POLITICAL ORIENTATION

Asirina Praman is a son of Jampula Rao, an MP from Andhra Pradesh. I heard that Praman did a postgraduate diploma in corruption from International Institution of Corruption and Betrayal in 2010. Later he got intensive coaching under locally acclaimed Indian politician Avineeth Jangu. He spent closely with gangster Mridang Mori for six months on the advice of his futuristic and orthodox father.  Jampula Rao somehow knew that I was conducting orientation classes for many youth of India. He referred his son to me for intense political orientation. The following was the result of our initial interaction. He asked me many questions. I tried to educate him as much as necessary.

Praman: I heard that you started Maya Lokam Institute of Learning for enthusiasts of all kinds to educate and entertain them differently. I wanted to interact with you in that place but you did not accept. 

I: It was a dream project of late industrialist and philanthropist Bonda Bongu Babu. He was thoroughly disappointed by the thoughts and activities of politicians those days. He wanted to kill corrupt politicians and immoral bureaucrats publicly but controlled himself without joining national or international extremist groups. When he was on deathbed in 2014 in Modanasa Hill Range, I met him on his earnest request. He instructed his son to give me five crore rupees to enable me to do something to fight against the dirty political parties and politicians in India. He died in my hands with a promise from me that I would do something substantial to combat the wrong political system in India. I spent all that money to build a huge mansion, procure documents of corruption reports from across the world, recruit some honest and brilliant youth to regularly research into the matters of politics and politicians, conduct seminars for youth of India and so on. It’s an abode of vibrant learning and rigorous fight against dirty politics in India. Only corrupt and experienced Indian politicians are qualified to enter that space. We show them many varieties of videos portraying the poverty and pain of humans and other creatures across the world, exclusively caused due to the inefficient, corrupt, ignorant and egoistic politicians and political systems in those places. They stay in our campus for those few days until our training program is over and go out with a lot of repentance. Many politicians did wonders to common people and their regions after spending in our premises for those few days. We reform bad politicians here. You are yet to enter politics. I cannot take you as an experienced and corrupt politician. So, I did not take you there.

Praman:  I never wanted to become a politician but due to the pressure of all my family members and my father in particular. He believes that I can serve people if I enter politics like many in our families.

I: I have the track record of your father with me. I don’t like to get into that matter now. Your father has vision for you. He thinks that you can live comfortably and happily as a politician only in India. Anybody can become a politician in India because it is the least valued employment industry in India. If you check the backgrounds of politicians across India between 1950 and 2015, you would understand that it’s mostly a lot of dirty idiots and scoundrels, who take politics as a silly game but not as a sacred profession. Nobody asks us to contest as an MLA or MP candidate in a constituency because politicians have no such good image in common people now. Since it is a safe and secure job with much government funding and privileges, many choose it as a great option in comparison to any other profession. Never believe that we have to be politicians to serve people but kindness and generous character. Thousands of voluntary organizations and millions of individuals have been serving the societies for long. They are offering sublime and generous social service every day across the world. We need political power and strategic planning and thinking to present ourselves as custodians and guides of the people in our constituencies. To put it differently, actors need attractive attire to impress others but not saints. 

Praman:  Why have people lost faith in politicians in India? Is ours a good democracy at all?

I: People lost trust and respect for politicians in India because politicians are thinking and behaving like businessmen but not individuals. They are planning on ways and means to exploit people and public money directly or indirectly and become rich and influential in course of time but not focused on the idea of serving and guiding people in the right path as true representatives of them in legislatures. I believe that 90% of MLAs, MPs and ministers are corrupt and unreliable in India now. They beg for votes moving house to house before elections and once the results are released and their positions are confirmed, common people look like dogs and bitches to them, which can be ignored, suppressed and humiliated in any manner. Indian democracy is in the hands of worthless rogues now. People don’t believe in legislatures, governments or judicial system now because all are corrupt in their views now.

Praman: What factors are influencing the political system in India Now?

