The manifesto aam aadmi wants

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The manifesto aam aadmi wants

M. P. Premkumar


The Aam Aadmi

• First, this term was used by the Congress back in 2005 and now it has become a household name in Indian politics thanks to the Aam Aadmi Party.





The Aam Aadmi

• The typical Indian or Aam Aadmi is actually a politically neutral person with simple expectations of governance.


The Aam Aadmi

• He votes for different parties at different times depending on the elections and the issues of relevance at those times.


So what does the Aam Aadmi want?• The Aam Aadmi has probably sent messages

any number of times to any number of political parties but here is another attempt to state what a common man wants from our political parties.

• Personal influences and experiences apart, this is an attempt to capture needs of the 21st century Indian from the political class.


Right to Livelihood


Right to Livelihood• Please let us earn a decent living doing whatever we can to the best of

our ability.

• We may be poor but we are actually happy if we can retain human dignity.

• Don’t sell us out to foreigners or to Indian businesses out to make a quick buck.

• We don’t want doles either.

• Irrespective of caste, what we are looking for are opportunities – to be relevant and to make ourselves useful to others.

• Tell us how you will enable millions of us to be the best we can be and be of use to others.


Agriculture


Agriculture


Agriculture


Agriculture• We the farmers of this country are a tough lot. But even

we are forced to commit suicide.

• Because physical labor is not valued in the market place today. Our blood and sweat amount to next to nothing when our produce is bought.

• But we pay high interest rates to finance our occupation. If weather plays truant or market forces play to their advantage, we have only our dignity left and that is why we commit suicide.



Agriculture

• We are ready to automate but high capital costs in this scenario is a non-starter.

• With dole schemes even labor costs have become high.

• We don’t need free power or free fertiliser or free anything.

• Tell us how you will bring back dignity to our occupation and make it viable.


Retail• You see, we are a nation of

micro entrepreneurs. We bought and sold within our own country and with others even thousands of years back.

• Some of us just have pushcarts and cartons while some of us have corner shops or showrooms.

• We are proud to be working for ourselves and having the financial freedom to earn our living.


Retail• We really don’t understand cold chain linkages

some of you talk about when you talk about FDI in retail.

• We thought that Mr. Cherian had figured that out back in the 70s with Amul.



How about replicating the milk cooperatives model with fruits, vegetables, pulses and the like? We hear that works in Switzerland.


Retail

• We really don’t fancy losing our financial freedom and working as uniform borne minimum wage earners in mega marts.

• Tell us how you will modernize trade without mortgaging our freedom and dignity.


Industry• We are next to none and we can rule the world. We have

proved it.

• We don’t need SOPs. We don’t need favours. We are perfectly capable of standing on our own legs.

• We need encouragement to go beyond our comfort zones to conquer new horizons.


Industry• We can do without the red tape that holds us back

from doing our best.• We are responsible but please allow us to be so

without demanding money to enable us to do our business.

• Tell us how you will help us unleash creativity and productivity to conquer the world with our products and services.


• We have great hands and great minds. We can think high and make high quality products. Our products and services are used by the world.

• But policies seem to oscillate from wild west to the communist east.

• We are ready to work and get our fair share. But we don’t want to be “temporary” assets.

Labour


Labour

• We have as much equity in the business as promoters and managers. Collective bargaining is not what we want.

• We want individual recognition commensurate with our inputs.

• Tell us how you will promote manufacturing to make our country the best in quality and equity.


Defence

• We want security and we are ready to pay for it.

• We realise we are in a region that is not very stable or democratic.

• That doesn’t mean we should spend more on defence than on education.


• It anyway seems that much of the money allocated is either not spent or ends up in corrupt hands.

• Our soldiers put their lives on the line. But our babus, netas and generals seem to be negotiating for crumbs from guns to helicopters to trucks.

• Tell us how you will ensure security to this vast nation without squandering resources.

Defence


• We sincerely believed that the British had left and that we were the masters of our land.

• But we find that the British left the police force intact and appointed you to exploit them to continue subjugating us.

Home Affairs


Home Affairs

• We are treated as potential criminals all the time by policemen.

• We are afraid to go to police stations.

