Business Government SocietyBUSINESS, GOVERNMENT & STUDIES – HANDOUT SUMMARIESContentsPangs of Change Banias and Beyond: The Dynamics of Caste and Big Business in Modern India Democracy and Secularism in India Affirmation without Reservation Redesigning Affirmative Action From Midnight to the Millennium and Beyond: Democracy and Identity in Today’s India Ideas of India”, “Rights Political Parties in India India’s Informal Economy: Facing the Twenty-First Century India’s New Entrepreneurial Classes: The High Growth Economy and Why it is Sustainable Everybody Loves a Good Drought Political Economy of Agrarian distress Knowledge@Wharton interview with M. Yunus, Founder of the Grameen Bank. Serving the World’s Poor, Profitably Traditional Female Moral Exemplars in India Pangs of ChangeMN SrinivasSummary by Rithin BThe author speaks about India as a secular miracle of the world but suffering from poor quality of democracy.Indian democracy is one of the secular miracles of the modern world and is a model for developing countries. Democracy is becoming deeply rooted through Panchayat Raj and Nagarpalika Acts. Though India is emerging as a major power the rate of growth is slow. The leaders do not seem to care about the country’s fortunes but in spite of its leaders India is still showing progress.Transfer of Power: Decentralization of power to districts, tehsils, villages, cities and towns has made government officials accountable to the people. Though decentralization has brought about speed, efficiency and openness, it has also given rise to conflicts in Panchayat raj system. Rural dominant classes occupy privileged positions and use their power to receive services from other backward classes in the society. Failure to perform such services leads to bloody clashes which lead to translating the constitutional commitment to equality into a reality. The police, law courts, media should support the Dalit demand for equality and make the dominant castes to accept democratic values and practices.
I have seen India in a particularly bad state in the last year which is in the throes of unrest. Its media are completely out of control and a lot of its citizens are being murdered and are getting injured from the same incidents. Also, the government has created a mess in the state bureaucracy through its policy making. The administration has not done enough to address the issues and the environment is bad. The government seems unconcerned about its own people and so what is needed is more of the media that provides a credible coverage of issues. It has also failed to make proper accountability for people who are violating the basic principles and policies. The state’s role is too weak to take care of the basic needs of the people of India.It is estimated that 50% to 80% of citizens of India are illiterate and have no way to know anything of anything about the political or social ills of their villages. The government fails to give opportunities to the people to talk about their problems from daily to weekly. There is a big disparity between a community and a nation when it comes to the care, education and training of its citizens. What has been done is wrong in the education sector. What is right, must be done in the state or in the army or the National Police. The government refuses to address the root causes of poverty, illiteracy and neglect. Most people do not know their issues and lack the will to address them. The state needs to focus on their issue and work with the national agencies to get them sorted out through a real-world solution. The state needs to find ways to use the state’s best-performing and most innovative technology to create better work to meet the needs of the Indians. If India becomes a state, the issue of corruption in the judicial system will be addressed not by the government but by the Supreme Court. This is more than one way of dealing with corruption in India. It is also a matter of dealing with civil liberties that are of a much lesser importance to the general public.Governments need to get on a fast track to tackling corruption and improve the condition of the citizens. It just so happens that the corrupt administration within India is currently undergoing a general election. The candidates have to be well known and well informed. The government needs to find a responsible political and constitutional body to support the candidates and to take the necessary steps to combat corruption in our community. It is only fitting that the candidates should have the best political views and the best experience in the state with respect to their work.I believe there is a huge chance that India is going to
s the next elections. The elections will take place as part of a public service as well and as a test for the country and not politicians. The Congress should get involved to defeat the Daste. It is unfortunate that the Congress has so little clout in the country. But the Daste and their party will win no more elections in 2019 if the Congress can only win two elections in 2019.The BJP is too inept to defeat Dasti and have even tried to take over the state. The party’s leadership must not be seen as weak. However, they are too weak to win elections with so much power and influence in a state that is already full of corruption. The party is in deep trouble and its leaders and many members are the victims of such political abuse. If the Congress loses in 2019, the BJP will be seen as a third party in the Congress with a chance of winning some seats in 2019. I am confident that it will lose a lot of seats. I will report on the performance of the BJP at the next general elections. We will be watching how the Congress is handling its own electoral prospects, our state assembly elections, and how it prepares for the next general election.
Ibn Shingling:
“The Daste is the first political movement to emerge from Maharashtra in 15 years, and I think a lot of people had expected to see it. But they couldn’t, given the difficulties and the threat they faced in their state, and because our political experience has been so mixed. I think this is the first time that a political movement has emerged in Maharashtra… Our political experience has been so mixed that there is no common language, but there are certainly a fair amount of similarities. We have had local politicians, local businessmen and social movements, social and religious movements… We are the first political movement to emerge from Maharashtra in 15 years, and I think a lot of people had expected to see it.”
Ibn Shingling:
“We have had a lot of successes, though not in fact a lot, and that’s okay. The main disappointment is that when it was a long time ago, we became politically unruly. When it is a movement like the Daste, when any country has got a lot of success and has become more democratic, people take to the streets,” he said the following day.
“However, the fact is, this is not just because of us, as the state legislatures used to have large numbers of parties, they have now grown to thousands of parties. This is because of large money, this is because of the fact that for several years of the 20th century, our legislators had the ability… with financial and even with intellectual strength, to get elected government leaders who had a long life and the time with a good reputation. How do we do that? You can’t do anything with money… So we have to have good policy… The government leaders would have the ability to get elected. Some of them… like to say, ‘we will work with you’. They just won’t do it. The policy has to be done… There is a way. People use it. For example, now the local legislators in the Pune state have formed a party.”
Ibn Shingling:
“The BJP has gone public with its manifesto. This is the first time that a political party has emerged from Maharashtra. The government leaders are well-informed and the movement is well- organized. They are also people who have seen things in other countries and who have been involved throughout the country.”
Ibn Shingling:
“I will tell you what I have already said about India. I’m more concerned about the development of India because they have a population of about 50 million people. And many, many others. However, India is a poor country where people who have never seen their neighbours have very little education. And as far as they view the state with envy, it is difficult to imagine a scenario where this movement did not develop. The only people who understand it is the people who live through it… It’s very bad where you live. We don’t want that. We want that to be a country where we allow ourselves to have fun about it. I think it will work because people here have a much higher opinion level. For instance,… We have been a country where there is a great public service. The people in this country enjoy a great education. They enjoy life. The very top officials in their capacity say that people do a fantastic job and that gives them confidence. Nobody in the rest of the world thinks of that. Even people who do well in the country. They are extremely happy.
Ibn Shingling:
“I think it is important to show that the political environment does have a fair amount of influence in India. On