I:  The feelings and attachments related to community, religion, region, language, race, cultural background and financial status of candidates contesting in elections are the major factors. Nobody has a broader outlook towards India. If the central or state government sanctions certain amount of money for a good cause, the MLAs and MPs are spending it for the benefit of their party men or followers but not those affected or who are suffering from poverty and related tragedies in human life. This is the case with every political party. Be it Congress or BJP or other regional political parties in India, selfishness, narrow-mindedness and anarchy are their qualities. Many are taking these political positions of power as ways to enjoy their lives and get huge public focus on the way but not as an opportunity to understand the pains and tribulations of people at ground level and bring order, happiness and comfort into their lives. Even gentlemen and good women, who wish to serve people, through politically empowered positions, are becoming bad and unreliable after being in a position of power for a few days. It means the current political system does not attract or retain good creatures but dirty rogues only. It is a bad trend altogether.

Praman: Are there standards and values in the Indian system of democracy now?

I: No. Politics is like a family business in India. If father dies while in political power, his son, daughter, wife or a relative contests and wins it. Party high commands are also corrupt ones to the core. They want to strengthen their political parties and retain their status as considerable entities. So, they choose and empower bad ones only to continue in their series of family politics. Those with individuality and intelligence of their own don’t listen to anybody that easily and be loyal to them. They question the existing order of things around them and wish to bring drastic positive changes there through their honest and active participation. No Indian political party intends to recruit such gentlemen and ladies into their fold now. Slavery and flattery are important to get position and retain it in any political party. MLAs and MPs should not talk back to their party high commands but think and behave like bonded labourers before them. Those without self-respect and self-reliance cannot change others to the better. They are acting like dogs and bitches in their political parties. They enjoy the comforts and privileges of their political positions but do not remember who empowered them. They should serve people but they actually hate their presence after assuming those positions. Lies and crimes are their qualities. They do anything to acquire and retain their positions of power but for nothing else. They are hard-core merchants. They sell superficial words to attract helpless people and after elections, they start earning money and other assets minding the welfare of their family members. Politicians in India are worse than a prostitute. They live and die for themselves only. They exploit and change the existing good systems of governance also in favour of them slowly. They are like fatal cancer to Indian democracy. We cannot kill or change them to our expectations.

Praman: What are the essential qualities required for one to start and grow as a politician in India?

I: The first essential quality is that you should not have self-respect at all. You should be smiling at everybody to make them feel that you are happy even though you have been just stabbed in the stomach and bleeding inside. When the election is in the corner, you should walk for miles together posing as if you are ready to die for people. You should hug people; act those roles for a while like a farmer, driver, cleaner, weaver and so on. Ensure that there is a photographer or videographer nearby. You do all this for formality and publicity. What if those scenes are not captured by correspondents and covered widely in print and electronic media? You cannot meet your ulterior motive. Often talk positively and ideally about future of the people ahead. Since they are in quite unbelievable difficulties, the dreams painted through your sweet words solace them considerably. If any detectible mistakes or blunders are committed by your party or government, publicly announce that it is a correlative or cumulative result of international affairs or the acts of previous dubious governments. Absurd self-defense is the art worthless politicians in India are supposed to master and apply as and when required to present themselves as ultimate leaders and all others as useless entities of earthly existence. While blaming others, especially those in power, don’t have honesty, common sense or logic but random flow of casual and extreme remarks. When you scold others repeatedly for a number of times, others may take those lies as truths and find you as an admirable entity in the region. You must be a master in telling beautiful lies at will. You must be a chameleon in attitude and behavior. You must change parties, ideologies, words, clothes and agenda within days or months. Survival, as part of an active and popular party, must be your goal. You must support your political party like a wizard. You must find faults with other parties, their policies and activities, like a magician. If your party fellow is caught somewhere by an anticorruption body, you must readily state that it is a trap of the ruling government or other biased groups. If one in another party, which is your rival, achieves something great, you must be either silent or use that point also to your advantage or his disadvantage somehow. You must organize public meetings of your followers and activists as frequently as possible because they don’t feel motivated to continue in your party if you don’t make some monkey tricks now and then to cheer them up. You must arrange vehicles, sponsor meals, alcoholic drinks and similar facilities to all those masses that attend your public parties. If hundreds of sheep don’t attend your public meeting, media presents it as a failure of your government, party or charisma. You must know how to conceal your drawbacks, demerits, filth and highlight those of others blatantly. If somebody is planning to criticize you after noticing that you made a mistake, you must target him and present him as a wrongdoer, fraudster or simpleton before he declares your progress report. You must be a master in making promises wherever you go. Offering boons unlimitedly is important. Let anybody ask anything anywhere, just say that you would fulfill it at any cost. Never say ‘no’ to any logical or foolish public demand. You need their votes during elections. To satisfy their wishes orally is necessary, especially in public meetings. You should appear like God who can give anything desired by His ardent devotees. It is good to own and run a television channel to promote yourself extraordinarily. When a few others find us as a thief based on our apparent background, we must make people see those bitter truths provided by others as avoidable lies or misinterpreted data through our rigorous drum beat of self-certification and self-appreciation. You must be a magician, liar, opportunist, wizard of tricks, comedian, storyteller, dancer, cheerleader, speaker and art lover. You must do what a situation demands but not what you feel genuinely. You must attract and impress others regularly. You must ignore the burning issues, in your area of activities, internally.

