Bureacracy : “ Waiting for Acche Din “

Disclaimer : Views are personal, Have to be read with open mind and outlook. Its not meant to malign anyone but its about bringing the undercurrents of bureaucracy to top."

‘Acche din aa gaye hain’ this is a wide spread feeling among many citizens of this country, with the election of Shri Narendra Modi as honorable PM.  I would like to seek his government attention to the problems that Indian bureaucracy is facing. Media always criticizes bureaucracy by referring to red-tapism, Inertia, poor public service delivery, slow decision making and policy paralysis prevalent in bureaucracy. But media never had tried to find out the inherent problems existing in the bureaucracy which is responsible for poor delivery and impacting the working of Indian bureaucracy as a whole. I would like to confine myself to group-A officers in Indian civilian bureaucracy which are selected directly through civil services examination, IES examination and IFoS examination conducted by UPSC. I am highlighting only few problems which are actually leading to the disintegration of bureaucracy, which is expected to be united and coordinated to deliver good governance.

Except IAS which is a generalist service, all other services are specialist services. Since all have passed the same exam (except IES and IFoS ), but the treatment differs with the service you have been allocated. It’s actually a tussle between IAS and non- IAS services, because in the age of specialization where we always prefer specialists, but the top posts of Indian bureaucracy are enjoyed by generalists i.e. IAS. The imposition of views in policy matters by generalist over specialists has led to the high sense of demoralization among all non-IAS specialist services. We must not reach the stage where specialist services start showing their defiance against IAS openly by not implementing their orders. Specialistion has to be respected and role of generalist has to be minimised in bureaucracy. IAS’s argument is that because of generalist ,they can able to take a holistic view and can accommodate all confronting ideas either it is political, economic or social, and specialists can’t able to envisage the holistic picture and their thinking is narrow and closed. Such arguments has no currency in today’s world of technology where one can seek any general information about anything through internet. Whereas it is difficult for generalist to learn specialist job because one has to learn special knowledge and skill, but for specialist to accommodate generalist view is very easy.

Right from start of the training, discrimination starts. Only three services – IAS, IPS and IFS are trained for Foundation course at LBSNAA, a five star academy, a symbol of Indian bureaucracy at Mussoorie, whereas other services are trained at other academies. My question here is why these three services are given more prominence over other services? Why only these services have camaraderie among themselves but not with other services? Why not even IAS, IPS and IFS are also sent to different academies along with their other services’ counterparts. It will be a good idea to send all services in all academies because this will strengthen the camaraderie among all services.

Starting pay structure of all civil services is same but after few year later , the IAS counterparts start drawing more salary due to faster promotion than other services, for same no. of  years of serving in government and there is a gap of almost 2 years in salary structure. When officers of all civil services entered at same time through same examination and then why this differential come in later year of services. This is against the principle of justice and equity. Why IAS promotions are 2 year ahead of other services ? Why other services are not promoted equally on par with IAS ?

One problem that Indian bureaucracy is facing that the specialist services is headed by IAS officers. For example currently CAG of India, who is head of the Indian audit & account services, is an IAS officer.  This is really demotivating for that servicemen who aspires for the highest post in their service, who remains loyal and spends her/his blood and toil for this service and the post which is actually due to their service, is in the hands of other service. Such practice has to be stopped. 

One more irony is that currently the head of IRS (C&CE) , i.e. chairman of CBEC is a 1977 batch IRS officer, has a status of special secretary to government of India but not secretary to government of India, and she has to report to the 1979 batch of IAS officer, who is a Revenue secretary. A person who has cleared the same exam 2 years later is senior to the person who has cleared it earlier. This is injustice with the service, just because she doesn’t belong to IAS. Government should take a cognizance of fact that head of any services for example in case of Chairman of CBEC and CBDT who are head of IRS (C&CE) and IRS (IT) respectively must be made equivalent to Cabinet secretary to government of India and  members of the board equivalent to secretary to GoI. As such practice is already there in Railway board, where Chairman, Railway board is equivalent to cabinet secretary and its members as Secretary to GoI. Similarly the secretaries to the GoI in different specialist ministries has to be granted to their servicemen. Such move will actually address three problems: 1) This will boost the morale of the all specialist services which are equally as significant as compared to IAS. 2) This will help in retaining the officers in same service, those who are still writing the civil services exam for getting into IAS. 3) This will help in reducing the vacancies created, when officers switch from one service to another.

