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Panchayat - The Political Angle

As we all know our respected and beloved president “Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam” is has a dream that “India will be among the developed nation of world till 2020”. Is it possible to achieve this goal by 2020 considering the current condition of country, which is already fighting a war against a host of problems internally as well as externally?

Here, in this article, I have tried to analyze some major pros & cons related to this topic.

As in the past some one had said that “India is the country of villages” or “Bharat gaonv me basta hai”.

This is true in today’s aspect also because in India most of the people (about 60% of nation’s population) are living in villages. In those villages people are unable to fulfill their basic needs of life such as “Roti kapda aur makan”. In those villages youth is unemployed, they follow unhygienic activities, which leads to serious health hazards, youth is turning towards crime because of unemployment, literacy is less, and most of the families are below poverty line. In such circumstances it is very difficult for India to become a developed nation till 2020.

Another major problem in the development of country is terrorism. Every border of our country is facing this ugly problem. In the north, Jammu & Kashmir has the biggest terrorism problem in the form of “Indo-Pak issue”. If we talk about south, Andhra-Pradesh is facing the problem with “People’s War Group”. In the east, Assam has its own problem against the “Ulfa-militants” and in the west, Mumbai, the Industrial capital of India is at the center of terrorist attacks. These terrorist groups usually destroy the in-built infracture and manpower of the country. Until and unless any country finds permanent solutions to these problems, it is very difficult for that country to become a developed nation.

The next problem in development of India is corruption. Although India is not the most corrupt nation in the world but the roots of corruption in India are so deep that it is the biggest obstacle to overcome for the development of nation. Particularly in the fields of “Politics” and “Government Sector”, corruption is widespread. In fact, today very few government schemes, which are for public welfare, complete successfully. The common man has to visit at least two to three times for getting a single signature in a government office.

Another problem in the development of nation is poverty. The unequal distribution of money in the country, unemployment and lack of entrepreneurship skills particularly in the youth are the major cause of poverty. In India many families are below poverty line with daily income of less then 1$(i.e. less then 45 rupees) and still we talk about globalization. How can a man, who doesn’t have sufficient money for his next day’s meals, contribute in the development of nation.

One more problem in the way of the development of nation is our politics. Most of the politicians are highly corrupt and their main aim is to earn money from the government funds for their personal uses. The political parties are having good contacts with criminals; they are illegally raising funds for there election campaigns and very huge amount of money is spent every time on such campaigns. The one and only aim of these political parties is to remain in power at any cost. Since last few decades, India has had only two major & nation wide political parties so the people are compelled to choose between those two parties only. There is no alternative available for the people and every time they get it wrong, in the form of an unsatisfactory government.

The major issue, which can contribute highly in the development of nation, is our educational system. The percentage of literacy in our country is less, compared to other developed nations. There are a large number of students who start their education at the primary level but are unable to complete SSLC/PUC due to many financial, social and physical reasons. In India, “tuitions” are having a large impact right from the primary level itself. This is very serious and shameful thing for our educational system.

Apart from the above-mentioned major problems, there are also some other problems like lack of power/energy resources, lack of in-fractures, castisam, communal rights and many more…………………

But, India also has some strengths to its name.

The most dominating technology in today’s scenario is “Information Technology” and because of its highly intellectual minds, India is dominating throughout the world in this particular technology. The revenue/profits of the India-based software companies are in thousands of corers and they are able to squeeze a lot of foreign money from international market. So they are contributing greatly in the development of nation.

Another major strength for India is its man power as India is the second most populated country of the world. If we consider Uttar-Pradesh as a separate country, then it will become the world's sixth most populated country very next to China, India, United States, Indonesia and Brazil. So India’s huge population can occupy any big industry which requires a large number of people.

So to conclude, we can say that there are many hurdles for India to become a developed nation till 2020, but India also has its own strengths. As no body can foresee the future, so let’s wait & watch and contribute greatly in the development of our nation.

One more thing I want to say to all the professional students is that they are having a major responsibility to make India a developed country (like Engineers are called the builders of the nation). So please try hard to convert our president’s dream to reality.

SALAAM INDIA!!

Written By: Raghav Garg, AIET, Gulbarga

The Judiciary is the cornerstone of any democracy and India is no different. Our judicial system is one of the largest in the world and also the most burdened. Every Indian fears the “court ke chakkar” which often feature in cinema as the fallouts of pursuing a legal recourse when he is wronged upon.

In the past there have been numerous instances of cases continuing till the parties of the case have expired and their next generation is visiting the courts of law to seek justice. We have all heard or seen people who have carried thick files to courts for years only to come back in the evening with another date. Innocents have been placed behind bars upon suspicion and years have elapsed before their chares were dropped.

However the Indian Judiciary and the powers that be have recently taken the challenge head on. The challenge to clear the courts of years of backlog, to make offenders more accountable and responsible for their misdeeds and to ensure that every Indian believes and trusts the Judiciary more than any other in the world.

Recently when the Indian media was concentrating on the budget, the bear run in the capital markets and the rising inflation, a group of 3 esteemed judges passed a judgment that may well go down in the history as landmark.

