Recent agitation for Telengana state and sudden announcement by Central Government for creation of a separate State of Telengana to be carved out of Andhra Pradesh made me think if smaller states are good or would they be fueling political ambitions till we have 1000 states.
We already have demands for Mithilanchal, Coorg, Saurashtra, GorkhaLand, Bundelkhand, Bhojpur, Cooch Behar, Vidharbha, Haripradesh, Maju pradesh and many more to follow.
I am for smaller states for better administration. But Can we have micro states with few sq kms?. I fear politicians for their political ambitions are using divide and rule policy and would take up these issues than issues that are important to people.
We cannot build house without foundation. It would collapse. So will smaller state, if they are divided without enough ground work and are based on political ambitions of few people. If a person sits on hunger strike and a state can be carved out, we end up in blackmail tactics and would end up with micro states. This should be stopped.
Smaller states are beneficial for better administration. As population is increasing so are problems. There are remote places of state where people have to travel 1000 of KMS to reach capital to get their problems solved. People from hills have to make audacious journey down hill to reach capital.
But it also comes with its own problems.
Smaller states will be weak in terms of lobbying power at center. This is good for Center, We need India to be stronger than the states. But this should not end up with weak states and weak center.
Smaller states will be additional burden of administration, but I feel (though I am not an expert) it should be minimal as we already have district level and mandal level administrative centers in many states. So there could only a minimal one time overhead which if states formed effectively, the new states and center can and should bare.
For better formation of states we need a better foundation. Though there could be more solutions I feel the solutions should be centered around stability of governments at state, to quell the political ambitions and end formation of micro states.
Following are some suggestions.
1. All top posts like Prime minister ship, Presidency, Governors, Chief minister, Top ministries should have fixed tenure. Two terms or 10 years which ever is earlier.
The Grass root level political worker should have some hope of reaching top. They should look within than opt for divide an rule policy (I think politicians would twist this and make exceptions as they have their wife, children, nephew who will be promoted for the same post. This is problem of internal party democracy which is another topic altogether)
2. If a MLA or MLC wants to shift parties he has to resign. We need to repeal 1/3 split of the party. If a elected member( based on party) opts to leave part he needs to go back to people for taking this decision. He need to go back to the people. He cannot make this decision unilaterally. (I think this is already there, I am not sure. But it needs to be strengthened further for better stability of elected governments in smaller states)
3. States cannot be smaller than 15 to 20 Members of Parliament(exception being northeastern states or states formed before year 2000). They should have better say in Parliament
4. The state boundaries should be as straight lines as possible and capital city as reachable as possible from far corners. States should not be based any language, religion, community etc. It should be based on equal division of natural resources.
Each state should have basic resources like water, some natural resources to bank on. This policy should avoid future inter state disputes over places and resources.
5. Each person who stays at a place for more than six months should be considered domicile of that state for next couple of years. There should be no attachment or pride of being son of soil. He should be considered citizen of India and nothing more than that. He should feel at home at any part of the country. With better administration of smaller states, most of them would, in long run, be better places with good opportunities; thereby reducing the migration of rural population to urban centers.
Friday, December 11, 2009
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Election Holiday: Paid for failures
Maharashtra went to polls today, And after full filling my duty of casting my vote, I am sitting at home: courtesy Government of Maharashtra. I tried to get some essential items, but to my surprise whole of the city is on a holiday.
I cast my vote at 7.30 AM in the morning. It took me 5 min to cast my vote. I know it usually takes hours to actually search you name in the list. After that it takes few minutes to caste your vote.
Luckily, I noted my electoral roll number and it was much easier to find my name in the rolls.
State Government declared a paid holiday to all employees on election day. The reason is to get more people to caste vote. Is this a failure of democracy? Government forcing people to vote? Or it is a failure of our election commission for not providing proper electoral system or We failed the system.
I feel its everyone has a part in it. Successive Government failed to give good governance and that cause apathy towards the system. People started feeling that anyone gets elected it is not going to make any difference to his life. Neither the roads, electricity will improve not price rise decrease.
On part of election commission, I feel a up to date and good electoral roll is important for success of an election.
It is a hell to find out your name in your electoral rolls. Also it is not easy to get your address updated, or get your name in electoral rolls easily. Even if I try getting once name in electoral system, on election day you would not find your name in the list. Even after one gets his name in the electoral roll the number changes with every election. (This time I found it to my surprise that my electoral roll number changed by 20 numbers from General election to state elections, I guess it because of new members addition and deletion of old members).
I regard highly of our election commission not just because of the mammoth exercise that they undertake every general election and state election, but the way they moved from paper ballot to electronic voting machines and also the way they conduct elections in sensitive areas.
