Concept Note: New India Policy Foundation (Part 3)
The Objectives and Activities
The two main objectives of the Foundation are:
- Research and propose new policy alternatives to address pressing national issues.
- Disseminate the work of the Foundation widely, especially with a view to directly impacting the course and content of national policy.
The Foundation will take up a number of activities:
- Undertake research studies on existing policies of the government, both at the central and state level, with a view to examining the impact of such policies, and suggest alternative approaches where such policies are not delivering in the desired manner.
- Initiate studies to propose new policies over and above what governments might have so far considered. This is expected to address the problem of short term thinking that is often prevalent in governments, at the cost of long term strategic planning.
- Hold consultations, seminars, closed door sessions with policy makers, conferences on important national issues to stimulate debate and guide the policy process. Engage with formal (TV shows / appearances etc) and informal media for large scale dissemination and outreach.
- Engage with and convene meetings with key policy makers (MPs / MLAs & beauracracy) and opinion leaders to shape national policy.
The Foundation expects to demonstrate tangible results within the first few years of its operation. The Foundation will try and forge links with like-minded individuals and institutions globally.
Tomorrow: The Differentiation
July 22, 2009 | Filed Under Amit Malviya, Rajesh Jain
Comments
6 Responses to “Concept Note: New India Policy Foundation (Part 3)”
As Manoj Agarwal explains wonderfully in one of the replies earlier i think the problem is not dearth of good policies but the implementation of these policies. I think in addition to this initiative, we must also focus on this implementation aspect and how the framework can be used by the state BJP governments to make a difference. I think this is extremely important for the party to grow. it must be clearly visible in the eyes of the people that BJP stands for development and this can only be possible by governments which implements the policies with single minded focus.
Do the Indian public and citizen of India genuinely support what the PM has yielded to Pakistan at Egypt in the Joint Statement? Will Indian public jointly pressurize the government to abbrogate the statement unilatterally as it goes against the interest and views of the people of India at large? Indian Foreign Policy is being toyed with by the present government at the behest of US pressure tactics and bargain. Should we not stand up united and reprimand the government for playing with the sentiments of Indian people.
[...] A new Center Right Think Tank – Parts 3 & 4 Continuing the debate on the proposal from Rajesh Jain and Amit Malviya of Friends of BJP for a new Center Right Think Tank called the new India Policy Foundation. (Parts 1 & 2). The Objectives and Activities [...]
let policies take a back seat for once! we have been framing policies for many decades yet are deprived of basic amenities. indians today are most corrupt, insensitive to social changes required and this has thrust upon us a worthless polity.
i strictly believe that until some organization works hard to teach indians to think, to stress upon them the need to be righteous,to teach them to abhor and fight corruption, no policy is ever going to work.
corruption in politics is bad but worse and more frightening is its form that has overtaken the bureaurocracy rendering them slaves to corrupt politicians. this has resulted in a dismal failure of all plans and policies.
unless this corruption is fought against nothing good is ever going to happen. there is no dearth of resourses for development- its only that the resourses are grossly misused and unfortunately no one ever voices due concern about this.
Subject of this Note : MY SIMPLE 5-POINT AGENDA FOR BUILDING STRONG GLOBAL INDIA
I am beginning to think that the idea of a new party on the lines of Swatantra party (before independence)made of Parsi free thinkers, nationalists and people who want to build ‘ONE INDIA FOR EVERY INDIAN’ and not the concept of pro-minority (Congresswala ideology) or pro-Hindu (BJP ideology) or pro-caste based (the BSP ideology) is good one.
Therefore I am totally supportive of those individuals who are fed up of BJP and Congress for various reasons and want to build a great, modern, liberal and secure India which can take the rightful place as one of the greatest countries of this century.
I have 5 main points for building this India. The main agenda for this liberal yet, strong and global INDIA SHOULD BE :
I. Concentrate on Development for every Indian (Water, Electricity, Internet, Telephone, Roads and some way of minimum livlihood for every Indian irrespective of caste, creed, language or religion). This strong focus on development and infrastructure will automatically remove problems of conversion by giving money etc. Create 100 percent literacy in India.