The reasons are manifold. To begin with it deals with a case of an insurance company that refused to recognize the unborn child of a pregnant lady as a consumer and one who is liable to claim insurance. It used the provisions of an American law to pass the judgment that was actually an appeal after the lower courts had refused to consider the unborn child as a customer and as a claimant to an insurance cover.

The bench was of the opinion that the Unborn Victims of Violence Act 2004 applicable in the United States of America could be applied to the Indian context as it will be an instrument that catalyses the process of socio- economic change in India.

Under the provisions of the law, the human embryo turns into a foetus between the 13th to 27th week and attains a recognizable human form. Thus that child though unborn enjoyed the rights and privileges of a customer and the Insurance company was liable to pay damages in line with the insurance cover of the family.

The judges must be commended for the job and decision taken. The fact that Indian law allows this provision expands the scope of information and power the judges have to astronomical proportions. It is very heartening to see that India and its judicial superpowers are open minded and can accept the fact that a foreign law used in a social context may be the most applicable and help the progress of Indian society and its thought.

I would also like that this case be used as an example of how modern thought is progressing in order to ensure that the basic rights of people are not violated by companies that may be profit motivated and economically driven. The judgment can also be a start of many more to come not only in the field of consumer protection but other social issues like dowry and infanticide.

What this may ultimately lead to is the possibility of a global law and judicial thought that will radically equate countries across continents and bring together people like never before. I urge you to consider the thought of a world where the social laws and norms are based on the same framework and thought. What each country will then do is to fine-tune and build upon that foundation to suit its needs and its culture. That is when we will truly become a global village.

Written By: The Maverick Observer ([email protected])

Many of us may have heard of IIM graduates drawing salaries in the higher 7 digits. This is mainly true for the majority. It is often felt that IIM graduates would do a lot more for the country if they were to join in the ailing PSUs and government owned companies rather than favoring the private sector or foreign companies.

This is the story of one such person, a person who believed in his values, a person who believed in his ideals, and a person who believed in his motherland. This is the story of one Shanmugam Manjunath.

Manjunath was a student of the famed IIM Lucknow - an institute that brings pride to the nation. He was unconventional in his thought right when he joined the Indian Oil Corporation as a Sales Manager. Manjunath was someone who was in charge of solving an issue that plagued almost all of the country’s oil PSUs. It was the problem of adulteration and mixing of fuel with other material.

In the two and a half years that Manjunath worked for Indian Oil Corporation he came across many petrol pump owners. Many of whom had been allotted petrol pumps by scrupulous loopholes in government schemes.

There were clear cases of adulteration and Manjunath was only doing his job. His job of protecting the consumers’ rights, his job of ensuring the quality of his product was not compromised by the distribution channel, his job of doing what was ethical and morally correct. He received threats many a times, he received bribes many a times, his family warned him often but he was none to listen. He was none to give up. He was there to do his job. He often registered complaints against these scrupulous petrol pump owners and even sealed a few of their establishments.

However on the ill fated day of November 2005, his body was found in the Sitapur district of Uttar Pradesh. A body that was ridden with bullet wounds, proof of a merciless murder that was performed to carry on with the dirty trade of the adulteration of black gold.

The entire nation was up in outrage. This was very similar to the Satyendra Dubey case who blew the whistle on the road mafia while working for the National Highway Authority. Only to lose his life to the very same mafia he was trying to expose.

This week is a landmark week for the modern generation of India, one that has grown up to see corruption, black marketeering and exploitation all around them. The Sessions court in Lakhimpur – Kheri in Uttar Pradesh has convicted and punished all 8 accused in the case for the murder of Manjunath.

The prime accused has been sentenced a death sentence as it was proven that the murder was a planned one. All other accused have been sentenced to 2 years of rigorous imprisonment for conspiracy and destruction of evidence. However the defense lawyers are already on their way to the High Court in a bid to appeal and the ruling and save their clients. The death sentence is subject to confirmation by the High Court.

The question that I would like to ask is, what is the real price of the fuel we run our cars on. Already one life has been lost and another is being taken away. For all we know the families of the 8 accused will be left with little face in society. I do not say that the punishment is too severe or unnecessary. My point just remains on asking whether the fuel we use is worth the number of lives we have lost to it or will lose in the future.

Cannot the system be improved to ensure that such circumstances do not arise at all. Wy cant we have a Manjunath in every IIM graduate, why cant we have a Manjunath in every Indian citizen. My take is that we do. You, I and everyone around us has a Manjunath somewhere with in, a Manujnath whom we have often silenced and rarely trusted.

Let us all wake up and embrace that Manjunath within us and around us. ONLY then will his voice have reached its true destination and only then will he smile on us from the heavens up above.

GOD BLESS HIS SOUL!

Written By: The Maverick Observer ([email protected])

The killing of 6,00,000 innocent people, ruthless war and execution of a leader – puppet show in the world political arena at the hands of a powerful nation, the United States. Saddam Hussein, held responsible for killing 148 Shias in the Dujail killing and a number of Kurds, was bravely held, unmoved and composed in his last moments, with Koran in his hands and God’s name on his lips. He was still better knows as “Mr. President” by the co-accused of the trial and his followers including the defense lawyers. Saddam, meaning “one who confronts” in Arabic, was dynamic and powerful, courageous and outright, but lacked the vision required to put all the above qualities together for a fruitful cause. He would be unfortunately remembered as a defiant ruler, who, in his final act as well, refused to don the customary hood offered by the hangman.

