a Solar Energy concentrating plants, rather than sugar plants. The price of Ethanol has to be linked to the crude price, with a minimum guaranteed price level. It shall be ensured that, the farmers get the right price for their sugarcane in proportion to the international crude price. 6) Urbanisation Policy : In any country, Urbanisation is part and parcel of development. Only thing is that it should be happening as a natural phenomena, and it can not be a means by itself for development. Also, the urbanisation shall be allowed to take place in a planned manner. The present unplanned growth of all Cities and Towns shall be regulated. All the 320 Indian Cities are to be screened for their ability to provide amenities like water, sanitation, drainage, power, public transport at reasonable per capita cost. Only those cities which have scope for providing these amenities, at reasonable cost, shall be allowed to grow further.

Urbanisation as a Policy shall mostly revolve around the 10,000 towns which have about 50,000 to 1,00,000 population. This will ensure uniform growth throughout India and it will also address the issue of migration of people to long distances resulting in several socio-economic issues. In order to solve the acute housing needs, multistory buildings with all in-built amenities and provision for waste management shall be encouraged in all towns and small urban centers. Population growth along the coast, leaving about 1 KM strip near the coastline shall be encouraged to take advantage of the better rainfall near the coast, better transport infrastructure which are planned to be built, the proposed nuclear power plants and associated industrial activity, etc. 7) Population control : India with a land area less than 1/3 rd of that of China is poised for overtaking the population of China in the near future. It is really an alarming situation. We need to have an urgent action plan to stabilize the population at the earliest. In the light of Software boom, some "experts" have come out with theories that population is an asset ! It is purely a myth. What is the proportion of people who can be gainfully employed in Software industries and other such service industries ? Few millions ? We are talking of unemployment and resource constraints for several crore population. We have the worst situation in terms of combination of the three demographic factors among the countries in terms of size and total population : a) Very high Total population, next only to China and that also we are going to overtake soon. b) Very high population density, almost 3 times of China c) And near uniform population spread across every Square KM, except a few sporadic pockets like Chambal and Thar desert. Even today, we have about 10 crore people living in forests and hills in remote villages. We need to bring them to the mainstream society and provide them sustainable employment. Neither we can afford to keep them there in remote areas and provide development plans nor we can afford to keep them aloof and watch them live a wretched life in the name of keeping them "protected" for their identity. Communists clamor for keeping them in the jungles for ever by providing them forest rights ! This is the worst solution one can think of. It is time that we took bold initiatives to stop the population growth beyond this level by birth control mechanism with limit of 2 children per women. It is a national issue. But, since the problem is not uniform throughout India, we need to formulate population control measures aimed at specific regions, castes and religions. If need be, Uniform Civil Code can be brought in, which will be in the interest of everyone concerned apart from the national interest. 8) Judicial Accountability Bill : In recent years, due to the Coalition governments, the PMs and CMs could not exercise their Constitutional powers fully. This situation has prompted or tempted the Judiciary to overreach and trespass into the Policy making domain. This is not good for democracy. Policy making power is purely

vested with the Executive as per our Constitution. Though the coalition issue also needs to be addressed as detailed below, Judiciary also needs to be restrained in some way. Also, at present Judiciary has no effective checks and balances other than the extreme case of impeachment by 2/3 rd majority in Parliament. Checks and balances for all Institutions is one of the corner stones of Democracy. Hence, a Judiciary Accountability Bill has to be brought in consultation with the Judiciary. It shall also be made clear that Parliament being elected by people, shall be the Supreme body. Any confusion on this issue shall be removed, if need be, by suitable Amendments to the Constitution. 8) Heath care : With the problem of food availability squarely addressed thanks to the steady growth in production of food grains, pulses, oil seeds, and the enactment of Food Security Bill, now we can have more focus on the health care of the people. All the Government hospitals in District / Taluk Headquarters shall be upgraded into multi specialty hospitals and nominal charges can be levied for all patients other than those Below Poverty line. This will ensure a healthy competition between Public and Private Hospitals. Health Insurance schemes successfully followed in States like Andhra, Tamilnadu, etc shall be replicated throughout India. Wrong notions like, medical profession is noble and it shall not be money minded shall be removed from people's mind. It is like any other service and the users pay for it. If there is less competition, more hospitals will come up and the market forces will rectify the situation. The government also shall provide a parallel avenue for the deprived society. 9) Education : With the steady improvement in the primary and secondary education in recent years, now more focus can be given for the higher education. A clear National policy on education shall be formulated whereby, higher education will be based on merit adjusted for inequalities in terms of historical reasons and the rural urban divide in primary and secondary education levels. Admissions shall be based on a weighted average mark which will cover 8th, 10th and +2 Marks. As in other areas, both Public and Private Institutions shall be allowed in education also. Specialisation( Masters Degrees) and Research shall be purely based on merit, with academic record and qualifying examinations carrying equal weightage. With the tapering of population growth, there will be reduction in total number of school going children in the years to come. Hence, further growth in schools and colleges shall be allowed only in those States where there is shortage. A suitable mechanism shall be put in place for effecctive interaction between colleges and industries. There shall be opportunities for exchange of Professors and Engineers between Colleges and Industries.