There is also discrimination faced by other services vis-à-vis IAS in postings under central staffing scheme. Since Civil services board which is always headed by cabinet secretary, an IAS and most of whose members are also from IAS, always favor IAS officers over others for coveted postings. Government must look into this matter and there must be effective representation from other non IAS services in civil services board. Civil services board should be brought out of cabinet secretariat. Cabinet committee on appointments, should appoint chairman who can be from any services on merit basis. There must be provision of not less than 50% members from other central non-IAS services. This will end the nepotism of IAS officers for their service men in postings under central staffing scheme. 

There are certain discriminatory rules which actually discourages the entry of one service into other organization where they are eligible, but dominated by one service. For example, IRS (C&CE) & IRS(IT) officers are eligible for CBI for same post after 12 years of service, for which IPS is eligible after 8 years, because of analogus posts which are not correlated with the service years. For example:  Commissioner (officer of 1992/93 batch of IRS) is analogus to IG of police (officer of 1996 batch of IPS). Secondly, IRS officers are never posted in anti-corruption wing of CBI, because IPS doesn’t want to dilute its hegemony in that area. It’s a holy cow for them by which they can assert their dominance over other services. Thirdly, Joint directors and director post of CBI are exclusively held by IPS as per CBI recruitment rules. Rules need to be amended: 1) the specific equivalent posts of IRS or IAAS has to be mentioned for respective posts in CBI in consonance with service years. 2) When other servicemen can work till DIG level , then why there is a  bar for joint director and director posts ? Let merit prevails. 

There has been constant power struggle going on inside the bureaucracy of one service against other. IRS (IT) service consistently targeting IAS or IPS officers by opening their income tax file or by raid and booking them under disproportionate asset cases. Whereas IPS officers are consistently targeting especially IAS, IRS (IT) and IRS(C&CE) officers under corruption cases and book them under Prevention of corruption act, 1988. It’s an insider fact that CBI in order to finish their monthly or yearly targets will be fulfilled by booking cases against other servicemen.  IAAS officers now using audit tool to put all other services on toe because their any audit objections can spoil the career of other servicemen. Every services wants to show their fear and try to seek allegiance from other. Service targeting has to be stopped. Sometimes honest officers are also targeted, led to demoralization in services. All are equal services and all have to respect and trust each other, and all must act together to deliver good governance. And yes, no guilty remains unpunished.

The way forward to bring camaraderie and unity in civil services. During British India civil services, where all civil services officers were called as an ICS officers without any distinction of job they do, in my opinion such nomenclature has to be adopted for all services because our exam is common which is known as Civil services examination, which selects people for Indian civil services. There is need of specialization which has to be inculcated right from entry level of civil servants. There is need of creating new services like Indian health services, Indian Water management services and Indian judicial services under all India Civil services to bring more specialist services in the bureaucracy. Indian bureaucracy has to be revamped based on out of box thinking. We need to learn from developed countries, how professionally their government services works. 2^nd ARC has a good no. of recommendations to bring energy in the so called fossilized bureaucracy. Weberian bureaucracy is a necessary evil, for democracy to survive. It was Sardar Patel, the Iron man from Gujarat who must be called as a savior of Indian civil services and now again there is a man from Gujarat who can revamp the whole system to make this evil behaving like an angel.  

Pakistan: Does it's a real restoration of democracy ?

First, let me congratulate the people of Pakistan, who have come forward against all the threats posed by Jihadist elements and have restored their faith in democracy. They know and have learnt from their elder brother that Democracy can only lead them to development and can provide stability. Though there is all together praising in world media about the transition of civilian government to another for the first time in Pakistan, but I am certainly apprehensive does it is a real restoration of democracy?

