Naxals exist because government failed to guarantee the rule of law to the poor people.

Naxalism was a response by the farmers against exploitation in Eastern India. As time passed, Naxalites base expanded and they went against constitution in their demands by opting violence as their primary instrument and are responsible for deaths of around 6000 people. Neither did Naxalites consider the legal options available  nor did they take the path of parliament to make them heard. It would be wrong to say that Naxalites enjoy support from local tribal people. If they really do, it would have been fairly possible for them to reach parliament and make them heard. It is highly possible that architects of Naxal violence have hidden agenda to weaken the India politically.

Naxalites have been termed as a threat to national security. The truthfulness of this statement is debatable but armed struggle is a threat to the security of citizens who get caught in the cross fire between government and naxalites. The real issue does not lie with tribals or industrial houses but with our political class who allow the problem to go out of control and does not act at the right time. Political class do not want to talk about the root cause of the issue but is looking for solution. Until the rule of law is guaranteed for poorest of the poor, such problems will manifest again and again. the tribal people and Naxalites need to be treated separately. The government need to understand that Naxalites uses tribal people as a defense for their anti constitutional demands.

But our government is no less in opting for non-constitutional methodologies to end this problem.  State sponsored Salva Judam has been a blow to the constitution because when state is sponsoring a armed group against another, government actions denotes that constitutional values are not standing the test of  current times. This raises a very serious question on the government. Resentment of people can be addressed only through good governance with in the ambit of constitution and not through state sponsored militia. The core concerns of the naxal affected areas are not the lack of  development but fear of exploitation and displacement when industrial houses would enter these lands to extract the natural resources. The government can definitely enter the area with army but worst would come later when industrial exploitation would sabotage the life of tribals in their homelands. Additionally, the state sponsored militia against another exposes the diluted faith of government in the constitution. Government's accountability to the constitution stands compromised.

   Sooner or later government will allow extraction of natural resources in tribal lands and tribals would have to evacuate their rich homelands. Before this adventure becomes a exploitation, a highly possible situation, the government needs  to strengthen tribals socially, financially, and most importantly politically. The land procurement and rehabilitation process need to be refined and made transparent as per the wishes of our tribal citizens being displaced. Government should and has to stand for people's rights. Government should investigate the genuineness of Naxalite Leadership's claim about tribals support. If Naxal leadership enjoy the support from tribal people, Government need to come up with  a political solution for Tribal belt along with eliminating the naxalism.

Although derivative of socialism, Food Security Bill has potential to address farmer's concerns and prevalent malnutrition

      The government is pushing hard for Food Security Bill and opposition seems helpless in opposing the bill. The irony of socialist policies is that opposition in any form attracts criticism. The expected political morality in supporting the bill is acting in government's favor. Politicians has to contain the bad side of  socialist policies and discuss bill openly, aggressively, and objectively to refine it . Though the bill will try to address the problem of hunger, execution strategy is flawed and rely on a corrupted Public Distribution System. The political parties must press to refine the execution strategy. Scheme, if implemented properly, shall  shoot down two major problems of India; the farmer grievances and hunger problem. 

     There are few points worth mentioning about the bill. First, government plan to cover around 70% of the population under this scheme. Does government mean that such huge population of country can't afford daily bread? That's highly unlikely in a food surplus country. Rather, scheme should cover only the needy people, and most importantly children. In addition to BPL families, who will constitute these beneficiaries largely remains undecided. Government must clearly define the basic eligibility for food subsidy. Also how to contain political enmity at Panchayat level in deciding the person's eligibility must be thought through.

      Secondly, the government is relying on corrupted Public Distribution System for disbursement, a system in which almost 50 % of the food grains make their way to black market and are sold for profits. We definitely can't rely on existing public distribution system to execute this scheme, at-least not in its current form. Have we learned nothing from License Raj? Interestingly, government neither have such huge storage capacity in place where food acquired from farmers can be stored for better purpose nor do they have any mechanism to contain the inherent corruption in the policy which would threaten the very purpose of this scheme.

