If I were the Prime Minister of India

It is never an easy job running an organization of any size – leave alone a country especially if it is as diverse and large as India. Given its history of corruption, misuse of power and lack of foresight amongst its leaders, this would take a very skilled person to run this country and bring it to the path of advancement that the people in India truly deserve.

Here is what I’d do if I were to ever become the Prime Minister of India.

I.                    Constitution:

a.       Form a committee to rewrite the constitution in 2 years. Major changes –

                                                               i.      Mandatory requirement for becoming a MP or hold a public post – person must be born in India, to Indian parents and should NOT have a partner or spouse born in another country.

                                                             ii.      Build a mix of parliamentary and presidential form of government. The parties fighting the election will need to declare a leader beforehand.  No person can hold a post for more than 8 consecutive years, with elections occurring on a fixed date every year and the country electing the full parliament every 4 years. Villages should choose Panchayats and vote for people, not parties. Every town and city will have MLAs and MPs based on population.

                                                            iii.      Ministers will need to be subject matter experts in the field and will be advised by experts in that area. E.g – defense minister will need to be a defense expert with experience of defending the country and will be aided by a council of former chiefs of armed forces.

                                                           iv.      Member of Parliament can only have power to vote yes or nay on the issue in front of them. They can ask or question the reasoning behind the bill and also form parliamentary committees to question anyone on the happening in the country. They can also introduce new bills for the parliament to discuss. They do not get to allocate utilities like gas distributors or fuel stations.

                                                             v.      NO regional parties – only national parties or independents can fight the elections. There will be three national parties. Regional parties only create division of the country.

                                                           vi.      Leaders and people causing factionalism (on basis of cast, creed, and language) will be dealt with severely.

                                                          vii.      Move away from division of states based on language.  States will be made larger, and pool in resources. People will elect their own leaders, based on their personal appeal rather than party guidelines.

b.      Elections will be clean, less noisy and parties will be held accountable for cleaning the banners, slogans etc. with a heavy penalty for noise and graffiti.

c.       Filing of taxes over the age of 18 mandatory. All cash transactions will be tracked and limited to certain value ( 

II.                  Law and Order

a.       Give autonomous status to CBI and EOW to investigate crimes.

b.      Create a committee to revise the criminal law – use experts in criminal law to fill loopholes. Devise a faster mechanism for verdicts. Investigation agencies will spend time to analyze the cases before presenting it to court.

c.       Maintain a full database of every Indian with Biometrics and DNA record. All indivisuals will be required to carry a photo-id at all times (driver’s license or voters card) will be made mandatory.

d.      Install Closed circuit TV on all major roads and crossings of the country.

e.      Civil cases over property which have been in the court for over 10 years will be given 6 months to reach an amicable settlement. After which, the property will be taken over by the government for public use.

f.        Improve road and traffic laws. Implement a new driving license system and everyone will need to reapply. Make person approving the driver’s license responsible for the driving capabilities of the driver -- a track record will be publicly available of who approved most accident prone drivers. Also, during the driver’s test, the approver will need to ride with the person applying for the license.

g.       Implement strict copyright laws and track internet piracy.

h.      Crack down heavily on resources causing riots based on religion.

III.                Anti - Corruption

a.       This is easier said than done. But it needs a strong leader with a strong will power. I’d declare that anyone in the public figure (from a Babu to a leader) willing to acknowledge every having taken any bribe or favors from public will have 30 days to acknowledge and return the money to the Government. No penalties or fines will be assessed on what was declared. However, after the 30 days period, I’d ask the public to file anonymous complaints on the incidents when they had to bribe to get the work done – all they’d need to submit is when, how much, to who and for what. Immediate enquiry will ensue and leaders will be fined by up to 5 times the said amount.

b.      All government employees will be deemed as public figures and what they say or do will be open to public under the right to public information. Only the defense personnel will be excluded from this. What this means is that if you are a minister or a secretary, you’d be under the scanner at all times and your phones, offices, homes and cars will be tapped.

c.       Property taxes will be assessed based on market prices. All transactions will be recorded directly by companies which will research ownership history and provide insurance against legal issues around ownership. Failure to record real prices will result in fines equivalent to twice the difference, and on repeat failures, withdrawal of license to do business. Also, buyers will need to be recorded by biometrics methods (retinal scans, in addition to other means). This will ensure that multiple property owners will be taxed at higher rates.