10) Electoral Reforms : a) Since National issues need a broader perspective, regional Parties find it hard to evolve such an outlook. It is understandable, given their electoral college, which is very narrow. Hence, Regional Parties shall be confined to governance of States only. They shall not be allowed to contest Parliament elections. b) To avoid multiplicity / cross over of territories between various government institutions, one District may be treated as one Parliament Constituency. If need be, Districts may be reorganized to make them equal in population as much as possible. Similarly city constituencies may also be divided in terms of equal number of Districts. c) For the State Assemblies, Taluks may be treated as an Assembly Constituency with suitable reorganization to take care of uniformity of population per Constituency. d) Upper House of Parliament shall be retained and Lower House shall be dispensed with. Hence Parliament will consist of one House only. The same way State Assemblies also shall have one House only. To ensure continuity of Policy, the present system of retirement of 1/3 rd Members shall be followed with membership term of 6 years. e) The Members of Parliament or Assemblies shall be elected by universal franchise but with weightage of votes as given below: Sl. No. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. PARAMETER Age Age Age Education Qualification Education Qualification CRITERIA 18 40 41 75 > 76 Arts / Science / Diploma Degrees Doctors / Engineers / Agri. Engineers / All PG Degrees Lawyers / Auditors / Other professionals WEIGHTAGE 1 3 2 2 4 3

6. Education Qualification

The criteria weightages shall be additive. For example, an Arts graduate of 35 years age will have a weightage of 3. An Engineer of 80 years age will have a weightage of 6, etc. Only Recognized University Degrees will be reckoned for weightage. With about 5 10% of families having atleast one graduate (and that number growing fast) and the age being given weightage, there will not be much of injustice done to village people, though it does bring in some sort of bias against village people, given the low literacy levels in villages. f) The minimum education criteria for contesting any Parliament / Assembly election shall be a Degree or Diploma, recognized by the Election Commission of India. Let us not bring in Kamaraj era to justify that uneducated or school drop outs can also be good leaders. In those days, the Governance was nothing compared to the responsibilities and complexities of governance today.

g) In order to ensure that only people with experience and maturity are given the responsibility of governance, the minimum age limit for MPs / MLAs shall be set at 40. At the same time, to avoid very old people sticking to the power, a higher age limit of 75 years may also be set. The above steps take care of the weightage factor for the electorates and the minimum qualification of elected representatives. It also takes care of short sighted approach of Regional Parties while handling national issues. h) Funding by Government for electioneering shall be provided. i) In order to minimize the probability of candidates winning by wafer thin margins, a system of preferential votes with maximum of 3 preferences with weightages for each preference shall be introduced. With the advent of Computerised voting systems, all these are very simple to adopt. 11) Import - Export Policy : With the dwindling population of Europe and collapse of Family system in USA, the material needs have come down slowly in these countries. Also the aging population makes it impossible for these countries to imagine growth rates beyond 2 or 3%. Given this reality, the export opportunities which were available in these countries 20 years back, and which was cleverly captured by China, is no longer available for India. Whatever gimmick we do, and to whatever level we can bring down our prices, there is not much of demand in the world. Under these circumstances, we must accept that we have missed the bus to China. Even while we were unsuccessfully trying to convince the Communists about the importance of Globalisation, Liberalisation, Privatisation, Computerisation, FDIs through MNCs, etc, the Communist Government of China was busy inviting all the MNCs of America and Japan to set up shops in China ! They poured tons of Dollars and Technology and China grew leaps and bounds in the last 20 years. Now, when we have understood how stupid we were in listening to the Communists, the opportunities are gone. Also, we have lost the edge on textiles exports to more aggressive, less environmental and HSE conscience countries like China, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Taiwan, etc. It will be very difficult to get back those markets again. This is the ground reality. May be still there is some hope that when the investors from the Middle East countries and other Asian countries withdraw their money from USA / Europe, a part of it can be attracted towards India. Along with that, we can also get some export business. But we must be vigilant and proactive in attracting these investments. Otherwise, it may go to Africa and we will lose this opportunity also. If we think that the current level of FDIs which are coming in, especially to States like Gujarat can be somehow replicated throughout India, we are completely mistaken.

