India Beyond Stampede Of Stupidities by Santosh Jha (read along books .TXT) 📖

to rot, with much needed supply of major investments choked, as most governments chose not to raise fares, as per the needs of railways. That is why, the Indian railway system has now become a nightmare for all types of passengers and symbol of how politics of populism compromises with core health of nation. Over the years, railways was starved for resources, which it could itself generate, but not allowed as governments were unwilling to take the unpopular decision of raising the fares and service charges. The same was done with regard to such valuable institutions like police and lower judiciary.

Not only politics, the markets too add to the already overdose of populism. Both politics and markets behave in a way, which suits the public taste as their survival depends on them. The best window to peep at this populism is Indian films. If a person has to make a movie, first thing which comes in his mind is what would sell. It is a tough ask, as the audience is not a homogenous grouping. This audience is a huge congregation of people with different tastes and different preferences. If one makes a movie of particular genre, only a segment of audience watches, the movie loses money. Nobody wants to lose money. That is why, we are having absurd movies, which stupidly packs almost all possible ingredients of entertainment, so that everyone likes them. Naturally, the content quality of movies is very poor. The similar is situation with political parties. Politics is either populist, or it is a big flop as people, the cherished notion of common man is not a homogenous entity and demands from people are also conflicting and competing.

The Indian audiences have always followed stardom and that is why, even when a movie is impossibly bad, if it has a big star, it is a hit. People love absurdities and abstract ideas and that is why, the super-hit Indian movies have loads of them. The hero punches a villain and the villain flies off and lands fifty feet away, a miracle only possible in Indian movies. The hero is made to do all impossible stupidities and more he does them, larger hit the movie is as people love these absurdities. Why then any moviemaker would venture a sensible movie on a real issue with real scenes.

The same is the scenario with political parties. People want stardom and that is why, they stupidly choose for larger than life branding of singular hero, either a Narendra Modi or a Rahul Gandhi or Arvind Kejriwal. The reality is, even when parties project them as super heroes, performing impossible stunts and miraculous acts, it is actually the larger structure of a political party, which can make any difference. No individual leader can do good for a nation. It happens only in movies, not in real life. But, nobody does effective branding of party. The party is sacrificed for branding super heroes and people love it. Populism is option-less!

This is happening in all forms of media. The worst hit of populism is contemporary literature and books. More and more people love abstractions and virtualism and that is why, literature has shifted its content far away from realisms of society and culture to populism. The most popular genre in fiction is fantasy, paranormal, dystopia, sci-fi, erotica etc. The pop themes are massive abstractions and they are loaded with negativity, wild imaginations and destructive characterization as well as plots. The realistic and academic non-fiction genre has almost lost readership. That is why, everyone is writing what people are lapping up in loads. The markets and politics are always and shall always remain populist. They shall serve what people want. Tragically, everything else is also falling prey to stupidities of populism.

The print and electronic media have also indulged in cheap and naked populism. They proudly believe that they have their figure on the pulse of people. In the age of reactionary and aggressive consciousness of average people, no media risks its survival by serving some semblance of sanity and serenity. The media in India, especially the electronic media has become hugely skilled in slicing up the realism and presenting them as whole truth, after dexterously mixing it with abstract virtualism. People love to watch and read thrillers and dystopian slices of so-called truths and media ensures that they always have constant and over supply of it.

People usually have this attitude of seeing and accepting only the part truth. Media also does the same. People of India, as well as political parties often compare Indian growth rates with that of China, which has similarities with India. However, what they often fail to reckon is that China does not have democracy and its single party government has taken unpopular but growth-oriented decisions, without the fear of being ousted from power. Chinese government could take even such a disastrously stern decision as ‘one-child policy’. In India, no government could dare to introduce a simple and much-required population policy, which could make it mandatory for families to avail government subsidies and benefits only if they observed two-child family norm.

No party shall like to go for huge investments in infrastructure in India, at the cost of curtailing spends in other sectors as people do not have the rationality to wait and watch for a goodness, which bears fruits after 20 years. They want instant value. The Chinese government did this and now they are reaping the harvest of superior infrastructures. People love it when a political party promises free colored television, food at stupidly low prices, waiver of loans and such other populist schemes, which drains the exchequer and diverts funds from infrastructure investments. Political parties also enjoy such schemes as they always open big gates for administrative corruption and pilferage.

