INDIA - UNITY IN DIVERSITY

India is a major country of South Asia and geographically the

seventh largest in the world with the dubious distinction of being the
most populated country in the world after China with a population of
more than 1.1 billion by the end of 2010. It is also a nuclear power.

India is a very large country with diverse history, culture,

religions, castes, languages, practices and ethnicities. It is said that
India is the home to about eight hundred languages. It also has
different castes and religions, some home grown while some others
assimilated from outside and different life styles and geographical
features through the length and breadth of the country.

States and Union Territories as provided in the Indian

Constitution are regional administrative tools for the governance of the
country. Division of the country in to States and Union Territories
makes governance of the country viable through compact
administrative regions.

The largest state of India is Rajasthan and the most populated

one is Uttar Pradesh. Goa is the smallest state of India as well as the
least populated. Among the Union territories, the largest is Andaman
and Nicobar Islands while the most populated one is Delhi. The
smallest Union Territory is Daman and Diu and it is also the least
populated Union Territory of India.

In spite of the diversities, certain basic similarities mostly derived

from Dravidian and Aryan ethnic groups from the pre-historic age are
basic to the Indian soul and bring a kind of inexplicable sense of
oneness among the people of India.

INDIAN CONSTITUTION

Indian Constitution is the largest, most bulky constitution in the

whole world. No other country has got a constitution as large as
India’s. It has got 396 Articles and 7 schedules.

The Constitution of India provides Fundamental Rights to its

citizens and imposes specific responsibilities as the citizens of the
country. It provides that Fundamental Rights cannot be taken away
from the citizens except in a crisis.

There are also Directive Principles provided in the Indian

Constitution, which suggests to the Government about its obligations
to the people and how to discharge them. It has become a farce in
India that politicians and political parties during the election
propaganda use the provisions of the Directive Principles to lure votes
as promises and their agenda for the governance if they win the
election and forget the promises all together once they are secure in
the saddle of power. Directive Principles are not imperatives of the
constitution to follow unlike the Fundamental Rights and thus are
followed only at the convenience and benefits to the political party and
its leading lights holding the reigns of the power.

The Constitution provides for a Central Government for the

country and provincial governments in charge of regions formed on the
basis of historic, linguistic, cultural, ethnic or administrative divisions
called as States or Union Territories. The Prime Minister with his council
of ministers leads the Central Government where as States and Union
Territories by the respective Chief Ministers with their councils of
ministers.

INDIA AND SECULARISM

Secularism means exclusion of religion in policy and governance.

Secularism respects all religions as equal outside the scope of the
governance. It is not anti-religious by any stretch of imagination.

The Constitution of India declares that India is a secular country.

Though India is historically, culturally and by majority of the population
is a Hindu country, it is also the root and birthplace of many other
religions like Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, and more than 20% of its
people are Muslims. Historically also, India was ruled by Buddhist, Jain,
Sikh, Muslim and Christian rulers as much as by Hindu rulers.

Hinduism is often called as a way of life far beyond the concept

of religion and always championed spirituality as the core of human
life. Vedic hymns and scriptures declare God as beyond all religions.
Hinduism as a religion is a new phenomenon originated as a reaction
to the threats of alien elements that attacked India and its way of life
from the tenth century. Religion even now is not the main stay of the
Indian life save for a few deviant elements for political and other
related reasons. If there is any genuine concern in this direction
among thoughtful people, it is concerning the identity and protection
of the Indian way of life. This is truer regarding modernisation and
globalisation trends than the threat from other religions. Most of the
countries in the world are secular save for a few exceptions in West
Asia and surrounding regions where countries proud themselves to
declare themselves as Islamic Republics.

India always lived up to its expectations of being a secular

country in accordance with the spirit of its Constitution. Secularism is a
very honourable policy that sees all human kind as one and abjures the
evil of division and groups among people.

POLITICAL PARTIES IN INDIA

India as defined in the Constitution is a socialist, secular,

sovereign democratic republic. It is a country that was under British
rule up to the end of 1940s and gained independence after centuries of
alien hegemony that began from the tenth century. It has risen to
greater heights since independence and aspiring to be a global power.
Being a democracy, and the largest democracy at that, India naturally
elects its leaders by the process of election through political
representations. India’s is a multi-party political system that naturally
led to alliances coming to power in recent days and rendering
formation of the government a very complex and unclean political
manoeuvres, thereby rubbing off the sheen from its otherwise serious
and noble process. The adage that politics is the last resort of a
scoundrel comes to play in this context and political powers are often
found cornered by proven criminals and other anti-social elements by
their sheer muscle and money power that can buy votes.

