Saturday, August 21, 2010

My Mission for a Grand Vision

Each time I sit with my friends or colleagues for a long discussion, we never end the discussion without discussing about our future plans. One after the other, each one starts expressing their distinct ambitions and goals. Whenever my turn comes, I say that politics is something that I am passionate about. The moment I express my interest in politics, a series of questions comes on to my way. The first and the very common question they ask is why politics?

Then I start giving my usual answer. Politics is something that’s inseparable from our daily lives and politics is something that has an impact on almost every aspect of our lives. It is the outcome of politics and political decisions that affect the lives of most people around us. But as a fact we know that the impact depends on what kind of politics we are involved in and for what. Politics when practiced in a good manner can bring a great awakening among the citizens and provide them a happy and a prosperous life and foster a value based society while when it’s practiced for selfish purposes, it has the worst possible impact on the society. It’s time for such great political awakening among everyone specifically among intelligentsia and spiritual people. If politics and politicians of the generation before us have degraded, then it is time for a change in our attitudes towards politics. People who are educated and full of fresh ideas are certainly needed to pull this off.

Having understood this and having seen the ground realities from my childhood and having got inspired by Swami Vievkananda’s ideology for a stronger India, I have decided to pursue politics as an instrument for a better society. I share Swami Vivekananda’s ideology on almost all the aspects of life and society and that itself is a guiding force to me throughout my way.

A stronger India needs good governance to people with a pride in our past and a hope for future. Good governance wouldn’t be possible if a Chief Minister or Prime Minister alone practice good politics and follow good administrative approaches. But it is possible only when even the public representatives at the lowest unit of our country like a gram panchayat sarpanch follow certain good governance principles. Following are the 13 simple ways which I thought of which can help a public representative in providing good governance to his or her electorate.

1. Being accessible and approachable
2. Understanding problems of people of different walks of life, understanding their priorities, interests and their aspirations
3. Developing vision documents for each village, each locality, each section of the society and each sector of the industry in your constituency
4. Strategizing the vision with time bound programs, approaching the Government, inviting non governmental agencies, enterprises and getting the required grants/permissions/projects
5. Creating an atmosphere of inspiration for people to move towards peace, progress and development
6. Making sure that the strategy is implemented without any flaws
7. Being accountable
8. Being transparent
9. Effectively Communicating of your vision, strategy, achievements and challenges to people on a time to time basis
10. Making information of the Government and my own programs available to every single citizen of your constituency
11. Making sure that the Government policies are reaching the right people at right time
12. Taking regular feedback and constantly working on feedback
13. Ensuring that a conducive atmosphere is created for those who want to do anything good to your people

I firmly believe that the above 13 points are basics for good governance. But just listing down the above 13 points doesn’t help unless good strategies are devised to make sure that each of them is perfectly put into implementation. For example, for one to be accessible to people and to be approachable, one needs to plan different ways by which one can do so. May be he needs to set up a full fledged constituency development office in his constituency listening to grievances of people or may be one needs to have a website where people can just login and raise their concerns or may be one needs to spend at least 10 hours in his office listening to concerns of people. In this way, proper strategies are needed to make sure that the above 13 points are put into implementation and thus to make sure that a good governance is offered to people.

For past few weeks, I have been spending a lot of time thinking about these strategies, discussing with many people and referring different ways or policies which different politicians have already adopted. It has been a great learning exercise for me. I kindly request you all to let me know your thoughts on how each of the above 13 can be put into implementation or if there is a 14th or a 15th point which you want to suggest. Integrating my own thoughts and all your good suggestions and different references, I would like to come up with a blue print for good governance by a public representative and would like to follow the same once I enter full time politics.

Let us bind every soul with the thread of love
Let us fill every mind with self-esteem
Let the whole nation march on the path of progress
Let the victory of Bharat reverberate in the entire world
Let the world overcome darkness and be full of light

Jai Hind

10 comments:

Sridhar Neelam said...

