Shriharsha Bhat’s Weblog

The Lok Sabha elections in India will be held in April 2009. It will be interesting to see which political party wins the elections. Indian election results have always unfolded amidst high drama and anticipation, and this time around, it promises to get better. It has already got its hype what with Varun Gandhi’s “derogatory” speech, The Indian Premier League (IPL) being stashed away from India to South Africa owing to the elections, high-profile election rallies etc. For once, I wish elections would have been a low profile affair.

The other day I was going through the latest edition of The Outlook and I came across some facts and figures for these elections which dumbstruck me. 10,000 Crore Rupees, is the amount that is going to be spent for electing the 15th Lok Sabha and a new Prime Minister. 543 constituencies, 7 national parties, more than 200 regional parties and outfits are going to be a part of this election. Not only this, 71.4 Crore voters are going to cast their votes, 40 Lakh civil officials and 20 Lakh security personnel are going to be a part of this as well.

Out of the 10,000 Crore Rs, national parties are going to spend an estimated 4,350 Crore Rs, regional parties – 1,000 Crore Rs, BJP and Congress – 1,000 Crore Rs, other parties – 650 Crore Rs, Election Commission – 1,000 Crore Rs, Administration cost – 700 Crore Rs, “Cash for buying votes” – 2500 Crore Rs etc. The corporate world is supposed to be pitching in almost 50% of the entire amount. So where does all the rest of the money come from? You are right. From the pocket of the ‘Tax-Payer’ or simply put ‘The Common Man’. All this for electing a person to govern the largest democracy in the world! It’s very interesting to note here that the expenditure during the 2004 general elections was a handsome 4,500 Crore Rs.

If we compare the elections in India with those that took place in the United States of America which was ‘the most’ promoted and popular general election of all time, one would be surprised to know that the expenditure on this was 8,000 Crore Rupees. I don’t know whether it is a matter of pride or shame that we are going to spend a good 2,000 Crore Rupees more than the USA.

For me, it is really shameful that we will be spending so much money in electing politicians who might or might not be better than the current ones. Even if we do elect a very good candidate for the post of the Prime Minister (which, is a much foregone cause), I don’t think we can expect much work to be done by him/her, as they are really old. According to me, to govern and run a country like India, we need a person who is not older than 50 years of age. This, I believe will bring in a combination of experience, knowledge and a youthful energy in our system.

It’s interesting to note here that even the most developed nation in the world was overrun in the election expenses by our nation which is tagged as a developing country or more frequently called a Third World country

What’s more interesting is the fact that these ‘politicians’ who should be working for our welfare have been focusing only on the elections since the beginning of this year. Where have all the promises of making India a safer and better country gone? These people seem to have comfortably forgotten the recent terror attacks that took place across various cities of India. These politicians are seemingly very busy in their election rallies and we don’t seem to have the time to ask them ‘why aren’t they working?’ One can find at least one election rally taking place in each and every corner of India! For me, this seems like a very huge circus and I feel like laughing. Sadly, I can’t as I can see that my country is going from bad to worse. In fact, nowadays, I don’t feel any pride in saying that I am an “Indian”.

This post might seem like ‘a bashing of Indian politics’, however, I am sure that a certain level headed section of people might agree with me that the only people to lose out here are us and not these politicians.

A few days ago, I came across a post titled ‘Can India Compete with China’ on the website Management Paradise. I was really surprised to see the response of people on this topic, and even more surprised to see that most of the people were giving illogical answers to the topic being discussed.

Most of the people who gave answers either do not know the real situation in India and China or they don’t want to know the truth.

I personally feel that India cannot compete with China anytime soon. I have my own reasons to believe in this. Let me highlight a couple or more of them.

1) India liberalised its economy in 1991 and China did it after 1995, and that too not entirely as it is still reeling under communism. China became a very hardcore player and started undertaking aggressive strategies to attract the world towards it. India, on the other hand, just freed the economy and sat back. The laid back attitude of the industries and people in India added to the already existing lethargy.

2) Even under communism, China continued to grow at a very amazing speed whereas India enjoyed a steady growth rate. The bureaucracy and the political environment in India is what hampered the overall growth of India.

3) In China, people either do or die. In India, we have options of doing, enjoying, resting (more than necessary) etc etc..but we don’t have the do or die attitude. Just take a look at our new 11th five year plan for the economy and most of you will understand what I am saying. Did you know that we have made money amounting to almost Rs. 19000 Crores from Special Economic Zones (SEZ’s), but have invested and lost more than Rs. 90,000 Crores in these SEZ’s by giving them tax benefits and illogical leverages.

4) Agriculture is supposed to be the backbone of the Indian Economy, but most people don’t know that the aim of the 11th five year plan(2007-2011) is to accelerate the agricultural growth to 4% of the entire GDP (Gross Domestic Product). Just 4%!! and the government still says that agriculture is the backbone of the Indian Economy.This plan also wants to a) provide primary education to at least 50% of the Indian population free of cost b) provide secondary education to at least 50% of the population at reduced rates c) develop and maintain important roads in cities like Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru, Chennai etc d) provide clean water to at least 90% of the population etc.  From this isn’t it quite evident that previous governments have not been able to provide even the basic amenities to Indians?

5) In India, we have only 40 vocational and technical areas in which we can get training. In China, people have access to more than 4000 vocational and technical courses!!!

6) India seems to borrow almost every ideology from China, except for communism. We borrowed the concepts of SEZ’s , proper infrastructure development , industrial licensing policy etc etc etc.. from …China!!

7) China in the past few years has become the world’s second largest economy after the United States. And where are we? Can anyone answer this?

Its amazing that many global organisations like Wal-Mart, Starbucks, Nokia etc arrived in China, even before India actually knew about these organisations! Hell, Wal-Mart and Starbucks have still not arrived in India!

I am not a person who loves to criticise India. I love my country, however, I would really like to take pride in saying that I am an “Indian”. Once we get more strict and stringent with our policies and cut down the bureaucracy in India, we can “think” of at least arriving at the stage where China is right now. However, I don’t see this happening anytime at least in the next 5 years!!!