Election fever is catching
up in India. Inevitably people are making up their opinions for and against political
parties and political leaders. Here is the kind of party I would like vote for:-
A party which represents all people, communities,
castes, creeds, religions equally. There are many countries with a fairly
homogeneous population. I can’t think of any country with more heterogeneity than
India. Going by history and experiences of other nations, I guess a party which
does not represent all of us equally will be outright dangerous even if that
may not be initially apparent.
Extending this philosophy, I would like to vote
for a party which does not try to rally us or even worse impose on us some identity
symbolism even if it purports to be representing the Indian nation. What may be
a symbol of national pride for some may not be for some others. In a country
like India I guess it is only trouble mongering. I don’t want anyone to tell me
that I have to confirm with some way of displaying national pride. It is a
controversial road which I think is best not traveled upon.
A party which does not want to rewrite the
history books to instill pride in us or some other such objective, but can just
be happy with the truth.
Again from the concept of equality of people
stems my support for equality of opportunity for all. Which also means a party
which is not for reservations. (This cannot seriously happen as there is too
much ‘democratic’ support for reservations from the beneficiaries. It’s
hopeless really)
Also equality of opportunity of all does not
mean economic equality of all by robbing Peter to pay Paul. Competition is very
necessary in a nation’s economic development. While I support an escape chute for
those who slip below a certain level of economic condition which is to paid for
by taxing the others who are not so unfortunate but it ends there. No more
subsidy than that. Ruthless business competition within the country is the only
way to survive the global competition. Too much subsidy is in reality too much
penalty (tax) on profitable business. Capital flows out of such socialist economies
to business friendly nations. Impoverishing the socialist nations and enriching
the capitalist. But I do support investment by public money in the sphere of
education and health. I want the political party to clearly understand that by
taxing the rich more than the global norms, they simply will move out with
their wealth or not come in. It’s something like killing the golden goose to
get more golden eggs is not a good idea.
I would like to vote for a government which
takes the defense preparedness much more seriously. We must be friendlier to
other nations, definitely not be jingoistic. That’s more like empty vessels
make most noise. My vote is for much more defense preparedness.
About handling religion. Well, I would like to
vote for a party which is secular. There seems to be some confusion about the meaning
of this word. My dictionary says “A doctrine that rejects religion and
religious considerations” I would like to go with this meaning. And I don’t
think that it means equal pandering of all religions. Since this area is a bit
prone to controversies so here are some clarification as to what kind of party I
want to vote for:
·
A party
which if in power means to uphold freedom to believe and propagate any kind of
religion or the lack of it by the citizens.
·
A party which upholds freedom of expression in favour of or against any or all religions.
A party which does not ban books, movies etc. under threat of a ‘law and order’
situation but can use force if necessary to uphold the freedom of expression.
Issuing of threats of violence is not ‘free speech’ but unintelligent or even mindless,
criticism of some or all religions is very much part of free speech which needs
to be protected by the state.
·
A party
which legislates to abolish blasphemy laws in its various forms in the country.
They are a contradiction to both secularism and freedom of speech.
·
The
government should not be in the business of running religious places, subsidising
religious activities or exempting religious business from tax.
·
The party which
makes laws not for banning but uphold religious conversions as part of free exercise
of religion. Even if it is by allurement. Anyone is of course free to offer
even greater allurement to bring such people back to their earlier religion.
A party which can act strongly to free us from
the rot of corruption.
A party which can end the prevalent idea of assured
career growth in government jobs. With no real competition to perform or perish,
it is wonder that the government officers and employees work at all. The
inefficiency of all of the government stems from this one single reason: The lack
of competition in their career progression.
A party
that does not actively promote education in Indian language(s) for identity
reasons and ruin an entire generation’s future. (While their own children study
in English medium schools). Will the child who studied in native language
schools because of decisions taken by a state government have the equal employment
opportunities in the market as a child who studied in English medium with equal
IQ?
So can you help me decide which is the party that is closest to my aspirations?
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