WAKE UP INDIANS LET US VOTE FOR CHANGE.

Again valid argument…

I see and vehemently say we are all right in our points of view…. But our points of view are all different perspectives for the same issue..

Yet no one addresses that ...

The crore rupee question is… who is going to lead a united voice that is looking at the solutions only… we could produce one superman or woman in 1000 years but again that superman was supported only by the downtrodden and was marked out for reasons best left to history. Even in those days, India never had a united middle class…

What you are mentioning and this can go on for quite some time – we will have a very short commercial break in between – and will run out of time or will have only 2 seconds for the comments and views to be grasped and taken further – before we realize we are back to square one… as always.

The only way out is for EVERY T D & H worth his salt to join the politics and chisel the system from within..

You and me can be fiery on issues but it is the politicians cool collected and completely criminal mind that can only be tamed to improve the system…

And also learn from history geography illogic biology and intuition that.. maybe Maybe MAYBE.. this region, its positioning and all that has gone into making it what it is today might have to just be like this… 'cos it's in its genes… an analogy similar to what we have in the middle east where 'peace' will NEVER be possible because the genetic code of those people there does not have it in them.Its only a non-rhetoric look that will save this country and that too once self-interests are totally curbed

From: Aparajita Tripathi

Well said!!

But, changing governing body is a reflection of change in attitude. If no, think for yourself. Believe me, it takes a lot of persistence from your own conscience before you change the party you vote for. Can you switch from Congress to BJP in the wink of an eye? No. It has to come from within even if it's only a vote. And that feeling is the reflection of change in thought. We need to start somewhere, right?

Also, we don't have 1000 years to live that we go about changing ourselves bit by bit and then the governing body. Such things need to happen in parallel. Problems are plenty, but its high time we dwell on solutions and not the problems.

Well said – emotional charged rhetoric and totally theoretical..

Which are the competent parties and their candidates who can be voted into power in any of your or my constituency..

Do any of us have the luxury of taking time out to find them out and see what they are upto? We educated so called middle class nouveau rich Indians are only going to be as fragmented as shards of broken glass

each educated Indian just like the politician is busy trying to save for his rainy days ahead…

NONE of the educated middle class Indians will ever come together on any issue and fight with one voice – unlike the class of Indians who are relegated as the labor class who will unite under some or the other pretext to show their unity simple situation… -

I as an educated middle class guy have an argument with an rickshaw driver on some issue

He will have 10 others to support him, but none of the other passengers of my own class will ever come forward the way the other rickshaw drivers come to their rescue.. it's like watching crows and pigeons who flock to assist an injured or helpless member of their class,we being so educated totally disregard our own voice forget about an united voice..how do you think this attitude will change? Before you change your governing body?