In other words, the Export lead growth enjoyed by countries like Japan, South Korea, Asian Tigers and China while they were graduating from developing country to developed country status is no longer available for India. This is a hard and sad fact we must accept and plan for our economy accordingly. Does it mean that we have to look inwards again ? Unfortunately, yes it seems to be so. Hence, we must concentrate on creating long term productive assets as explained above for our growth and manage the Foreign exchange requirements by tightening our import needs, especially the crude oil, edible oil and other consumable items apart from Gold and other luxury items. However, certain areas like Software, Consultancies, Engineering Goods, etc, which have higher input of educated manpower will continue to have an edge and we shall focus on exports in these areas. When we try to build long term tangible and intangible assets, like Dams, Canals, Ports, Trains, Power plants, Steel plants, Investments on Education, Health care, etc, without the support of FDIs, in the intervening period when these assets are not giving any reasonable returns, inflation is bound to be an issue. We must face this reality. With the Food Security and other welfare schemes in place, the vulnerable sections of the society are taken care of. With due emphasize on agriculture, we should be able to support these welfare measures without much of a problem in the medium term, till these assets start yielding results. The other sections of the society have to manage the situation with proper adjustments to the priorities of their expenditures and investments. For example, today those who can afford to buy one bed room flat are booking two bed room flats and those who can afford a two bed room flat are going for 3 bed room flats. This is because the Banks are freely giving loan upto 80% of the Flat cost and the owners are somehow able manage the 20% margin money. This kind of luxuries, we will be forced to sacrifice. Similarly, in India we are spending heavily on Electronic goods like TV, Mobile Phones, etc which are unproductive investments and they result in recurring expenditures also. All these we will be forced to forego for sometime. With the improved production of food grains, there is enough room for export of food grains. Also, we can divert some part of the land for production of agricultural, horticultural and animal husbandry products meant for exports, since food grain availability even during bad monsoon periods will not be an issue, thanks to our food grain storage capacity. Contrary to the general belief, after signing the WTO, Indian agricultural exports have increased leaps and bounds ! The agricultural exports was 5.34 Bn USD in 1995, when we signed WTO, against stiff opposition from almost all NGOs. Today it is 39 Bn USD. We must effectively utilize the opportunities available for agricultural products export. We must establish cold chains and identify thrust areas for export of agricultural exports. We must avoid knee jerk reactions like export ban, whenever there are price rises in the domestic market for short periods. Since continuity and commitment to long term agreements are very important in any business,

more so in the international business, we shall allow the market forces to prevail. Heaven is not going to fall if we consume less onion or less tomato for few months in a year. In the worst scenario, we can resort to imports, even if it means paying more price for imports compared to export realisation. This is important for maintaining our continuance in export market. However, we can manipulate our imports to suit our convenience. Keeping these in mind, our Import - Export Policy shall be framed and meticulously monitored for suitable changes now and then. 12) Foreign Policy : In the past 50 years after Independence, though we were advocating neutrality on Foreign Policy, it is an open secret that we were leaning more towards USSR. With the result, by default, USA was supporting Pakistan, though unwillingly. Now, with the collapse of USSR and with the changed international socioeconomic-political climate, all these are history and are not valid anymore. Though even today, every country continues to spend on defense budget as a routine, Wars or potential wars, and the possibilities of countries aligning on Bipolar lines like in the past, are no more in the agenda of any country. With regular communication between countries / groups of countries, large scale cross continent movement of people for employment and tourism, effective intervention by Regional / International Institutions like ASEAN, G20, Commonwealth, UN, etc, large scale wars between countries, as in the past, are no more a reality. Small skirmishes here and there are inevitable. Even though the world has become unipolar with the breaking up of USSR, and the entire world has accepted it as a reality, still we continue to nurture the hate politics towards USA which is deep rooted in our mind. We look at USA more as a symbol of MNC exploitation and people with sinister motives. We look at USA as a country, always trying to suppress our development initiatives. We come out with plausible theories postulating American hidden hand whenever we have setbacks ! We must get out of this mindset. Cold War era is gone. There are no more suspicions, mistrusts, exploitations, hidden agenda, etc. Now, it is all business and economics. No more discussions on Capitalism or Communism. China, which advocates Communism has no difficulty in accepting USA as a major investor. USSR, which was building nuclear warheads with Plutonium, to be used against USA, has no difficulty in selling the same Plutonium to USA after dismantling the warheads ! So, now it is all economics with preferences for investments and trading between countries. If you offer an opportunity for a country to make more money than what they are making in their own country, they will come forward and invest in your country. If you can make a product or offer a service cheaper, then they are ready to buy from you. That is all. The relationship between countries is purely decided on give and take. No more it is based on the military superiority or subservience. Let us be practical and put the development and independence of our country on top priority, as China is doing. Let us not get into trivial world issues which are not in our hands and where our voices are not

