Expectations from political parties as world’s largest democracy goes to polls tomorrow

On the coming 7th of April, world’s largest democracy is going to polls with over 815 million registered voters are expected to make the use of their right to vote over a period of one month to choose their future leaders and hence the future of this country. As always, elections in India generate a lot of interest from all sections of the society as people ponder and debate over the main issues for the elections. This time around also there are certain issues which have risen and become central to the upcoming general election. I would be mentioning three most important ones out of them. 

1. Corruption – Corruption in India has been one such issue which has affected people from every sphere of life. The enormity and prevalence of corruption in Indian system have been atrociously high. This widespread presence of corruption in the system not only has hampered the growth as the funds assigned for the welfare activities have been swindled away by wicked, nefarious evils, but has also led to inefficiency in the bureaucracy. In the last 5 years or so, we have seen numerous corruption cases involving eminent political personalities whether it was the 2G scam, CWG scam or coalgate scam. People have become frustrated with corruption and averse to corrupt people. They are looking for transparent, corrupt-free governance. That’s the reason why movement like “India Against Corruption”  gained so much prominence in the last 2 years. Corruption has definitely become one of the significant issues for the upcoming election and the party which would show the inclination to tackle it will definitely gain some advantage over others. 

2. High inflation and lacklustre growth – High inflation, along with the lacklustre growth and development performance, is seen as the issue which has the potential to decide the winner in the upcoming election. India’s growth story which was seen with so much optimism around the world five years back has turned into a farce. Lacklustre growth with no concrete development plan from the govt. has tarnished the reputation of India as one of the fastest developing nation. This economic slowdown has also resulted in high levels of unemployment as the investments in the market have taken a hit. Moreover, the govt.’s inability to tackle the rise in inflation has worsened the situation even more for the people who have been let to suffer. The party with clearer vision and a more realistic plan to revive India’s growth story would surely be favoured in the upcoming elections. 

3. Women safety – Women safety has become a key issue in this election for a change and that change is surely welcome. After so many years of blatant ignorance of women issues, this time political parties are heading towards a positive advancement by mentioning women safety as one of the significant points in their manifestos. Since the 2012 “Nirbhaya” gang rape case, people have become more sensitive to women and their concerns, and therefore, this has compelled political parties to incorporate these matters in their election campaigning. Women safety is one thing which we all expect from the govt. irrespective who comes to power.  

Knowing our PM candidates : Mr. Rahul Gandhi (Part-3)

Today, I am posting the profile of Mr. Rahul Gandhi, the last in our list of PM candidates.


For Mr. Arvind Kejriwal’s profile - http://newlightforlife.blogspot.in/2014/03/knowing-our-pm-candidates-mr-arvind.html


For Mr. Narendra Modi’s profile - http://newlightforlife.blogspot.in/2014/04/knowing-our-pm-candidates-mr-narendra.html


Profile of Rahul Gandhi


Name -  Mr. Rahul Gandhi

Age – 43 years

Birth Place – He was born in Delhi, the capital of India on 19^th June, 1970 as first of the two children of India’s ex prime minister, Mr. Rajiv Gandhi.

Current position -

He is presently the acting vice president of Indian National Congress (INC) and the chairperson of Indian Youth Congress. He is also regarded as the second highest authority in the congress working committee after Ms. Sonia Gandhi.


Educational Qualification -

Mr. Gandhi did his initial schooling from St. Columbia’s School, Delhi before moving to the Doon School of Dehradun from 1981-83 for better education.


Mr. Gandhi was then home-schooled from 1984 till 1989 because of the security concerns against the backdrop of the assassination in 1984 of the then prime minister of the country and his grandmother, Ms. Indra Gandhi.  


In 1989, Mr. Gandhi joined the St. Stephens College, Delhi University for his graduation. But, within a year, he was moved to Harvard University for security reasons.


In 1991, when Mr. Rajiv Gandhi (his father) was assassinated, he was again moved from Harvard to Rollins College for security reasons. Finally, he completed his graduation in 1994 in B.A from Rollins.


After completing his graduation, Mr. Gandhi went on to complete his M.Phil from Trinity College, Cambridge in 1995.


Work Experience -

Mr. Gandhi, after completing his M.Phil from Cambridge, started working at a management consulting firm, Monitor group, in London.

In 2002, he became one of the directors of Mumbai based technology outsourcing firm, Backops service Private Ltd.

In march, 2004 Mr. Gandhi decided to enter into politics by expressing his desire of fighting the May 2004 general elections from Amethi seat. He won the seat easily, making him a member of the 4th consecutive generation of Gandhi family to enter the parliament.