A) Is this Government really protecting us??!! 7/11 2006: Mumbai Train Blasts. 209 Killed. 25/8 2007: Hyderbad Blasts: 42 Killed Oct 11 2007: Ajmer Blasts : 2 Killed May 13 2008: Jaipur Blasts : 68 Killed July 16th 2008: Ahmedabad Blasts : 57 Killed July 25th 2008: Banglaore Blasts: 1 killed Sept 13th 2008: Delhi Blasts: 26 Killed Sept 27th 2008: Delhi Blasts: 2 Killed Sept 29th 2008 : Gujrat Blasts : 1 killed Oct 21st 2008: Imphal Blasts : 17 Killed Oct 30th 2008: Assam Blasts : 40 Killed Nov 26th 2008: Mumbai Attack: 180 killed Every major city in India has been attacked consistently over the last two years. Since 2004, 3850 Indians have died in Terror attacks in over 3000 incidents. Is the common Indian on the streets really safe ? Did you know that on the day of the Mumbai train blasts, the Government gave Rs 150 crores for earthquake relief in Pakistan ? Last year our Govt. has given Rs 3000 crores (600 Million Dollars) to Afghanistan? This, when victims of terror in India have not yet got aid? What’s going on? B) Is this Government really secular ? 1) When Madrasas are being shut down in Pakistan, the Indian Government is giving them CBSE status !! It is depriving Muslim children in getting secular education. A Madrasa educated person can get a job in any government office without going through the secular education system. Can India afford to have fundamentalists in government departments? Why cannot the government shut down Madrassas and let Muslim children study with the rest? 2) Our Government has given 25 lakh scholarships ONLY to minority students.. What sin have the majority done not to deserve these? Why cannot poor students of all communities be given scholarships instead of only Muslim children? 3) Thanks to the Congress led Government, out of 36000 temples in Andhra Pradesh, 28000 have closed down in the last five years. Do you want the same trend to continue in other parts of the country? Do you want a Nagaland type of situation in the whole of India? While government controls most of the Hindu temples, the minority community has had full freedom to organize their religious bodies.. The minority communities now have the first right over resources. Is this not a blatant violation of fundamental rights of the majority community? 4) Why have the minorities in Nagaland, Mizoram & Kashmir not got the similar privileges like the minorities in other states? Why is the Govt following different rules for different religions? C) Is this government really making friends or enemies for India ? Thanks to a weak and visionless foreign policy, India has created enemies all around. By the Home Minister’s own admission : "India is surrounded by a circle of fire". Rajiv Gandhi's vision of a powerful "SAARC" is now defunct. 1) Today, India commands little respect from all its neighbours, despite being the largest democracy in the world. 2) Terrorism has engulfed the country from inside and outside. Of course Pakistan,the motherland of international terrorism continues to be a big threat. 3) China has territorial ambitions on India. 4) Nepal, is now being headed by a Maoist government and is ideologically more aligned to China. While India helped to dismantle the dynastic rule in Nepal our own Government surreptitiously supports dynastic rule within its own party. 5) Myanmar is increasingly aligning with Chinese forces with huge Chinese investments in that region. 6) Indian Policies in Srilanka have made Tamil Nadu burn. Will Tamils ever forgive India for encouraging military assault rather than facilitating peaceful dialogue on their north and north east regions. 7) Bangladesh continues to repeatedly aid and abet terrorism. D) Is this Government really pro-poor? The number of people living below the poverty line has increased by a horrifying 20 per cent. India had some 270 million people below the poverty line in 2004-2005, when the present Government took office. That number has gone up by 55 million, or 20 per cent! E) Does this Government really care about the nation? The Pakistani flag is now being hoisted in five districts of states like Assam where the Muslim population has gone up significantly. 92000 Hindu and 6000 Christians are now languishing in refugee camps. The government has turned a blind eye to this. In the name of security, innocent people have been put in jails, whereas people like Yaasin Malik who has 23 murder charges on him, are moving Scot free and gathering their own strength. Is it acceptable to any patriotic Indian? Can the Congress led UPA promise a non-muslim CM in J&K ? Reservation for a Hindu student in Nagaland ? If so, we wholeheartedly support them. Otherwise they should sit at home the next few years and rethink their policies. Can our politicians stop stooping down to any lengths just for money and power ? Like Mr. Sharad Pawar, who first ditched the Congress and then ditched the people and aligned back with the Congress, just to be in power. Don't be deceived. What appears to be communal is not communal, and what appears to be secular is not secular. It is time we change our thinking. Having said all this even BJP has not proved to be any better. But for now we need a change. Let us choose the lesser of the two evils. The same party brought to power again and again means encouraging unabated corruption. Or support the candidates who are good and fighting on their own. Help those candidates who are good, clean and progressive not the criminals. All these important things are deliberately hidden by the media after taking good money for their patriotism. All the electronic media is either governed by any other foreign agency or any seccular party. They are indirectly making mindsets of people according to their own wish. In any way we are not in freedom..Thousands of people lost their lives so that we can vote and live in a society which is violence free ,terror free and fulfilling all their needs. Stand up for this most tolerant and ancient civilization and prevent this great nation from becoming a communal battleground. As citizens of India we must vote for change. WAKE UP INDIANS. LET US VOTE FOR CHANGE. I will not request you to forward this. If you are aware and want others also, you will do it on your own. Our inaction is responsible for what is happening not the action taken by these people.

What India needs today

A lot has been said about the Indian intelligence process or the lack of it, and its teams over the last few days since Nov 26 2008.

Several of us, probably those working in the corporate world, know and see a lot of similarities that come to mind when you compare the National Governance at the city/state level - call it Nation Management(which is not at all different from Project Management) - and the corporate governance which we can safely call - Corporate Governance - which is all encompassing management and progress.
The differences and similarities can be discussed as a separate thread.