But still an organization is never perfect and it should look for areas of improvement, less they become obsolete and non functional.
Shouldn't election commission work on the aspect of electoral rolls for our elections. Shouldn't the rolls be made easier to update and easier to trace once name. To start with shouldn't the number be unique or at least easily traceable.
An Indian asks for his rights but forgets to perform his duties. I guess everyone wants their rights and wants someone else to perform his duties: Because he is busy.
When it comes for his rights he stand first in the queue
With all these three reason, I am enjoying my paid holiday by net surfing and blogging.....
I cast my vote at 7.30 AM in the morning. It took me 5 min to cast my vote. I know it usually takes hours to actually search you name in the list. After that it takes few minutes to caste your vote.
Luckily, I noted my electoral roll number and it was much easier to find my name in the rolls.
State Government declared a paid holiday to all employees on election day. The reason is to get more people to caste vote. Is this a failure of democracy? Government forcing people to vote? Or it is a failure of our election commission for not providing proper electoral system or We failed the system.
I feel its everyone has a part in it. Successive Government failed to give good governance and that cause apathy towards the system. People started feeling that anyone gets elected it is not going to make any difference to his life. Neither the roads, electricity will improve not price rise decrease.
On part of election commission, I feel a up to date and good electoral roll is important for success of an election.
It is a hell to find out your name in your electoral rolls. Also it is not easy to get your address updated, or get your name in electoral rolls easily. Even if I try getting once name in electoral system, on election day you would not find your name in the list. Even after one gets his name in the electoral roll the number changes with every election. (This time I found it to my surprise that my electoral roll number changed by 20 numbers from General election to state elections, I guess it because of new members addition and deletion of old members).
I regard highly of our election commission not just because of the mammoth exercise that they undertake every general election and state election, but the way they moved from paper ballot to electronic voting machines and also the way they conduct elections in sensitive areas.
But still an organization is never perfect and it should look for areas of improvement, less they become obsolete and non functional.
Shouldn't election commission work on the aspect of electoral rolls for our elections. Shouldn't the rolls be made easier to update and easier to trace once name. To start with shouldn't the number be unique or at least easily traceable.
An Indian asks for his rights but forgets to perform his duties. I guess everyone wants their rights and wants someone else to perform his duties: Because he is busy.
When it comes for his rights he stand first in the queue
With all these three reason, I am enjoying my paid holiday by net surfing and blogging.....
Friday, July 24, 2009
Soap and God
I always had some basic question. "How is religion related to God?"
"If God does exists, does he so tied up with a religion?" In short does every religion has a God and God is not one?
"Is religion more important than God?"
All religions do claim that "their" God is omnipotent, omnipresent and benevolent.
If that is so I would assume that he would not be so tied up with a particular religion and would not
differentiate people from other religion.
A good friend of mine in his conversation said that the religion is way to reach God.
So tries to answers my first question. Religion is a means to reach God.
And could that mean all roads are trying to reach the same destination. May be or May not be.
If they are all trying to reach same destination (God)
then is the road that leads to God is important or the destination?
My Good friend answer this too for me. "The road is equally important as destination."
Some road are short but hard. May lead to destination quickly. Some may be long with easy ride.
But one would reach the destination before he/she ends his/her journey,
if one tries to reach the destination. So this leads to more queries,
If I am eager to reach destination, should I change my road in the middle of the journey.
May be my pace early in my journey is slow and I may have realized that I may not reach my destination when I end my journey.
By this time you might have realized that the discussion is already heading towards controversial topic of conversions.
My friend suggests that instead of changing the path, it would be advisable for a person
to pace up to reach the destination. He reasons that the person has to start all over again with the new path
and also he would not known the length and easy till he walks the path. He also suggest that it could be will of the God (destination itself)
for our choice of the path at start of our journey. And he questions "should be go against the will of God?"
So as you guessed my friend is not all for conversions. He opposes conversions.
Rather would suggest to look for his/her God in chosen path.
There is flaw in above theory of Path and destination. One would reach destination at the end of his/her journey.
So I can never see God's benevolence till I reach the destination.
I would like to look at God and religion in different way.
I think God or the concept of God is like a soap which promises to clean all dirt every day with each bath.
Soap is a cleansing agent made from the interaction of fats and oils with alkali.
God is an agent who cleanses our sins, guides us to look at absolute good and absolute bad.
(I feel Good and bad are relative terms)
And all religions are like the companies that make the soap and sell it to customers.
Like soaps marketed by companies are in different sizes, made with different oils and have different combinations,
so is God marketed by a religion.
Some companies make many soaps and other make only one and strongly market the same.
Every company claims that their soap is better than others.
