Zero Corruption Passport

The Indian Diaspora across the world is increasing at an all-time higher rate. People are going overseas to study, research, do business, work, tourism and many other purposes. Today, globalization has turned the world into a global village; distances are minimized with the help of technology. Therefore, there is a steep hike in no. of people applying for a fresh passport. Every foreign journey begins with a passports, one cannot do the above mentioned activities outside India, if he is not in a possession of a passport of Republic of India. Now starts the most revolutionizing step: getting a passport.  To go into insights of complexities involved in getting a passport, I arranged all my documents and applied for a fresh passport. After 3 weeks of my application, a police constable visited my place and followed his procedure for verification. After completing all his formalities, he demanded Rs.500 as his bribe and said it is his fees for doing verification and is disseminated from top-to-lower officials and warned me if I didn’t paid then, I’ll have to suffer and my file will not be cleared. I refused firmly and said that being a student, I’ll not pay a single penny and you do what you want to do with my file. After more than one month, my passport status showed that my police report was not clear, and then I wrote a mail to complaint authority of passport office, Bhopal. Within 1 week of my mail, my police report was clear and my passport was about to be dispatched. Finally I received my passport few days ago, to be surprised, even postman asked for some gift. But I had to refuse to him too, due to my policy of zero corruption. 

If we have all the tools available to fight against system, viz. RTI- Right to Information, in that case why there is a need to be corrupt. Hope I’m able to implement my policy of Zero Corruption, having failed many a time in my life, but still trying so that I’m able to reflect in my action all the time the same policy. It is my request to all the people who will be applying for a passport in near future, please adopt this policy and If there is any difficulty, I’m there to assist you in your bad times. Don’t cripple by seeing the system inefficient, rather use the infrastructure to convert your disability to strength.

Time to Shout Out & Loud

Gone are those days when you really get what you paid for. Departed are those days when companies use to ignore the complaints against them. These statements may be a bit puzzling at first, but both stands true in the present condition. The most burning topic of the recent time is consumers being exploited in this market where every day new company is being launched. With number of services and products added to the market daily, there is increase in the numbers of cases where consumers are being cheated by frivolous companies. The quality of services being delivered is the concern for the consumers, companies and government too. The awareness campaigns are being run by the government where they are helping to create awareness among consumers. In this initiative, consumer courts are being set up in every city where consumer himself can present his case to the court; lawyer is no more needed to be hired for the case. There are few private and social firms that have entered the market to provide consumer the consultancy services where they’ll guide you in resolving complaint against any brand or service. There is one organization, which I had personally interacted with viz. - Shoutout.co.in. When I shared my complaint on this website, within 2 days I got a call in order to resolve the complaint in best possible manner. They guided me through the process of filing the complaint with consumer court and also commented on the prospects of my complaint. The best part of this organization is that it offers free guidance throughout the case. This organization is working as an intermediary to resolve the complaint with the companies. I think it is the time for consumers to warm up their chairs, come out of their homes and shout loud so that people become aware of theft brands and consumer rights. It's time to fight for your rights and there are people to assist you. Don't be a naive consumer, rather be the enthusiastic consumer.

Immature Human Capital of India: Country demands development

The whole world is running behind two resources that can drastically increase their pace of development, i.e. energy and human capital. Today, we will talk about human capital, an asset that most nation wishes to get hold of. Human capital are those chunk of competent people who are well-educated i.e. engineers, doctors, scientist, educationist, etc and contributing in the growth of the nation. But the question I’m raising here is that – Is it worth having human capital in India? How much they have contributed to the development of India? Do they realize their importance for a developing country like India? Are they fulfilling the aspirations of their country? 

I somehow feel that human capital of India has missed the line and it is on the wrong path. They have forgotten their duties towards India as a responsible citizen. They don’t realize how much the country has spent in creating them. I think the sense of responsibility is missing in the educated people today; they are not gratifying what their profession demands from them.

The country demands from them that, they turn-out to vote proficient people during elections because they understand whom to vote, how to identify good candidates during elections and this voting pattern can change a lot, but they are very pessimistic about Indian politics that they have started losing faith in voting too. The statistics of voter turn-out during elections is that rural people comes out to vote more than urban educated people. Then how can we expect the change in our system, until and unless these educated people come out to vote.

The country demands from them that they contribute towards green India, they should understand festivals are not meant for polluting the environment (diwali is not meant for bursting crackers and holi is not meant for wasting water), and then saying that our environment is becoming worst than ever. We cannot attain the status of clean India until that enthusiasm to find a dustbin in our country is missing in the educated people. They just want to throw rapper, bit and pieces of what we eat or use anywhere without caring about country’s image.