Col. Hariharan's interview comments on Rediff.com – if reproduced and printed by their editor with complete accuracy - lays bare, the reality that plagues us Indians in general and also, what must be done to get to a better position than this - if the citizens really feel the need to do so.

Hats off to Col. Hariharan for pointing out what India really is lacking and what India is really about and what it needs to get over this.

1. India is a country of lazy citizens - top to bottom - believe it or not. You can see this in the daily choices the citizens make in their lifestyles, and the different options they choose for their selves. Look at the various projects happening in peoples' personal and professional lives, and you will see a clear reflection of the basic underlying laziness.
One simple reason, internally a lot of people have given up on the system and the processes for various reasons which shows up as the laze factor.

2. Some other comments in the article, namely the attitude of not taking responsibility, I see this as a huge reflection in some corporate companies I have worked/working. The higher management does not take action but always play 'pass the parcel' and puts blame on the more easily impacted lower level people who do the actual ground work, and are easily dispensable with.

3. Another thing that has been mentioned and needs a clear focus is that India needs a war-room in place, 24x7 where all intel news has to be assessed and processed.
This war room is needed not just for the intelligence issues, but it is needed across the board for ALL developmental projects that are taken up in the nation.
All developmental projects need to be tackled seriously and hence they need constant focus and thus a 24x7 kind of planning, preparation and execution. But do you think this will happen.... never - because of point 1 above.

War room kind of setups are steps corporates take to sort out their own internal issues.
- this is also a key to Agile methodology of software development and applies to other areas too.

So Col. Hariharan, if you can suggest what steps citizens need to take at their levels, it would be much better too, since citizens today - though they think they don't need a big brother watching over them -need guidance to live a better life and maybe only the folks from the defense can show some examples.
Based on this article, if we all recognize the very basic lacunae in the Indian mentality, then I must say, there is a lot of history behind WHY Indians have been so.
It is very important to recognise the contribution of history in order to assess our lacunae but bearing in mind, not to hold History thus responsible for all the mistakes we make today.
Our mistakes today are a result of our ongoing lack of realizing our faults, taking everyone and everything for granted, belief in luck thus leading to carelessness, inefficiency, unaccountability, lack of discipline and corruption.
All in all, Indians now need to realize that -
· this is the 21st century that we are living in.
· we live in a ever increasingly connected world and can't take our individual lives to be isolated to not have any impact at a global level - read Butterfly Effect.

· we can't continue to live like an Ostrich that buries its head, or like the cat which closes its eyes thinking danger has passed

· we are calling ourselves an emerging economy - as opposed to an being just an emerging nation that we were way back in the 70s. This comes with a lot of responsibility
· On paper we are an established nation with a 'thriving' democracy but in practice, we are still not facing our own reality that our people and mindset is immature because of
o a high level of illiteracy and thus immaturity

o unfounded faith in luck-factor
o lack of interest in the educated masses to move out of the self satisfaction loop into the more generic mass benefit mode
· we educated classes are armchair critics, as it was mentioned in an article in the DNA Mumbai edition last night, but we don't move a muscle to take action about anything - reason - Pt. 1 above
I could go on about these various issues, we are all aware. but to get into action is something no one will teach.

At our individual levels we, as educated citizens/vote bank/intelligentsia/intellectuals of this nation:
1. need to put our COLLECTIVE minds to work, not isolated thoughts floating around waiting for some signal from outer space
2. need to bring out the maturity in us, in our daily activities like

a. choosing a responsible way of behavior in our house, apartment, home, on the road, in public places, while driving, while talking, while interacting with fellow humans, and the environment
b. choosing to stop behind the stop line at traffic signals
c. choosing to not talk on the phone while driving
d. choosing not to spit on the roads
e. choosing not to honk unnecessarily
f. choosing not to overtake on the roads by being patient and showing care for everyone around
g. choosing to teach our kids the values of respect, discipline and self respect
h. choosing to create a better quality of life for ourselves for a better quality of life later
i. choosing to take interest in people around us so that we can ascertain they are all socially responsible people and not anti-social elements
j. choosing to conduct ourselves in an honest manner and promoting the same
k. choosing NOT TO BRIBE for getting our work done - not to take any shortcut but be clear we want quality work done the right way
l. Promoting Meritocracy over Autocracy, Bureaucracy and Aristocracy
m. Another very key aspect that needs mention here is - 3 to 4 generations of the current times have not experienced what it means to do hard work, and they have taken a lot of things for granted - like the presence of mobile phones, the internet, the TV and automobiles. As a result, the understanding they have of what it really means to earn things the hard way is not there in their heads.
Unfortunately, even Mr. Anand Mahindra pointed this out in his article
today in the ToI.

