Nation First – Putting the focus back on India, our Nation.
I am a very recent entrant into Politics, but I have been as all of you have been and continue to be impacted by the Politics and Politicians of our nation.
As we meet here today, we are aware of the forthcoming elections to the 15th Lok Sabha – Elections 2009 as the media likes to brand it. But I believe this is an unprecedented election in many many ways – comparable in its importance only maybe to the elections post-emergency when the democracy and will of the people were put to the test. Elections are usually accompanied by much rhetoric and sloganeering. But it is important to frame in stark terms, the real challenges that face the people of India and these are real issues and challenges.
The reason I call these elections, one of the most critical of our times is simply this. There are real and unprecedented challenges that we are facing as a nation and people and not just one challenge, multiple ones at that – all converging to form a perfect storm if the nation doesn’t respond sensibly and intelligently and unitedly to them – and for that these elections must throw up representatives and leadership that are able to work unitedly, sensibly and intelligently.
Let me outline the challenges that we face today. These are impacting us today and most importantly will be the defining challenges for us in the coming years
The first is the state of our economy. I was head of FICCI over the last 12 months and saw the mis-steps and lost opportunities over the last 5 years that have compounded the effect and pain of the Global credit crisis on our economy. Over the last few months there has been a sharp deterioration of our economy and the uncertainty around the future of our economy. We are fiscally stretched and on the brink of a recession and unfortunately have not used in any meaningful manner the opportunity of the last five years to effect structural changes that were so required to create a sustainable and inclusive growth architecture. I have been critical about this in the public domain and many share this view, that as a nation and government we have lost the opportunity of the last five years of global economic expansion to create permanent economic change in the country. Without a doubt we need a government in May 2009 that can address the state of our economy in meaningful, structural and measured ways – less talk and more effort. The last time I saw something like this was the NDA government which took a battered economy in 1998 and slowly put it back on a solid growth path in 2003/2004 with a series of measured steps.
The second challenge is the vulnerable security situation we find ourselves in as a nation and as a people – We are all aware that India has lost more people in the last few years to terrorism than any other nation in the world except Iraq and you will agree that India and Iraq should not be spoken in the same breath. We are mature democracy with institutions of policing and intelligence that are supposed to work and defend its people. But Bangalore terror attacks and 26/11 has proved and established that we are a very weakly protected nation. Unfortunately we have had very little real change in this area, despite the threat profile significantly increasing over the last 4-5 years. As a nation we are being constantly distracted by discussions about Pakistan and ISI etc, i.e on the origin of terror. In my opinion, the real issue is what are we doing about protecting ourselves from attacks and enemies wherever they come from. Today they could be Pakistan, tomorrow from some other place. The only response that we can see is formation of a National Investigative agency and a reluctant and half hearted attempt at framing Anti Terror laws. Neither of this will prevent further attacks. Why? NIA is an agency to investigate attacks after they happen! What we need is a Counter Terrorism Agency to prevent attacks and not another agency to investigate it after it happens! The terrorists in 26/11 reportedly used the conventional smuggling routes to reach Mumbai. We all know that and the Vohra Committee report has confirmed that there is a political – criminal nexus in smuggling. To effectively protect ourselves against terrorism, these have to be investigated and dismantled. Many like me have demanded an independent investigation into 26/11 to impartially conclude what or who went wrong. The US did this with the 9/11 commission. Investigating our mistakes is an important part of a strategy to ensuring no future attacks. But we are all disappointed at the lack of such an enquiry.
There is a tendency to treat discussions on security as political. It is not. These are real challenges to us and our families. In addition to the threats of terror, we have domestic movements like the Naxal movement that reportedly is afflicting a third of all districts in India. If you don’t still understand the impact of terrorism on civil society and the economy, look around us. We are living in a dangerously unstable region of failed, failing or terror hit states - Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
There is also the challenge posed by the trend of balkanization of India. The original idea of a strong united India – the idea that motivated our founding fathers to fight for independence and create a free and independent India – seems to be slowly disappearing – being killed off at the altar of regionalism, religions, castes and other issues being created by politicians as another way of dividing up the electorate into different vote banks.
We are a critical stage as a nation. 60 years after Independence, many pressures and compulsions are pulling us apart and creating internal disagreements. A strong sense of National identity would be the natural safeguards to these pressures. But the dilution over the last many years of this national identity is allowing each of these pressures to blow up into conflicts and cause a further erosion of our National identity. This makes it even more critical that we focus on rebuilding the idea of India – at the very least for our future generations. This, in my view, is the biggest challenge to overcoming all other challenges – Bringing back the idea of India as our primary identity of all Indians – Nation first in other words. We are one Billion Citizens of India, but we must be One Billion Indians who believe in this Nation first before all other identities of religion, caste or creed. We must support political parties and leaders who are committed to this idea of Nation first.
India has handled challenges before as a nation and as a people and we can surely do it again. But the key is to stand united as Indians and be determined as a group to take on these challenges. Poor governance and political corruption to be replaced by Good Governance and Politicians that treat politics as public service, The challenges of National security by depoliticizing our Police and security apparatus and building professional and capable institutions and organizations that can protect all Indians , The challenge of the economy by taking politics out of the economy and taking the difficult and correct decisions including much needed reforms of corruption in public spending - that puts the economy on a sustainable growth path.
I have met and interacted with many Political leaders over the last many years. In all sincerity I can say this, the two gentlemen on the dias today – Arun Jaitley and Ananthkumar are two amongst the few people I have met who have a sense of national service, idealism and uncompromising moral integrity and values. They were and continue to be one of the reasons why I chose to join Politics and public service and remind me every day that all politicians aren’t cut from the same cloth and there is hope for our nation. Ananthkumarji also represents hope for revival and rebuilding of Bangalore as Vice Chairman of Abide and has been in the short few months of Abide’s existence, the catalyst for the many ideas and changes that we want to see in our city in governance, public services and infrastructure.
Let me end by saying that as we look around us, we hear and see stories of service to the nation - be it Indians like Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan, Col Vasanth, Col JJ Thomas who lived and died as ultimate examples of Nation first citizens or the countless other Indians who serve in many different fields and believe in placing their faith in India over all else. However it is in Politics that this value of Nation first is most lacking. We need to restore this and the only way to achieve this, is to ensure that our democratic process has this as its objective - that as citizens, we celebrate and reward those Politicians that subscribe to this belief of Nation first – a strong United India for all Indians.
Jai Hind, Jai Karnataka