Sometimes I wish we were not such a permissive democracy - well! we permit any nonsense under the guise of democracy, maybe because we lack the leadership and will to take hard decisions. Here are some of the things I would like to happen in India, but am sure won't,
Throw Arundhathi Roy into a common jail (no special privileges) along with petty women thieves, prostitutes, and some tough nuts with about 20 people sharing one jail. Keep her there for a month and if that doesnt put a lid on her anti national tongue, give her a one way ticket to wherever she wants to go, rescind her passport. In short, set an example. This will put fear of god into some of the high profile, professional NGOs, activists and journalists who think that freedom of speech means deriding your own country and practising sedition.
Tell the Kashmiris in no uncertain terms that breaking away is not an option. Either they fall in line, respect the constitution, or they are welcome to move over to Pakistan. Push them to Pakistan, like Bangladeshis do in North East. And settle back Kashmiri Pundits who have been driven away. This will make Kashmir more secular. And no special privileges to Kashmir. No additional funds. They have to earn additional funds through good behaviour, not like Pakistan, who get rewarded by US for bad behaviour. All bullies are cowards - ditto for Kashmiris and Pakistanis.
Make anyone above 65 ineligible to contest in Elections. Why should we suffer a 80 plus PM, 85 plus opposition leader in L K Advani, 87 something CM in Kerala, 75 plus Foreign Minister? There is reason why employees retire at 60 or 65.Their mental and physical faculties are not adequate to meet the demanding requirements of a job. What is true for millions of Indians should be true for politicians.
Abolish the posts of Presidents and Governors. There are relics of the colonization, and no longer relevant. And abolishing them will save money.
Ban the silly dresses of the judges and the lawyers. What is wrong with a Judge wearing normal official dress and lawyers just wearing a black pant, white shirt and a tie? And for god's sake get rid of the guy, wearing still sillier costume (davali in a court?) and whose only job is to announce a judge! and he gets bloody paid for it.
Give fair salaries to all the MPs, MLA's and Ministers. But take away all their perks, including the revolving light on top of their cars and their escorts.
Withdraw all security of all Ministers. Being exposed to normal public whom they are supposed to serve will make them perform better.
Put the Judges and the Lawyers involved in common jail for one month if any hearing extends beyond 30 days. Delay in justice is one of the main reason why our society is in shambles.
Introduce the concept of referendums. When the whole world use referendums as a way to allow the people to have a say on major policy matters, why can't we?. For example, let us first have a referendum on various clauses of the constitution. Our constitution was written by a handful of people, whose own prejudisms helped shape it. Let us ask the people what they want. For example, everyone uses/abuses the word secularism - which only means the right to follow any religion and nothing else. Let us ask the people whether they approve of the current (pseudo)secularism, where minorities get special privileges. In a democracy, people's voice is final and majority verdict should be heeded to. Let us have a referendum and then see what is the reality.
Implement internal democracy in all political parties (the law exists, but never implemented). Promote the concept of primaries, as is the norm in Britain and US. Let the local, card bearing members elect their candidates. Then let us not have this first past the post system where someone who gets only 25% of popular votes go through because the next candidate got 24.9%. Have two rounds. After the first round, only the top two candidates should remain, and anyone who doesnt get 51% of the total electorate in the constituency should not be elected.
