Its the time when worlds largest democracy is going to execute its democratic right to form a government by periodic elections after 5 years. The General Elections in India are going to be exciting to say the least. The chai wallah vs Jhadu Walla vs shehzada vs the plethora of regional parties who are eyeing the great seat of power in Delhi or just aspiring to be a part of the alliance which comes to power. The issues that are being raised are corruption, communalism ,state of governance, etc. These issues are issues raised mainly by these parties who then nurture it by educating us through various sources of media and then requesting the vote for these issues that they raised they want solved and you vote for them to help them solve these issues by themselves. Its the battle between the Grand-old Party of the country with the one thats associated to a religion practised by largest population and the one thats also making headways is the new party which calls for end to corruption and sings the song of self-righteousness. Yes am not a big fan of Arvind Kejriwal.
But all this apart the basic issues in a nation of 135 billion strong people are many. Many places still dont have basic amenities. The sanitation problem which if can be checked may save millions of those poor who spent hard earned money and a major part of their income on healthcare. They dont have fancy healthcards which covers their medical expenditure. No one comes out and says I will built toilets so that your families dont fall ill your young children are healthy and attend schools. This is what the poor people most need security from issues like these. Equal opportunities like sanitation. Taking educated doctors to every nook and corner of a vast country like ours is no easy task and providing sanitation might just help us to rescue these people to a secure and healthy life. It does not solve the problem but a dedicated year towards it will solve it will make our rivers cleaner will make air free of a few parasites and prevent spending on medicines we cant afford.
The big leaders are not talking about this. The inflation and its adverse impacts are talked about but the terrorism and our foreign relations are not. We now have a Globalized economy where world issues affect our economy and thus every section of the population. The emerging superpower in our neighbourhood also our biggest competitor in global trade the mighty CHINA has with complete knowledge of India built a String of pearls around us. We are coming up with new schemes to promote export but the way in which china is working its intimidating and us and has surrounded us almost from all sides. We on the contrary are losing out our all time supporters like Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka whose strategic position we could have used instead is being used by china. This is not going to help our businesses either. The end of ethnic war has brought back the fishing industry of north Sri Lanka back to life and they are now fighting with indian fisherman for their share. These issues if not solved have the potential to effect the peace from south and as we know chinas presence in that region is going worsen things. We have threat of terrorism in northern and eastern areas. These people in Sri Lanka are desperate and may be misguided like a lot of people in the Kashmir and north eastern areas. Bangladesh the country sharing the largest land border with India is also not in a strong political problem. We should not only be concerned about peace and harmony in these areas but must also take actions that will solve problems because the situation in these nearby areas directly impact the life of Citizens in India. We have grown in economy but we must also protect this growth by maintaining peace and favourable conditions for Indians in neighbouring countries because we have seen it is this kind of neglect that leads to fall of great a many nations.
India's non involvement in internal matters of neighbours although looks nice in world perspective but that wont help in long term. To grow as a superpower we need to start acting like one. China has built its string of pearls but its not late for India to take proactive measures and built a strong relation with countries in South China Sea conflict and not only through visits and discussions but also take up economic activity. Economic assets in these areas will become our forts from where we can also protect our interests overseas.
I would just like the big small leaders to also concentrate on these foreign issues and not leave them for reactionary measures. These are issues that affect people during the course of those five years in one way or the other.The TV channels which have debates about "he said she said" should start raising these issues .