heard. Let us sail with the wind and let us not waste our energy by imagining something which is nonexistent. Keeping this in mind, we must plan our Foreign policy. We shall really become neutral in our foreign policy. Russia has no objections on this issue. They have no illusions any more on their being equal to USA. 13) Stream lining NGO activities : Of late, we often wonder whether India is run by the duly elected governments or by a handful of NGO leaders, temporarily but effectively supported by the media. It all started with the coalition governments and the associated weaknesses of the Governments. It got strengthened with the complete freedom given to the media and the slow and steady trespass of Judiciary into the Executive domain. People have also started ignoring the fact that, even if the Government is elected by 30% people and supported by 51% MPs / MLAs only, still it is a legitimate Government as per our Constitution. It is a State Government or Central Government for all of us. It is not the Government of a particular party or alliance. People are so much obsessed with politics that they have all completely forgotten this ! If Coalition Governments are formed, it is not the fault of the ruling political alliance or that of the opposition parties. It is the people's fault. People are so much obsessed with politics, that they look at the other party leaders whom they do not support, as personal enemies ! So, if the party which he is supporting is in opposition, the Government itself is looked upon as align to him. Whatever be the action of the Government, whether it is good or bad, it is always looked at with suspicion and he could never accept that, that government can do anything good at all ! With the result, people who belong to the opposition parties start supporting the actions of these NGOs( which have the only agenda of opposing whatever Government does), thinking that they are giving trouble only to the leader of the ruling alliance ! These people are unable to comprehend the repercussions of their action. They fail to understand that they are indirectly surrendering the power of their vote to the NGOs thereby undermining the Democracy. These actions of NGOs become more damaging to the country with the Courts trespassing into the Policy making domain in the name of protecting the rights of people and the environment. For those who are unable to understand how these NGOs are taking upper hand over the democratically elected governments, a few examples are given below : a) Narmada Dam Project :

This project was demanded by several million beneficiaries, studied by experts for several decades, was cleared by all the competent authorities and finally it was debated and accepted in Parliament as well. Though they have different personal agenda, the main plank under which the NGOs stepped in were : 1) The compensation offered to the land owners was low. 2) The Rehabilitation and Resettlement packages were inadequate. Let us look at these issues in detail. 1) The compensation for land : It is based on the current government rule on land pricing and it was based on a good old Act of British era. Unless this law was changed ( which has now been done), the Government cannot give more price. Instead of supporting the Government in enacting the Land Acquisition Bill, the NGOs were blindly opposing the Dam itself. 2) Rehabilitation and Resettlement : It is a fact that every human being has a sentimental attachment to his birth place and he would not like to move out willingly, however wretched the place may be. Hence, it is more to do with the thinking through their heart rather than through their mind. It is only for the others to convince them that everyone does a compromise in some form or the other for the overall benefit of the society. Instead of doing this, the NGOs use the sentimental reaction of these project affected people to further their personal agenda of opposing the dam. Thus, the genuine grievances of the project affected people were misused by these NGOs to further their hidden agenda of opposing the dam, by hook or crook ! They put forth all types of hurdles and speak as if they are the only Saviors of the society and the Politicians, Scientists and Officials are villains who are out there to kill the people at any cost ! Due to the continued agitation lead by this great lady, Mehta Patkar, taking the law into their hands, the project got delayed for almost 10 years. Now, the project is partly completed and it is yielding huge benefits. About 10 lakh Hectares are getting irrigation resulting in an additional food grain production of about 10 million tons. If only this lady had been prevented from stopping the project for 10 years, this benefit would have been available 10 years back itself ! b) Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project : Kudankulam project was sanctioned in 1988 and all clearances as per the rules prevailing at that time were obtained. The Coastal Regulation Zone(CRZ), the public hearing, EIA norms changes, etc were subsequent requirements. The project got delayed due to the collapse of Soviet Union and construction was started in 2002. The people around the plant were educated at that time itself about the safety features of the plant and they were also given emergency preparedness training as per the rules, well in advance in anticipation of the plant commissioning sometime in 2007 itself. But due to various issues related to both technical and commercial, it got delayed.