Praman: I need a lot of money to start and continue as an influential politician. My father does not spend his money even for God. How should I collect required money and resources for my political survival?

I: In every country, a multitude of stakeholders need political support directly or indirectly - to get a ration card, vehicle license, Aadhaar card, driving license, voter identity card, passport and business permission. Regulatory bodies like police and drug inspectors may punish you immediately if you are innocent, helpless and caught somewhere by them publicly, doing something unofficial or illegal. Similarly there are hundreds of millionaires in many regions doing a variety of businesses and taking up assignments of huge profits. They fund political parties paying hugely every year, directly or indirectly. They don’t pay you if your party has no potential to get political power now or in near future. So, how strong you are as a political party to acquire power and authority to punish the disloyal ones in course of time decides your party’s or leader’s image in the circle of industrialists and other rich ones. They send you money voluntarily. No tax, no reliable records and no rational spending of it. So, if your stature as a politician in a region is appealing and threatening to all those making money hugely somehow, there won’t be scarcity of funds to run your political business. You must know how and when to scare others.    

Praman: What must be my approach towards representatives of media, publicly and privately?

I: Modern media means a mad dog. Nobody knows why, when and what they write about us. So, use the phrase ‘I strongly condemn it’ when something unfortunate occurs in your knowledge, which is widely known to public. Nobody likes a murder, death, natural calamity, accident, fraud, rape or assassination in any part of the world but the responses or reactions of all don’t get space in newspapers or television news. Only the statements and acts of political and other celebrities get media coverage. When you say that you condemn something strongly, you must believe that people are appreciating your sense of kindness, generosity, empathy, sacrifice and patriotism in that context. If some are taking your photos or videoing you in association with another influential person or occasion, you should keep shaking hands with the other or hugging him for long. If you don’t appear regularly on television and in newspapers, people may forget you within days as you are essentially an avoidable idiot and criminal in their lives. So, for a right or wrong reason, you must appear to people quite often. At times, if others criticize you and you remain silent, it may earn sympathy of familiar people for you. You must cut inauguration ribbons, give public speeches, release new books, start cultural programs, address sheep on the way to important venues of meeting, kiss children acting affection, console old people, talk kindly with patients and other hopeless sections of society to get a favourable coverage in media. What you speak or do in any part of the world is up to you but it should get you positive media coverage.  If a reporter comes to your house at odd hours to get your interview for something immediate and vital, welcome him warmly concealing your anger, aversion and frustration during such times. Answer his questions patiently. Clarify his doubts ideally. You must look and behave like a saint or humanitarian in your private life when you smell media representatives around. Nobody knows what you think or do actually but many see and hear what is telecast or read about you. It means you need to be a great actor while in politics. Talk and do what people like and admire but not what transforms their lives forever. Your subjects must be in constant poverty and pain. Then only they spend sometime to think and work for you somewhere. Often conduct meetings with local media persons to offer bribes and gifts to them. If you satisfy them in a wrong way from public perspective, they promote you in your desired way through their positive reports about you in their dailies, weeklies and television channels. Never miss any chance to promote yourself being assisted by media. Every politician is a public figure. Maintain that beauty and dignity of profession always. Makeup is necessary after a stage of age. Never hurt or cheat anybody directly. Do it all indirectly and strategically only. Impress others publicly.