So the very important thing that needs attention is that these generations need to get grounded, get real and get practical to get this nation the strength it needs.

All these are very difficult choices, so we need to be making small self-sacrifices now for the greater good later is the only way out of this mess we are currently in
1. In short, we have to be the guides for the society keeping our patience, our perseverance, and our maturity on alert display for others to see and learn.
2. It is a lot of difficult choices, but unless WE make it NOW we can expect the next few generations to survive in this nation in some better condition - if we really DO CARE about our own kids whom we are producing as a social and moral obligation
3. Else we will all be living for our short term gratification leaving the future a dark mess for the new generations whom we are producing in blissful abandon

China policy vs. India polity

At times I have been very much impressed by the Chinese approach to governance though the corruption part of it puts a black pall of shame on such huge scale of governance - albeit using the harsher ways of management.

But in the long run, it seems that a strict governance with sufficient leeway to human rights and competitive enterprise makes more sense than total freedom as in the democratic form where everyone has their own ways of interpreting freedom and thus taking the whole system for a ride.

On these lines, I found the shut-down-Beijing approach for the Olympics a very interesting policy. In the first place, the thought of shutting down industries for a few days itself is an interesting and very bold move from any country's perspective.

On the same lines, it is also a very collaborative move, which will definitely need a strict implementation from the governing body, but equal contribution from the participating public.

I believe, this is VERY possible in China.

I would like to really see this happen in India. In fact, there needs to be very strict policies in India going forward to start implementing some alternative ways of work.

It has been mentioned off and on in the media esp. about Bombay that industries in particular areas should change their office timings to staggering slots to reduce the impact on sudden gush of traffic.

This idea is very much do-able but as in case of China, has to be collaborative and strictly implemented.

But the problem with Indian polity is - there is nothing called strict implementation. A disciplined approach to things is something that we Indians have never learnt and probably will not do so until -
a.) we are under another long period of extremely disciplinarian ruling where the whole objective is the good of the whole than of parts. Putting the nation before self will have to be the goal of this strict governance.
b.) we are self driven, self disciplined, self governed and self regulated so strongly that instead of finding faults in others, we get together to help people in a VERY MATURE manner, where emotional maturity and intelligence takes the lead and finds out solutions to problems than identifying and highlighting other problems.

Both these solutions are very difficult to visualize but the former is a possibility if there is an extreme situation of civil war, when the military will have to take a stand on governance. (But that in itself, is a very complicated issue)

For long, we as a nation and it's citizens have become
irresponsible of ourselves and critical of our governance - which is again in our control.

Never have we, as individuals first and citizens second, educated or not, become 'response-able' for everything that is happening to us and around us in this country.

This is a key reason
- why we first launch into finger-pointing than looking into our own conduct. (This attitude is, believe you me, very common in the educated class of the society).
- that those who like to play with the law and order are able to get away with whatever they feel and do (The daring gun-culture in Delhi for instance).

So coming to the point of Beijing again, implementing a shut down is a humungous task, given that their citizens are already living in extremely polluted environment, but it shows that there is still hope for improvement - games or otherwise - to bring some control by enforcing a well planned and strict schedule for reducing vehicular emission. Not sure if they are going to plant more trees also in this period but that should probably have been happening already.

If this policy succeeds even a wee percent, it sure can be a lesson for India - only if India could learn to learn from lessons and failures.

Hope the Indian political circus of power hungry monkeys, for once, reaches a mature level (maybe in another 100 years if the world is still living then) when this nation can see the real India that was broken down to pieces to utter levels of poverty and sham by the 200 yr. British rule - a rule that left India so prematurely born that we all are still struggling with that birth defect.