d.      All MPs will have to declare their property and earning details every year.

e.      Whistle blowers will be eligible for up to 33% of the yield in the raid. Example - Charge of traffic tickets will be distributed 3 way, with the cop getting 33%, 33% going to the state police benefit fund and remaining for the state public benefit fund.
f.    News media will be encouraged to investigate and publish information about scams. Journalists and media providing details about scams will be awarded with a portion of the total amount recovered.
g.   Indian Government will go after money stored in foreign banks, and if the owners can't reveal the source of that money or proves that they had paid taxes on it, the assetts will be confiscated.
h.   Plan for ways to force out the hidden black money in the country -- example, by introducing new currency notes, and mandating registration of property owners using biometrics etc.

IV.                Energy and natural resources

a.       Green energy will be leveraged wherever possible. Focus will be on Solar, wind, and Nuclear power wherever possible.  Reduce reliance on imported fuel.

b.      Every household will need to install water conservation methods. This will include Energy efficient appliances, methods of conserving rain water

c.       Cities will need to plan for rain water conservation – including but not limited to rain gutters on every building, storing rain water, increasing catchment area and marking green belts. Every road should be lined with native trees that have been cut over the years.

d.      Citizens will be encouraged to plan a tree for every year of their age – as a way of giving back to nature.

e.      Clean up rivers, creeks by removing obstructions and deepening the rivers to carry more water. Every major city will mark areas to store water in form of lakes which will be earmarked as picnic areas to generate funds for maintenance.

f.        Encourage use of public transport with incentives. Give tax rebates for using public transport in lieu of gas (petrol/diesel) driven vehicles.

V.                  Employment and Education

a.       Government employees will be the best of the best and will be amongst the highest paid. If people do not understand that government employment means public service, and not personal gains, they shouldn’t join the government service.

b.      All reservations in schools/colleges and jobs will be canceled immediately, as they have only helped in dividing the country. Only the armed forces and tribes from adivasis (aborigines) will be given 10% reservation during admission to higher education each. There will be an extra 10% for women.  For everyone else, the fees structure will be based on their tax returns only. Anyone availing the reservation will be required to serve 3-5 years in the government designated area of their education.

c.       Public schools (meaning schools run by Government) will be made free and will provide quality education. The teachers will be highly qualified and highly paid. Everyone must realize the impact teachers have on the life of students and it is very important that the formative years are well taken care of.

d.      One year of paid mandatory service in the armed forces in a non-border area before the age of 25 years. This could be in paramilitary forces or armed forces and will inculcate the discipline required in all. Continue Short service commissions (5 years’ service). Provide veterans all the help in getting job placements.

e.      Remove teaching of religion from all schools. Schools will instead be required to teach a mandatory subject about true Indian culture and history based on facts and documentary visits to various places of relevance.

f.        Mandatory learning of 3 languages, including English and Hindi. Students will have a choice to learn a language spoken in the country (along with Hindi and English) until the 5^th grade, and then can choose to either continue further studies in it until their tenth grade or pick any language of the world (other than English) to study. Advanced courses in the same languages will be offered beyond the tenth grade too.

g.       Education courses will change to keep up with the advances in tech world. Strong emphasis will be on learning by practice and research. Move away from just theoretical learning.

VI.                Industry and Commerce

a.       Encourage exports. This will mean that quality will need to improve. I’d fine the companies that export sub-par goods, as it tarnishes the name of the country.

b.      Companies importing goods will be encouraged to import goods in knocked-down state. Depending on how much of the items are imported, there will be varying duty. Assembly and QA in India would help get more manufacturing jobs in the country.

Companies opening up manufacturing facilities in India will be given tax rebates.

c.       Make the process of opening and running a business a single window operation – with everything available online or at one window. Minimize red tape.

d.      Encourage R&D and innovation. Companies opening up R&D facilities in India will be given tax rebates.

e.      Small businesses like groceries and cafes in towns get preferences over large scale operations like Walmart or Reliance.

VII.              Agriculture

a.       Build an intricate canal system across the country to drain and store water.

b.      Farmers will be owners of the land.

c.       Form farmers cooperatives to sell directly to users

d.      Government will subsidize the farming equipment and material heavily and provide all assistance to farmers.