Praman: What are the privileges of politicians in India as representatives of people?

I: Police are scared to arrest you as fast as they do with ordinary and innocent people even if you have done something wrong that deserves immediate legal action. Indian police are like bonded labourers employed by governments in power. They clear ways when you are passing by. They salute you whenever they see you because they don’t have individuality of their own. Courts of law also take decisions very carefully and cautiously when the cases are related to politicians. They too have a kind of soft corner and affinity with all politicians in power now or once. Cars possessing the labels of noted politicians and their political status are not stopped at check posts or toll gates for formal checkup or collection of toll because politicians are authorized beggars and parasites of Indian democracy. They are honored by our constitution this way. Since they are supposed to be highly ideal and generous public servants and that such visionaries, dignitaries and philanthropists of contemporary societies need to be treated differently from common and negligible people of a nation, they are mostly accorded special status while on journey in known places. They can travel freely in local buses, trains and flights. They are allowed to take their assistants or relatives also along with them on most of these journeys. They can go abroad as frequently as possible in the name of inspection of foreign infrastructure or culture, which can be implemented in their land back at home. They need not pay electricity or any other bills as regularly as other common people do. As long as they are in political power, no staff member of electricity or other departments can demand them to pay bills in time or when they are comfortable also. All government departments in India are filled with spineless IAS officers, unscrupulous IPS officers, immoral heads of religious institutions and cults and so on. They are psychologically modified and culturally confirmed shameless and worthless servants of those in political power. If an ordinary person goes to meet a district collector or other public servant, it is like a hell. He is not accessible to you as much as you expect. If an MLA, MP, VIP or minister comes that side, these high breed public dogs and bitches smell their presence even when they are miles away and get ready to serve them like genetically distorted and degenerated species of another planet. If you go to attend a function in any place at political or personal level, many surrounding pigs, monkeys, donkeys, dogs and sheep surround you with slogans, banners and mad acts of hero or heroine worship. They treat you like manmade God. They crave photos and videos in association with you. They wish to keep those photos in their business units or houses because politicians in India are second to deities. They can do anything like God. Physically paralyzed and psychologically subdued masses rush to you to ask you to name their newborn babies or set fire to the dead bodies in their burial grounds. If you touch them with your sanctified hands or speak a few words addressing them informally or formally, their material lives change forever and their souls rush to heaven directly after death. Many come to you asking for recommendations to government or private jobs, grants to develop their areas, request letters to solve their personal or social issues and so on. To see millions of beggars in India, you must become a politician. Without rational thinking or common sense, they approach you regularly to beg you for something or the other. You may speak something publicly to delight all at once and need not do any of it later. Nobody can make you accountable for it. Law and order, judges, professionals, politically sick and hopeless parasites, foreigners, dignitaries, government employees, private parties and many others are at your disposal. To closely monitor the lives and ideas of millions of sheep and patients, you can certainly become a politician. You would get royal treatment from all sheep when you have political power. You are like a dictator. You can say and do anything. Nobody dares speak or fight against you.

Praman: Why do many politicians wear white or such formal clothes and wear black glasses often?

