We need massive decentralisation and devolution of power upto district, village and even to sub-village level. Conducting elections for them won’t be a tough task. To ensure smooth transition to democratic behaviour, we can spend that sum. We, the people of India, know what’s the best for us and how to achieve the best for us. For that matter, power mustn’t be concentrated at provincial or Central headquarters. Governance becomes a blind date with destiny if the source of governance is traced to far away headquarters. The source of power must be situated as near as possible to the people so that people can have constant presence to contribute towards building a much better society. The civic participation is as equal as maintaining the rule of law. Unless people are given share in governance, both democracy and development will be nothing more than lip service.
We need empowered, resilient and thoughtful people since they are stronger pillars of governance than the deified constitutional institutions . Devolution of political power without funds will be a joke. Any half hearted measure will only backfire and might accentuate the already prevalent inequalities. What we necessarily need now is far-sightedness in purpose and sincerity in allotment of required powers to all levels of government. All the levels of governments must have their own sphere of governance and legislation. It’s not about stealing power from the centre and giving to the appendages, nor it’s about Robin hood rebellion for sharing power with the underprivileged. It’s about justice and efficiency. India is a big and diverse country. Although uniformity makes governance easier yet we must take care to homogenise only those aspects of governance which are common in the length and breadth of India. Rest of the spheres must be given to the corresponding level of government. We must put faith in the ability of people to govern themselves. Our ancestors had put great faith in our abilities to govern ourselves even when the whole world was against such idea, we must continue the chain of faith.
Indian can’t be governed with uniformity. The diversity of Indian culture cannot be compartmentalised. It needs an individual with keen observation and liberal outlook to understand a little about how India manages with such an skewed level of diversity. Uniformity of governance will only lead to chaos. Why do we need to imitate governance structure from other nations when we can invent ours?For which we need to change the whole concept of power. I believe political power is a paradox. At one end, it is called a service and on the other hand, the same servants, yearn for power. It’s is more like the service of power, although it wasn’t in the beginning yet it has become such.
Now let’s have a look at the global issues. Most of us want to be at ease with life. Most of us want to lead a comfortable life. In short, humanity needs a meaningful life and continuity of nature. We, at this pace of consumption will outdo locusts. The modern humans are becoming tech savvy, educated and talented but there is a blank shadow on every face. I see long faces everyday. The faces with cold eyes. The faces which are miserable for not knowing the cause of their misery. And, that difficulty to find the cause of their misery only make it worse. The misery becomes longing and the person becomes a logo of desiderium. The day is not far when that face becomes insignia of our race. How do we cope with the permanent state of desiderium? Can gloom be passed genetically? I am sure geneticists would doubt that citing lack of evidence. But i believe gloom is passed down socio-genetically. And not only gloom, all other qualities are also passed down in the same manner.We indulge ourselves in pursuits. A well groomed mind knows which things are worth pursuing. The rest of the people pursue myths. We, the mortal, are behaving as if we have a billion years to go for. We are just making our life complex. What can be more real than the age of delirium or a race of delirious people. We are on the road to become Homo Desiderium. I fear not the extinction of mankind, because that will end all the sufferings. I fear a permanent state of sufferings, for which none of us would forgive our forefathers. I fear not the great chaos, because that will somehow be ordered. I fear an empty throne and no contenders. I fear the great famine of humanity. I fear drying not of rivers but of compassion. Money was a mode of transaction and will be as such. I don’t fear inflation, I fear barrenness of human ideas.
Just look into each and every human face and ask them what they are chasing. t
I am sure they aren’t chasing money but illusions. Money has become a monetary value of everything. Money has even changed purposes. For some people earning money is a matter of prestige, for some it’s a hope for a well established future, for some it’s the value of worth of their effort and for some it’s the value of power which comes with it. There are some who see money as not more than a convenient mode of transaction. Everyone has a different reason, and money becomes a ready goal because of its convenience. But money is not and should never be the ultimate goal of human existence.
And I fear a future without goal, without hope, without choice. I fear the day when humans will wonder whether money can regrow humanity and I won’t be surprised if humanity and values will be the most expensive commodities on global stock exchanges. I don’t doubt if we can establish a society on other planets or grow food in labs or not in the least, if some delegation from that far away times comes back in our time to see what went wrong. I have full faith in human mind that it will survive. All I fear is the great age of curse.
The global issues may have a negative influence on the grassroot levels. The impacts of such changes in human behaviour may be different for different cultures. There are sub-cultures within mega-cultures. The world is made up of such concentric circles of different orders and all of them lead up to a global culture. The global issues are part of such global culture. Now having said that different issues have different impacts on different cultures, i would be a fool to choose a top-down approach. Although the top will have a major part to play in the bigger scheme of things, yet the top must keep itself limited and focused to the areas which are it’s prerogative. A top-down approach for every such issue for which solutions are available at respective levels must be avoided. Let nature play it’s role in the advancement of local community since nature is a universal bona-fide teacher, friend and philosopher. We are here because of nature and not the opposite.