On 24^th September, 2007 Mr. Gandhi was appointed the General Secretary of All India National Congress Committee in a party secretariat reshuffle. Along with this, he was also given the charge of Indian Youth Congress and National Students Union of India.

Currently, Mr. Gandhi is seen as the future of Indian National Congress. Many senior party leaders have expressed their desire of making him the prime ministerial candidate for the upcoming 2014 general elections.

 
Achievements -

Youth Politics -

In September, 2007 when Mr. Gandhi was made the general secretary of the Indian Youth congress and the president of National Students Union of India (NSUI), he promised to overhaul and reform the youth politics in India. He tried his best by giving more space to deserving youth in the party which added to his popularity among youth. Under him, both IYC and NSUI saw a dramatic increase in the number of youth members. He has constantly vouched for the need of bringing more youth into the politics.

Political career -

Mr. Gandhi has been in active politics for around 10 years now as he was first elected as a member of the parliament in 2004. Since then, he has been actively involved in strengthening the ground level base of his party.


Criticism -

One of the criticisms that Mr. Gandhi consistently faces is his lack of experience in administration as he has never held any office. He has always been reluctant of taking charge of any of the portfolios in his party’s govt., which seriously weakens his candidature against other competitors. 

Knowing our PM candidates : Mr. Narendra Modi (Part-2)

As I promised that I will be putting up the profiles of our PM candidates i.e. Mr. Arvind Kejriwal, Mr.Narendra Modi, Mr. Rahul Gandhi in the alphabetical order. Today, it’s the turn of Mr. Modi’s profile.


For Mr. Arvind Kejriwal’s profile, you can go through the below link.

Knowing our PM candidates : Mr. Arvind Kejriwal (Part-1) -

http://newlightforlife.blogspot.in/2014/03/knowing-our-pm-candidates-mr-arvind.html



Profile of Narendra Modi


Name -  Mr. Narendra Damodardas Modi

Age – 63 years

Birth Place – He was born in Vadnagar, a town in the northern Mehsana district of present day Gujarat on 17^th September, 1950.


Current position -


He is presently the acting Chief Minister of the state of Gujarat and the prime ministerial candidate of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) for the upcoming 2014 general elections.


Educational Qualification -

Mr. Modi did his graduation in political science from Delhi University. He later pursued his masters from Gujarat University.


He has also done a three month course on public relations and image management from United States, which shows why he is always able to position and portray himself exceedingly well in front of media.



Work Experience -

The work life of Mr. Modi started quite early when he was just a teenager. He used to help his father sell tea at Vadnagar railway station and other surrounding areas when he was just 6 years old. After that, he along with his brother started a tea stall in Vadnagar bus station.


After selling tea on Vadnagar bus station for a while, Mr. Modi began working in the staff canteen of Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation (GSRTC). He continued working there till 1970 when he finally became a permanent and full time propagator (Pracharak) of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).


Mr. Modi received his initial training of RSS Pracharak at Nagpur. After that, he was given the charge of Sangh Parivar’s student wing i.e Akhil Bhartiya Vidhyarti Parishad (ABVP) of Gujarat.


After having worked as a Pracharak for 15 long years, Mr. Modi was then shifted from RSS to work with Gujarat state BJP. He then went on to become the General Secretary of the BJP’s Gujarat unit in 1988. Mr. Modi’s electoral strategy was credited with the BJP’s victory in the Gujarat state election of 1995.


In 1996, Mr. Modi was transferred to Delhi and was made the general secretary of BJP to handle party’s issues in Himachal Pradesh and Haryana. He became the national secretary of BJP in 1998.


In 2001, allegations of power abuse, corruption and ineffective administration against KeshuBhai Patel’s govt. led BJP’s national leadership to look for a better alternative leadership in Gujarat. This is when Mr. Modi became the chief minister of Gujarat. He has been Gujarat’s chief minister for last 13 years, having won elections thrice.  


Achievements -

Vibrant Gujarat -

Mr. Modi’s biggest achievement till date has been the way he changed the face of Gujarat, and has made it a more dynamic and progressive state. A state, whose manufacturing sector was sluggish and lagging when he came into power, now boosts of the best manufacturing sector performance in the country. It’s not just manufacturing sector, but the overall progress and growth of the state in various sectors which have been the most highlighting point of Mr. Modi’s tenure.

 
Political career -

Mr. Modi has vast experience of politics as he has been working with the BJP since 1985. He has been the general secretary, national secretary of BJP and the chief minister of gujarat state for long periods of time, which make him a suitable candidate for the post of the prime minister as he has the desired experience of running administration and work related with it. He is regarded as the best strategist and quite a good administrator by many officials working in the Gujarat govt.