      Before taking such an undertaking of large scale, government must put all processes and infrastructure in place, or else it would be another shot in the dark. Some may question that food security bill is another step toward the government controlled food grain market. Point to be noted is that this policy will address the farmer's problem as government is supporting the Minimum Support Price for crops thus strengthening the farmer community.Also, Food Security bill will provide much required nutritious food to the almost all malnutrition-ed children. Although derivative of socialism, policy has potential to produce healthy workforce for a capitalist economy. It may provide the opportunity for many parents to save on food and health expenses; thus giving a opportunity to think about better education for their children.

   The Food Security Bill not only guarantees the nutritious food but also promises to strengthen our farmer community through minimum support price but with existing infrastructure and execution record of government controlled policies, government has to be cautious from not letting it be another platform for corruption. The government has to be very clear in the bill that its long term sustainability is questionable and policy would only cover the BPL families after objective to contain malnutrition is met. Long term goal should be to make population capable enough to earn nutritious food rather government continuing to provide.

India should not opt for military confrontation with China

Chinese's incursion attempts into India raises question on preparedness of Indian establishment to handle such situations. The media critics and right wing liberals are asking for muscular response but government decision of not considering the military response as first option is right to the greater extent. Demand of the time is not to respond militarily but strategically after analyzing China's intentions behind border incursions.

Wars are never fought to satisfy nationalist ego of its citizens and even if war happens to satisfy nationalist ego, it is just used to cover up hidden war objectives. China has global ambitions and along with that it has huge economy to fuel. So in present times, China's interests are more of securing its supply lines and energy resources than those of territorial expansion. In the recent times, China has been trying to assert it rights over South China sea  and that seems to be the supreme objective to secure resources at South China sea.

Any country would prefer to settle the border disputes through diplomacy but  economic resources have always been claimed through military might. If things were to end here, India can be a silent spectator to the events which would unfold in coming times. US would not be a mute spectator and China sees US intervention inevitable at the time of conflict. Involvement of US would mean threatened supply lines throughout South Asia. Thus, fighting enemies in South China sea and at the same time securing supply lines would be costly and ineffective war strategy for China.

The easy way out for China would be through Pakistan, bypassing the South Asia and that's where border incursions figures-in in China's design. Sooner or later, India will have to face China at China's place of choice i.e. J&K, along with that China may try to enter Arunachal Pradesh but that would be a trap to weaken Indian force on north-western boarders. India must delay any confrontation with China as much as possible. China is looking for small and limited war to achieve its objective through border incursions and possibly to demoralize others. The military response to China would mean reduced Indian military strength and later that would pave the way for China to secure supply lines through Pakistan. Sometimes diplomacy and patience also defeats the enemy. India should wait patiently till South China sea conflict unfolds and strategically should kill the intentions of enemy. The other point to be noted is that with so much to attain, China won't be able to pour all military resources on Indian boarders at the time of South China sea conflict and that's would be an opportunity India should wait. War is not a game of numbers but of objectives and strategy . 

Captialism survived and thrived despite criticism

      Socialist economy and inherent corruption in socialism has led to the downfall of many nations. A nation draws its strength not from political system but from the effective political leadership and economic model. History has seen both supremacy and downfall of almost all forms of political systems but we are yet to come across in which any political system with capitalism has failed. In fact in capitalist economy, it's global aspirations of capitalism that demands strong armed forces and thus foreign relations further paves the way for supremacy through economic ties. As a result, population reaps the benefits.  

        Although many may argue that democracy is the best form of political system; agreeable but we have rarely seen a nation growing if political system is democracy but has not opted for capitalist economy.  China is not a democracy but has set off in a right direction and on other hand Soviet union, a communist state, collapsed not because of communism but because of non-capitalist economy. India didn't grow for 40 years after independence despite being a democracy; presently India's economic model continue to be partially socialist and partially capitalist. America, a democracy, continues its strides due to its capitalist economy. The strength of a nation is dictated by economic model and not by political system. Democracies in which effective governance was and is absent are largely those which preferred socialist model and hence have doomed or bound to be doomed in near future.