For me democracy means just not the rule of the people, but it should be a harmonious rule of the people of all communities of all faith, caste and creed. Majority dominance in the polity at the cost of minorities is not a democracy. Democracy should not only be done but it should be seen to be done. But whether this is reflecting in Pakistan? My answer is No. Let me put some pointers here.

Firstly, If you look at the Pakistan’s elections results it is not that a national party is coming into power but a regional party who is coming into central power. Nawaz Sharif’s party PML-N has performed well only in Punjab and has acquired most of the seats in western Punjab which has the highest share of 183 seats in 372 member assembly. Similarly PPP of Zardari has done well only in Sindh. In Balochistan, none of these parties have performed well. So this shows that the people are divided on the ethnic ground and there are certain chances of Punjabi Dominance in the government structure, thereby sidelining the other ethnic communities of Pakistan especially Balochs who have been demanding for the separate nation since Pakistan’s formation. Balochs have always alleged their resources’ exploitation by the politicians of Western Punjab and these results would give more impetus to such claims. So, Nawaz Sharif will have a challenge to the address the grievances of the Balochs against the wishes of his own constituency of Punjab.

Secondly, the rights of minorities not only Hindus but the Muslims like Shias and Ahmedis will be in jeopardy. Shipa-e-shabha and Lashker –e-jhangvi : these are the two notorious Jihadist elements who are working against the minorities especially Shias and Ahmedis. All recent attacks on Shias in Pakistan which has claimed around 500 lives was claimed by these group openly. Their leaders are openly giving speeches in Punjab without any fear of Law. Their main agenda is to make Pakistan – A Sunni and Salafi Pakistan. These groups have given open support to the PML-N in these elections. Similarly the notorious Tehreek-e-Taliban has given tacit support to PML-N and PTI of Imran khan by issuing advisory (fatwa) against the other parties calling them liberal and secular. Imran khan has openly claimed that their party is not seeking the votes of Ahmedis as he believes in Allah and Ahmedis are infidels. This shows that these election results will strengthen the hands of radicals in Pakistan which is not good for India too. Hafiz Saeed, the most wanted terrorist has his considerable footprint in Lahore and Punjab. So it will again be a challenge to Nawaz Sharif when he will deal with India. Though in his rallies and post election rally, he has announced that he will help India by conducting joint investigation on 26/11 but we have to wait for his tall claims to fruitify.

Thirdly, there are allegations and supportive evidences that Pakistani military has manipulated the election’s results in favor of Nawaz Sharif with the help of Jihadi elements and by rigging. Pakistan’s Military always want this government to be subservient to them in matters of defence and Foreign policy. Nawaz Sharif will not have a free hand in these matters in future. Any curtailing of power of army will lead to a coup or army sponsored fall of Government, since this government is short of majority.

I guess all these factors have made me to conclude that Pakistan’s Democracy transition will only strengthen the radicals and military rather than empowering the common people. I pray for Pakistan, the day it will emerge as a true democracy. Something what happened in Turkey in last decade, I would like to see such transition in Pakistan. Amen, it will happen as my optimism says.

UN-TOUTING THE RAILWAYS

Whenever one enters our National capital's railway station, one cannot escape the glimpses of touts selling tickets without any fear of a police standing all around the railway station. Recently, as we all know that our Indian Railways has adopted a good method to tackle this tout's menace by compulsory carrying of ID proofs. But, I was shocked how still these touts are thriving at New Delhi railway station ? This made me intrigued about how these touts manage to get tickets for you, with the same name of demanding customers. And I have got the answer.

