Why this blog

This blog is to give readers an idea of the social, economic and political issues across India and the world, supported with facts and data. To begin with most of my articles are India centric, but I would write about issues across the whole world because I consider myself a citizen of the world. Writing is just a way of creating awareness, however we must all step out of our houses and take-up service projects in groups in our respective localities to make the world a better place. The idea would be of "global vision and local action". We are a one world family and we all must Volunteer For A Better World.

Thursday, May 22, 2014

Role of intelligence agencies in the democracy of India - 2


Today's news is replete with description of different last moment acts that UPA (Congress) is engaged in, like mass scale transfers especially within the finance ministry. One of the key events is appointing the former Intelligence Bureau chief as CIC (chief Information commissioner). The CIC is mandated to resolve appeals and complaints filed by information seekers, under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, against government departments or public authorities. It is important to question this decision. If we look at the backdrop of events, since independence of India in 1947, Indian politics and governance was heavily influenced by the british intelligence, certainly not in a constructive manner. Later on when the course of events changed, and Indian politics took a leftist turn under congress of course, the CIA and its allies took a hostile stand on India. We all remember the entering of the US 7th fleet and the british eagle fleet in the Bay of Bengal to pressurize India to stop its actions against Pakistan. However with Soviet submarines acting as deterrents, came to the rescue of Indian Govt. and the matter was neutralized. Those were different days, days of the cold war. The past few decades have shown that today most of the political platform, especially in developed countries is not dominated by nationalistic ideologies. Rather politics in developed countries is today governed by "money" or greed. Intelligence agencies are powerful apparatus and can be misused or are being misused. If we observe the different challenges we are facing today in India, we can easily infer that many of these problems are created by intelligence agencies of countries which are anti-India. But they are feeding on the basic weaknesses of Indian governmental administrative mechanisms and weaknesses in the Indian politics. The Indian RAW, IB and military intelligence today need to be better synchronized in terms of command and control as well as collaborative protocols. The power and the onus lies with the prime minister of India. The past prime ministers had failed in doing so, intentionally or unintentionally. This is one side of the story.

On the other side of the story, are the Indian citizens. Today we as citizens of India need to take charge of the politics in this country. Whichever party rules, it should be just a mechanism to deliver the needs and wishes of the citizens, rather than dictating their wishes on the citizens. The major success behind the 2014 Lok Sabha elections lies behind increased voter awareness. There had been an average increase of 10% in terms of voter turnout. Which translates roughly to 12 crore people. The impact of this is very much evident. The 2014 elections have eliminated cast based and religion based politics. Today the agenda of development and good governance has won. There were thousands of volunteers from different organizations, who worked very hard, to create voter awareness. People think that social media had an important role to play. But I disagree. Why ? Because tech savvy cities like Bangalore or Mumbai had the least voter turnout ratios, but increased by 10%. I was astonished to see people's enthusiasm on 16th May, when the results were about to be declared. Everyone was very excited. People even took leave on that day. The streets of Bangalore were empty. But when it was their turn to cast their votes and contribute to democracy, they happily ignored it. Perhaps because they don't know that they are the lucky 3% of the Indian population that earn more than Rs. 6500 per month. 97% of the Indian population earn less than Rs. 6500 per month (approx.). So while I am writing my notes here on facebook notes, I also want to send out a message to all my friends on facebook, that we need to convert part of our privilege to help the rest of the 97% of the Indian population to achieve equity in terms of livelihood and means to have a respectable, safe and secure way to live in this country. It is our duty to serve our fellow citizens of India and the world.

मन समर्पित, तन समर्पित और यह जीवन समर्पित।
चाहता हूँ देश की धरती तुझे कुछ और भी दूं ।। 

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