VIII.            Defense

a.       India will have the strongest armed forces in the region, with advanced capabilities to attack deep within any country.

b.      Heavy emphasis on R&D to produce indigenous equipment. There will be a farm of Indian satellites in and around the country, strong number of aircrafts, ships, tanks and drones.

c.       We will not attack first, but will reserve to right to go after people or countries that run proxy wars or indulge in terrorist attacks.

d.      Form an alliance with neighboring countries to form a common armed pact – that will induce close collaboration.

e.      No negotiations with terrorists. We will go all out to kill anyone trying to terrorize our population. If the attack is perpetrated outside our country, we will go after the people that planned it outside.

IX.                Culture and religion

a.       People can practice their religion freely – by following the policy of Live and let live – as long as the beliefs don’t hurt the country’s progress or unity or integrity.

b.      Each religion’s place of worship will be brought under a governing body run by the religious heads of that religion. Example- Hindus will have a central body run by the 4 shankar acharyas with the chief position rolling between all four on a quarterly basis. All foreign donations towards religious societies will be distributed by the government across all religious societies. It will be ensured that parties are really doing social welfare work. Religious conversions will be stopped, as there is more than one way to worship.

c.       Promote the historical culture, and natural beauty of India abroad for tourism. Set up infrastructure so that it becomes easier for people to travel to various sites in India and learn the real history of the locations.

d.      National holidays will be limited to a handful – Independence day, Republic day, Veterans day (aka Shahid Divas), Holi, Rakhi, Eid, Gandhi Jayanti, Christmas, and Diwali. For other religious days, people following that religion can take a leave from their allocated days.

e.      Every nationally recognized religion/sect will be asked to declare areas of their religious significance. These will be given federal and state protection and preserved.

f.        No more processions on the major streets. Disrupting traffic will cost heavy fees and/or penalties.

g.       Religious places will not be allowed to create noise. So no more booming loudspeakers sending waves of sound of mantras, shlokas or azzaans. The sounds of the praying places should not leave the walls of the place.

h.      Religious places will be treated as zones of sanctity, and priests will run them with efficiency. Police or armed forces will enter them only to pray or to catch criminals if they take shelter there. Under no circumstances will we allow any religious place to become the hub of criminal activity and if that happens, the authorities running that place of worship will be blamed/penalised.  

X.                  Foreign policy

a.       Remain non aligned, but try to form a close alliance of defense with neighboring countries like Nepal, Myanmar, Thailand, Shri Lanka, Afganistan and few African countries, on the lines of NATO.

b.      Form a united south east Asian group to promote inter country trade, with subsidies and benefits to member countries.

c.       Encourage Bangladesh and Pakistan to rejoin India. Open invite to the youth of these countries to join India in path to forward march. The invite will be especially extended to mothers and daughters, who are welcome to get away from orthodox shackles on freedom of choice for women.

d.      Establish close ties with Israel, European Union and further strengthen time tested ties with US and Russia.

There is a lot more that I’d like to add here – but I guess this will be a long article. What do you  think would be best for the country if you were to lead it?

A feeling of success

Back in 2000, when I told my relatives and friends that I planned to move to USA, many of them expressed concerns about taking my daughters with me. “You guys will lose your touch with the Indian culture”, or “forget about the Indian values and ethics” were the most common concerns voiced openly by many of my pals. Of course, they were happy for me and the opportunity I was getting, but they were also concerned how I’d bring up my daughters in the "wild" western world.

To be honest, I was equally concerned too. I had heard quite a few wild tales about the western culture, how people especially teenagers lost out on their culture, values and the like. Indians, like folks from most other countries, only delved on what was presented in the movies. One commonly saw depictions of the “modern” society in the west and how all the depravity of materialism crept in. So, with a lot of apprehension, I landed in the US in Nov. of 2000. I still remember the girls – all of 9 years and 8 years old, shivering in the freezing air of San Francisco, waiting for the airport shuttle to come pick us up at the SFO International terminal. Somehow, I just knew that with the blessings of my elders and the affections of my friends, we’d all be fine.