Indian political parties can be divided into two main groups:

national parties and regional parties. National parties are those that
have an all-India base and presence in most of the States and Union
Territories. Regional parties are those that have their base and
presence limited only to a few States and Union Territories and
generally has local or regional interests in their agenda. The two
national parties that really count in elections at present are the
Congress Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party. Other political parties
that can be counted in national arena in spite of their regional slants in
terms of electoral presence or interests are Communist Party of India
(Marxist), Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party, Dravida Munnetra
Kazagam, Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazagam, Trinamool Congress and a
host of other smaller political parties.

The Congress Party is an off-shoot of the former Indian National

Congress that fought for the independence of the country under
stalwarts like Bal Gangadhar Tilak, M.K. Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru
and has its origin in fight for the national independence with a history
of more than a century while Bharatiya Janata Party as a new avatar of
Bharatiya Jana Sangha is steeped in the ideology of the national
identity with a history of more than five decades. The Communist Party
of India (Marxist) as an offshoot of the Communist Movement of India
has considerable base in States like West Bengal and Kerala and in
Union Territory of Tripura with a history of more than seven decades in
the Indian political scene. Most of the other political parties of India are
offshoots of the good old Congress Party. Both DMK and AIADMK are
the political offshoots of the ethnic Dravidian movement in southern
India.

The United Progressive Alliance or UPA led by Congress Party is

an alliance of political parties that assumed power and formed
government for the next five years in India in the general election held
in 2009. It is the second successive win for the alliance after it came to
power in the general election of 2004 by edging out another alliance
called National Democratic Alliance or NDA led by the right-wing
nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party. 2009 general election was a tense
battle for both the alliances as the election was to decide the future of
both the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party in the national
political scene and the political life of their Prime Ministerial
contenders, Dr. Manmohan Singh and Mr. Lal Krishna Advani. The
world watched the general election and its outcome with interest as
the general election served as a plebiscite on UPA’s decision and
moves to go with the Nuclear Cooperation Agreement with the USA
and other member countries of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, which was
opposed by both the right-wing BJP and its allies and the Communist
Party of India (Marxist), and its left-wing allies that withdrew its support
to the UPA a few months before the general election for going with the
deal.

DECLINE OF BJP

Over the last few years in the first decade of the 21st century, BJP
has declined in power and popularity from a position it had steadily
gained from a long time. The 2009 General Election showed the depths
to which it has fallen.

Reasons are many. Leader who led the party along the ladder of
rise are now either tired or retired. Atal Behari Vajpayee is now retired
and distant from the political scene. Age is taking the toll of leaders
like L.K Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi. Down the line in the second
wrung, there is shortage of the real talents of political genius, and a
few available are busy pulling the legs of each other for supremacy in
the party which once carved a niche for discipline, patriotism and
service. Its leaders in their forties and fifties want to lead the party by
bypassing those of the older generation who formed the second-rung
during the premiership of Atal Behari Vajpayee. The latter are fighting
back or resigning. This is how infighting is growing in BJP.

The demolition of Babri Masjid in 1992 is also haunting it. BJP’s

public image as a party of wealthy businessmen and its closeness to
rich industrialists is doing tremendous damage to its reputation. The
true relief provided to the party in the public imagination by its
patriotism and discipline is increasingly eclipsed by the character and
conduct of its cadres and leaders these days. It is now unequivocal
that BJP and its cadres and leaders no way stand out from other
political parties of India in patriotism and discipline save for lip service
for political advantage. This removed the greatest advantage of the BJP
in the public imagination. Its leadership’s impatience to adopt modern
life-styles and liberalization raised doubts about their love for Indian
values and culture. Actually Congress showed better circumspection
when circumstances warranted such adoptions and showed better
respect to Indian values. Though Indians do not express these things in
so many words, they intuitively understand it. BJP’s natural human
concerns, as proved in their neglect of poor and minorities, are also in
doubt. Love and pride for India and Hinduism and their values are
praiseworthy. But, hate to anybody is not. It is against Indian and
Hindu tenets also. Congress in contrast has done well by its Aam Admi
slogan unlike BJP’s 2004 slogan of India Shining meant for rich and
wealthy. BJP basically needs strong leadership of the kind of Smt. Sonia
Gandhi to steer it ahead with confidence and maturity to reach its
former glory.

JUDICIAL ACTIVISM

In India, the judiciary plays a very important role as to decide all

controversial matters and disputes. The judiciary has been in the
forefront of problem solving in India as provided by the Indian
Constitution since it became a Republic around sixty years back
in1950. Over this time, the judiciary has usually confined itself to give
decisions on matters that were brought to its attention as the relevant
provisions of the Indian Constitution were interpreted then.