The country demands from them that they come out and raise their voice against corruption. Bribing is not a solution, it is easy for you pay a bribe as you earning a good amount, but think of whole as a society, it is not easy for everyone. Think of a vendor earning a meagre amount daily, who has to pay a bribe for getting a birth certificate, a license, etc. Corruption is an evil which has ruined India and it has affected every class of the society. We have to join hands and work as a civil society for bringing good reforms.

The country demands from them that they start using public transport facilities because the city’s traffic is increasing day by day. They should understand oil is a natural resource that is not going to last forever; the day is not far behind when all these vehicles would be of no use, just a scrap. The way we are using the oil today, we are not going to leave anything for the posterity.

The country demands from our doctors that they understand that patient’s life is more important than their few hundred rupees of consulting fees. They should treat their patient as god because if no patient would be there, their earning would drop to zero. Getting a good medical treatment is not a common man’s deal now, it has to change now.

The country demands from our engineers that they start developing technology and equipment's with minimum carbon emissions. They develop cheap technology so that it reaches common man too. They innovate and invent stuff which could change the way we people live today, in a constructive manner. They should think of sustainable development as a future development strategy.

The country demands from our bureaucrats that their administration should reflect that common people’s voice is heard in trustworthy manner, irrespective of their political influence. As bureaucrats are driving force for developing policies, their focus should be on lower strata of the society, which is suffering from lack of resources. The way bureaucrats is sitting silent against all the odds prevailing in the society. The way they are involved in doing buttering of politicians, the way they don’t take any action against any politicians, this has to change and a clear message should go to the people that no one is above law. I believe that bureaucrats can change everything established in the society, they can bring development to common people’s feat.

I believe that human capital of India will soon understand their responsibility and India will traverse the path of development in every sector.

Anna Movement - Marching Ahead

Most of the people would be curious to know about the next move of civil society. Some of you might be aware of all the happenings. Few might raise question that civil society members have left the issue of Jan-lokpal and have entered the battle of elections? The issue of janlokpal is neither left behind nor the movement of corruption-less society stopped, rather it is gaining momentum daily. What we have learnt is large number of lessons from the government, the way govt. showcased its fortitude against the passage of effective lokpal bill. What we’ve seen in U.P. and other election-states is awareness campaigns. Team Anna has decided to bring the ideological change in the common people, because we have showed lots of strength on road. Now the main focus is to create and build think tanks across the country. IAC has started forming Charcha-Samuha (discussion groups) at every corner of the country be it village or city. These, so called Charcha-Samuha will discuss issues ranging from janlokpal, election reforms and parochial too. When these discussion groups grew in numbers and reach to lakhs, then the change will definitely strike. Team Anna has envisaged transfer of power from politicians and bureaucrats to the common people by raising issues like Right to reject, Right to recall, etc. The plan is make citizens more powerful than bureaucrats and elected representatives. The plan is to eliminate Red-light (lal batti) system and taking away the bungalows of the politicians and bureaucrats and shifting them to flats, where common people live. The rationale behind this is that when these people start living in such state of affairs, then they will realize the troubles of ordinary citizens. What we saw in August last year, was the acrimony of citizens against govt. policies and failure to tackle corruption. When the general election takes place in 2014, it become election of ideologies, policies, etc not mere based on religion or caste. Hope common people awakens as soon as possible for a revolution is yet to arrive.

Are we really Happy?

Happiness cannot be measured objectively, it is a subjective quality. One simple question strikes the mind, then how to measure happiness? Till now, scientists haven’t succeeded in finding a test to measure happiness! In most of our actions, we try to find happiness. One step technology takes in forward direction; humanity moves the same in opposite direction. This is because we are disturbing the natural arrangement created by the almighty God.
Each one of us has some material dreams and we labor hard to accomplish them. Some of us might finish up with finally achieving those dreams, but then, are we able to satisfy our soul? As scholar enters the college life, most of them desire to have a laptop, a bike, a Smartphone and all that. But then also, we are not able to satisfy our self. After getting these, we say if I get this, I’ll be happy, but then, we all know what happens. Try to remember yourself when you had thought in that way. I’m damn sure, most of you would have thought. Though many so-called superpowers of the world claim to be developed, but then see the culture these countries have. Gone were those days, when small-small things brought lots of happiness in our home. The world is moving very fast, people want to become millionaire in a day. But after getting that, they waste the money in irrelevant stuff. When a billionaire sleep on night, he is full of stress and at the same time you can find a slum dweller sleeping very peacefully. This fact shows that money can buy status but not happiness. Then how does happiness come? How can we make our soul happy? We should stop the self-centered approach; we will have to connect our soul to the supreme personality of Godhead. We will have to stop thinking ourselves as body and stop satisfying our bodily concerns, rather be on platform of thinking where our activities are not influenced by mode of goodness, mode of ignorance and false ego. Without that, we will be striving for happiness and might wind up with messing things around us. As we’ve forgotten our constitutional position, we are suffering in this material world. We need to get back our constitutional position that we are constrained to, that is to be one with god.