Sometime in 2010, when the plant was ready for commissioning, an unannounced emergency drill was conducted as per the requirements of emergency preparedness and people were evacuated as if an emergency has really happened in the plant. This incident triggered a panic and also some sort of mistrust in their mind that, even before the plant is started they are asking us to vacate suddenly at their will, and if the plant really starts they will not permit us to live nearby ! Even while this was going on, the Fukushima incident happened and the media was blowing it out of proportions. They simply ignored the death of 22,000 people in the tsunami and instead caught on with the nuclear accident. As the accident was unfolding over few days, the media found it as yet another cricket commentary opportunity. This added fuel to the fire ragging in the minds of people around Kudankulam. People like Udayakumar jumped in the guise of NGOs doing great service to the society and started utilising the gullible people to push through their personal agenda of opposing nuclear power tooth and nail. There is a personal reason for his opposition to nuclear power. Two of his close relatives who were working in Kalpakkam have died of cancer. He concluded that it was purely because of nuclear power ! He did not even bother to think rationally that when so many people who were living there were not getting cancer, and why both of his relatives should only get cancer. Obviously it was something to do with genetics, which he does not want to take cognizance of. The result, these agitators took law into their hands and prevented the engineers and workers from entering the plant site. Not only that they almost put the entire NPCIL colony under siege. Even the Russian engineers were kept under house arrest situation. Our Narmada famous lady known for her simplicity flew in by plane and extended support to the democratic right of people ! The Central Government appointed an Expert committee comprising of experts from nuclear industry, power industry, medical field, and the NGO representatives. This Expert committee presented a report and declared that the plant is safe. As expected, the NGOs did not accept this Committee report. State Government appointed another committee and that also cleared the project. Predictably, this report also was rubbished by the NGOs. Parallaley the NGOs went to the Court and the Courts took their own sweet time and cleared the project, as if they are Nuclear Experts ! This is a classic case of trespass by the courts. Is it the domain of the court to decide which power source is good for the country and which is safer or not ? Why should courts entertain such PILs ? Ultimately, the project got delayed by nearly 2 years. This delay has happened even while Tamilnadu and all other Southern States were facing a severe power shortage leading to the closure of lakhs of industries. No major political party was against the project. A Rs.15,000 crore project studied by the experts of India and Russia and many other countries and cleared by the Parliament was put on hold for two years just by the foolish understanding of one person