Judicial Activism was not some thing that had been very common
then. However, of late this has changed. In India like in South Africa,
Judicial Activism of late is playing a very important role in the day-to-
day affairs of the judiciary. This is a change to be seen and noticed.
This is because it has been seen that judicial activism when trumpeted
aloud and hard is having an effect on the society and thus it has
become a part of the judicial system of India from the middle of 1990s.

It has been more and more apparent over the last few years. The
judiciary is now interfering in matters of public interests even while
they are not brought to its adjudication by the interested parties unlike
the practice and precedence of the first forty years of the Indian
Constitution. Courts these days are taking up matters of public
interests on the basis of letters or telegrams received by them, many a
time anonymous letters, on the basis of newspaper reports or even suo
moto. It tremendously helped the public interests and the cause of
justice in most cases. But, there is raging controversy now regarding
this judicial activism or pro-active judicial moves of the Indian judicial
system, some passionately supporting it while others including
government bodies openly expressing dissent on such judicial
initiatives by the Indian Courts. Opponents say that those pro-active
measures amount to judiciary over-stepping on the Executive
responsibilities. An example they give is of the Judiciary directing the
Central Government to take measures to protect Indian students in
Australia in the circumstance of the latter’s persecution there.
 Even though Judiciary has no powers and jurisdiction over foreign
affairs, issuing such directions is seen as Courts over-stepping their
limits. Also, the judiciary’s direction to pull down all statues of her and
others’ raised by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Mayawati is seen with
concern. Here, the issue is not whether the directions are just and in
public interests, but how judiciary can out-step its limits and over-step
on executive powers and responsibilities and crush the fine balance
provided in the Indian Constitution between the Parliament, Executive
and the Judiciary, to the detriment of the peace and balance of the
public life of the country. Judiciary cannot violate the Constitution.
Here, pro-active move in public interest and in the interest of justice
per se is not to blame. What is required is discreetness and maturity to
remain within one’s limits rather than trespassing to other’s fields.

CASTE SYSTEM

Caste system is prevalent in Indian society from a very long time.

It still prevails though invisibly for the fear of law. The caste system
classifies people as high and low and some highest and some others
lowest on the basis of their birth and parentage for life without
reference to their merits or demerits. This is a grossly unjust system,
more so in a country of India’s spiritual heritage. This is a case of
highest spiritual values being misconceived and misinterpreted by the
second rate sociologists of the ancient India while codifying social laws.
Faith being the heart of Indian epistemology, ancient Indian mass
followed the codes with vengeance without a second thought and
brought India to the present state if guilt. People of the lower castes in
India are cruelly treated for centuries and forced to live in inhuman
conditions as untouchables. They are treated, distanced and exploited
like dirt all their life generation after generation for centuries. In spite
of all the calls for human rights and equality, India cannot be called as
completely wiped out the curse of caste system and untouchability
from its face.

DIGNITY OF THE BISEXUALS

The bisexuals have been discriminated against for a very long

time. People have looked down upon them in disgust for a very long
time. They have been discriminated against even in the Constitution of
India. This is because even the founders of the Constitution of India did
not feel that they must be given equal rights as if that these kinds of
people are not fit for basic rights.

They have lived so for a very long time till now. The founders of
our Constitution felt that these people were disgusting and that they
must not be encouraged to live this kind of life. Leading a life like this
was considered to be ‘verboten’.

Indian judiciary has finally decided in favour of the bisexuals. It

decided that these people must not be discriminated against in future.
People all over India have all celebrated this and have felt that this law
was long overdue. People are celebrating this new change.

However, the fight has been a very long and weary one and
many people have fought very long and hard for this. Demonstrations
were held over the last few days in order to put the last few nails in the
coffin of the earlier discrimination. Over the last few days, many
people of this kind were very vocal and showed a large amount of
energy in their actions and also worked very hard for this judgment
and it looks as if this is a very big victory for them.
EDUCATION SYSTEM

India was under the British Raj for nearly a century in which India
learnt and acquired endless modern customs and systems from the
British and their thoughts, methods and practices. Solid administrative
system, powerful military set-up, excellent railway network, export and
import regimen, diplomacy niceties, sound public health system,
flawless public distribution system and effective education system are
only a few to name such adoptions. Most important of them is the
Education System for the reason that it laid foundation for the future of
the country. British infused best education system to the country
relevant to the time and circumstances that ultimately led to
overthrow of the British Raj from India under the leadership of the
enlightened products of the Education System like Mahatma Gandhi,
Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose to name only a few.