Great to see some fresh thoughts about politics and governance. Today's politicians are more bothered winning and retaining power thereby resorting to corrupt and illegal ways. To retain power they are making the system corrupt, forgetting the basics on which clean politics should be delivered to people; which is why the basic principles of governance are missing in today's politicians. Youth should focus on developing a clear action plan for good governance and stick to the basic principles. It may take time, but opting for the righteous path, we will eventually win. We need not need power to change people's lives, just the urge to do good to the common man is sufficient. If the common man believes us, he will entrust us with power and responsibilities.

Vinay said...

I like the ideas of yours . And many of them are in start up stage.I may not be a good observer but frankly i think none of them works in the real world.

You are saying our system is corrupt. Yes our system is corrupt as like as many countries systems.You can't simply eliminate it.You can't except a MP/MLA to be faithful to his country , because you don't know how many crores he spent for his post.Every system is corrupted but our system lacks the enthusiasm to move forward and make radical changes, that's what makes the difference.

You told me you are passionate about politics.DO you want to pursue a career in politics??.Can your passion sufficient enough to make radical changes in your life??? .If you these questions a normal person(students too), You know the answer.Every one wants a change , but none of us are willing to take forward step.

You have so many nice ideas , can you tell me what effort did you make to know about our system.I don't blame you.We all have very good ideas , but none of us willing to work to make them real.A normal student/person know about to where to start a career for finance/research/a particular business ,but none of them know about where to start a political career.

----Place thinks ultimate nature of reality is based on the mind or ideas.May be he is fool to not know about realism :)

Sridhar Neelam said...

@ Vinay : We are seriously considering politics ... and in the near future...u will see youth in politics....i dont want to say anything else...that we will be practicsing governance on the said ideals.What you can do is probably wait.

Vinay said...

@sridhar And when will be that "NEAR FUTURE" ??.A simple advice ,stop these ideas/... activities ,if you are seriously interested in politics start your career in politics before it's too late. I always support you if seriously start career in politics.

Unknown said...

Vinay,
I appreciate your frankness in puting your thoughts.Yes, you are talking about 99% of the politicians. But there are those 1%politicians who are doing very good work. lets not forget them. They are our role models.

I do agree with you that passion alone is not sufficient. Along with passion, one needs to work selflessly and develop a proper understanding of the issues and priorities of people, how they can be addressed. One needs to develop trust among people of the area in which he/she is working. In this way, along with passion, lot many things are needed.

I do agree with you that change should start from us and thats what I have been practising for years now. I have taken several initiatives at my own level to bring about a change. These initiatives may not be very radical but are definitely worth mentioning.

Vinay, do keep in touch and we can keep discussing the practical problems and see how we can overcome them.

Vinay said...

@rakesh

I don't know much about you .But I am always open for discussions.

Ravali Priya said...

That was a great post! I just wanted you to see this article!

http://indianblogger.com/youth-in-indian-politics-%E2%80%93-perceptions-reality-and-future/

As they said,may be there is a need for stronger inspiration,faith for the 'force' they mentioned in there!!I might sound like making people joining a cult.. But if the really interested people can be cleared of all doubt of 'taking a step' it would be a great start for a whole new era of clean politics,to add it up as a point! :)

BPK said...

@Rakesh
Nice modest post. The time will come when the youth would strike. I guess you know pretty well where to look for when you need support :P .

@Vinay..
Huh.. kya kehna...
Amazing thoughts. These are the kind of thoughts whose morphosis from cynicism to minimal optimism would change the fate of the nation. Your comment was a just another one for me and I would not respond much on your comment. But one phrase of your's caught my attention. /* Every one wants a change , but none of US are willing to take forward step. */
I would advice you not to use US the next time. If you are man enough then CHANGE or else just speak only for yourself that you failed to do so.
No intention to offend you. Where there is a will there is a way.

Vidya Bharath said...

Excellent. you have simply summed up the need of the hour of the country. Instead of getting into the negative aspects of our political system, people should see the opportunities for providing good governance in our democratic setup. Striking the balance between accountability and your political ideology is the key. Everything else falls in place.

gayatri said...

Dear Friends,
For the blogs on telangana people commented a lot.But here no one are speaking.Instead u r expressing ur doubts whether this will happen.Plss understand that this is a brainstorming exercise for the design of future politics So pls express ur ideas for moulding a responsible politician.
Come on friends ...........