! That too when it was about to be commissioned ! And we hail it as a democratic right ! The Opposition slams it as an inept handling of the issue by the government. If Udayakumar had been arrested, the same Opposition parties would have made hue and cry saying democracy is killed ! That is politics. But the root cause is the importance and the free run given to the NGOs. c) Anna Hazare's Adamant Agenda : In a Democracy, the political parties present their agenda for the next five years in the form of a Manifesto. The candidates explain the same to the public and seek vote. If the public have any specific agenda, they present the same to the parties or the candidates and ask it to be included in the promises. If the party / candidate does not fulfill the promise made at the time of elections, the public demand the same by peaceful means, well within the boundaries of the law. This is all about democracy. Now come to the agenda of our great Gandhian, Anna Hazare. Did he extract any promise from Congress and BJP that if voted to power, they shall pass only HIS Lokpal Bill ( and not the Bill to be discussed and agreed by the Parliament !) ? NO. As promised in the Congress Manifesto, the Government brought the Lokpal Bill and it was discussed threadbare in public and it was vetted by the Standing Committee and the Bill was about to be introduced in the next Session of Parliament. But our great thinker, who was an ordinary person from our army, who got into fame by the Magsaysay award which is given to dozens of people every year, forced the Government at gun point with the help of media that, only HIS Lokpal Bill shall be passed and that also in the same Parliament Session ! He forcefully occupied some place and refused to move out creating law and order problem. Is it a Democracy ? Supposing tomorrow I sit on hunger strike demanding the implementation of River Inter Linking within 10 years, will the Parliament accept my demand ? Why it should not ? In what way my life is less important than that of Anna Hazare ? If the 5000 followers of Anna Hazare is the difference, a criminal can bring in 1 lakh people. Will the Parliament accept his demand ? Is it the way we run Democracy ? Is it the way you decide policies in the name of Democracy ? If policies are to be decided based on the street corner meeting strengths, then why we should have elections, Assemblies and Parliament ? When he could not wait for the next Parliament session, now even after an year why he is not doing anything ? Why the media which was covering every inch movement of Anna Hazare has not bothered to ask him, why he is keeping quiet for so long when he was not ready to wait till the next session ? d) Sethu Canal : This is yet another case of gross misuse of democratic rights and throwing the Parliament into the dust bin. The Sethu Canal project had been discussed for centuries and it was cleared by the Vajpaye government. It was started by the UPA government. It was about 80 % complete and it would have taken just another year or two to complete it fully.

Suddenly someone wakes up and "invents" that it was built by Ram and it is not acceptable on religious grounds. But they are OK with it if it is moved a few KM east. It is not clear how it will be OK, since anyway the bridge built by Ram should have been for the entire length across Palk Straight ! Similarly there are great environmentalists who oppose it on the ground that it will disturb the ecology. Why these people are not able to understand the "fact" that we are only restoring the damage already done Ram by constructing the bridge in the first place, and that also only for a very narrow stretch of few hundred meters as against the 18 KM damage done by Ram. What an idiotic approach to hold a project of such a national importance ! Can you really tolerate these kinds of nonsense in the name of freedom of thoughts, freedom of expression, freedom of dissent, or whatever nonsensical terminology you use ? Does anyone have any objection for the Suez Canal or the Panama Canal which literally connect two entirely different seas which are thousands of miles apart ? How much of an "ecological damage" these large canals should have done, if this small scratch in the sea bed of Palk Straight can cause such great damage ! e) POSCO steel plant : Odisha has one of the best iron ore deposits in the world. Since the area is not well developed and since the area is not a good one for doing business peacefully, no private or government PSUs are ready to start steel plant in that area. Koreans who are known for their risk taking mindset came forward with a mega plan of setting up a 12 million ton steel plant and a port to support the project, mainly for export of finished steel. It was (and even today it is ) one of the highest FDI projects for India with about 12 Billion USD investment. Our great environmentalists step in and stop the project with the support of the Maoists, who are another set of misguided lot. Till date, for almost 7 years, they have not allowed any outsiders to talk to any of the local villagers, like exactly what Udayakumar & Co did in Kudankulam. We call it a democratic way of presenting a point of view to help the poor voiceless people ! The media call it a great service by the NGOs since they are "protecting" the people and the environment from the exploitation by the Government and the Private companies ! In the whole process, one important question often thrown in the air by almost everyone in the country is lost. And that is,"Even after 60 years of Independence why so many people are going hungry, so many people are not having house, so many people are not having electricity" etc..etc. How will all these come if we do not permit dams, power plants, steel plants, cement plants, trains, roads, desalination plants, etc. We must understand one thing from history. Not a single NGO activist has ever been convinced with facts and figures. They have crooked thinking with rigid ideas which are by birth or by circumstantial reasons. We can never take them on board in any manner. At some stage, even if you are fed up and decide to move in the direction shown by them, you will find them showing some other direction at that time ! This is history.