Criticism -

Communal Figure -

Mr. Modi is regarded as a communal figure by many. He has been consistently accused over the last decade of being indirectly involved in perpetuating the 2002 gujarat riots. But, Supreme Court of India and SIT (Special Investigation Team) have given him a clean chit as they couldn’t garner enough evidence to prosecute him. But, despite getting clearances from Supreme Court of India and numerous other investigating organizations, his involvement in the 2002 riots is still rigorously debated.

Knowing our PM candidates : Mr. Arvind Kejriwal (Part -1)

As the election season is approaching, it becomes our duty as the citizen of this country to elect the best and most suited candidate to be our next PM (Prime Minister). For this, we have to take a considerate decision, based on the profiles of the candidates in contention for the race. So, in the next 4-5 days, we will be looking at the profiles of Mr. Arvind Kejriwal, Mr. Narendra Modi, and Mr. Rahul Gandhi in the alphabetical order. So, let’s start with Mr. Kejriwal first.



Profile of Arvind Kejriwal


Name -  Mr. Arvind Kejrwial

Age – 45 years

Birth Place – He was born in Siwani, Bhiwani district of Haryana on 16^th August, 1968.


Current position -

He is one of the prominent leaders and the face of the Aam Aadmi Party. It is evident from his work that he is the acting president of AAP but that has never been announced officially.


Educational Qualification -

Mr. Kejriwal did his graduation from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, in mechanical engineering (batch 1985-1989).

He pursued his higher education from Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration where he was given the training for the administration work of a civil servant.



Work Experience -

Mr. Kejriwal, after completing his engineering from IIT kharagpur, joined TATA steel in 1989 and was posted in Jamshedpur. After working there for 3 years, he resigned from that job to start preparing for the civil services.


From 1992-95, apart from preparing for the civil services, he spent some quality and enriching time at the Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of charity in Kolkata, Ramakrishna Mission in the north east and Nehru Yuva Kendra. According to Mr. Kejriwal, the time spent by him at the Ramakrishna Mission and Nehru Yuva Kendra was the path-breaking moment of his life. He finally joined IRS (Indian Revenue Services) in 1995 after qualifying through civil service examinations.


He worked in the income tax department till 2000 during which he co-founded an NGO named, Parivartan, in 1999 to tackle issues related with corruption and ensure transparent accountable governance.


In 2000, he took 2 years of paid leave from his office to pursue higher studies with a contract of rejoining the office to work for atleast next 3 years.


He had worked only for 18 months after rejoining the office and took 18 months of unpaid leave, which resulted in income tax department filing a case against Mr. kejriwal for breaching the contract. He finally resigned in 2006 from the office.



Achievements -

RTI (Right to Information) Act, 2005 -

Mr. Kejriwal spearheaded an awareness campaign for RTI across India. He, along with others, aggressively campaigned for the RTI act to be enacted across India. This finally paved the way for the enactment of the Right to Information act, 2005.


In 2006, Mr. Kejriwal was awarded with "Ramon Magsaysay Award for emergent leadership" for his involvement in spearheading the awareness campaign for RTI.


In December 2006, Kejriwal along with Manish Sisodia and Abhinandan Sekhri started Public Cause Research Foundation, which works for promoting better local self-governance and RTI related campaigns.


Jan Lokpal Bill -

Mr. Arvind Kejriwal along with Prashant Bhushan, Shanti Bhushan, Santosh Hegde and Kiran Bedi drafted Jan Lokpal Bill. As the bill was edited and revised time to time after wide public consultations, it was known as Jan Lokpal Bill i.e. People’s Lokpal bill. Though Anna Hazare was the leader of the movement for Jan Lokpal, Arvind Kejriwal is regarded as the architect behind the movement.



Political career -


In 2012, Mr. Kejriwal started his own political party named, “AAP” (Aam Aadmi Party) to fight against corruption and hence pave the way for Jan Lokpal Bill. The party got unprecedented success in the 2013 Delhi State Election with Mr. Kejriwal becoming the chief minister of the state for 49 days by taking the outside support from the congress party.
Criticism -

One of the regular criticisms that Mr. Kejriwal faces is his inclination towards populist measures. Whether, it was the promise of reducing the electricity prices by half before the Delhi state elections or the promise of giving free water, these populist promises seem too unrealistic and against economy for a few.


Disclaimer : If you find any discrepancies in the above content, please feel free to mail me at vivek05rock@gmail.com.