It is very simple to understand. I hope many of you know that we have current reservation facility at most of our prominent stations where tickets are booked immediately in case of availability. These tickets are issued just an hour before the departure of the train. And this is a biggest loophole. As we all know that the charts are prepared around 3 hours before the departure of train. So once chart is prepared the position of the seats of the travelers stand by the same as it appears on the chart. In these two hours (3 - 1) between chart preparation and issuing of tickets at current reservation facility, there are many travelers who cancel their tickets in which some are those who have confirmed tickets too. These cancelled tickets along with the remaining confirm tickets yet to be booked if there, are put on sale by railways just 1 hour before the train departure. This is an opportunity for these touts to drive their business. There is unholy nexus of the ticket counter clerks and these touts which make such kind of corruption possible. The train ticket counter clerks pass information of the train tickets to these touts on demand basis and have a fixed amount of money they charge from touts and this amount is not small bucks but amount as good as around 50% of the ticket fare. Within these two hours this unholy work happens without any check. There are instances when the tickets are available for particular train on IRCTC site after chart preparation i.e. 3 hours before train departure but they are siphoned off before the 1 hour time limit of ticket issuing.

This kind of current reservation system is not only promoting corruption and making these touts to run their business but also injustice to the people travelling with RAC or waiting tickets. Railways should go away with this system of issuing just before an hour but instead just start it after chart preparation. The digital display at counters should show real time data of each train tickets which are cancelled on real time basis in those 3 hours, so that people can purchase tickets without these touts.

Other thing that railways can do is that send an SMS to the passengers travelling by RAC and waiting tickets in that 3 hours in case their ticket has been confirmed because of the cancellation of confirmed tickets by other passengers. My honest advice to Railways is to use IT effectively in the service of the nation and its citizens.

What an Ideal population policy should be ?? - 1

Disclaimer : This blog is not to offend any parent having single child but definitely want to provoke an idea logically - "Why two not one" is an ideal population policy for any country. It has two parts. your opinion is always welcome.

Recently I was reading a book “Imagining India” by Nanden Nilekani , where he talked very elaborately about china's population policy and he mentioned that currently in China, according to an estimate that most of Children in China have no cousins. Currently, in China most of the families have 4-2-1 structure  where a child(1) has parents (2) and two pairs of grandparents (4). Since child has no siblings and no uncle and Aunts, all the family members look upon that single child, care him/her, pamper him/her up to all extent, because he/she is the one on whom they are dependent in their old age.  Because of such family structure, it will become a big social and economic problem in China. If we look at country level, now China’s demographic dividend window has been closed and their population is aging at faster rate, and by 2040, they have largest no. of old age people in the world and it is very high (around 40%) percentage of their population. This will not only add burden to their economy but also will impact their military power. By 2040, India strategically will have enormous advantages in comparison to China. Economy wise, Companies will shift their base to the India because they need young labour and plus India itself is a big market for their goods. Militarily, Indian army will be the youngest and largest army in the world by 2040, which will add muscle to our strategic interests worldwide.  

Recently, China has tried to amend its population policy by allowing their citizens to have two babies in case their first child is girl. We must be aware of the fact that Chinese society is as patriarchal society as that of India. There are also equal no. of Female foeticides happen every year because of male child preference. But blame of female foeticides also goes to their one child policy, since because of government's strict policy, people prefer to keep one male child than a female one. China’s sex ratio is much worse that of India.  Though Government has changed their policy but now the young generation in china don’t want to have more than one child. Reason are many. As they haven’t seen their parents or society to have more than one child, it has been mentally stuck in the psyche of the young Chinese generation not to have more than one child and sometimes no child. Other reasons could be that with the economic boom, when both couple go out for a work, they hardly think of having child – Remember Vicky donor :) . Other reason is that the cost of living is rising in China , since the cost of energy and food is spiraling worldwide, but the labour class in china is still not adequately compensated because of government’s labour regulations which favours the factory owners who exploit these workers in order to keep their products cost competitive in the world. The China’s model of export led growth in actually now hampering their economy and has led to mass unrest at many places in china, though we don’t get to know these news because of State controlled media and highly censored media regime. So for a labour class it is hard to think of having more child. Thirdly, most of the Cities in China are located near South China sea and there is mass exodus of labour from interior of china to these SEZs and cities. The Hukou system in China discourages this labour class to keep their families along with them and the whole burden of caring their child comes on mother’s shoulder  who stay in villages. This also discourages the labour class to go for more child.

