The Future of India
A government of the people, by the people, for the people requires knowledge and evolving from this, understanding, tolerance and not only respect but a genuine admiration of diversity.
Choosing people’s representatives by way of an election partly fulfils the need for a government of the people. India urgently needs a reorganisation of the political landscape by limiting the number of political parties (ex: 5% of national vote to be eligible for elections to national parliament). It must be ensured that criminals and politicians suspected of murder or complicity to murder (or rape) are barred from the electoral process. Political parties that do not approve of our constitution and therefore call for revolution or for the creation of something other than India should be stripped of all legality.
Freedom of belief and expression.
A free and socially responsible economy.
The strictly neutral role of the army.
Pluralistic democracy in India is under threat from fascist forces. Fascist parties and organizations glorify blood and violence. It divides society into friends and enemies (enemies based on race or class or religion). The political left and the right as well as fundamentalist religions wish to dominate society, where individuals (especially women and children) will have nothing to say and where workers will become slaves, either of robots or of the politburo.
In India millions of poor people struggled for four hundred years for precious freedom. Pluralistic multi-party democracy is imperfect. But it is a hundred times more humane than a dictatorship of any politburo and surely a hundred times more valuable than a government of cows, by cows, for cows.
Mathew Kuzhippallil
A government of the people, by the people, for the people requires knowledge and evolving from this, understanding, tolerance and not only respect but a genuine admiration of diversity.Choosing people’s representatives by way of an election partly fulfils the need for a government of the people. India urgently needs a reorganisation of the political landscape by limiting the number of political parties (ex: 5% of national vote to be eligible for elections to national parliament). It must be ensured that criminals and politicians suspected of murder or complicity to murder (or rape) are barred from the electoral process. Political parties that do not approve of our constitution and therefore call for revolution or for the creation of something other than India should be stripped of all legality.
Democracy is more than elections. India needs to develop measures (example: periodical plebiscites) to encourage people’s participation in decision making and to channel protest peacefully. For this, it is absolutely essential that every citizen of India is issued (along with the Aadhar card) a simplified copy of the constitution, explaining the fundamental values we share: individual freedoms, social justice and peace. Personally I think it imperative that the people of India actively say “yes” to the Indian constitution (On reaching the voting age).
For the future of India (and for the well being of our neighbours) India must in the near future redefine its union. At the time of Indian Independence, chieftains and maharajas gave their consent to be part of the Indian Union. The people of India have only passively accepted this. It is time that the people today actively adopt the Indian Union. We donot know what future challenges await us. Shortage of water, of clean air, and natural calmities can cause mass upheavels, devastating wars and redrawn boundaries. It is therefore necessary that we keep our doors open to a larger Indian Union which overcomes the divisions of partition. Such a greater Indian Union must ensure democracy at the grassroots level with increased power to local bodies such as Panchayats.
Sadly the Indian Judiciary is not entirely independent. Attorney generals (In German: Staatsanwalt) should be an institution accessible and free to every citizen. In the event of a heinous crime (brutal rape/ politically motivated murder), the attorney general should be able to engage the CBI and prosecute a criminal, independent of the state and central governments. The situation today is that the people elected to protect the law are the very people who break the law. It derives people of all hope, if chief ministers are murderers, if central ministers are associated with crime, with genocide especially.
Despite all these failures India has fundamental values that need to be preserved (through education at the primary and secondary school levels, through public gatherings, through the wise use of the media).
Our commitment to nonviolence.
Pluralistic (multiparty) democracy.
Freedom of belief and expression.
A free and socially responsible economy.
The strictly neutral role of the army.
Pluralistic democracy in India is under threat from fascist forces. Fascist parties and organizations glorify blood and violence. It divides society into friends and enemies (enemies based on race or class or religion). The political left and the right as well as fundamentalist religions wish to dominate society, where individuals (especially women and children) will have nothing to say and where workers will become slaves, either of robots or of the politburo.
In India millions of poor people struggled for four hundred years for precious freedom. Pluralistic multi-party democracy is imperfect. But it is a hundred times more humane than a dictatorship of any politburo and surely a hundred times more valuable than a government of cows, by cows, for cows.
Mathew Kuzhippallil
