India 2014 - Hope is a waking dream!

"If at first the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it" ~ Albert Einstein

Some of my friends would have found me extremely active discussing political topics for the last few months and overtly supporting Mr. Narendra Modi. Some are not very happy about this, few were surprised on my strong bias and many thought Namo as PM was absurd.

On May 18, 2009, five years before I wrote this article on the eve of results election announced in India.

http://ragsgopalan.blogspot.in/2009/05/rise-of-india-opportunity-window-for.html

I would not have any hesitation to accept that I voted for Mr. Manmohan Singh and regretted for that. I started calling him "Shikandi Singh" for his disastrous performance and had this blog done on him here, in Feb 2013..

http://ragsgopalan.blogspot.in/2013/02/a-disaster-called-dr-manmohan-singh.html

http://ragsgopalan.blogspot.in/2013/02/the-lost-decade-misgovernance-lessons.html

Lets look at some interesting election stats first:

• EC has seized INR 331Cr of money,(out of which 153 Cr is in AP alone), 325 lakh litres of liquor and 1.85 lakh Kgs of drugs during these 45 days. Can you believe that?
• Over 75K FIRs are filed during the election period, 13K+ in each of WB, TN and UP. Now you know where the major problems were!
• Highest ever voting % @ 66.21%+ on a 834m voter base for 543 seats. It was a huge 168m voters who were between 18-25 i think who made the difference.
• Of the 8000+ candidates reviewed ~17% (15% in 2009) have criminal cases against them and ~ 11% (2009 - 8%) have serious criminal charges against them. This means cleaning politics of criminals has not succeeded but worsened in last 5 years.

I firmly believed that these elections are very crucial and it could make or break a country like India for few more decades. The disastrous UPA government that clearly placed everything else above nation's sovereignty, security, the incestuous relationship with anti-nationals, the impunity with which corruption was carried out, the arrogance and unaccountable responses that were thrown at the citizens, the cunning responses from the lawyer turned ministers, weakening of every institution possible and the communal poison that was seeded.. and the list can go on for which i believed there should be a change. As a wise man said "It always with the darkest skies, you see the stars brightest".

If you had looked around for choices as to who could lead us, you had none. I could not believe that BJP leaders like Sushma, Advani can deliver the final punch that the dynasty led Congress party deserves. Maya, Mulayam, Jaya, Pawar were nightmares as PM candidates and the only choice was Modi. Congress certainly offered Rahul Gandhi and any one who has heard him speak and in the right senses would not vote for him. 

Modi very clearly positioned himself in "Right of Center" and more importantly he gave hope that he can talk about development without playing majorly on caste, creed and religion which we are all very sick of. He proved himself with a kind of Innovative, untiring, reaching out to largest number of people in Indian history with 437 rallies, travelling about 4 lakh Kms.

He came across as a leader could connect with large segment of the voter with local issues, raise their vision, had set the agenda and others followed. More importantly he was a dealer in hope for a large section of Indians who are oppressed with inflation, job loss, deceleration and poor governance. For me Namo was offering a 4 letter word called Hope - with sleeves rolled up!

While the election result is yet to be out and we have seen the exit polls which predicts a comfortable majority to NDA, and I believe unless EC plays a foul game with EVM machines NDA should reach some where between 300 to 330 seats and anything above 70 seats to Congress would be a surprise. With 6 million voter names deleted from the voter list through some foul play Maharashtra is key state with possible poor results.

My top priorities for the new Government are very clearly as follows:

1. Create a policy driven state.
• This means strengthen institutions.
• Eliminate discriminatory powers as much as possible.
• Systems to cross check - like a parliamentary panel with all political for any major decisions.
• Clear pending judicial cases and ensure that time bound punishments for all high profile cases.
2. Decriminalize public life.
• Politics, judiciary and bureaucracy all needs to be decriminalized.
• Negligence and crime should have high cost consequences for criminals.
• Check massive proliferation of foreign funded NGOs. 
3. Strengthen Internal security.
• Strengthen border security and stop infiltration and illegals.
• Identify and disenfranchise illegals.
• Strengthen information flow and appoint all vacant posts - Police, Law enforcement. 
4. Kick start economy
• I have always maintained that for India to grow at 6%, we do not need any government. We need a government to grow beyond 6% and we should target 10% growth in the next 3 years.
• Promote low tax, high tax payer base, high cost of non-compliance environment.
• Gain back investor confidence.
• Bring back black money - don't be lenient on this.
5. Ensure Social harmony
• Minimal government lean and interference with religious groups and vice versa.
• Free up Hindu temples from government clutches and ensure that the continuous loot of temple wealth stops.
• Ensure time bound justice to communal riots. Be very hard on them.
• Clean up news media that is infested with anti-nationals and communal elements who spread poison.
6. Try some Moon shots

This government should try some moon shots probably on priority:

• Energy Security: Electricity surplus, alternate power generation on a massive scale, Thorium based energy, 24/7 Electricity to all villages.
• Water Security: Linking of rivers, Quality drinking water for all villages and of course cities, Desalination plants on a massive scale. 

We are still awaiting the election results and I hope Narendra Modi is elected as the next PM and he runs the country in the same way he ran his campaign - Innovative, Inclusive, disciplined and demanding. I shall close this blog with the words of Emily Dickinson!

"Hope is the thing with feathers 
That perches in the soul 
And sings the tune without the words 
And never stops at all!"

I wish all my fellow Indians a golden period for the next 5 years filled with peace and prosperity.

Jai hind!

Happy reading!

PS: Astrology predictions - Namo would not be in a position to form a stable government immediately and after few months of uncertainty he will form a stable government and run India for 10 years ;). But believe me, Hope costs nothing!