• Many of us are detained in our own country arbitrarily and merely on suspicion and kept in jails pending trials.


We see police serving only the politicians faithfully.


Home Affairs

• Tell us how you will transform the police force to serve the public courteously giving confidence that our security will be ensured without us losing freedom and liberty.


Health• We are mostly healthy except when the basic

infrastructure is found wanting near where we live.

• We welcome hospitals but we would rather have better basic infrastructure to live.


Health

• We don’t understand all these medical tests by imported equipment or the costly medicines that our doctors prescribe.

• Tell us how you will ensure basic hygiene in our cities, towns and villages and enhance access to affordable healthcare for all of us while keeping drug prices low.


Education

• We want to learn how we can be relevant in the 21st century.

• We want our children to learn more than what we learnt in our schools and colleges.

• Can you ensure that schools and colleges “teach” students rather than “coach”?


• We are ready to invest our time and life savings in the pursuit of knowledge.

• We don’t necessarily want free education. But can you ensure that seats are not sold?

• Tell us how you will enable world-class education of our children but not push them to corruption right from LKG seats to medical seats

Education


• We, the women of this country work doubly hard – we work on the fields, lay roads, construct buildings, lead banks, win medals and take care of our families.

Women & Family Welfare


Women & Family Welfare• The least we expect is some respect!

• You have not ensured enough women leadership in your parties though we have demonstrated our potential.

• You have colluded to keep more of us out of parliament.

• You have allowed us to be used, abused and derided. We are warning you to not take us for granted.

• We don’t need reservations or SOPS. Just allow us space and we will show you what we can do.

• Tell us how you will ensure parity for women in everything from politics to business to science & technology and family welfare. You see, we are not just homemakers anymore.


Sports & Games• We have been and will be world

champions in many of the sports and games. After all we have taught the world many of the sports.

• We want to be able to enjoy playing sports and games. We can definitely do without the associations dominated by politicians.

• We want sportspersons to run the sports bodies in this country assisted by professionals.


Sports & Games• We don’t want awards and don’t need allowances.

• We want you to provide better infrastructure for our kids to play.

• We want a fair and open system to promote talent to represent our states and countries.

• Tell us how you will ensure sports bodies are run by sportspersons and provide infrastructure across the country to support the various sports our children want to play and excel in.


Social Justice• We know our castes/tribal ancestry and we are proud of our

ancestry. We don’t need you to play to our ego.

• Our past was not perfect and we believe it is the government’s job to even the playing field to enable opportunity to all.

• We don’t really want the handicap to continue forever as you see we are perfectly capable of standing on our own legs once we get opportunities.

• Tell us how you will help social groups to develop with opportunities while preventing enmity among groups.


Minority Affairs

• We are not sure if you know that almost all of us are minorities in our great diverse country.

• We however appreciate the open heartedness that enables us to settle anywhere and earn our living.


Please don’t divide us on religion, language, caste, creed etc. and then kill us with agitations and riots.

Minority Affairs


Minority Affairs

• We are really not blood thirsty and would rather share a cup of chai with our fellow countrymen.

• Tell us how you will protect the plurality of our great country without dividing us and poisoning us of the threats from our fellow brothers and sisters.


Taxes• We pay income tax, sales tax, customs, duty, excise,

VAT, service tax…

• The more we pay the more we seem to be taxed while the others seem to stay out of the tax net.

• We are actually proud to pay our due for our country. We are only pained at how this money is spent. And how some are beating the system.


Taxes• The privileged few from politicians to judges to bureaucrats seem to get a lot

of perks that are not treated as income.

• Doctors and lawyers never seem to accept cheques or credit cards. They only accept cash and rarely give genuine receipts.

• The celebrities seem to own every luxury items under the sun but don’t seem to pay commensurate tax.

Finance Minister said that just over 42,800 people have declared taxable incomes of over Rs 1 crore annually.

Sales figures for luxury cars: 2010 - 15,0682011 - 25,0002012 - 25,516That's more than half the number of assessees who reported income in excess of Rs 1 crore that year!


Taxes

• Tell us how you will change the taxation system to be fair and transparent.