Because of all above factors, there are new kind of crimes is on rise in China, one most prominent is that of new borns' abduction. The Chinese law also has been lenient towards these abductors, if the child who has been abducted is being treated properly and if the abductors don’t create any obstacles during rescuing of the child. One child policy has led to put complete burden of family on a single child. There has been found that the child having no siblings have more likely to develop individualistic, selfish, arrogant and non-cooperative attitude. There is more probability of having mental and personality disorders in such children. And there is also more likely that these children become victim of drug abuse and other wrongful activities. All these boils down to the most important fact that in many cases, a single child won’t able to appreciate the family values, since he misses lot of companionships like his/her sibling during their childhood with whom he/she can share his/her emotions, will play together, fight together and have lot of beautiful memories of childhood. He/she misses the care of his/her Uncles and aunts and memories with their nearest cousins. The fault here lies not with the child but it lies in their parents who could not able to think of such consequences which may occur with their child. According to G. Stanley Hall, a psychologist, professor and the first president of the American Psychological Association - "Being an only child is disease in itself." One may not concur with him because his views are based on his research in Western society which is not true in current Indian context but his views will have validity in future as our society is also heading towards more and more westernization.

This part of a blog is to reflect upon the problems which are emerging or most likely to emerge in future. My comparison with China is to address those Indians who believe that one child policy is good is actually not. 

What should be an ideal population policy?? I will discuss it in next part.

MNC Syndrome

Today Development is synonymous to Urbanization  All the developed countries of the world are urbanized with very less rural sector and In India urbanization has gained the pace after 1991 reforms but still our rural dominates. Indian way of Urbanization has many problems associated with it which we call Urban Sprawl because this urbanization is going on in an unplanned manner. We find a rise in the formation of slums in our cities, a traffic mismanagement and snail speed of infrastructure development in urban areas in comparison to the increase in urban population. Malthusian thought related to population seems to be valid for Indian cities though the context here is not food but the infrastructure.  This is one side of the problem of Urbanization which is the topic of discussion for many debates. But we often forget the other one.

When I was in Bangalore, I had observed one peculiar kind of emerging feature which I would call a problem in the Indian context. I found that most of my neighbours were either bachelors or only couples. I have seen rare instances where the parents of a bachelor or couple stay with them. Whenever parents visit their homes, they are often treated as guests and even parents feel the same because for them Bangalore is totally a new experience where they know none but their children. Usually parents stay for few days and then go to their respective places because they get bored in a new city where they know none and its culture is not in sync with their culture which we call youth culture (pub culture) and since their children go for work, they keep on waiting for their child to come back from office while sitting idle. In Bangalore the holidays means “going home” for maximum number of professionals working in the big MNCs. And again when they visit their home, they are treated as guest by their family because parents think that their child has come after long time for few days, so not to engage him in any mundane family activities. So finally we have become guests in our own family. This kind of feature actually is taking a shape of big social problem. Parents are away from their children always have tension about their children and similarly the vice versa. Today parents also don’t want to interfere in their ambitious child’s life and feel that their son/ daughter is happy, so they are happy too. The rise of American kind of family structure where parents stay away from their children is rising in India and I would call it a big “MNC syndrome”.  I get to know from my friend that one of his friends, who stay in Delhi is staying away from their parents who also stay in Delhi. The reason is not that they have conflict but the working boy wants to stay independently in which their parents have no problem. Such kind of trend is going to rise, because Indians have peculiar habit of imitating others.

