Beware of those propagandist tricks

The daily belabouring of issues only creates a frenetic public parade of issues and allegations. But nothing is followed up to establish the truth.

• In a democracy, those who are spiritual have to be political. It suits the interests of the corrupt and oppressive players in politics to sustain the myth that politics is a truth, justice, welfare, den of scoundrels. 
• Politics is sacred. A Swachh Bharat will be possible only through swachh politics.
• Commitment to truth is the core that spirituality and politics should share. Truth operates on the ground as justice. Justice addresses human dignity and welfare. Wherever truth is compromised, people’s welfare has suffered and oppression has bared its fangs.
• It is politics that contextualises commitment to truth and makes it concrete. Those who care for truth in politics remain continually vigilant against every measure, every propagandist trick, meant to hypnotise the masses. 
• Commitment to truth creates a national culture marked by scientific temper and rational thinking.
• Capacity of the masses to think rationally can be disabled by a variety of factors such as lack of education, their inability to think rationally, their vulnerability to propaganda, the non-availability of relevant data, the creation of hype and waves, and so on.
• Democracy, especially, is under a duty to educate and empower citizens to think rationally and choose objectively. Oppressive regimes are averse to spreading education and free thinking.
• The dogmas of patriotism and nationalism are valuable to the extent of serving as catalytic agents to galvanise people’s energy for nation-building. But in the history, these concepts have been used mostly to spread hatred among nations and within them, between castes, groups, communities.
• Commitment to truth on the part of citizens requires that they see through the avalanche of issues. An illusion of upholding accountability is created by the daily belabouring of issues. A new issue is ushered even before the current one settles down. Nothing is followed up to the extent of establishing the truth of issues. Nothing changes.
• In a democracy, its citizens must remain in harmony with one another. They should never treat each other as enemies. Enmity is spread by vested interests to thrive by polarising citizens. The policy of ‘divide and rule’ never promotes people’s welfare.
• A democracy ought to take care of the majority that are poor. The fruits of development should be distributed preferentially among the poor. 
• The oligarchic element lurks in every democratic polity should never be allowed to become powerful enough to scuttle democracy. The corporates of today are the successors of yesteryear oligarchs. 
• The threat that the oligarchic elements hold out to democracy becomes ominous when the media play a partisan and propagandist role. When this process crosses the Lakshman rekha, it imperils democracy.
• The dogma of stability and its implications for the dynamic of democracy needs to be watched. Every centre of power is apt to deem itself to be the sole and legitimate custodian of national destiny. It views prospects for change with extreme intolerance. This keeps the dividing line between ‘freedom of choice’ and ‘sedition’ continually fluid. This brings ‘the right to choose’ under extreme stress and strain.
• The difference between a corrupt government and a tyrannical one is that the former knows itself to be a bird of passage and are fixated on reaping a bumper harvest in quick time. A tyrannical government is obsessed not with megabucks but with self-perpetuation. It substitutes the money with monopoly. The corrupt do not wish to be caught. The tyrannical do not wish to be shown the door. Both addictions harm democracy. And both skip on thin ice.

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Development and poverty

POVERTY

• Poverty is present everywhere. Manifestation of poverty is a challenge.
• Poverty and development are two sides to a coin. Where there is poverty, there may not be development.
• Poverty is not only a lack of money to take care of basic necessity of life it creates a picture of aimlessness, uncertainty and hopelessness in the mind of the poor. 
• An unhealthy or poor population produces less and may be forced into practices damaging the environment. It is the poor people who suffer most acutely from lack of development. 
• The poor are anxious about the future in regard to the national political life, degradation of the environment, the high rise of inequality among people coupled with mass unemployment.
• The high level of selfishness in the society with people looking only to their needs and fearful of others. Corruption is endemic. Crime rate is high and the future of generation yet unborn is clouded with uncertainty.

DEVELOPMENT

• Development is often socio-economic, political, science and technology biased. 
• The concept of development is a complex one. Its difficulty is not only in terms of definition or description but also in terms of measurement. 
• Lack of infrastructure, deep seated corruption, various forms of conflict, bad governance and poor healthcare facilities cannot promote a healthy population committed to work for progress and development.
• GDP as the measurement does not say anything about the distribution of total income of its country. It does not capture the totality of the development situation of the country.
• The people are both the means and the end of economic development.
• Human beings are at the center of concerns for sustainable development. 
• They are entitled to a healthy and productive life in harmony with nature.
• Development cannot be merely economic development or GDP as important as that may be. 
• Development must include the conditions of reality that allow people to take their destiny into their own hands, individually and collectively involving economic, social, political, psychological, environmental, cultural, religious and international dimensions. 
• Development is the ability and capability of the people to procure sufficient natural resources to meet the basic needs of all in a self-reliant manner.
• The situation of the bottom forty percent of society is often bypassed by development and government.
• Human welfare is the ultimate end of development not economic indices.
• The welfare of the human person in its totality is the good health of a person and his skills cultivated through educational programmes as his endeavours add to the wealth of his nation.
• Development strategy should be people centred and community participation must be evident. Any project that people/community cannot identify with will collapse. 

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

• World Commission on the Environment and Development (WCED) defines sustainable development as ‘development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.’
• WCED posits that the present generation has been reckless and wasteful both in its exploitation and use of natural resources by pursuing a series of socio-economic and industrial policies which endangers global environmental security. It condemned the inequalities with and among nations and called for a restructuring of contemporary economic relations to guarantee an equitable distribution of national and international wealth.
• The International Economic System (IES) is primarily profit orientated. Consequently, everything could be sacrificed on the altar of profit to the detriment of development of peoples and individuals, the often stated corporative responsibility of multinationals.
• Can accountability and transparency be found in their political intercourse?
• Poor countries are without development and citizens may not be able to compete with others because of lack of necessary capital, the technical-know-how and expertise. Symbiotically, without development poverty may not be eradicated. The solution to the dilemmatic situation is to confront the reality of poverty and challenges of development simultaneously, nationally and internationally.

There is no humiliation more abusive than hunger ... Pranab Mukherjee

Any kind of development that don't benefit bottom 40% of people, environmentally sustainable and generate mass employment is not a development at all. The trickle down theory, the standing rationale for our economic reforms, doesn't not address the aspirations of the poor people and eliminate poverty is unacceptable nonsense. Health, drinking water, sanitation, education, skill development and empowerment with adequate capital are essential for poverty eradication and meaningful development of poor people especially in rural India. Govt spending meager 2.27% on healthcare and 3.70% on education in the current budget against a minimum of 5-6% indicates empathy deficit towards the poor people of India. Even these meager allocations are towards high end spending rather than improving PHCs and schools. Hyped disruptive economic reforms Demonetisation & GST continuum have impacted poor most with loss of livelihoods and incomes and driven towards desperation and our rulers thought fit to turn a Nelson's eye.