My american life started with me leaving for work at 6.30 AM, after lighting a lamp in front of the shrine I created at home, and sitting in front of the gods with hands folded, eyes shut, murmuring my prayers and seeking their blessings. I returned home around 6 PM after a long day, working hard to prove myself in this new work place. My wife was a stay at home mom for about 2 years initially. She developed a lot of contacts with other families. There weren’t a lot of Indians in San Ramon back then, so we were lucky to get into a network of Indian families – all thanks to Nandita’s networking capabilities. Then in 2001, we heard about the Hindu Sangam, which was the first attempt to bring the Bay Area Indians together under the Umbrella of Hindu Swayamsewak Sangh (HSS), and they had a massive event planned in Milpitas, with Anup Jalota performing Bhajans. My daughters participated in the Ramayana play, performed by the kids from all over the Bay area. The event got all of us hooked into the local chapter of the Hindu Shakha, called as Chanakya Shakha (Shakha means branch of a tree).

I firmly believe that Shakha has been a huge help in keeping my girls firmly engaged in the activities of the Hindu community and learning about the Indian culture and values. It is free for attendees and they conduct yoga, teach Sanskrit Shlokas, and bring in subject-matter-experts to give discourses called as bouddhik (intelligent discussions). They organize events and get together to celebrate Hindu functions and festivals like Ganesh utsav, Diwali, Sankranti, India’s independence and republic days, Guru Parab (when students felicitate a teacher of their choice), Pongal and many more.  I watched as my wife and daughters got involved in the Shakha by helping plan the events, often taking part in the plays, or skits or just being the compere. They picked up the leadership skills required to control a crowd of 100-200 people. I was impressed when Shivangi, my elder daughter, facilitated a planning meeting with extreme efficiency, zero nonsense and kept nudging the participants to the topic under discussion – something I rarely see in many business meetings. And I was honestly surprised by the genuine interest both girls showed in participating in the Shakha activities. They attended their camps, both mini and the annual Sangh Shiksha Varg with enthusiasm; they built close friendships with kids from other shakhas; and were looked up to as leaders and idols by younger kids.

 

Switch forward to 2012. Shivangi turned twenty one years old in Sept. We wanted to do something for the occasion and the girls surprised my wife and I by wanting us to do a Satya Narayan katha at home. I thought they probably meant that we organize a katha and they’d sit in it on the side as attendees, while my wife and I did the pooja. No sir – they wanted to do it themselves. I wasn’t sure if the priest would consider the girls doing the pooja, so I called my regular priest and asked him about it – to my surprise he agreed to let the girls lead us in the prayer. Another surprise was in store, when both of them dressed up in Saris (see picture above) and sat patiently through the entire prayer ceremony, doing all the rituals with full concentration and dedication. The priest was delighted and said he hadn’t seen that in recent years amongst kids of that age. Needless to say that Nandita and I were thrilled.

Then just last week, Neha – my younger daughter who is studying in Saint Mary's college, a Catholic, Lasallian, liberal arts college, rooted in the life and work of Saint John Baptist de La Salle (founder of the Christian Brothers and the patron saint of teachers) – told me that her class was going to visit the Hindu temple in Livermore. Now, though her major is Biochemistry, one of her subjects is Religions of India, which she wanted to study as she thought it would help her learn more about India. I asked if I could tag along to the temple, and she agreed. So, on a Wednesday evening she and her friend, Heather, stopped by to quickly change into Indian clothes, and off we went to the temple. I promised to stay out of their way and do my own thing while they moved along with their class led by Professor Norris. Along the way to the temple, it was such a pleasure hearing Heather and Neha talk about Gita and Indian religions like Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism and Islam. Even more pleasant was the way Neha conducted herself in the temple. She was the only Hindu girl in the group of students (probably about 50 kids), and she held her own there by doing everything the way it should be done in a temple. She’d enter the deity’s sanctum with her right foot, touch the feet of the idol, come out and do a parikrama and then apply the holy vermillion to her forehead. I got to see all that from a distance as I sat in a corner meditating. Her professor later told me that he was leading a group of 40 students to a tour of Indian Holy cities in January, including a trip to the Holy Prayag (I was surprised that he used that instead of commonly used Allahabad) Kumbha which happens once every 12 years and draws millions of people.

 

Seeing all this, I think I haven’t done too badly in bringing up my kids. Based on what I have seen during my recent trips to India, I feel people outside India are more Indian than many Indians back in India – who unfortunately tend to copy what the movies depict as the real American life, which is a lot different in reality. In our case, the credit goes to my wife, the volunteers in the Shakhas here (who have worked hard to keep the Hindu culture alive in US) and to our friends here who have kept us grounded to our values and culture.

I like to think I have been successful in one of my goals in life at least. Hopefully, my kids will be successful in their careers and life in general too. And above all, I pray that they become good human beings.