I have a dream – for India. Have had it for several years now. The dream of : creating a political party comprised of all educated – not just degrees but educated in/about life – men and women from various strata of the society; of providing best education and health-care in the world; of having first-class public infrastructure and public transport; of a reformed police and justice system that really worked; and of a government that worked for the people; of bringing every Indian to the computer age in the true sense; of having no division or preference or bias based on religion, caste, or anything else; and finally of an India that doesn’t balk in achievements from history, but instead sets examples for others in the present and which competes and contests with its own standards in the future.

This dream led to me join Bharat Uday Mission a few years ago. Its Hyderabad wing converted to an NGO and the rest of BM has fragmented into regions. My vision is to have a unified group working towards just one goal – of moulding India into a powerful, well-developed nation.

The following goals of a correct political party are not idealistic. They are real goals.

Read on.

-> Focus on infrastructure

  • Create a nationwide, uniform road infrastructure – handled by one integrated authority, instead of separate national/state level road authorities.
  • All roads must be equipped with standard road signs, speed limits and working signals and warning signs/boards.
  • All city roads must have pavements without fail and all street names must be displayed.
  • A nationwide network of high capacity highways must be laid connecting major Tier-I and Tier-II cities. Sufficient space should be allowed for extension and encroachments strictly banned. These must be elevated in busy areas to avoid congestion.
  • Traffic police must be provided with high-speed vehicles capable of catching an errant motorist. All kinds of violations ranging from speeding, rash driving, crossing yellow lines, honking unecessarily, and following too closely should be pulled up. Sufficient penalties should be charged or the errant driver must be forced to attend a driving course.

-> Public Transport

- Railways : Railways are like the arteries for our nation. But, traveling by railways isn’t always a nice or   a comfortable ride. The network is bursting at its seams with overloaded trains and ever-congested tracks. Most of travel occurs between the major cities of India.

  • A high speed, elevated rail network must be laid between and connecting important Tier-I and Tier-II cities across India. This relieves regular lines from the major traffic.
  • High importance must be placed on the security and sanitation aspects of rail-stations.
  • It should be ensured that compartments are put through a vigorous cleaning and sanitation exercise at the end of each journey. Proper emphasis must be placed on the safety of trains by providing fire-hazard and first-aid equipment, along with phones that enable travelers to contact emergency services.
  • Properly trained security personnel should be employed in all trains and must perform a thorough visual and tool-enabled inspection of all compartments to ensure a safe travel.

- Road :

  • Proper terminals, bus bays and shelters must be constructed in both urban and rural areas. Each stop must be enabled with basic amenities and safety features like public telephone, water, toilets and first-aid kits.
  • Travelers must be taught proper queue system.
  • With an efficient road network in place it should be easier to increase bus frequency, time-accuracy. Better frequency helps ease pressure on a few buses esp. during peak time.
  • Drivers and conductors need to be taught to communicate with travelers in a proper and professional manner, eager to help them when needed.

-> Private Transport
Any form of transport other than that on four-wheels is unsafe both for the rider and other drivers around them. These include motorcycles and autos, esp. in India since many lack a proper sense of road safety. First focus will be on improving road and traffic sense.

- Road sense : All holders of vehicle driving licenses – auto, car, motorcycle, lorry, etc – will be asked to retest within a specified time. Proper and free lectures and hands-on training classes will be provided for citizens before taking the driving test.

- Two Wheelers : Most popular and cost-effective means of transport. Made dangerous due to rash drivers in the form of cabs and some insane kids. Proper road-sense and traffic speed limits should take care of erring drivers.

- Auto Rikshaws and Taxis : Auto Rikshaws have low capacity, are unsafe and dangerous. Manufacturers will be asked to stop production and these will be phased out over time. Government shall provide subsidies to help auto-riskhaw drivers upgrade to four-wheelers.

There is a growing list Taxi and cab operators over recent years. Some of these operators employ road-illiterate drivers thus putting safety in jeopardy for all others on the road. Proper certification of completion of a taxi-driver course shall be required by all taxi drivers before they are employed.