Hence, the only way is to completely ignore them and take them to task if they violate the law of the land. Presently, the Governments go soft on these people since the media jumps in, make them as martyrs and make them big shots whenever they are arrested. These people take this as an advantage and perpetuate their lawlessness. Enough damage has been done by these people. We can not tolerate this nonsense any longer. A new comprehensive law covering the activities of these NGOs shall be brought and any action beyond that permitted by law shall be nibbled in the bud. Otherwise it will grow into yet another menace like the Maoist activity. 14) Stream lining the Media : Till the beginning of the 80s, the broadcasting media was completely under the control of the Government. There were only Doordarshan Channels and All India Radio and these were entirely under the control of the Government. After that the Government permitted the Private Channels and Radios with certain guidelines. Slowly those guidelines have been forgotten and it is completely out of the government control. In the last 20 years, we have moved from one extreme to the other extreme. Now, there are two types of media. One owned by Political parties and the other so called "independent channels". The former, almost caters to only the political party which owns it. There are no issues with them, since they are clearly biased towards that party and people are aware of it. But the later, in the name of independent journalism and freedom of press, write or show whatever they come across, without any need for verification of the facts. They simply declare it that it is upto the people to decide and it is upto the persons concerned to clarify if anything is wrong ! These people do not understand that once a particular information is thrown in the public by the media, which people perceive it to be very knowledgeable and independent, and an opinion has been created in the minds of people, then it is very difficult to change that opinion. It becomes a defensive approach by the others who try to explain the real facts. People look at them as vested parties ! Whatever is told, will be taken with a pinch of salt. For example, in the case of Kudankulam nuclear power plant, initially so much of filth was fed into the minds of people by the NGOs through these so called independent media. The reporters who are mostly non-science graduates did not bother to verify whether it is all true or not. Later, when the scientists were involved, it was as if they were put in the accused stand and being questioned for a crime ! So much of a misinformation has gone into the minds of people about Fukushima accident that, many of the educated people also think that atleast few thousands have died in the nuclear accident. The reality is that no one has died of nuclear reactor accident. Every one of the 22000 people who died on that fateful day was due to tsunami only. The second problem with these independent media is that, they want to exploit the negative mindset of the educated persons, which is some sort of a perversion like sex. These educated people think that they know much more than the politicians who wield high powers, and the owners of companies (in most cases happen to be less educated than the employees) who earn more than what they earn. But they

are helpless and have to grudgingly accept the reality in both cases. With the result, there is negativism in their thinking, especially towards all ruling party politicians. This is more prevalent in the younger generation which always thinks that there is a better way of doing things, than the conventional wisdom. They look at every action of the government with sinister motives with little scope for success. Media wants to exploit this mindset of the people by depicting almost every scheme or every policy of the government, irrespective of whichever party may be the ruling party, as a useless one so as to be in sync with the viewers mindset. With more and more negative news going into the mind of people, more and more of their negativism grows. Thus a vicious cycle has been set in motion ! The third issue is specifically for the television media and is about the need for giving Breaking News every hour ! With the crowding of the Channels, to be competitive, they need to be innovative and ahead of the rest. They need to find new braking news almost every hour, so that they can keep the attention of the audience. They need some "worthwhile" breaking event like bombing in some corner of the world, some police firing in some part of India, some scuffling in some Assembly, some unruly behaviour in Parliament, some Minister resigning, some Minister being alleged for kick back, some flooding, some accident in train, some accident in a power plant, some dam breach, etc. How long they can fill the time slots with Cricket and Cinema ? Please note, an effective debate resulting in a smooth passage of a Bill with the consent of all political parties can never be a news, leave alone breaking news. The successful completion and commissioning of a dam cannot be news. It can become a news only if it breaches and kills a few people. About 7000 trains running almost on time safely carrying several crores people daily cannot be a news. It will be news only if there is a train accident and atleast a few people die. That is, news is nothing but exceptions and deviations, which are in minority. Routines and normal happenings, which are in majority do not have news value. Without knowing this simple matter, the gullible public sitting before the idiot box comes to a conclusion that we have all bad things only happening everywhere and the world is becoming worse year after year. On the contrary, the reality is that, the world is becoming much more safe and livable year after year. With the result none of the positive actions, schemes, policies, etc of the Government reach the general public. It is an open secret that no one sees Doordarshan any longer. Even a small news about the project details of a dam or a nuclear power plant would not have appeared in the newspapers or TVs. But before that, you will find NGOs explaining in big media articles and Live debates on why it should not be allowed and how it will be harmful to the society ! Is it not an undesirable situation ? Should it not be corrected ? The only way is to ensure that atleast 50% of the column.cm in newspapers and time slots in television and radio are allotted for official news and the overall functioning of the media is subjected to scrutiny by the officials / independent authorities / ministers. A suitable Bill shall be brought to this effect.

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