In Indian context, where family has been part of the societal structure is vanishing slowly. We should be aware that America is facing lot of social problems because of absence of strong family structure like we have in India. There have  been lot of divorces, which is severely impacting the psychology of the children of the divorcees, led to the rise in personality or mental disorders and rise in shootings by children who are mentally ill. Do we want to see the repeat of such happenings in India too? I would say no. But now India is also witnessing the huge rise in divorce cases, some call it a sign of women empowerment or rise of women’s voice which up to certain extent is true but not in all cases. Divorce in cases where there is use of physical or mental torture by man against woman is justified but now it seems that the American kind of trend is visible in divorce cases too which are gender neutral. This is only because of the weak family structure and this is more prominent in the places where more and more nuclear families are coming up. The severe impact of such kind of urbanization is on the next generation who don’t able to experience the love and care of their grandparents and also they don’t able to appreciate the family values because of their very less interaction with their cousins, aunts and Uncles.

Why this kind of family restructuring is happening? Who is responsible? The main reason behind such kind problem emerging is the ghettoization of MNCs at one or few places. The government always has tendency to promote investment of MNCs in the Hubs say IT hubs like Bangalore, Pune and Hyderabad.  Because of formation of hubs it is leading to not only spiraling up of the real estate prices but also lead to the creation of slums and other infrastructure problems. The companies’ establishment charges are going high because of the increasing rate of rents and cost of infrastructure. Because of migrating population, the rents of houses are also high in all these places. This kind of promotion of investment is leading to increase in economic disparities among states and also led the social problem which, I have discussed. This is truly a MNC syndrome which is impacting both – economic and social problem. I don’t want to deviate too much from my discussion and coming to the point how we can stop such kind emerging social problem, which is threatening the family culture of our country, where still people value relations more than money.

The solution is simple. Take an example of IT industry. Government should promote the investment of IT industry in tier 2 and tier 3 cities in every state where still very few companies exist. With the increasing demand of higher education, there are lot of engineering and MBA colleges have opened in every state but still companies who come there for placement and recruit them for Bangalore or Hyderabad locations. I would like to give the example of Gwalior , from where every year thousands of engineering and MBA students graduate every year but still Gwalior has very few IT companies around it. Gwalior has decent medical facilities, decent schooling and also rent and cost of living are comparatively very cheaper compared to Bangalore and Hyderabad. It will be very cost effective venture for any IT company to open its branch there. Government which has recently made 2% of profit as compulsory CSR under new companies’ bill, I would suggest there should be provision that companies who set up their venture in backward in terms of number of companies, their some part of investment will be considered as their CSR. This move will definitely make companies especially IT companies to think to invest in such areas since IT industry can be run independent of location, it only needs is an internet connection. Government should also expedite the laying of optical network or Wi-fi network all over the country in order to remove hurdle for IT companies, so that their they expand their reach.

The impact of such kind of investment manoeuvring by government will help in solving the emerging MNC syndrome. The children will stay near to their home or at their home. They don’t have to move for opportunity out of their state or their city or town. This will also help in strengthening the old age policy of the government, since children will take care of their parents at old age. Finally, a person has job, parents and family all at same place.  

People’s President Vs Political President

Our Preamble starts with these noble words, “We the people”. But in the past 60 years, we have forgotten this phrase in the nuisance of political juggle. Anna Hazare’s movement has tried to ascertain the phrase,” We the people of India” once again. We can make our rulers to think twice while imposing anything on us. It is not the same India which was passive recipient and mostly dormant in the Political decision making but this is an active India which is willing to express its will and can agitate and fight for its participation in any decision making by our representatives.

India is again going to participate in once-in-5 year ritual of presidential elections where again our political masters try to put someone his/her favorite on this post without any exemplary credentials. And the People have a notion that the President of this country is just a puppet of central government who can’t even breathe without the advice of our Prime minister. In perspective of a common man, yes he can’t do anything in policy making because of our constitutional limitations but this post is made by our constitution makers to provide stability at the centre in times of constitutional crisis. Our founding fathers had no confusion about the form of government which we Independent Indians are going to adopt. It was decided by majority in constituent assembly to adopt Parliamentary form of government because of our familiarity with such a system. That is the reason why they made the Presidential post as a ceremonial post in order to avoid two power centers at the Union level and this is the reason why they have made the provision of indirect elections for Presidential elections, so that the Parliament has control over this post and will not become dictatorial in future. Article 61 is one check on any dictatorial tendencies and all this arrangement was done in the time frame when we were an amateur democracy and we wanted stable centre for the development and to maintain the unity and integrity of the nation. The president is the national symbol just like the Monarchs of England.

