It is the election season again in India. It is that time of the year when politicians will suddenly become very nice and most importantly, will start to care for poor people. Farm loans will be waived, taxes will be lowered for the middle class, subsidies will be promised, a minimum guarantee of income will be announced and what not? Opposition parties, who were ru(i)nning the government 5 years back, will take the moral high ground and oppose everything. They oppose everything ,even helicopter landings.
But the ones who are responsible for all the Tamasha are the PEOPLE. They give POWER to these people and feel POWERLESS for 5 long years. They get the POWER back again to give it to some other person and feel POWERLESS again. This has been the case for the last 70 years since independence except for the first 20–25 years. What are you, the people, doing to get POWER? What is your ASK?
All political parties make an election manifesto. They make tall promises which they don’t even believe in and obviously, have never delivered anything. Let’s not get into who made what poll promise as 99.99% of these poll promises and election manifestos are rotten.
You may ask ‘They are so disempowered. What can they do?’. They can do a lot. Here’s what they can do. People can all have a common election manifesto. Let the one with the best solution for people’s manifesto come to power. How would a people’s manifesto look like?
- Keep the air clean
- Give us pure drinking water
- Give equal education to all kids free of cost
- Ensure that everyone follows the rule of law
- Ensure that everyone behaves responsibly and plays the role of a citizen
If these 5 things happen, the country is a developed country. It will be developed because the environment is developed by keeping air and water clean. People’s minds will be developed to follow rule of law and behave responsibly. Our future is also secure because our kids get equal education and understand equality from a young age.
Are there any issues more urgent than the above 5 issues in India? Aren’t these the real issues? Just by solving these 5 issues, every problem in the country can be solved. It is easy to give clean air and clean water to only rich people because they can afford to BUY it through water purifiers and air conditioners/purifiers. What about the millions who cannot afford it? What does the government have to do to generate enough revenues to cover the cost of clean air, clean water and free education? Isn’t that what leaders need to be thinking?
How does one make every citizen behave responsibly? How do they make people follow the rule of law? How much of policing is required? What can be done to empower citizens to take responsible action? Isn’t that what leaders need to be thinking? If they reduce the cost of many things by empowering citizens to take up responsibility, wouldn’t that cost be used elsewhere?
Can any political party deliver this manifesto? Do they have the courage to take it up?