It is more than a century since India adopted the good old British
Education System and more than six decades since India became an
independent country and a republic. Yet, we have not changed the
Education System from that time to meet the fast changing needs of
the time and requirements of the country. It is in a very pathetic state
of affairs indeed. Indian Education System is not keeping pace with the
progresses in other fields in the country and the consequence is felt in
the fields of other developments. It is like rotten apple spoiling other
sweet apples in a basket. Education System in India is a neglected
area. The number of new Universities and Centres of Higher Education
in India is not on par with the increase in the population of the country.
Japan, a country with almost one-tenth of the population of India, has
almost three times the number of Universities as India. Also, the
percentage of the people who go to Universities and Centres of Higher
Education at right age is less than seven percent in India even after six
decades of the self-rule. In the United States of America, the
percentage is close to eighty percent while in Finland, it is close to
seventy six percent.

The story is similar in other parts of the Indian subcontinent

namely Pakistan and Bangladesh where outdated education is the
staple for the hoi polloi. England from which India borrowed the
Education System knew the importance of the right Education System
and diligently updated it from time to time. In India, basic education
that forms the heart of any Education System is the most neglected
area with classes often held in dilapidated single rooms or even under
trees and teachers under-paid or irregularly paid. The profession of
teachers at all levels is least accomplished in terms of returns and
social standing and therefore attracts only the mediocre and leftovers
from other fields. This deeply affects the process of educating and
moulding the future generation of the country.

The educational system in India is far from satisfactory. Main

problem is the standard of teachers in schools and colleges being not
up to the mark. Though IITs and IIMs have exceptional students and
teachers, situation is very bleak in other institutions. India must have
many more centers of higher education to make its mark in the world
stage. The first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, said that it
would be primary in his manifesto to improve the educational system
in India. Unfortunately, this sacred goal ended with IITs and IIMs and a
handful of other institutions of excellence.

For a country to improve, it has to have a good education

system. The gradual decline noticed in the standards of excellence in
existing institutions of higher education in India like IITs of late is
depressing. The fall is mainly because of the pay system of the
professors there in contrast to those in China, Korea and Singapore
and in western countries where a three-tier pay system is followed to
attract the best to the fold. The pay system in most of these countries
include a pay package covering the pay pack from the government
based on the pay scale to cover basic needs, and other pay packs
dependent on the track record of the individual and the institute
concerned in the stipulated year. Individual performance forms the
pillars in all these pay schemes, thus promoting excellence and
rewarding performance.

Singapore moved to the performance based pay scale of three

components about two decades back, covering basic pay based on the
pay scale, another based on the reputation and market demand of the
individual teacher, and the third based on his or her performances for
the stipulated period. China followed the performance based scheme
from 1990s wherein the pay packet based on the pay scale from the
government is followed by one given by the university allowing better
institutes to compensate better, and the third based on the
performance of the individual in projects and research works. China
saw tremendous boost in its research projects and research papers in
international journals since then. Pakistan is ahead of India in this
progressive step by linking the pay scale to the number of research
papers published in international journals. Pay scales and annual
increments in USA from many years are based on individual
performances. Britain and other European countries like Germany and
Italy from which India borrowed its fixed pay package have also moved
forward in adopting the performance based package of pay scales for
its University faculties. Australia has also moved in this direction.

Not that performance based pay package is new to India. All

corporate houses and private companies follow this model by instinct
as the foundations of their survival. Indian Government unfortunately
is yet to awaken to this cardinal need to promote excellence and
reward performance to take India ahead to its dream of the world
leadership. It still adheres to the age-old fixed pay scales in the name
of job security, forgetting that the basic component of the pay package
adequately covers this aspect, and continuing with the old system is
tantamount to utterly ignoring merit, excellence and performance, and
promoting mediocrity and casual attitude. This is the bane of
academic governance, giving absolutely no elbowroom to promote
excellence or reward performance.

Added to this, the interference of the Government in the

academic governance and selection and appointment of the faculty are
causing tremendous damage to the institutions of higher education of
excellence in India. If institutes like IITs, which are the pinnacles of
higher education in India, are in this situation, then one can imagine
what condition the other centers of education in India are in. This must
be changed as soon as possible.

INDIA’S NUCLEAR AMBITIONS

India has not signed the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT).

All nuclear countries except Israel, India, Pakistan and North Korea are
signatories to this treaty. India feels that NPT is discriminatory and
confirms that it is already complying with all the provisions of the NPT
without signing it.