-> Education

  • Create a nationwide network of public schools equipped with infrastructure thats on par with private schools. A uniform code-of-construction and sanitation must be in place.
  • Low wages and lack of growth have stagnated the supply of good teachers and eventually these teachers move to brighter avenues. A policy has to be formed to help authorities decide the growth of these teachers career-wise and new wage policies must be formed reflecting the city/town’s cost-of-living and must be on par with private schools.
  • Courses must be updated every year to reflect (any) changes.
  • The fact that English has become an integral part in our lives must not be ignored. All schools across the country must be English-medium, while learning the local language plus Hindi must be made mandatory.
  • Classes on moral and ethical values, learning to respect peers and elders and general public behavior must be integrated into the academics.
  • In rural areas, importance should be placed on providing proper nutrition ( similar to AP’s mid-day-meal scheme) not just in the lunch break, but food must be made available to students at all times so they don’t end up hungry in school early morning.

-> Health Care

  • Health care is a necessity and not a luxury. The government must ensure proper care of its sick people. Enforcing Universal Health Care will help provide free and state-of-the-art treatment to all people of India.
  • Similar to schools, a nationwide network of hospitals, with a uniform code-of-construction and proper sanitation must be built in proximity to all areas rural or urban. Proper infrastructure – in the form of equipment, ambulances, etc must be provided.
  • All activity in any hospital must be closely monitored by security cameras. Doctors and workers trying to escape work should be pulled up.
  • A supply-chain should be formed to supply medicines and other equipment to hospitals so there never is a shortage esp. in an emergency.
  • All employees (not just doctors) must be given proper wages reflecting current living costs and inflation.

-> Communication & Tech. : ISPs have had a stranglehold on the Internet bandwidth in India. Citizens get pathetic speeds and usage limits at insanely high prices.  TRAI too, puts more emphasis on cellular companies and doesn’t seem to bother about the Internet.

  • Provide high-speed, unlimited Internet with a minimum of 768kbps at not more than Rs.400.pm. Plans with sane usage limits could start from Rs100-150 pm.
  • Existing infrastructure should be upgraded or new infra. should be put in place to help Internet reach the mass of India.
  • Tie up with an Indian computer manufacturer and provide subsidy on a basic but functional desktop computer. Cost not to exceed Rs.5000/-
  • Relax existing VOIP to help make calls to phones and mobiles from the Internet cheaper.

-> Safety and security

  • Bring about strong reforms and form completely new policies for the police and judicial system keeping in mind the needs of people in the 21st century.
    A very high increase in the number of courts across the country is the need of the hour in order to be able to clear the vast number of pending cases. Concepts like mobile courts should be encouraged.
  • Beef up security at airports and seaports by properly scanning luggage and belongings of each individual and reporting suscpicious looking individuals to the police.
  • Naxalism : Naxals have always demanded development and improvement in the quality of life of people. When they realize that an existing government is emphasizing on the same, they should hopefully leave their outfits and return to normal life.
  • Kashmir : Kashmir has been ours and will always remain ours. All efforts will be taken to clear all militant acticity from this state.

-> Other :

  • There shall be no bias or discrimination based on gender, race, region, religion, caste or creed.
  • All existing reservations based on religion, gender and caste (SC ST, etc) shall be removed. Financial or educational help shall be provided based on the financial situation of the individual or his/her family only.
  • Dharnas, strikes and other forms of revolt shall be restricted to pre-allocated areas and shall not disturb citizen life.
  • All sources of sound must not exceed certain dB limits and all sound must stop at 10pm unless excepted by the police.
  • All forms of crimes, menace and violations including communal violence, rape, homicide, etc shall be dealt with an iron hand. No mercy, no human rights.Other criminals including eve-teasers, ‘dadagiris’ etc will also not be tolerated.
  • Cameras will be installed at various public places and buildings. Any unusual persons will be rounded up.
  • No further division of states will be allowed
  • Cigarette smoking ban will continue in all public places, but advertisements will be allowed.
    Same applies to alcohol.

There are several other areas that I have not covered here which include : Policies on – Terrorsim, Banking sector, Export/Import, all kinds of Industry, Petroleum, Alternative energy, Power, Nuclear power, and many many more. The list is nearly endless. I feel I have covered major areas. Please comment if you have anything else to add.