Manifesto of an insignificant Indian

Independent India is soon completing seventy three years of its existence. Anniversaries are a good time for stock taking of the progress made, identifying current trends and resolving to make course corrections. More than seven decades of experimentation with a democratic and inclusive political system, riddled with an inherited social and economic system which, despite significant improvements in recent times, continues to be patently unequal and unjust, is a story which has no parallel in human history. The journey so far calls for a dispassionate performance evaluation, howsoever unsatisfactory or incomplete it may be, on account of one’s limited knowledge, understanding and unavoidable prejudices. The successes are worth noting and being proud of ---- survival as one political entity, robust electoral democracy, suppression of evils like untouchability and

limited empowerment of Dalits, significant improvement in the status of women, Rule of Law (though blighted by many aberrations), an independent Judiciary, free media, broadly liberal and humanist discourse on most of the social and political issues, a free society with  respect for individual freedoms (though subject to numerous exceptions), middle-income economy, moderately developed scientific and industrial structure, a strong security apparatus backed with nuclear and space capabilities, a huge pool of well-trained human resource in almost every field, a welfare state that tries to extend some support to the weaker sections, etc. The failures are legion and glaring ---- overwhelming poverty, depressing gender inequality (evident in foeticide, infanticide, dowry and rape), shamefully low educational attainments coupled with poor health indicators, sub-human quality of life endured by a majority of Dalits and tribals, casteism and sectarianism, linguistic chauvinism, separatist militancies, environmental degradation, social conflicts such as caste wars, communal riots and left wing extremism, a non-responsive governance apparatus that is massively corrupted, a broken down system of courts plagued with life sapping delays, shambolic infrastructure, a colonial era police system meant to repress rather than protect (though studded with many competent and devoted personnel), etc.

Moving beyond the enumeration of our successes and failures thus far, we should envision our future where a blueprint for course to be adopted over the medium term of next five to ten years has to be laid out. The guiding principle of the proposed blueprint is to increase the fairness of our socio-economic system. Again, no exhaustiveness or infallibility is claimed by the proposer! In fact, no explanation is given as the rationale of the proposed blueprint is taken to be self-evident, a la US Declaration of Independence. The proposed blueprint--- 

1. Every Indian must enjoy food security and access to publicly funded health and education services at a certain level which may be statutorily defined as a legal right. Public provision of food through fair price shops as well as education and health services through government schools and hospitals may be complemented with their provision by private bodies whose accessibility to the poor may be provided for by a well-crafted system of food, education and health stamps. Inevitably, public spending commitments must go up and their provision at a certain defined level be guaranteed by law as a rightful entitlement of every Indian.

2. Women's participation in public life must be promoted with a sense of urgency by instituting a system of 50 per cent quota in educational institutions, government employment (armed forces included), legislatures, judiciary, local bodies, councils of ministers, etc.

3. A constitutionally mandated Equal Opportunities Commission must be established for looking into complaints of discrimination by any organisation against its current or prospective employees, customers, etc., both individually and as a group, on the grounds of caste, gender, language, religion, region, or any other unreasonable ground for such discrimination.

4. Another attempt must be made to create a National Judicial Appointments Commission, with equal representation of legislators and sitting judges, to increase the fairness, both actual and perceived, in the appointment of judges for the higher judiciary.

5. Judicial accountability must be given top priority by statutorily mandating a hiatus of five years for a retiring judge to take any appointment under any government or any position where salary or honorarium or emolument is paid by any government. Live streaming of court proceedings may be made compulsory, except on the grounds of national security or the privacy of litigants.

6. Narrowing down, if not outright removal, of contempt powers of judiciary and legislatures may be taken up. Contempt powers should be available only against such acts which materially and substantially disrupt or threaten to disrupt the actual functioning of courts or legislatures.

7. Police must be bifurcated into a law and order maintenance force and a crime investigation and prosecution body, without any lateral movement of personnel between the two parts. Crime investigation and prosecution body may be headed by a lawyer (as is the standard practice in many developed countries) and given some amount of institutional autonomy.

8. Divorce law must be liberalised so that mutual consent divorce may be available within one month. Even if one party opposes the divorce petition, divorce may still be granted within six months if the party seeking divorce is ready to pay a laid down percentage of its current assets or current income to the other party.

9. Competition law must be strengthened to ensure that no entity may enjoy more than 35 per cent of market share, in domains having turnover above a certain threshold or having a certain minimum number of customers, unless expressly exempted by law on definite grounds. Thus, every market shall have at least three participants.

10. Contract enforcement must be improved as a matter of great importance. This may be done by increasing the availability of reliable information to the relevant stakeholders by having either a single repository of all contracts or a system of multiple repositories of contracts for various segments of economy. Such repositories may be searchable with the unique identifier assigned to the contracting entities. Further, contract enforcement must be speeded up by having an adequate number of dedicated contractenforcement courts. Finally, a system of insurance of contractual

rights may also be explored to reduce the uncertainty associated with the enforcement of contractual rights.

11. Education system, apart from its current institution-based conception, must also have a universally accessible modular component. The modular component may be based on highquality, publicly available online content which should be coupled with certification based on national level, subject-wise proficiency tests.

12. Non-cash based transaction payment systems must be broadened and deepened for reducing the usage of anonymous cash in the economy, while making sure that the vulnerable sections are not inconvenienced by the transition.

13. All real estate transfers above a certain threshold must be on the non-cash payment basis and have Aadhaar authentication of the buyers and the sellers. Such transfers should be valued at a price level which is discovered by a simplified system of public auction, after the seller has published her intent to sell on a dedicated portal. 

The list can go on and on. Environment, labour laws, infrastructure, media, social conflicts, strategic affairs, electoral system, etc. are some of the important issues that have been left out. But the point has been made. We have to move towards creation of a fairer society to ensure that every Indian, irrespective of the group she belongs, can fashion her destiny with hard work and determination. We, the people of India, deserve nothing less!

The author is Deputy Secretary,  Department of Financial Services, Government of India

The views expressed are personal views and do not represent the view of Government of India