In India, as opposed to China, we have extremities of populism. State governments in India would usually spend most of their little and precious resources on populist policies which ultimately leads to the common man being more dependent on state funds and schemes. This in turn ensures that political parties have millions, who shall always be slave to the governmental freebies and subsidies.

Over the years, a country like India, with its in-built contradictions, conflicts, problems and underdevelopment, needed strong governments with a political will towards welfare of nation as against the short-cut success of populism. It is easy for people to blame politicians and political parties for the troubles and problems India and its population faces. However, this itself is the denial of true understanding of the functioning of Indian democracy.

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Parbatiya’s Vikas Model!

It is important to share with you a real story, which speaks of how Indian core troubles are aggravated by high doses of populism. There is a woman who works as maid in houses. She hails from the poor state of Bihar and migrated a few years back to a relatively rich state of Uttrakhand. She migrated to Dehradun, the capital of Uttrakhand, with all members of her family as some of her distant relatives were already working here as laborers. Her daughter-in-law, who lives with her, also works as maid in houses. Their family income is around rupees thirty thousand. Her son drives a tractor. This income is very high for a household as everyone knows, millions of poor in India earn less than three thousand rupees a month.

The household income of this woman is not the only good news. She has availed over forty thousand rupees from government, as part of the money meant for Indira Awwas Yojna. However, she did not make her house and instead bought land in her native village. Her daughter-in-law also did the same. This woman has seven children, four of them sons. Her daughter-in-law had two daughters and last year, she opted for another pregnancy to have a son. Luckily, she delivered a boy. This year, she is pregnant again as she felt it would be better to have two sons. The chances are, if she delivers a boy, she shall go for another pregnancy next year as she would then be ‘well off’ to take a ‘risk’ for another daughter. This family has availed benefits of all possible government schemes of freebies and subsidies. They have bought good amount of lands from these government moneys, earned with political-administrative connivance.

The trouble is, as the household has ten members to feed, they continue to live a tough life. The male members are habitual boozers and spend most of their moneys on liquor and personal enjoyments. This is a reality even when all the children get free education and free meal from the government school. If this household had opted for family planning and had only two child, their life would have been great. The male members having almost no education, they do not understand the troubles their wayward lifestyle creates for the family. If they had small family, kids would have got good education and nutrition. They are not and it is sure that the children would be taken out from school and employed as laborers and maids in next few years. The government would have been justified in restricting their family if there was a policy, which would debar them of government freebies and subsidies, if they opted for more than two kids. No government would like to do this, as essentially, this layer of population is their true voters. The upper and well off classes of India seldom vote. These poor people do vote and they matter to political parties. It is evident that most poor people in India now earn reasonably well but are still in loads of troubles as they are poorly educated, have cultural troubles and unproductively large families. There troubles are not political; rather, they benefit greatly from the political and administrative corruption and inefficiency.

The reality is, If India had half of the population it has, India would be a power to reckon with in the world. Just think of it; most of India’s current troubles would be solved if India had just half of people it now has. India is a huge country with ample and diversified resources. It is our massively over population, especially in the above-mentioned layer of society that has landed India in the troubles it has. However, the populism shall never allow the population to get controlled. India cannot be China and it should never be. However, India must be what it could be, if it opts for a roadmap of growth and evolution, devoid of stark and ugly populism.

Apart from the issue of populism, which makes India’s political and economic system underperform, other major trouble is federalism, as it has turned out to be in India. The makers of Indian constitution considered federal system of Indian governance as most suited to Indian geographic and demographic needs. However, once again, populism made federalism a major trouble for India.

The Indian government at Center is made responsible for almost everything that goes wrong with India as a whole but the fact remains that India is primarily administered by respective states. India is a big country and even after 67 years of governance, it is believed that effective and empowered administration and governance has reached only to half of India. Half of India, in peripheries and remote areas remain beyond effective governance.

The Union government cannot expect to reach these areas without the states becoming more powerful and effective but also be in excellent cooperation and partnership with Union government. However, over the years, the political compulsions of populism have ensured that states and Union are in almost conflicting and competing mode. The cooperation between states is something almost non-existent. For Indian democracy to be highly effective and its governance to become more impacting, Indian federalism needs to be smooth, complementing and cooperative. This is a dream and elusive realism as no political party has ever worked for strengthening and effectiveness of Indian federal model.

It seems, nothing much shall change in near future. This issue of India’s federal troubles