The role of the President is to ensure the smooth division and separation of powers of legislature, executive and Judiciary because the appointments of Prime minister, Chief justice and all other important persons like CEC, UPSC chairman and other constitutional bodies is done under the President’s Seal. Suppose we have no President post then it will create whole lot of chaos and subjugate the independent functioning of judiciary and other constitutional posts. How?? If there is no president then CJI and Judges have to take oath either from an executive or legislature, it implies it undermines the position of CJI. In that case executive or legislature might give directions to judiciary which may not be in national interest. The independent working of CEC is ensured by constitution because he reports directly to the president but not to the legislature or executive. The pardoning power of president confirms his higher position than the Supreme Court under Article 72. Though now the clemency petition is under judicial review but it cannot circumvent the authority of President under constitution. It is only questioning the delay occurred by the President in taking decisions of these mercy petitions in order to uphold right against double jeopardy of the clement.

Dr. Rajendra Prasad had raised the issue whether President should always follow the advice of the council of minister headed by PM under article 74. Our constitutional debate shows that Dr. B R Ambedkar had positively remarked that the President cannot act contrary to the advice of the Cabinet as his position is similar to that of English Monarch. Constitutional makers deliberately did not mention any compulsion on adherence of advice given by the cabinet because our founding fathers wanted a harmonious relationship between President and the PM. Both should enjoy each other trust and confidence which will become the precedence for future governments. Nehru and Prasad both had shown maturity in establishing strong conventions for this relation apart from one – two controversies like Somnath temple visit. This relation got soured with the application of national emergency during Indira regime, in order to usurp all authority she had brought 42nd Constitutional amendment which made the advice compulsive over president. This led to start of Rubber stamp president which gave a dead blow to this post. The post whose image was fortified by Dr. Prasad and Dr. Radhakrishnan by their vision and maturity was then in shambles.

44th Constitutional amendment had tried to restore some dignity to the post by giving power of reconsideration to the President. This power of reconsideration now acts as a watchdog over any irrational decision making by the government. This creates a lot of awareness among the people through Media which highlights why our President has returned back the XYZ bill? It highlights the reservations of the President which are in national interest and will keep the executives on their toes. Dr. Kalam had returned back the office of profit bill for reconsideration which created a full debate and awareness among the people that how our representatives are trying to pass this bill to save their neck being axed due to holding offices of profit. Dr. Kalam had asked the Parliament to make comprehensive criteria for office of profit rather than using ad-hoc approach. Similarly in 1997, democratically elected government of Kalyan singh in UP was saved when Dr. K R Narayanan sent back the union government proposal of imposing president rule in UP under article 356. He not only saved the country from constitutional crisis by the misuse of Art. 356 but also strengthened the democratic spirit in the states which were earlier at the mercy of the central govt.

Dr. Giani Jail Singh had correctly raised the use of Article 78 which confirms power to the president to call the Prime minister to know about his cabinet working and the policy decision of the government and also President can ask prime minister to have discussion over the matter which president deems fit in national interest and was not already discussed in cabinet. This power can be used by President to caution the government over decision making and to check whether government is running in accordance with the constitution or not. Use of pocket veto by Dr. Giani Jail Singh over controversial Indian postal bill which had the provision of “empowering central and state government to interrupt, detain and dispose any postal article in the interest of public safety and security of India” is one of his great contribution. This bill was unconstitutional as it was against the right to privacy and right to freedom of expression and secondly this bill could be used by the party in power to target their opponents. The bill finally lapsed and it was not brought up again by any future governments.