I: I should narrate my odd personal experience to clarify you this point. It happened when I was touring Mongrelize Bursata in 1998. I asked a native if he would like to visit India to feel incredible India. He almost got infuriated at me. He took me to his hut and said, “Many believe that India is a sacred country but I don’t agree with this idea at all. There is nothing holy in India. Politicians tell lies, cheat common people, support criminals and encourage fraudsters. Temples are commercialized. Roads are ugly. Police respond or react like gangsters of extremist groups. Farmers grow crops applying harmful fertilizers and pesticides. Industrialists get ready to do anything if it brings them huge money. They don’t have concern for their people or patriotism towards their nation. Many products and medicines, which are banned in other developed countries, are made and sold in India widely. Most of Indians are copycats. What India tries to project to foreigners through its tourist promotion activities does not appear or happen in real India if one spends and observes things at ground level. Rapes, murders, accidents, suicides and public nuisance of all kinds are pervasive in India. What can I learn or feel seeing such degraded and defaced India now?” I understood about real India in his words. Here politicians are worse than dirty pigs and sick dogs. They don’t have standards and values at all except blind imitation and worship of those associated with their political party. They wear white and formal clothes mostly to make people believe that they are gentlemen. They hide their corrupt, libidinous and sinful eyes behind black glasses. They struggle to project themselves as idealists through their attire and other gimmicks because they are essentially bastards of India.

Praman: The other day my father said that loyalty is the primary quality for a politician in India.

I: He is true to the core and must have told you so out of his loyalty to many political parties in different phases of his political career in this irrevocably corrupt and defaced Indian democracy. Loyalty is the primary quality of a dog. He would be loyal to anyone, who offers food and shelter to him. Similarly, since no Indian politician has value when thought of beyond association to a noted and influential political party, he or she is supposed to be unbelievably loyal to some party always. When you are loyal to your political party, you are obligated to do certain things publicly. You should praise your seniors in the party even without knowing about their residential address or recent political background. You are like an honorary advocate of all those associated with your political party. If one of those falls down stepping on a banana peel on a slippery road, you must say that he did so to feel the pains and suffering of masses, who often undergo such accidents while walking on public roads but not because he did not notice it in time there. If he is caught in a brothel, you should state that he went to those red light areas to personally witness their plight but not to satiate his carnal desires. If she divorces her husband after becoming an MLA, you must clarify that she did so to save herself from the domestic violence caused by him after she got political power but not because she wants excessive freedom to mingle with anybody and make lots of money that way also during those five years of tenure. If your party fellow conducts a public meeting and instigates his worthless followers to set fire to trains, block roads, loot shops and harass all publicly, you must present him as a dedicated or divine community or religious leader but not a nasty political criminal who must be hanged publicly for the crimes he is committing causing huge loss to people and public property. Supporting everybody and everything associated with your political party is your primary and inevitable moral responsibility as long as you are an Indian politician in any part of India. If you oppose, they send you home or mark you as a lunatic, throwing stinking mud on you somehow through their secret agencies and criminals. A loyal dog licks the feet of his master. An Indian politician does it towards his party folks unconditionally. If you don’t like these political trends in India, you cannot survive here. Darwin once theorized ‘survival of the fittest’. You take it as ‘excellence of the worst’.

Praman: Why have corruption and politics became synonyms in the context of India?

I: Candidates contesting elections are investing huge amount of money to lure voters offering money and various gifts. Thus they introduced corruption to voters around 1990. To earn back what was spent in elections and to get ready for the forthcoming elections, many MLAs and MPs are resorting to ways of corruption in different ways. Political corruption follows a layered system in India. Corporate companies bribe ministers, MPs and MLAs and all locally politically influential ones to get acts and laws in favour of them or to change policies and procedures of regulatory bodies to benefit them ultimately. Contractors too pay to politicians. If it actually costs 10 lakh rupees to lay a road, they present it as a project requiring 30 lakh rupees. They lay a road worth eight lakh rupees only and share the remaining amount of money at various levels of hierarchy. This is how most of the peoples’ representatives are earning hugely in their tenures now. It is an open secret in India. The president of India, prime minister, chief ministers, courts of law, voluntary organizations, media persons and saints know about this bitter truth in India. Regulatory bodies like ACB play formal role in this atmosphere of pervasive corruption and widespread immorality catching a few corrupt ones occasionally and punishing them nominally after a long time. Thus corruption became an ordinary point of discussion in India now. People are comparing the statuses of fraudsters of various kinds in looting public money and living luxuriously. Nothing can happen in your constituency beyond your notice. Some pay you bribes as per the established systems there and you would also find out new ways of corruption based on opportunities in your place. Publicly you would speak about welfare of people but actually you think and work to amass lakhs of rupees while in a politically influential position.

