A Hopeful Wakeup Call To The Hon. Prime Minister Dr.

Manmohan Singh
Mahesh Kumar C, Freelance Journalist, Columnist & Socio-Political Radio Presenter, London, United Kingdom. 08/08/2013. United Progressive Alliance (UPA), Getting re-elected to power with more majority and Dr.Manmohan Singh becoming Prime Minister of India once again in 2009 is the highest accomplishment of him in the past nine Years. He enters the history books as the first ever Non Gandhi/Nehru family member to be in the PMs Chair for more than five years. It might be very hard to see this scene again in near future especially with some congress party cadres already singing songs in support of Rahul Gandhi as congress parties Prime Ministerial candidate. Since 2009 unfortunately, the ruling UPA under the headship of the Scholar Prime Minister has seen countries terrible scams and heights of indecisiveness ever which won the title for any congress Govt as a "Policy Paralytic". The Prime Minister gets frequently speechless and looks very helpless especially when ever there is a crisis and things literally come to a pause in the Govts activity. He depends on few congress "Golden Orators" the Spokespersons to speak on the case on his behalf in all possible Indian languages and few other "Stalwart Politicians" who served nothing less than Chief Ministers of various states of Indian Republic with at least 30 to 40 years of experience in politics, representing 125 years old Indian National congress, carrying forward the duty of high command in the most faithful ways and means whilst going up the ladder in various cadres. One way he is so "Blessed" that very rarely this type of mechanism works and exists for any Prime Minister in this world that to, especially, for someone who should be representing a biggest democracy of 1.2 billions of population in this whole Universe. The leaders should be elected by the people, for the people and from the people at least for top decision making posts like Prime Minister and Chief Ministers. But we are talking about a system so special, where there is no need even to go and fight elections on a

face to face platform in the peoples court every five years but they can get conveniently elected to the countrys top decision making posts via RajyaSabha and Vidhansabha routes. Thanks to the few constitutional bodies, the Executive and the Judiciary that are always there to do their work and 150 odd media channels and 100 and odd news papers to project the issues 24/7. Whats happening now in India? A death blow to the economy with a steep fall in the growth rate to a lowest of 5-6% in 2012-2013.Experts say it usually takes 5 years to raise by 1% in any developing economy so at the look of it one can comfortable say we went back by 25 years as far as growth rate is concerned. With rupee ripped off to its all time record low in the dollar market, it is certainly raising concerns for anyone aspiring "India emerging." When we are talking about reforms the very thick "Redtapism" and so called "Regulatory bodies" have paved ways that country lost an investment of around 1.5 lakh crores just in the previous financial year. Arcelor Mittal pulled out their plans to establish a top steel company, and countries top business house heads like TATA started searching for convenient sites elsewhere in the world to start his steel factory and a company like POSCO has to pull out from the race too. Remarkably, In Between July 2011 and June 2012 Unemployment rose by 2% adding to the already existing unemployment rate, Inflation by 9% with prices of commodities skyrocketing especially prices of oil, milk, fruits and pulses and all other routinely consumed commodities going away from the reach of commonman. In a vast country like India which mainly depends upon road transport to move 90% of its people and 65% of its freight everyday across the length and breadth of the nation, imagine what exactly increasing fuel prices means that to with few charges against the Govt by opposition stating New Delhi is succumbing to the pressure of petrol mafia, which was quoted as part of the verbatim by one of its senior Union Minister recently. Adding to this, the pathetic delay that is taking place in various Govts administrative blocks of the capitals power corridors to clear files associated with countries major infrastructure related projects. This is once again a big blow to the decision making mechanism and of course the financial crunch is literally suffocating everything. All these factors are collectively affecting the National Highways and other top rated road/rail and water infrastructure creation projects to the international standards. The best live examples are in-completed 5,750 km Golden Quadrilateral ,