In the era of coalition politics his role has become more crucial because whenever there is a hung parliament, he has the discretion to call any party to form the government and to ask them to prove their majority within limited time frame. He/she usually follows standard conventions made by his/her predecessors. Due to defection and other political tussles among the parties, President has to keep watch over the strength of the government whether they are enjoying the confidence of the house or not. He cannot adhere to the advice of the cabinet to delay the summoning of the house more than 6 months because this action of the government would be against the decorum of the constitution. The President has all the right to skip the portion of the presidential speech which is made by the cabinet, if he/she defers with the policy decision of the government.

All this shows that our president is not mere a ceremonial post but a post which provides stability during crisis times. President acts as a moral force behind the working of the government. He can provide vision to the government and also to the citizens. Vision India 2020 of Dr. Kalam is the best known example. Dr. Kalam’s charisma and his passion for science have brought lot of awareness and enthusiasm for science especially among the children who are India’s future.

The big question comes now,” why we can’t we raise our voice during the elections of President?. Why can’t we propose our candidates to whom we feel suitable for this honorable post? Why our media won’t have heated debate over the best candidates for Presidency? ”. We Indians have never ever felt the need for choosing or at least voiced our opinion to our representatives to choose a deserving Presidential candidate. Indian president elections are due this year and my whole point of writing this article is that we don't want a dummy president who can't even provide a vision to our country. Our country has no dearth of visionaries like Dr. Amartya Sen, James Micheal Lyngdoh, T N Seshan , Narayan murthy (he himself has wished to become a President in front Media )and so on.

When a new precedence is already set by involving the civil society in the formulation of Lokpal bill then why not one more can be set where not the political parties but a national opinion will decide who will become or contest for the presidential elections, so that we start realizing the importance of this post. For this media has to play a critical role and it is high time that we do something about it, otherwise don't blame our parties if they again put some rubber stamp president on this highest post.

Dharma Vs Religion

I have often experienced during my Train journeys that Indians have tendency to know person's religion or Dharma to have easy acquaintance with that person. They have prejudices against each religion. If they meet a person of same religion they share their views and they restrain if he/she is from different Dharma.

The problem is ,what we call Dharma in our daily life and what Dharma actually is ? We often mean Dharma same as religion but both are actually different. What is Dharma than and how it is different from a religion ??

Dharma is a philosophy of Moral duties and obligations and a religion is the way to perform those moral duties. Let me put some of the moral obligations which is expected out off any person including atheists also.

1) Always speak truth.
2) Never steal.
3) Love humanity.
4) Have compassion for poor and do charity.
5) Educate your child.
6) Be faithful to your relationships
7) Universal Harmony
8) Love nature and so on...

After reading these, you will find that all religions either it is Hinduism , Islam , Christanity etc. , they all preach same things but in different ways. These different ways of articulating same thoughts are religions. This is related to the human psychology. Human always love diversity and choices, they are against any uniformity in any thing. It is something like someone likes Vanilla flavor and other chocolate one ? Similarly some one likes Hindu way of life and other Islamic way. Hinduism is not Dharma but a polytheist variety of religion and monotheist varieties are like Islam and Christanity. Atheism is also a no-theist variety of religion.

Religion when started were simple in structure and beliefs, not complex what it is today. Religions, initially were in mutual harmony because simplicity of them had made easy for a person to understand the core but now they have become more and more contentious with the more and more proliferation of myths, rituals and traditions into the religion which has made religions so complex that a person remains confused for his whole life and could not able understand underlying core thereby could not able to seek universal harmony. Rituals and Traditions have actually undermined the core "Dharma" and have become the source of fight for dominance and power.

Lets imagine a sphere which has a core and a periphery. Here core is "Dharma" and periphery is "religion" . We have divided the periphery and fighting and adjusting in that periphery. We are actually trying to adjust ourselves in the periphery rather then penetrating into the core. If every religion starts from the surface and move along its diameter, they all will reach the commmon centre. It clearly proves that all religion have common Dharma. Dharma is universal and eternal.


So Dharma should be one "Sanatan or universal Dharma" but religion can be XYZ..