The pandemic taking a toll on human lives all around the world,China’s larger imperialistic dreams becoming increasingly evident and the nations responding to it in unconventional and unprecedented manners ,the larger economic gloom at the doorstep – all these have resulted in the leadership across the world to get caught in a web of fiscal prudence,containing the pandemic, vision for the future and what not. The situation in India is no different.
And in times like these,it is humane for people to cater to their biases,form opinions,take sides and engage in rants and conflicts across the social media. Everybody talks about the need for reforms ,but can never agree with the priorities of its implementation. And our innate quality of finding problems in proposed solutions than proposing solutions to our own problems also leaves its mark in these conversations. Here I am trying to imagine such a conversation amongst a group of people A-Z on the need for reforms.
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Z: Guys,We are here to discuss about India and Reforms.Let’s start with A 😊
A: As I have told in the past, I think we need Judicial reforms. Without that our judiciary might soon become a baggage to the very idea of justice.
B: Before that we need Education Reforms.Without that the Nation isn’t going to progress.
C: Come on guys, prior to all these Tax Reforms should be implemented. The middle class is completely broke due to the heavy tax burdens.
D: Don’t be so naive. First administrative reforms should be in place for beauraucracy to function properly.We should make lives easy for the common man.
E: Exactly! We need to eradicate corruption in beauraucracy. At present, it is utter filth filled with morons looking for bribes and commissions to perform their duties.
F: For this corruption crusade to have far reaching benefits, we need to bring back all the black Money stashed in the swiss banks.
G: Good idea. But for that, we need to go cashless first so that all the transactions will remain accountable.
H: How is it that nobody talked about social reforms. We need to abolish caste system first.
I: Indians will be Indians. This is not going to happen,no party has the political will.We need a purely democratic government.
J: Just to clarify, for us to have democratic government, we need to have electoral reforms.
K: Knowing how the political funding works, we need to make them transparent
L: Love it😊.Not only that ,only educated people should come into politics.
M: For that people should change, they shouldn’t fall for these empty promises.
N: Nailed it, we need better literacy rates. Also financial and digital literacy is key.
O: Oh,yes. Digital literacy is key. Tech will decide how our future gets shaped.
P: Please don’t forget the problems that tech brings.AI ,Data Analytics ,Automation have the potential to be a life saver or a nuke.
Q: Questioning anything and everything is important. Regulating tech and making sure it behaves the eay we want it to is important.
R: Regulations are well and good. But India is already locked up in a regulatory grid of licenses and permits.This needs to ease down.
S: Sums up why no Indian business is able to flourish like an Amazon or Google. Also we are still living in an ideological baggage of the fifties world in 2020.
T: True that. Capitalism is considered a derogatory term here. Instead of imbibing the positives of both socialism and capitalism and turn ourselves into a rich welfare state, here we are trapped with the bad aspects of both -Crony capitalism and Chronic socialism.
U: Ultimately, this seems to be a trust problem. No body trusts the government ,the opposition,businessman,the police ,armed forces,judiciary,media,house owner,milkman,cook – everybody is caught up in ‘What if they are cheating us?’ .On the contrary others are thinking about – ‘What if we are cheating them?’
V: Very convenient to put all the blame on people. What is it that they system is doing to earn our trust?
W: We pay taxes and we are entitled to do whatever we want. Is that what you are trying to say? Does our responsibility ends there ? Our idea of government as an institution ,established to take care of each of our problems and also as a body which needs to produce arms to armchairs and Canons to condoms , is fundamentally flawed.
X: Xavier!Charles Xavier ,is that you? Because,you just read my mind so accurately. Governments have no bloody reason to be in business. Also our relation with the state has become weird. We want to enjoy our absolute rights and the state want us to perform our duties to its absolute.
Y: Yes, this is indeed true. Why not consider it as a social contract signed between two parties with shared ownership,responsibilities,rights and duties. And that social contract is defined by the constitution and the onus upgradation with times lies with the legislature,implementation with the executive ,interpretation with the judiciary and ownership with us,the citizens.
Z: Zen like thoughts man. I think we have enough points now to start preparing our report.
Follow the White Rabbit 