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the7,150 km long the North-South and East-West corridors , construction of various major ports and completion of various other railway projects which are going ahead at a snail speed. What went right and what went wrong? Some speculate the main reason why UPA 2 came to Power was because of its widely canvassed welfare schemes and the pushing forward of nuclear deal in a hurry by getting the support of all UPA allies in 2008 just before elections in 2009. Though the left has to leave the Govt in 2008 pertinently on the nuclear deal, they have got no time or no resources left to convince the people of the Nation that it is them the left who empowered Dr. Manmohan Singhs Govt.to implement many welfare schemes to the people living below Poverty Line (BPL) as per the agreed common minimum programme of the UPA 1 Govt with its allies in between 2004-2008.This is what recently Mr.Sitaram Yechuri a senior politician CPI ( M) polit bureau member told the author in an interview for a London based Radio Station. Though this Govt was very successful in getting Right to information act, Right to Work act and tomorrow or day after Right to food act.But,there is no doubt that this Govt.s credibility is going down day by day only because of the scams and lack of quick and solid decision making. Unfortunately, since four years almost for every 3 months UPA 2 hit the headlines with allegations of one scam or other raising questions towards how Dr.Manmohan Singh is running his Government and how Mrs.Sonia Gandhi is doing justice to the three top posts she holds onto: 1. As Congress party President. 2. As UPA Chairperson controlling all UPA allies 3. As Chairperson for National Advisory Council which gives the best advices to the Govt of |India to take to go in a right direction. Whats next? The story is not over yet. This monsoon session of Parliament from August 5 to August 30, presents the UPA Government with one final opportunity to seek support and save face value before it reaches out to the voters next year. The ongoing monsoon session from 05/08/13 to 30/08/13 with 10 days holidays in the form of weekends etc..it leaves this Govt with 15 business days in hand to pass a total of 116 pending bills which includes 45 major bills like Food security, Creation of 29th State Telangana, Land acquisition and rehabilitation act, Foreign education institutes act, mining mineral regulation act, consumers
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acts, National pension act so on and so forth. In 2012 and 2013 in both houses UPA 2 was successful in clearing only 32 bills and acts. The Govt will have to work tooth and nail to clear the Rs 1.23 lakh crore Food Security Act, but it will have to work so swiftly and efficiently on other important acts like Lokpal and Lokayuktas Bill, Whistleblowers' Protection Bill, Pesticide Management Bill, Seeds Bill, Women's Reservation Bill. With UPAs incline and bent towards populist schemes it will be a very tough time for Chairperson Mrs.Sonia Gandhi to get a genuine consensus amongst the UPA allies on policy matters to get the business moving with jet speed to stand again in people's court as elections are fast approaching in Nov/Dec2013 in few states of North India including Delhi and the General elections to follow in May2014. India is a Nation today with 70% of its population around 40 to 50 years of age group with high aspirations and hopes. The promising middle class who are emerging every day with increasing consumerism and the challenging 350 millions of people who are living in pathetic conditions below poverty line leading on their lives on a meagre house hold income of less than a dollar a day. The only ray of hope is the policy makers bringing the best acts, rules and regulations and showing accountability in the practical application of these acts and regulations with fairness and fastness, to uplift the downtrodden to Above Poverty Line. Unfortunately, the current 15th Lok Sabha lost more than 33% of its valuable time in the form of disruptions, adjournments and non productive discussions. This is almost double than the last term between 20042009. The nations exchequer need to spend around Rs2.5lakhs per minute to run the parliament which is approx equal to 3000 or $4500.At least, let us all hope and pray the leaders of Indian democracy occupying both treasury and opposition benches, realise the time and value of parliament sessions and do the business with accountability. On the contrary, If UPA 2 headed by Dr. Manmohan Singh looses this golden opportunity in the parliament this time, sure it will lose many more opportunities ahead in peoples court because this is one of those Governments in the history of India that ever had the top brass of highly intelligent financial, administrative, academic, executive, political, judicial and technical experts. It all depends on how the PM and his team of ministers uses and utilises all of them in the best interest building an Emerging India achieving excellence everywhere. Contact: Email:mkc176@aol.com