If become the Prime Minister of India, I would consider it a great responsibility as well as a rare opportunity. I would have to justify my selection before 100 crore people of India who would naturally look upon me for solving their intractable problems of hunger, housing and health. Their faith in me would be my strength and their confidence in my ability to deliver the goods will be my strongest motivation.
I would not like to go down in history as an idle idealist mouthing catchy slogans, i would get a blue-print prepared for the development of the country by commissioning the best intellects of the country (and of the world wherever they could be involved). A nation-wide debate will be initiated to spell out the best means of achieving the national goals. There will be no surrender to any one ideology – people belonging to all ideological streams will participate in the process of nation-building. Sincerity to the society and compassion for humanity would be the distinguishing qualities of these planners and executors not the leftist or rightist ideologies borrowed from the decadent West or the turbulent East.
First thin first I would get a status-paper prepared on the plight of people suffering starvation or severe malnutrition. I would arrange to provide them with required foodstuff and medical coverage by mobilising all governmental agencies. I would not hesitate to appeal to non-governmental organisations to extend their help to provide succour to the people in distress. All infrastructural support of the government agencies will be provided to the N.G.O.’s to accomplish their task.
As a Prime Minister, I would function not only through a handful of government servants but through all the people of goodwill in the country who, I am sure, would leave no stone unturned to help their unfortunate brethren if properly approached. I see no reason why people should starve in a country which is self-sufficient in food – where foodgrains rot incertain areas for lack of storage and people starve in other areas for want of non-availability of foodgrains. With effective tie-ups, foodgrains can be reached where required.
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I realise that India is a poor country and I would not allow scare Govt, resources and funds to be spent on glossy buildings, airconditioners, and overambitious projects. I would rather divert these funds to provide potable drinking water in all the villages of India and a reliable sewerage and public transport system in the cities of our country. I would rather have the people grow together albeit slowly rather than grow fast but separately at the cost of the other citizens. Indians will share the austerity so far as access to luxury of fine clothes, liquor, private motor-cars, speeding jets, five-star hotels are concerned, I world rather have the Indians enjoy the beauty of lush green forests, turbulent rivers, snowy peaks and refreshing variety of weathers and flowers than go for rupee-guzzling automobiles, rich food and jet-set aircraft.
I firmly believe that all Indians have an equal claim on the rich bio-diversity of the country. This should be preserved and developed in a way that would benefit the India’s masses and not the select classes. No other country in the world has as many varieties of rice as India. This genetic fecundity has contributed greatly to the development of high-yielding and disease-resistant varieties of rice in different rice research institutes. India should guard this wealth and not allow the greedy multi¬nationals to plunder the riches of our soil in the name of research in bio-technology which they are not going to share freely with the Third World but which they would like to patent in their names to further their pecuniary and hegemonistic designs.
In order to prevent proliferation of slums in the cities, construction activity will be strictly regulated in the city areas according to the 20-25 year master-plans of the city. This plan should be widely published so that the enlightened citizens can prevent any violation of the Plan by dishonest and obliging bureaucrats. Master Plans (10-15 years) based on village resources mapping will be prepared forfive lakh Indian villages. The villages will be progressively supplied with modern amenities – electricity (generated by Gobar-Gas Plants-Solar energy-tidal energy) computer linked schools – satellite community television, mobile health centres, agriculture and industrial extension and training.
In order to eliminate superstition and illiteracy, a massive literacy campaign will be launched involving all G.O.’s-N.G.S., Universities, schools. All educated citizens and officials will contribute at least 2 hours a day for literacy and public awakening effort in the capacity of volunteer teachers, facilitators, monitors, supervisors, campaign leaders, computer programmers, trainers, evaluators. Every single citizen falling in the age group of 6 to 35 year will welcome the 21st century as a literate and enlightened citizen.
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I will strike a fatal blow to the complacent and muddling bureaucracy by converting all but few government departments into task-forces assigned to do specific jobs and achieved prescribed goals in a given time-frame. People working in these task-forces will be deployed in different tasks according to requirement.
This arrangement will hasten the pace of completion of important public projects. Just as a large number of personnel are deployed for census work or election-work to complete the task in a specified time-limit, similarly personnel will be moved and deployed in large number in famine-relief work, in completion of dams, irrigation and electricity projects, literacy mission, population education, family welfare, children immunization and I.C.D.S. programmes.
Land reforms in India have been implemented only half-heartedly. Consequently, there are people encumbered with small patches of barren and uncultivable land who cannot produce even a few quintals of foodgrains after putting in maximum hard labour. On the other hand, there are a handful of influential people possessing huge tracts of land who have neither time nor inclination to put the land to productive uses.
I will get a comprehensive inventory prepared of under-utilised lands and arrange to get an ultimatum issued (if necessary, after enacting suitable legislation) to the big land-guzzlers to take suitable steps to put the entire land to productive usage (a minimum produce will be fixed) failing which the land will be reverted to the state or Gram Sabha which can engage agriculture labour cooperatives to cultivate these lands. Such cooperatives will be liberally assisted by the government by way of provision of agriculture inputs-irrigation, seeds, fertilizers, and also marketing facilities so that land becomes productive and the labours enhance their income and nutritional status.
Organised social action will be taken up to green the country. And finally, farm, group, society or organisation possessing more than 100 metres of land will be required to plant and maintain a specified number of trees. Government will provide economic and logistic infrastructure to implement this scheme. During my 5 years tenure of premiership I would work untiringly to usher my country into the Twenty-first Century as a leading progressive nation in the world.