Their soap clean dirt better and protect skin(soul) better than others with every bath (prayer).
But none of them actually does.
Some companies are new, some are old in this business of selling a soap (Concept of God)
Each company is at war with each other trying to grab the market share.
Every company is trying to grab the market share, more loyal customers.
Some companies are loosing the market share some are gaining. Some have strong marketing capabilities. some don't
Some companies which actually cannot package their soap better, cry fowl practices by their competitors.
They cry saying that the packaging done by competitor is better but the product is not.
And how they are luring their loyal customer away with free bees.
Basically all companies actually forget to provide what the customer wants. So is the religion.
The basic need of the customer is cleanse himself of dirty. In case of religion one expects salvation and reach god.
Neither soap company nor the religion does what they claim.
How can you be keep yourself clean. No matter what soap you use the most important factor is you take bath(prayer) at least once preferably twice. The same is true for religion. It is more important to prayer God (omnipotent, omnipresent) daily and not bother about what religion. Religion is basically a tool (like soap) to reach God. But unfortunately it gained more importance than God himself. It so pitty.
So you may be asking which soap do I bath with. Do I bath or stink? Yes I do bath twice daily and clean myself as frequently as possible, but I don't bother about the soap I use. It can be anything that is available in market.
"If God does exists, does he so tied up with a religion?" In short does every religion has a God and God is not one?
"Is religion more important than God?"
All religions do claim that "their" God is omnipotent, omnipresent and benevolent.
If that is so I would assume that he would not be so tied up with a particular religion and would not
differentiate people from other religion.
A good friend of mine in his conversation said that the religion is way to reach God.
So tries to answers my first question. Religion is a means to reach God.
And could that mean all roads are trying to reach the same destination. May be or May not be.
If they are all trying to reach same destination (God)
then is the road that leads to God is important or the destination?
My Good friend answer this too for me. "The road is equally important as destination."
Some road are short but hard. May lead to destination quickly. Some may be long with easy ride.
But one would reach the destination before he/she ends his/her journey,
if one tries to reach the destination. So this leads to more queries,
If I am eager to reach destination, should I change my road in the middle of the journey.
May be my pace early in my journey is slow and I may have realized that I may not reach my destination when I end my journey.
By this time you might have realized that the discussion is already heading towards controversial topic of conversions.
My friend suggests that instead of changing the path, it would be advisable for a person
to pace up to reach the destination. He reasons that the person has to start all over again with the new path
and also he would not known the length and easy till he walks the path. He also suggest that it could be will of the God (destination itself)
for our choice of the path at start of our journey. And he questions "should be go against the will of God?"
So as you guessed my friend is not all for conversions. He opposes conversions.
Rather would suggest to look for his/her God in chosen path.
There is flaw in above theory of Path and destination. One would reach destination at the end of his/her journey.
So I can never see God's benevolence till I reach the destination.
I would like to look at God and religion in different way.
I think God or the concept of God is like a soap which promises to clean all dirt every day with each bath.
Soap is a cleansing agent made from the interaction of fats and oils with alkali.
God is an agent who cleanses our sins, guides us to look at absolute good and absolute bad.
(I feel Good and bad are relative terms)
And all religions are like the companies that make the soap and sell it to customers.
Like soaps marketed by companies are in different sizes, made with different oils and have different combinations,
so is God marketed by a religion.
Some companies make many soaps and other make only one and strongly market the same.
Every company claims that their soap is better than others.
Their soap clean dirt better and protect skin(soul) better than others with every bath (prayer).
But none of them actually does.
Some companies are new, some are old in this business of selling a soap (Concept of God)
Each company is at war with each other trying to grab the market share.
Every company is trying to grab the market share, more loyal customers.
Some companies are loosing the market share some are gaining. Some have strong marketing capabilities. some don't
Some companies which actually cannot package their soap better, cry fowl practices by their competitors.
They cry saying that the packaging done by competitor is better but the product is not.
And how they are luring their loyal customer away with free bees.
Basically all companies actually forget to provide what the customer wants. So is the religion.
The basic need of the customer is cleanse himself of dirty. In case of religion one expects salvation and reach god.
Neither soap company nor the religion does what they claim.
How can you be keep yourself clean. No matter what soap you use the most important factor is you take bath(prayer) at least once preferably twice. The same is true for religion. It is more important to prayer God (omnipotent, omnipresent) daily and not bother about what religion. Religion is basically a tool (like soap) to reach God. But unfortunately it gained more importance than God himself. It so pitty.
So you may be asking which soap do I bath with. Do I bath or stink? Yes I do bath twice daily and clean myself as frequently as possible, but I don't bother about the soap I use. It can be anything that is available in market.
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