Election 2009: issues vs. non-issues
Posted : April 21, 2009 at 5:43 pm [IST]
The whole nation is amazed why the two prime ministerial candidates of the national political parties are so personal in their attacks. Does it build their images? Can that be an issue in parliamentary democracy?
The country wishes to see how they will solve the problems facing the country and its people. While the incumbent must tell why he couldn’t achieve the targets he promised for connecting the villages by road and electricity, and the opponent must tell how he will do that if the incumbent couldn’t.
How will they make their bureaucrats or even the primary teachers wake up and work?
How will they get implemented the planned power generation capacity, if the past record shows it to be as low as 40%? When China and India are almost equals in coal reserve, why China digs out five times more coal for power than India? If China could add 100,000 MW of capacity in just one year in 2007, what will the two do to attain whatever is targeted for the current five year plan? Or will they come out with the same excuses year after year?
Why couldn’t the incumbent complete the target of the National Highways Development Project? What will the opponent do to build 50,000 km by 2012, when just about 10,000 km is complete till date? If the incumbent doesn’t agree to what the opponent says, will he agree and reply to a journalist’s remark positively? “Compared with the NDA regime, whose best contribution was the Golden Quadrilateral project… the UPA’s primary achievement has been its declaration of intent,”
What will the two do to get the proposed Mumbai-Delhi or Delhi-Kolkata dedicated corridor for rail freight completed fast that can cut down the cost of the supply chain drastically? Or will the opponent if comes in power drop it all together as the river-interlinking was dropped by the incumbent?
Do the two agree on the issuance of a multipurpose smart card for every citizen? If yes, how many years will they take to complete the project? Can the beneficiaries at the bottom of the pyramid hope for an assured delivery?
Why the temple is so important when we can’t protect those that are already there? Why should Advani or Sonia refer to Ram or Ram Rajya when they can’t follow the basics of ’sarva jan hitay, sarva jan sukhay’?
Why can’t they go for a public debate for people to know their minds? Can they come out with their respective plans to bring down the poverty of the 60% of the population? Can they remove the many layers of middlemen between the consumers and farmers or manufacturers that make the both suffer? What is wrong in debating the money stacked in foreign banks? Why should they not reply how Mauritius becomes the highest FDI country in India?
How long they can go on blaming the media for not focusing on the coverage of the right issues for the people?
Let the two be honest to the nation and establish the systems that is democratic right at the grassroots levels of the political parties. Let the two be foes during elections but cooperate to make the nation strong thereafter. Let them set good examples for the next generations of politicians.
- Indra
Category: Indian politics |
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