Praman: How can we divert public focus and media attention from our illicit affairs and bad reputation?

I: Many have set examples to newcomers like you. You should start and run a voluntary organization like blood bank, eye bank, organ donation bank or some other service bank. Your admirers and fans offer their blood, eyes after death and organs voluntarily out of their adoration for you. Some others benefit from this generosity of others. You would just play a nominal role in this scenario like occupying some public property or buying it at nominal cost, making buildings there and deploying some staff members. Thus you would establish and enjoy an image of great personality in your locality. When people are focused on that aspect of your character, you can loot public money through your political position. Nobody offers you bribe publicly. You would deploy mediators to collect bribes and move that money to safe and secure sources of deposits and storage. People take you as an idealist but actually you are a miser. Your passion is for money; your strength is admiration of mad idiots of India in a region; your reputation makes you start a political party on your own or be linked with some popular party. You would go up the ladder of political status year after year based on your strategic moves and ulterior motives. When you are getting old, you should slowly introduce your wife, brother, sister, son, daughter, cousin or a reliable relative of you into local politics strategically. If anything happens to you unfortunately, fortune favors those whom you had already trained and kept ready for public show. Indian voters are in favour of bereaved ones but not efficient ones when it comes to elections. Sympathy elections are popular in India. If father dies in an accident or naturally, that party introduces his son or daughter in that region. Family politics is the agenda here. Be it congress, BJP or any other noticeable political party in India, they largely depend on deaths of others to assume powerful positions. All you should crave, while in this field, is how to acquire and retain political power. You cannot earn that huge money and reputation doing anything else in India. Politics in India offer chances to all kinds of people to contest and win. Try your luck. Politics is the only field in India where you can impress and attract people with your attractive lies and dirty lifestyle also.

Praman: How should I start my party and make a mark of my own differently in Indian politics?

I: A political career in India is like the one in the film industry. Pre-production and post-production works are important. For four to five years, you should indulge in public focus activities, before launching yourself into regional politics. Clean roads; address people on important occasions; throw parties quite often; agitate to attract people when they are entangled in public issues; mingle with locally influential people and run unions of your choice and profession. People must see and listen to you extensively before the launch of your political career. Once you realize that people are madly associated with your personality, ideals and identity symbols, you can announce the name and agenda of your political party. You can hire ghost writers to write your influential speech artificially. Collect and bring thousands of masses to your inaugural ceremony of political party. They spread the news of your political party like bees. After five years of your tenure, you should promote what you have done extraordinarily and fanatically. Always remember the typical Indian political phrase, ‘I am ready to die for you’.

Praman: Are there no good politicians in India at all?    

I: You can count them with your fingers. Voters struggled a lot to vote for Mr. Jayaprakash Narayan of Lok Satta party at Kukatpally constituency once. He is an idealist and thinker. He does not talk rubbish but bitter truths. Indian voters, who have been accustomed to beautiful lies for decades, cannot afford to hear and follow ideals for themselves or others. So, they did not choose this gentleman for the second term. For them, a politician is one, who can lobby at any level and get what he wants for those, whom he cares personally or professionally. They don’t want such contestants, who can change their lives forever but those who misguide them continuously. So, they are selecting such politicians, who are hypocrites to the core. They want to live and die in abject poverty, absurd ignorance and absolute helplessness. If a true leader assumes a political position in their area, he may ask them to change forever. Change implies getting rid of our bad habits and dangerous lifestyles also. Indians are not prepared for this internal transformation now. They want to participate in such campaigns and programs of the governments which require their nominal presence but not deep analysis of things and finding out solutions to them at their level initially. Even if Lord Rama appears before them intending to rule them, they softly reject His kind offer. They don’t admire real heroes now in politics, who bring about substantial change in the lives of others but those who can misguide and scare people through their political power, acquired following bad trends of the time. So, Indians are in favour of villains now but not heroes. They are trained patients and parasites now.