Saddam Hussein, a combination of violence and shrewd tactics, enjoyed over three decades of power and fame in Iraq. He invaded neighbors Iran and Kuwait in 1990 and was thus demonized by Western powers. He described the first Gulf war as “the mother of all battles” after being an ally of the United States, in his war against Shia Islamist Iran. But the United States changed colors after Saddam’s invasion of their ally Kuwait. For years, in the beginning, the United States seemed complacent and tried just to contain him. But after 9/11, Mr. Bush chose him as the target in his “war on terror” against Afghanistan.

Saddam Hussein is dead. And with him has died the overarching ambition that changed the picture of Iraq. But his execution has opened the floodgates instead of putting a barricade. In simple terms, “it’s unfortunate”. An execution by a Shia government which is a mere puppet in the hands of the United States, instead of an execution by the international war crimes tribunal, has set the mark for another possible civil war and sectarian crimes in Iraq and even the other parts of the world between Shias and Sunnis. Moreover, the whole scene of conducting the execution on Saturday, the day for celebration of Eid by Sunnis (while the Shias celebrated Eid on Sunday), raised more eyebrows over the issue.

India needs to take a stern stand now. Instead of just describing the episode as “unfortunate” and sitting back, it needs to come forward and raise awareness about the possible aftermaths of this execution. It needs to prevent a possible religious war in the sensitive Central Asian region. Only then can we hope to bring real justice for the sovereign republic of Iraq.

Written by : Anubhav Jain, IIM Indore

Our nation is facing a chaotic situation, chaos of corruption, poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, etc. We are ranked 127th both in terms of Human Development Index and per capita income. India is ranked 88th by the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) with a meager score of 2.9. The list of problems seems to be endless. We, the “bright future" of India are very happy about the GDP growth of around 9% as it is in some way serving the ultimate purpose of getting a good pay package at the end of our academic life. But the question that remains unanswered is that is this growth really helping in the development of our nation. The biggest foe of development is corruption as it’s affecting all the four pillars of our democracy namely the judiciary, the legislature, the executive and the press.

Someone who has got a rational thought process can ponder on this simple universal truth, the truth that power corrupts. We have often heard of the saying that knowledge is power. So we as students have been learning to study hard and be evil for all these years. Of course this is not explicitly stated anywhere but by the time we get to know why we are studying; this is the logic which initially defies our moral and ethical learning. Slowly we learn to live with such undemanding reality and our conscience fades because of the tempting power which we will soon have. As I said earlier that we are the “bright future“ of our beloved nation, so we need to find a way out to avoid these kinds of conflicting thoughts. For this we have to first analyze the authenticity of the above truth. It is said that power corrupts, but actually it's truer that power attracts the corruptible. Sensible people are usually attracted by other things than power. They are attracted by the responsibility which comes along with power. Power can never come without responsibility. By power I not only mean a position of authority or some post or some honor bestowed upon us. Power also includes the capability to read and write. This may not be considered power per se in countries like US and UK but in India where literacy rate is around 60% and even the inclusion criteria for so called literates is depressing it 's definitely a power. Education should give us the aptitude to ask questions, to make use of laws like Right to Information Act, Consumer Protection Act, etc. Education gives us the ability to question the existence of so many laws in our land which may perhaps be the largest in number in the world. Our Income Tax Act is surely the largest one in the world in terms of size but sadly not in terms of content. Tax evasion in India is breathtaking. The size of parallel economy is almost half the size of our GDP. There is a famous quotation "The more corrupt the state, the more laws.” I would like to add that the more complicated the law more corrupt are the people who understand it. That 's the reason why the list of most corrupt people include politicians, police, lawyers and professionals like Chartered Accountants (auditors), doctors etc. It does not shock Indians anymore to know that not only the ministers and IAS & IPS officers are corrupt but even the judges, professors, doctors and NGO organizations are also giving them good competition.

But corruption is not restricted to these strata of society. It’s trickling down to the bottom of the pyramid. Corruption is not only prevalent amongst rich who are greedy in spite of possessing enough but also amongst poor. I dare to say that up to a certain extent our education is also responsible for this. The way of transfer of knowledge in our nation is not taking into considerations the above stated simple yet inevitable facts. The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently. We are thought to think like the western world but India is very different in all the aspects of life. We can use our grey matter in developing some India centric education system which lays emphasis on learning with earning to solve the problem of poverty and illiteracy. We need build India centric business model, which could be implemented with minimum capital, have scope for innovative ideas and serve as employment generator for the society. We are not here to accept the things as they are. We can’t be adorned by the golden words "bright future" if we are so dull that we only see what we want to see. We have to change the way we look at the world and we look our self. We have the power, what we need is desire to take the responsibility. To question what we do and then to question what people around us are doing.

Written by : Vineet Patawari, IIM Indore