Recently, a famous journalist, known for his fearless, independent journalism, about as much as I am known for singing like Mohammad Rafi, presented a wish list for Modi’s next term. He said if everyone assumes Modi will return, so can he or words to that effect. I will follow in his footsteps but present my wish list!
The overarching theme of this wish list is simplification and returning power to people. We need to set up the runway for the next stage of growth to take off, in our lifetimes. Yet another generation can’t be condemned to living in the depravity of the “Idea of India’ days, the India “we grew up in”. In doing so we must clean up the Augean stables – with fresh water, NOT the same waste water of babudom and Nehruvian socialism.
Without much further ado, let us just jump into it!
1. Reform the Income Tax Act and tax rates – We simply can’t have taxes like cradle-to-grave welfare states. Personal IT must be maxed out at 30% including ALL surcharges. A super simplified IT Act and forms that’s the world’s envy and our pride (Remember the ONIDA ads?) must be done. Earned overseas income up to, say, $50,000 must be exempt. This will promote remote gig work and take on countries like Malaysia, Indonesia & dozens of others encouraging “digital nomads” without too much cost.
2. Total revamp of corporate compliance regime including forms and cost. GST inclusive. MCI must be headed by industry experts not babus with 60’s thinking. Small companies must be exempt from 99% of the filing work currently eating up lots of bandwidth. I am not suggesting something unique – just copy from any decent ASEAN or Asian economy. It takes less than 10 minutes to finish up the annual filing for a small private company in Singapore. No auditor, no company secretary, no DIN, DSC nonsense. And that doesn’t mean they encourage fraud. Punishment is severe for violations.
3. End CSR – FM Sitharaman has taken some of the crazier provisions out of this law such as heavy punishments but the entire concept is a clear abdication of its responsibilities to the citizens. Delivering public goods is the job of the state. Taxes must be paid for it. Not babudom-enforced charity. It only ends up creating, funding, and sustaining the sort of woke elite charlatans like DEI has done in the USA. Leftist malcontents are good at gaming the system and will use this to extort funds and destroy value.
4. Recent news of appointing private experts to Jt-Secy level jobs is most welcome. But this must be the FIRST step to the total abolition of IAS, as we know it. Babus that have not done a single day of productive value-added work in their entire lifetime, not manufactured even one widget or earned one rupee of real money, cannot be sitting in judgment of policies. We don’t need “District Magistrates” or “Collectors” and their retinue of clerks, peons, constables and hangers-on – that’s colonial! Other Asian countries have gotten rid of them. We need civil SERVANTS. IAS MUST GO. Promote juniors from within on merit and hire experts on short-term contracts. A good government LDC clerk, if talented, must have a chance to retire as Cabinet secretary. Not overtaken by some elitist kid who answers questions in one exam on Tipu Sultan and Jawaharlal Nehru. That’s the system we need.
5. A massive, war-like effort to build up national healthcare infrastructure – this will return to the economy better than buying Apple, Tesla or Google stock when it was at its lowest. We could have done this during the COVID episode, but that is lost. Divert money from anything else other than education to get this done. Hospitals, Medical colleges, Nursing, equipment, training, testing labs, preventive healthcare, the works. Think big and act even bigger. No half measures. Public hospitals must be far better than any private one and cheap or free. NDA ruled states must take the lead in this as it is also a state subject. Be an example to dynasty-ruled states.
6. A similar effort to ramp up primary and secondary education, especially in remote areas and smaller towns. This is not absent of course, but there are significant gaps, shortages and bad quality infra. Plug them. This must get the #1 allotment in all budgets. Again, public facilities must be as good or even better than private ones. In this and the earlier point, if dynastic looter-run states don’t cooperate, just get it done in NDA-ruled states and friendly ones like Odisha. That’s more than enough.
7. Think BIG in small cities and NEW cities. Enormous amounts are spent on megapolis like Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore. Overbridges, roads, railways, metro etc., simply address issues that we created – overcrowding and lopsided development. They don’t add value to the economy other than restoring what was destroyed. I am not saying this is wasted, but every rupee goes much further in smaller cities. In the long run, we must decongest bigger cities by moving people to smaller towns. Not by diktat but by gentle nudging and economic opportunities. This promotes equitable growth, better living standards and so much else. Adequate social infrastructure, and the right policies and push investments into these places, away from megacities. Governments must show the way. Can someone explain why Kaveri Nigam and Coffee Board are in HQ in Bangalore and not in Madikeri? Only to suit the interest of babus. Not the ones they are supposed to serve. They want to sit close to their bosses and enjoy life. That’s just one small example, I am sure thousands are out there.
8. Repeal ALL black laws written into statute by fascist looter dynasties and their Stalinist mass murderer patrons that now lecture us on democracy, dissent, freedom etc. No dilution, no committees, no study. Just one stroke and take them all out. These are causing arrests at whim, long periods of incarceration without trial and other horrendous human rights abuses. Things unheard of in other democracies or even dictatorships – presumption of guilt – exist in our laws. Other than obvious cases of violence and overseas terrorists, our laws must equal or better any democracy. Right now they are a disgrace. Right to bail must be sacrosanct other than for a small list of heinous crimes and a genuine flight risk. Charge within reasonable time or release. This is why opposition-ruled states can arrest or jail practically anyone using vague laws and compliant media. NDA is also a culprit but the problem started with the laws. This will usher in true democracy and shame the overseas woke handlers of these frauds that shout from rooftops about dissent etc.