Praman: Constitution of India, legislatures, judiciary, active public observation … can’t any of these factors influence the attitude of our politicians and change them to the better forever?

I: They don’t believe in the uniqueness and value of constitution of India because they assume power following their tricks and strategies but not principles laid out in our constitution. If one can assume power through unconstitutional means and ways, one can continue as a politician in the same manner. They go to legislatures for formality. They discuss issues there for courtesy sake. They are focused on the agenda of their development only but not happiness and development of their people. Lawyers and judges do nothing against influential political parties and representatives. People don’t mind what politicians are doing much because they are pressed for time as part of their struggle for existence. If an investigative journalist, social activist or sage questions their rule blatantly, they suppress him indirectly. Oppression and atrocities are weapons of politicians in India. They poison our minds in course of time through their lies and misdeeds. We fail to differentiate what is good or bad. We accept what must be avoided and refuse what should be accepted. Manipulative Indian politicians ruin and reshape our lives irrevocably. We move away from our roots of all kinds. We graze on fields littered and spoilt by them.

Praman: What must be the ideal role of a politician in India to transform people forever?

I: People should understand that governments cannot print money in proportion to the wild desires and unlimited needs of them time to time. They collect revenue from people and various other segments of societies and industries through direct and indirect taxes. They have to spend that money judiciously to keep people comfortable and happy providing them with all possible services. Subsidies must be reduced to the least possible extent. Only those that badly need government support to survive in a chosen field must be provided with subsidies but not all uniformly because all are not poor. I think pensions were cancelled in 2004 in India. They exert heavy burden on exchequer. It is quite unproductive expenditure. When millions of youth are suffering without livelihood opportunities, how can we afford to pay huge amounts of pensions to retirees believing that they served substantially to people once? We paid them salaries and honoured them with multiple benefits when they did jobs. We cannot treat them royally even after their retirements. The culture of unions has a devastating effect on Indian economy. There are many unions in India both in organized and unorganized sector. It is not possible for any public or private company to make profits continuously in volatile financial markets. Then how can we pay huge salaries, offer high increments and provide attractive bonuses to employees and workers in various industries? Unions are turning many employees into lazy and crazy idiots who always fight with others for more comforts and benefits from the management but never towards improving their work culture. Unions are dictating terms to governments and the managements of private industries in India. They are creating nuisance publicly quite often, presenting their issues as the burning issues of the nation. Superficial political parties like CPI and CPM are encouraging masses towards becoming violent revolutionaries but not sensible and sensitive individuals who do anything rationally and logically. We should train and equip people to live on their own decently but not preparing them into antisocial elements. Anybody with a genuine problem must be able to go to a police station or court of law believing that his issue would be resolved at the earliest without bias or ill treatment from anybody there. People lost trust in many that represent governments in India. To regain that trust, all peoples’ representatives should think and work for the welfare of their subjects. They should avoid telling lies and hypocrisy. They should not promote themselves through banners, public speeches, campaigns, television channels and such other gimmicks before, during or after elections. If they work honestly and ideally for the welfare of all, they can win the hearts of those people very easily. Ramana Maharshi, Adi Sankaracharya, Rama Krishna Paramahamsa or Swami Vivekananda did not struggle for public image and wide reputation but preached and lived virtues. Those that talk less and work more can influence people positively in any age because their sublime deeds speak louder than our superficial speeches. When politicians don’t trust people and people don’t believe in politicians, progress cannot be achieved. Sympathy elections and appointments must be banned. All political parties should allow great persons in their knowledge to contest elections but not those who are incompetent, unethical and corrupt. If all political parties stop offering bribes and gifts to lure voters during elections, they become honest and vote for the right candidates after scrutiny of their lifestyles and standards. Judiciary must act fast and be fair. In India, high profile criminals are being accorded special status in courts of law and jails and innocent and helpless people are becoming the worst victims of law and order. Reservations must be avoided. Only those who are talented, hard-working and ideal should be identified and promoted in private and public sectors. Now many worthless, corrupt and stupid idiots have assumed powerful positions in many places due to unfair government policies. Efficient ones are remaining behind the screen without an opportunity to change the fate of India. We can see double standards everywhere. We must hang fraudsters, rapists, religious fanatics and criminals to alert, educate and reform wrongdoers fast.