• Tell us how you will spend the taxpayers money prudently with checks and balances so that our country doesn’t keep borrowing to make ends meet.


Infrastructure


Infrastructure• We can build our own houses but we need the government to build and

maintain roads, bridges, railways, ports, parks, playgrounds, traffic systems, power stations etc. etc.

• We have already shown what we can do if the basic infrastructure is in place.

• We don’t want to pay for infrastructure only to find that mafias and corrupt officials swindling money compromising quality.

• We don’t want to be citizens of a country known for potholes, power cuts and accidents.

• Tell us how you will clean up the ecosystem so that world class players can build world class infrastructure for this vast country.


Natural Resources• We are proud of our country’s wealth of natural resources.

• We know that it belongs to all of us and that it needs to be used for the benefit of all.

• We also know that the environment we live in is equally precious and we want our children to inherit a world that is not degraded.


Natural Resources• We don’t want to sell out to foreigners or local exploiters

so that a few can pocket the riches leaving others penniless in their own backyard.

• We want our resources to be judiciously used so that we can retain our livelihoods and reduce environmental impact.

• Tell us how you will ensure that natural resources are not exploited at will, adversely impacting the environment and threatening the livelihood of local people.


Railways• We are really thankful for the Indian Railways for

enabling mass affordable long distance transportation. • Our lives and livelihoods depend on it.• Thanks for running trains on time nowadays.


Railways• However, we demand safety and hygiene in stations and trains.

• We are sick and tired of poor food, cockroaches and rats in trains.

• Tell us how you will modernise railways to enable affordable travel and logistics for 21st century.


Civil Aviation• We understand the need for airports and airlines.

• We don’t understand why government needs to run a heavily loss making airline while asking private companies to build airports.

• The only reason seems to be to give away free tickets to netas and babus. And of course to get kickbacks buying aircraft.


Civil Aviation

• Tell us how you will ensure airport fees are lesser than air tickets.

• Tell us how you will stop taking money from the poor and middleclass to fund airlines for the rich and the powerful.


Telecom & Technology• We are thankful that you didn’t understand enough to tinker

with the T’s.• We are happy with our mobile phones and the white collar jobs

created by IT.• Please don’t kill these industries with your greed (as you almost

did recently).


Telecom & Technology• They have given us power at our fingertips. You

cannot take it back.• Tell us how you will leverage these

technologies to empower us even more.


International Trade• We don’t understand much of this except that we don’t want you to surrender

our interests to foreigners.

• We are ready compete globally but only if it is a level playing field.

• While we are asked to compete, we see rich foreign farmers being subsidised to compete with us.


International Trade

• Our traditional intellectual property is stolen systematically while foreigners seek protection for theirs.

• They impose crops, technologies etc. when there isn’t a need for us.

• Tell us how you will enable global trade that is mutually beneficial and not exploitative.


External Affairs

• We don’t understand international politics except that we don’t ever want to be subjugated again.

• We don’t really care whether a foreign country is western, capitalist, eastern, communist, Islamic or Christian but we appreciate mutual respect.


External Affairs• We don’t ever want to see what happened in Kandahar or Sri Lanka or

Australia.

• Tell us how you will protect the interests of our country and our countrymen with principle of mutual respect and reciprocity.



Law• We are glad that the judiciary is safeguarding our fundamental

rights enshrined in our constitution

• But judges seem to be sanctimonious and consider themselves above the law

• We run from adjournment to adjournment while our lawyers pocket their fees

• When judgments do come, they come late sometimes after we die

• Tell us how you will make judiciary also accountable and the legal process less cumbersome and justice is speedily delivered


Parliament


Parliament• We thought the laws are made in parliament. That’s what we studied in

school.

• However, we see only slogans, dharnas and disruptions in parliament.

• We watch you on TV, you know. And when we step out during an adjournment break we see suddenly some laws are passed without discussion.

• We elect you and pay you to discuss, deliberate and pass laws for our benefit. However, you seem to get paid to not do your work.

• Can you tell us how you will ensure that the parliament actually functions as the august body of policymaking our forefathers envisioned to be?


The manifesto aam aadmi wants

M. P. Premkumar

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The manifesto aam aadmi wants

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