      Most of the democracies started with socialist economies, thinking it would resolve the governing issues but moving away from socialism has been the trend for many democracies. Socialism only corrupted the political systems; be it democratic, communist , or aristocratic. Although many states continue to call themselves socialist irrespective of economic system state they follow, capitalism have become a core element of many democratic, communist , or authoritarian countries who earlier wanted themselves to be identified with socialist principles. Anyway, capitalism continue to attract criticism but in reality has resolved many governance issues for all political systems.

 

Government must accept that government schools have failed in its objective of community development

     The future of a country largely depends on its children's education. No country can afford to compromise on education front. But India is a country where majority of children enroll in government school and these schools lag behind in inculcating the talent which growing economy of India would demand in coming times. Many political parties talk about inclusive growth but none have plans about how to achieve; some prefer reservation while some acknowledge it and  rest prefer to ignore the problem itself.

     I would say inclusive growth can be achieved only when country's children get access to quality education. Although India is making leaps in economic growth, government school had little role to play in economic growth. Any survey of white collar professionals will reveal that most of them were not educated at government schools. The quality of education at government schools does not prepare students for bright careers, although few made to the main stream. An inclusive growth would remain a distant dream, as it had been for decades, until political parties pay attention to the quality of education at government schools.

    Government schools usually lack teachers, class rooms, or even basic amenities.Government has taken some good initiatives to increase the school enrollment ; providing free meal and books deserve appreciation. These initiatives will definitely reduce the literacy rate. Does this all we need? It would be a marketing gimmick to increase the enrollments  and present a cosy-cosy picture of literacy but underlying problem of quality education at government schools remains unaddressed. Actual parameters to assess the literacy rate should include the impact government schools make on economy.

     Another interesting point is that most of the white collar jobs in India require good hold of English language but medium of instruction at government schools is either local language or Hindi, thus putting the students at disadvantage if students aspire for better career opportunities. This obstruction derails the dreams of millions of students and govt. is still blind to this problem. The government need to bridge the gap between what talent economy require and what is being taught at schools.

    Last but not the least, govt. must accept that government education system has failed in its objective of community development and it need public private partnerships to reform the education sector. Government must outsource  education delivery to private sector and bear the bill. No matter how costly this move would be, investment on children would returns huge fortunes for the country. After all they are future of India.

In 21st century, India can't afford to be led by aimless people.

    Too much noise is being made to project Rahul Gandhi the future Prime Minister of India and like always capable Congress leaders are being ignored by a dynasty in a largest democracy. Every now and then Congressmen speaks of Gandhi family's ambitions for country rather than of their own. And fact of matter is that Gandhi family is very far away from the tunes of India.

   Except Gandhi family members,  no congressmen thinks that he or she can also lead India. Who does not want to climb the ladder of success? Why congressmen are always devoid of PM ambitions and make way for Gandhi family? Why Congressmen are not ambitious about their own political careers? Gandhi family whom congressmen consider the face of India has been leading India aimlessly for decades. In 21st century, India can't afford to be led by aimless people. Even if, just for the moment, we assume that Gandhi family is tuned to ambitions of people, why couldn't family convert those ambitions into reality. Congress has always been vocal about the problems the people of India face but what about the solutions? Well, aimless people never look for solutions!!!

   Rahul Gandhi's political career is hardly less than a decade and he managed to the become Vice President of Congress. On what merit? Does congress party endorse that there is none other better than Rahul Gandhi in Congress? If so, Congress loses its legitimacy to call itself a democratic institution. If Congressmen think Rahul Gandhi is the best politician in Congress, they are ignoring the best bets such as P. Chidambaram, Sachin Piolet, Sashi Tharoor, Prithviraj Chavan, and Antony to name a few.