Praman: What role do science and technology play in public administration?

I: Until the attitudes and culture of our politicians change, technology can do nothing towards changing the fates of people. A gentleman reads articles about poverty and pains in the world utilizing his Internet facility provided by government and an indecent idiot uses it to see images and videos of his choice for his entertainment. Technology is always a tool, which can be used, misused or disused by people in any part of the world. What we learn through technology and how we apply it to change our lives or those of others depends on our character. If party high commands start considering and promoting only efficient and honest ones at all levels in their parties, only good ones contest and win elections. When all sitting in legislatures are ideal ones, they create such atmosphere in their constituencies, implementing virtues at ground level. When rulers expect their authorities and people to be honest, peace and prosperity can be achieved in such favourable environment. Positive change must start from higher level politicians, executives and idealists. Now we are considering a thief as a bad guy but many of our politicians are worse than these thieves. A thief may steal something for his survival but what about our politicians. They are looting public money and defacing our image as a good country. All are neglecting ordinary, helpless and innocent people. Celebrities are being honored regularly. All Indians must be treated fairly by our politicians.

Praman:  Is it right time for ideal and intelligent Indian youth to enter politics for a positive change?

I: We can count the number of youth entering politics in India without considerable political and financial background. There may not be even one or two youth in the entire India. Politics is like a business in India. Only folks of related families know the secrets of a business. What you learn reading books of civics and politics is different from what really happens in India. You cannot predict the moods of Indian voters. They have no broad outlook. They choose somebody only if they believe that they benefit directly if he or she assumes political power but they are not concerned about the other implications involved in it. Majority Indians stopped thinking beyond their region and facilities. Indians don’t elect ideal ones but those who can entertain them through attractive words and acts. They are not at all bothered about the future of India or Indians. They want boons only from all kinds of politicians. They vote for those who promise maximum gifts to them. Free food, free education, free electricity, free houses, free lands, free roads, free irrigation facilities, free travel facilities, unlimited jobs to unqualified idiots also, regular pay hikes and so on. They don’t consider you a great leader if you ask them to read the Bhagavad Gita and inculcate virtues to enhance the image of India but only if you offer them unlimited freedom everywhere. Victims curse you if you don’t kill a rapist, extremist or criminal and human right activists fight against you if you shoot a notorious criminal for the sake of society. Government officials curse you if you force them to work hard and people suffer if they don’t. Youth curse if you don’t allow public kissing, hugging and similar activities. Orthodox Indians treat you as an inefficient leader if you allow youth to get spoilt in whatever manner they like. In India, poverty, anarchy and unrest are permanent but not ideals and achievements. A doctor can treat a mentally affected patient but not a healthy one who is acting like a mad man with an ulterior motive. Majority Indians don’t know what they want at all. They don’t change even if you send them to personality development classes. Positive change is a challenge to them. They never try for it. Casually criticizing others and finding faults in all others is their hobby. If you enter politics, they say you have done it to loot them. If you move to forests for meditation, being vexed with them in all respects, they say you are an escapist. They don’t appreciate you if you live like Mahatma Gandhi but Veerappan. They want sensational news and terrific leaders. See if you can do something worthwhile in this setting. Politics is an ugly and stinking dress now for any good Indian to wear and impress others.