AC Room Policies

India has been a developing country from more than 60 years. We have seen large number of schemes launched by the govt. for the needy and various policies are created in favour of these sections. Then why are we still developing at a slow pace? How long it is going to be that we merely remain a developing country?
Everyone has some or other reason for this slow pace, some would say corruption, Ineffective govt. sector, terrorism, international affairs, politics, etc. India has seen many policy failures. No policy is 100% perfect, but if we can implement it 80% successfully, then that’s something good to achieve. Whether we have analysed why the policies are not efficient at ground? Why such good policies on paper fail in real-world conditions? As I think, most of our policies are framed in a closed AC room, only some ministers with experts sit and frame the policies. The policy when seen on paper seems excellent, but when they are implemented by the government for the common people, it seems not to produce expected results. FDI might be a good decision as expressed by our economist and cabinet ministers, but common people, traders, trade unions were not at all happy with the decision because their bread will be at stake, when 51% FDI would have been allowed on retail sector. Though NREGA was a good policy decision, but there were various issues related to corruption in various states, so the govt. needs to deal with these issues seriously and introduce some changes that can minimize the corruption in NREGA. We have seen large number of irregularities associated with PDS (public distribution system), Why.....? I’ve personally seen that PDS shops are not fair; they use to cheat common people who are entitled for that quantity of grain. If it is not working out in its present form, then introduce some checks so that the grains reach the common people. The Anti- Kudankulam nuclear power project protest is the result of the same AC room decision, the govt. did not talk to the people residing near the project. Though eminent scientists have promulgated the idea of the project, but we need the consent of the common mob.
I think it is a time when our THINK TANK starts framing policies out of AC rooms and visualize the challenges any policy can face on ground. Its time people become an important part of policy development programme and the development takes an interactive look. It shall not remain only govt.’s task to implement policies rather people become an important part of it. We need to talk to common people, take their inputs, and then frame the policy. The time is here when policy development programme makes a shift from AC Rooms to the place of common people.

Character – The Neglected Criteria

The most important aspect of the person which is completely missing in the present generations is perfect character. How will you define about someone’s character or his personality? Let me clear you the narrow difference between personality and character. Personality is who we are and what we do when everybody is watching and Character is who we are and what we do when nobody is watching. We have shifted our focus from character building to personality building. It is very easy to find the personality development classes in the every corner of the city, but there is rarely a institute that teaches how to build character. Our modern education system is also focusing on employment, in other ways building a good personality. But the real education means building character. Character will automatically lead to competence. Since, there is no character building; everyone is suffering with something or the other. Today, you have to prove yourself as an honest man before the society, because everyone is a potential suspect. What kind of fearful society we are creating, where we cannot believe each other. The miseries of 21^st century are mostly associated with character less society.

 No character development is the root cause of many social problems such as corruption, poverty, terrorism, etc. Character-less persons entering politics will only exploit their position and countries resources. People are so crazy after money that they are entangled with frustration, enviousness, greedy and are disturbed. Today, even the wealthiest person is unhappy. See the youth of today, what type of qualities they are developing in their school and college life. They are trapped in the hole of intoxication (drinking, smoking, etc.), meat-eating, illicit sex and gambling. When they come out as professionals, all this will be reflected in their attitude and personality. This thing is neither good for them self nor for the society. We can save our country from the forth-coming scams, terrorist attacks and various ill-evils, if there is some attention paid on this serious issue. A most common example which can be witnessed in every household, when parents speak lie in front of their small or teenaged children’s, at times they ask their children’s to speak a lie to someone whom they don’t want to talk and then expect their children to speak truth in front of them. Children’s learn from their parent’s traits and children’s build a belief that even speaking a lie doesn’t do any harm to them.

There might be some traits of a good character, and it is not easy for one to define qualities. So, according to Bhagavad Gita (Ch-12), A perfect character must possess the following qualities: freedom from enviousness, should not be frivolous, should not be naughty, should be straight forward, should have the capability to subjugate the senses (self-controlled), should have a strong faith, try to build a loving relationship with every individual. According to me, it is the high time when think tank take some concrete steps in changing the education system or introducing something that would cater the need of character building. Time has arrived when due weightage is given to character, so that we can build a perfect society full of faith and trust and remove all the social-ills present in the society.