9. State police must have ZERO powers to arrest anyone outside their states. If they need extradition, they can appeal to the respective state government and if not happy, its courts. There must be federal crimes like in the USA but that list must be small. NOT posting something against Mamata Banerjee on Facebook etc. It is now becoming a joke. Charlatans like Kejriwal use Punjab police to pursue political rivals all over the country and everyone races to the bottom. Again, no party is clean in this but the enabling laws must change.
10. Ensure independence of ED, CBI etc. It must be beyond reproach. Bulletproof. Dramatic arrests must end. They invariably result in release and ZERO chance of successful prosecution. Gather evidence, painstakingly prosecute, and let courts decide about arrest, not babus. Right now we are at serious risk of arrest by ED or summons becoming a badge of honour. Like in colonial days. This is a national disgrace. Because it allows the corrupt to get away with – literally – murder.
11. For every rupee spent on top-down development, spend equal or more on bottom-up improvements. To give a simple example, Vande Bharat trains are great – no one with any sense can oppose them. But spend equal amounts, visibly and immediately, on the ugliest trains that run in smaller routes. The other day I saw a local train in Mysore that looked too bad even for the scrapyard. Yes, money is scarce, but starting from the last, ugliest train and working way up – as Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya said, is the key.
12. MASSIVE improvements in public transport – in cities, towns, villages. This is a state subject but Center + NDA states must invest heavily, and appoint non-corrupt leaders, not politicians to key posts. As I mentioned in the case of trains, start at the bottom – not useless things like digital signboards. Fares can be kept low if only managed well. And targeted subsidies not freebies thrown recklessly like the Karnataka government does. A system of private companies running buses with their crew but fares and standards set by the government must be universal. Whoever bids the lowest gets it. This will solve the issue of poorly managed, corrupt state transport undertakings running smoke-belching buses that look like retrieved out of Somalia’s badlands.
13. A national mobility card usable on ALL public buses and trains across the country will do wonders. This can be linked to Aadhar and used for targeting subsidies as well. It will take a few years to get there but it is worth the effort. That way subsidies are not hidden. Transport corporations will pay diesel at commercial rates, pay road tax as normal etc. Then seek a subsidy that is direct and targeted.
14. I wrote a separate piece on this, but I repeat it here – TOTAL BAN on ALL donations by non-Indians to any private entity, NGO etc. They must all be routed to a central fund distributed purely on a population basis, not on religion, caste, region, political alliances etc. If these do-gooders say that they are working for our good, let us tell them to shut up and put up.
15. JNU must be split into genuine science and pseudo-science (sociology, African studies etc) – indeed ALL technical institutes like IIT must be stopped from conducting pseudo-science courses. A separate university, perhaps named after Rahul Gandhi, funded by Ford or Soros or Beijing can be asked to conduct such courses since anyway, they rear battalions of fringe loony leftists and tukde’s. The earlier step I mentioned will dry the tap for fraud NGOs and this step will ensure the flow of unproductive malcontents will stop or reduce. This country, at this stage of development, needs science, maths, engineering, finance, agriculture etc. I am sort of ambivalent about economics ;-). But NOT political “science” degrees that are useless for anything other than sucking up to fascist dacoit families and Politburo butchers or George Soros. Maybe, when we cross $25,000 in per capita income, we can restore this and go woke like the USA.
16. Revise history books! Don’t spend the 1st four years denying we will never do it and then adding a paragraph or two in year 5. The outrage by the Polpotist left ecosystem and the anti-Hindu gang will be the same in volume anyway. Do it on Day 1 or Month 1 – and do it well. Own up to it bravely and say manufactured lies of a leftist ecosystem designed to destroy the mind, cultivate self-hate, scorch the earth for facilitating the promotion of Stalinist mass rapist butcher ideologies and anti-Hindu hate is being replaced with truth. Put it on the manifesto if necessary so there’s no ambiguity.
17. Reduce dependence on woke fascist deep state Gestapo-controlled US tech giants. The nonsensical politically biased replies given by GeminiAI or chatGPT and the rabid bias against anything non-left or non-Islamic must open eyes. Rid the government and PSUs of Microsoft Windows and related software. Incentivise the private sector to do the same. Bravely subsidise or adopt homegrown solutions like Zoho. Go with open source. Fund or encourage development of an open source mobile operating system so we are rid of Google’s Android and Apple’s dominance. At the right time, make it mandatory. Not too soon. One day these technologies will be denied to us if we don’t obey the wokes or elect someone the NYT Editorial board doesn’t approve of. Better plan ahead. No other country can do it – only India. China will never be trusted under commies and the rest don’t have the scale. Once we do, rest like Indonesia etc., will stampede to get it from us.
18. Respect for leaders has to be mutual especially if they are long gone. In other words, Pandit Nehru gets only as much respect as the CONLEFT ecosystem is ready to give to Savarkar. If they want to focus only on his letters, fine, it is fair for us to focus only on Naba jail or Edwina. Leaders are complicated, people of extraordinary minds that can sometimes work in odd ways and they are human and most importantly, they are products of their times. We must take what is good, and leave out what is bad. As simple as that.
19. Further, I would suggest BJP must make it clear in their manifesto that excessive importance given to the Nehru dynasty in naming various central government assets such as Airports, roads, tunnels, colleges etc will be reviewed and made more balanced if they return to power. This can be statistically established – just make a list of such assets and see how the naming has been done. The reason I say manifesto is clear – it gets transparently approved by the public if NDA/BJP is re-elected.
I have a lot more to say but even if 5 or so of these are done, I will be very very happy! Because I know my children and grandchildren, if any, won’t grow up in a country where third-world depravity is the norm.