It is believed that India has been put under severe pressure from
other countries (read ‘The United States of America’) to sign this
treaty. But, India held on stubborn for quite some time now. The United
States of America and India signed a nuclear deal by which India is
provided an exception from the nuclear sanctions of the Nuclear
Suppliers Group (NSG) for acquiring nuclear reactors, components and
fuel from the USA and by corollary from other Nuclear Suppliers Group
(NSG) countries in spite of it being not a signatory to the Non-
Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in exchange to allowing its earmarked civil
nuclear facilities for international scrutiny and other safeguards. But,
India’s ambition was stopped at its track in the summit of G8 and G5
countries held at L’Aquila in Italy in 2009. American President Barack
Obama’s administration does not seem to be keen about this
agreement with India and its lobbying for pressure on G8 countries to
withhold reprocessed fuel from any country that has not signed the
Non-Proliferation Treaty, meaning India alone, is proving an irritant to
India. This is quite a blow to India.

THE POSTAL SYSTEM

India is one of the largest countries in the world. Defence service

is the largest government organization of India. Railways come next.
The third largest position goes to the postal service. India’s postal
service is the largest postal service in the world, being larger than that
of the United States of America and China in many respects.

People interact with other people in one way or the other and
developed many means to do so. One of the most common ways of
interacting with each other is by sending mails or messages and this in
short is the beginning of the postal system. A competent postal system
is one of the strong points of India’s capable governance.

NORTHEASTERN INDIA
 There are thirty tribes in North East India and they all want to
have the special status of a state and are thus causing unnecessary
bloodshed and destruction by resorting to agitations. The tribes are
also fighting with each other and buying weapons illegally and killing
each other and the police.

This has reached to a point that even the central government is

having serious problem tackling the situation. The tribes in big groups
fight for their cause of a new and independent state. They are being
drawn into fighting each other because of the severe tensions that
usually pervade each tribe and its uneasiness with respect to the other
tribes that live near it. The tribe members are indulging in destroying
communication and transport systems and bringing down houses.

The states in North East India are taking serious steps to bring
peace to the region. The police and army are kept ever alert in the
region. They have resorted to increasing the number of the policemen
and are using tighter and tougher measures in order to combat and
win against this ever changing and versatile enemy, that is, the tribes
and their outfits. However, whether they will be able to do something
to tackle this homegrown problem successfully is anybody’s guess.

LAW AND ORDER

BMP refers to the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike. It is the local

government organisation in charge of the Bangalore City, the Silicon
Valley of India, and a hub of India’s computer industries. BMP looks
after and manages the city of Bangalore through elected
representatives of the people and bureaucracy. But, often rules and
procedures promulgated by the BMP for the administration of the city
are ignored and violated creating administrative problems and public
inconvenience. This entails enforcing strict measures against the law-
breakers. Bangalore Mahanagara Palike resorted to such enforcements
concerning construction of buildings in Bangalore in violation of rules
laid for the purpose.

Rules regarding specific heights and distances from the road in

construction of buildings are being violated. This is a common feature
in Bangalore as in all other cities of India. The violations are so wide
spread and the involvement of their own officers is so deep that
Bangalore Mahanagara Palike as a rule ignored the violations. It added
to the problem. Builders as a rule bought safety from the BMP by
bribing the BMP officials. However, public outcry against such
complicities in part of the BMP forced the latter to act. This led to
demolition drives by the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike against illegal
constructions and their extensions wherein all buildings and
constructions that did not follow required specifications were
demolished and stricter vigil is followed in licensing new constructions
and compliance of the specifications in doing so. This is great news for
the people of Bangalore.

Belgaum, a border city and also a district in North Karnataka and

famous for its history, is dipped in controversy because of its Marathi
majority population in a Kannada majority State. The neighboring State
of Maharashtra wants Belgaum to be included in that State on the
basis of its Marathi-speaking population. There is an ongoing conflict
and enmity between the two States for Belgaum.

India’s responses to emergencies need a lot to be desired.

Whether it is natural disasters like Tsunami and earthquakes or
terrorist attacks in Mumbai, the responses are marred by slowness and
uncertainties of the reaction by those in authorities and in charge of
the rescue operations and suitable responses. Often the Government
of India was found unprepared for suitable responses and pathetically
caught on the wrong foot. India must improve its response time and
the quality of the response by proper planning, training, intelligence
collection, and institution of right organisations with right people at the
helm to minimize the losses and impact of the disaster in issue. It is a
paramount need of India to become a great world power.