Elections 2019: Focus on issues affecting people: Resource Management
M G
Warrier
Letters
January 5, 2019
Resources management
This refers to
T N Ninan’s editorial piece “Lutyens Delhi” (Business Standard, Weekend Ruminations, January 5).
My thoughts go on a tangent and may not qualify for being printed in this
paper. On August 15, 2014, speaking from the ramparts of Red Fort, Prime
Minister Modi announced that the Planning Commission had become a house in
disrepair and needed dismantling and reconstruction.
We read more
into that first Independence Day Message from Modi as PM than cosmetic changes
like renaming the institution as NITI Ayog or changes in the then existing
system of Five Year Plans. We thought, it was about a wholesale change in
approach to planning and management of the country’s resources. Nothing perceptible
happened. Subalterns remained subservient to the temporary tenants who faked
ownership of the Bastille.
Moving out
from symbols and signals, let us face the reality. The five year Modi regime
has not changed the way the rich has been managing governance or the attitude
of bureaucracy to common man’s problems. Judiciary’s priorities have not
changed, nor have the arrogance of money power come down. Then, what has
changed?
Prime Minister
Modi has taken forward the efforts of Aam Aadmi Party (the political edition of
the movement called India Against Corruption) to create awareness among the
people about issues that affect them. In the coming years, elections will be
fought with focus on issues like distributive justice, reducing corruption, professional capabilities
of candidates fighting elections, quality debates in legislatures, mapping and
optimum use of domestic resources and protection of human rights and
environment.
The domestic
resources mentioned above include land and buildings presently remaining idle
in capital cities, gold and jewellery in vaults irrespective of ownership, unutilized
built areas (commercial and residential) and agricultural lands remaining
uncultivated or under-cultivated (list illustrative)
M G Warrier, Mumbai
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