The initial 30 days of Shri Narendra Modi as
the Prime Minister of India have been, more or less, satisfactory. There have
been many setbacks to him during this short period but they are not so
important as to derail him from taking drastic steps for improving the
economic, administrative situations and solving other problems of the country.
To be fair in the matter, we must admit that today the country is in a mess.
This dismal condition of the country is a legacy that we have inherited from
the past direction-less (or, misdirected) national governance spanning more
than half a century. The truth of this statement (regarding the Indian dismal
condition) is vouchsafed when we compare India with the leading countries of
the world with a comparable population/size, like China, Russia, and U.S.A.
etc. We are far behind them in the matters of our people’s standard of
living, education, defense, play in world affairs etc. Still, the ordinary
people cannot be expected to find solace in the past fifty years’ mal-governance;
ordinary people need, and need immediately, food to eat, cloths to wrap them up
and houses to live in; they need immediate relief in the matters of inflation,
corruption in administrative machinery, law and order etc. etc. On the part of
Mr. Modi the drastic and immediate action is called for. How has he fared till
date — Let us examine.
The people have been expecting that he would
be able to control the growing inflation to mitigate their sufferings. The
people across the country, however, have welcomed his two immediate decisions;
one is that no minister or even a Member of Parliament of his party would be
able to appoint his Personal Assistant, Personal Secretary or Officer on
Special Duty from among those who have worked earlier with UPA government or
who happened to be their relatives. Mr. Modi has also asked another
important thing is to instruct his ministers not to indulge into the business
of transfers and postings of bureaucrats. Another thing, which he has
done is to encourage the bureaucrats to bring to his notice, if any attempt is
made by the concerned ministers to stall the right decisions. Although it may
not be very important one, yet it is not insignificant also because till now
the bureaucrats have been ‘decision shy’. They always thought that discretion
was better part of the valor. Bureaucrats were made to become the sycophants
and instead of working for the good of the people they have become self-servers
and self-seekers. Officials are the instruments of carrying out the policies
and programmes but they have virtually been converted into the tools of making
money for themselves and their political masters. If Modi is able to change
this mindset, it will go a long way and be a great service to the nation
indeed.
We expect from Mr. Modi to do three things for
the benefit for the common people. One is to make the entire system
transparent. There should not be any hanky-panky and whatever decisions are
taken; the public should be informed about the reasons thereof. Secondly; they
strength of any country lies in the economic prosperity. Manufacturing sector
is the core to make the economy strong and vibrant. In this respect Mr. Modi
while putting the manufacturing industries/economy on rail should keep two
important things in mind: Firstly, all facilities and encouragement should be
given to the entrepreneurs to adopt and invest in the latest, original,
innovative, cutting-edge technologies, instead of old, junky and obsolete ones.
Our universities, technical institutions and educational-pool of the country
should be used to the hilt in this regard. Secondly, while every entrepreneur
should be given the liberty to go for manufacturing according to his or her own
capacity and targets, the manufacturer must be made accountable to the audit of
the law and the society. For example, if 10 rupees have been spent of
manufacturing a peace of any item then the manufacturer must display the cost
of production and its selling price. The public i.e. the consumer should not
kept in dark as to how much is the cost of manufacturing and how much is being
charged from them. This will help in rooting out the corruption and illegal
profiteering. This will also help the manufactures to be bold and not to give
bribes to the corrupt officials. At the same time the officials will also be
afraid of accepting the bribes.
At present an opaque system is working, which
is commonly known as MRP i.e. maximum retail price system. This is very
deceptive and it goes against the welfare and the interests of the common man.
It helps only the dishonest businessmen and manufactures who have their own
axes to grind. For example; if a pressure cooker’s production cost is Rs.
250/-, then in the name of MRP the general public is looted and compelled to
pay three or four times more than the cost of production. The mind boggling
profit is charged by the clique of brokers, retailers, wholesalers and the
manufactures. If everything is displayed from production cost to profit margin,
then there would be little chance of exorbitant pricing and exploitation.
Another example will help understand the
nefarious game of duping the public. The potato or corn is purchased at the
lowest possible price by dishonest manufactures from the farmers but their end
products are sold at many times higher prices to the public. To be very precise
if potato is purchased at Rs. 1000 per quintal and maze at 1500 Rs. per quintal
its end product like potato chips or cornflakes are sold at least
50 times higher than their original purchase prices. This type of anomaly
is not found anywhere in the world. Unless it is done away with by adopting the
stringent measures the disadvantaged section will continue to suffer and
profiteers will roll into luxury by amassing huge amount of unaccounted wealth leading
to generation of black money. And apart from it, the manufactures do not give
any guarantee to the quality of their products. This is all due to lack of
transparency. Another alarming situation is prevailing in the field of
pharmaceutical companies. Different pharmaceutical companies are selling their
medicines at very hefty prices by giving commissions and discounts, incentives
and promotions to retail druggists, pharmacists, doctors, and medical
representatives. One fails to understand why there is a huge difference in the
cost of production of the medicines and their selling prices. What is most
shocking is that they compromise with the quality of medicines in collusion
with officials of the drug department and play with the lives and health of the
people without any fear of being punished. That is why, there is the
crying need of transparency, which we hope the Modi government to address it
with the urgency that it deserves.
The same transparency is required to improve
the functioning of the government and other organ of the State, like; the
judiciary and the legislatures by introducing state-of the-art technology.
Technology does not allow for any scope of the discretion and there is no doubt
that where there is space for desecration for any official or minister that
will breed to corruption. Therefore, the best way is to nip the corruption in
the bud itself.
The third thing that is expected from the Modi
government is to take bold decision on population control which is growing
menacingly. Population explosion is the biggest threat to fight against
poverty. Population bomb is bound to disrupt law and order, unity and integrity
of the country. It is regrettable that all previous governments have felt shy
of taking any effective measures to check the population of the country. The
days are not far away when India will overtake its neighboring country China in
20 years’ time in respect of population. We conveniently forget the China has
made the giant strides in the field of technology and manufacturing. Even the
developed country like; Untied State of America, Canada, Australia, England and
France are under the burden of the debts of China.
How come the China which was considered not
long back a sleeping tiger has surged forward to become economic giant of the
world? It is true that Indian cannot adopt the same methods which are adopted
by China but there can be no denying the unless stern steps are taking it will
very difficult to control the monster of population. The another point which we
note is that the termite of black money has eaten most of its vitals of the
country and the people are genuinely looking forward with bated breath that the
black money that has been illegally stashed away to the foreign countries will
be brought back soon without any let or hindrance. If Modi is taking all these
steps then he will have the overwhelming support of the general public of the
country; otherwise people will get disillusioned with him, sooner than later.
India is, no doubt, a rich country with poor administration
because of the corrupt politicians and bureaucrats. As the saying goes that the
bottlenecks always start at the top never at the bottom. So the Prime Minister
is expected to take care of the smooth and transparent functioning at the top
level. If the right message goes at the top, it will undoubtedly percolate down
to the lowest level.
With these suggestions we are expecting the
bright future for the country, which may also prove to be bright for Mr. Modi
otherwise he will not be able to check the disappointment of the general
public. He cannot, for long hide behind, the mistakes and shortcomings of the
previous governments. People have reposed faith in him with high hopes and
aspirations he must work to fulfill them.
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