To disagree, discuss and debate controversies is the very nature of democratic practices!
Ethical politics is the very core of a democratic society!
The 2019 elections must be based on transparent issues. Issues like large scale corruption in public life. Political parties election funding must be transparent. Based on some of the latest pending issues of electoral reforms. Anybody listening to the Chief Election Commissioner’s suggestions?
And the ruling party and the Opposition parties. They are equally responsible for combating corruption at many levels. The perceived revenge politics must end.
Not one is holder than thou! You can’t claim monopoly over all political virtues. And dump all vices on the Opposition ranks! Give up amoral approach to election win!
Others too discard claims of family dynasty monopoly of polytonality. In India we have a hypocritical attitude when it comes to practice of the public morality! We have to combat hunger; there are pockets of hunger and deprivation even inside India.
Of course climate change has done lot of damage to the environment and rainfall patterns. Events in India is recent times have fully proved this. The unprecedented floods in Kerala and neighbouring Karnataka’s Kodagu besides also drought in many taluks in the same state proves that agriculture in particular is prone to many uncertainties. The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World estimates that in 2017he world population was undernourished. This translates to 821 million people, which is at the same level as that in 2010.Countries in South America and Africa have largely contributed to this increase.
Now, the immediate question is how India and its neighbours have performed?
Yes, there is a good report on the progress in reducing the hunger in the countries of Nepal and Sri Lanka while in India and China there is an overall improvement. But specifically, that one in five undernourished person is in India. Also, India’s other neighbours; Pakistan Afghanistan and Bangladesh are also vulnerable. Agriculture is no more seen as just a food supply segment. It is also a source of many other non-food but food-related issues like health indicators. For instance, India is seen as a country of severe stunting due to malnutrition, India having a severe 38.4 high severity of malnutrition by prevalence in fewer than 5% of population.
This is only one aspect of the agriculture &food production issues. There is many other aspects of rural life. There has been a rise in the number of farmer’s agitations owing to the unsettled and unsatisfactory issues like fostering agri sector. As Devinder Sharma, the veteran farm commentator’s notes in a recent column that according to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) farmer’s agitations doubled in two years! To 4,837 in 2016 up from 2,683 a year earlier. Though also there is a publicity blitz in the TV channels about the many new schemes like Pradhan Mantri Annadatta Aay Sanrakshan Abiyan (PMAASHA) and some other schemes the farmers are not a happy lot. The reasons are too obvious to narrate here.
The crop loan waiver is passed and yet the farmers are not getting remunerative support prices.
And also we need some refreshing and innovative real funding scheme like that in Telangana where farmers is paid a cash component so that at least the farmers see some real cash in their hands. You see the Union agri minister is nowhere to be seen in any of the states where farmers are in distress. Nor we see some of the institutions like the Agriculture Insurance Corporation are not functioning.
Just now the government is simply hell-bent (of course, we can also say, why not?)On winning the 2019 general elections and any government in a ruling position can turn and twist the policies and the media being what it is it is anybody’s guess what the government would be doing in the next six months before the next crucial elections.
The latest HDI ranking shows that India is doing fine, with all its many other considerations and India is now at the 130th rank. There have been many improvements in life expectancy, health indices and also other aspects. But the critical question is the rising inequality. This means that the latest improvements in our economic performance and also the economic gains have gone t0 the upper bracket. We are sure the Prime Minister and his colleagues at the Neet Aayog might have briefed the PM and it must be ranking in him when he talks with some bravado as to what he promises all along.
You see rising economic inequality is an old issues, whenever there is economic growth it comes accompanied by the rise in inequalities and inequities too.
Surely the PM must constitute a high power committee with the best economists on hand as to what critical new policy changes needed to arrest this dangerous economic trend.
The rightwing political ideologies all over the world, at all times have s similar response to inequalities and we can surely devise many preventive measures.
There are still many restrictive policies on the statute books, restrictive labour laws, tenancy laws and also land ceiling laws that restricts the dynamism in the economy, in the countryside to invest and take new initiatives so that agriculture becomes a profitable profession. Though professional experts might not mention the most inconvenient truths from the governments of the day, it is our duty; we feel to point out to one or two anomalies. Politics plays a role too. That is unethical politics of election funding and election-fighting.
There has to be some new restrictions in election funds rising. The Chief Election Commissioner has pointed out recently that many restrictions to stop the brazen entry and display of vulgar money by bribing the vulnerable voters sections.
Things have gone far that no criminal candidate can be debarred by the EC and also many other disabilities in the existing frame of the rules.
There are many unethical practices by the inaction of the government to speed up setting the 12 odd special courts to try the offending MLAs and MPs.
The Opposition parties must add these promises in their election manifestos.
All these are important. Simply a sort of revenge politics at the time of any elections doesn’t take any political party or parties far enough to make India a just and fair place for citizens.
Rahul Gandhi called on his colleagues to get a ‘sense of the voters’. This is the sense of voters, as on date!
Everybody’s hands must seem clean!