There is nothing wrong with Hindutva concept as long as this concept simply means the ‘Indianness’ and applies to everyone born in India.
But the wrong thing about BJP is that they want to apply this ‘Hindutva’ concept in a narrow way to mean ‘only Hindu Indians’ and not for all Indians. All places of worship in India should should be considered ‘bhartiya places of worship’ whether the places of worship are mosques, temples or gurudwaras or churches.
II. Internal and External Security for every Indian in every part of India whether he is a Kashmiri Pandit, Christian tribal, or North east villager. This means:
—Security from Muslim terrorists who want to kill, bomb etc. (Muslim fundamentalism/terrorism should be dealt with in 2 ways. (i) Ruthlessly tackling the terrorists who are found guilty. They should be promptly executed if they are found guilty without any doubt. (ii) Muslims should be brought into mainstream. Madrassas which impart education must be forced to play national anthem and their syllabus must be inspected regularly by educational authorities by surprise inspection to see that nothing which is terroristic in nature is taught there. All madrassas should be treated like schools and they must be forced to admit students of all religions. No recognition should be given to any school whether minority or majority which does not admit Indian students irrespective of any religion, caste or language. All muslims and others must also learn about Indian history culture etc. as young children and students, although they may choose whichever religion they prefer (that is their personal choice). This is essential to build in all Indians, a shared sense of heritage and culture.
— Security from Maoists and Naxals
— Security from militant mobs operating in the name of Hindutva (No movement should be allowed to take law into their hands, in the name of culture or anything else. If they want to educate women not to visit pubs, they can write articles in press, magazines or even start their own magazines, but no physical force or taking law into their hands should be allowed. Each human being should have the freedom to make their own cultural and ethical choices as long as he/she is not trampling some other person’s rights.)
—Security of life and property and protection from fraud.
—Security from external aggression whether it is aggression from China, Pakistan or some other. For this purpose we have to strengthen our military and have a strong deterrent against China especially, because it is becoming increasingly clear that China’s intentions towards India are not very good. They want to slowly try to sideline India. Their behaviour during the Nuclear deal time and subtle anti-India stance is quite clear. We should openly face this challenge instead of adopting a hush, hush kind of approach.
III. Protection of freedom of choice, expression, religion, language and diverse opinions. We need to build the India based on the great liberal India which was there in ancient India. The great India where even Maharishi Vatsyana’s Kamasutra was welcomed and tolerated in the great liberal thinking traditions. Not the thought control and intolerance of art and literature which has come up in BJP or Congress era. The tradition of banning books or movies should be done away with. If Muslims have problems with books they can write another book to deal with it. Banning of books or movies for minority or majority should not be allowed. (Of course censorship is necessary, to protect children from inappropriate movies, but assuming that even mature adults need to be protected from some books and movies is not the tradition of free liberal great historical India).
IV. Creating a culture of entrepreneurship. Removal of corruption and unnecessary bureaucracy. People should be encouraged to develop businesses, and create wealth instead of only seeking jobs all the time. They should be creators of wealth and not dependent on jobs.
V. Create a culture of accountability and efficiency in government offices. Improve the speed of execution of Projects. Reduce the number of staff, use IT to create automation and treat each person who approaches a government office for some work as a customer, not as some beggar.
If the BJP itself wants to build this kind of modern, secure India, it has my full support provided it really does an atm-chintan and is willing to adopt these above 5 cardinal principles of
DEVELOPMENT FOR EVERY INDIAN,
SECURITY FOR EVERY INDIAN,
FREEDOMS FOR EVERY INDIAN,
OPPORTUNITY FOR EVERY INDIAN,
GOOD GOVERNANCE FOR EVERY INDIAN.
However if BJP wants to continue with its parochial agendas of destroying Indian mosques (for building some other places of worship), demonising and creating hatred for one group of Indians by others, enforcing its own definitions of culture by force or preventing freedom of choice among mature Indian people, I am not supportive of this party, because then it wants to create another fascist, thought control, pseudo-nationalistic entity like the Nazis. Similarly I am not supportive of the Congress because it still has a strong pro-minority tilt which is unnecessary. Morever Congress should implement intra-party democracy which can slowly remove it from the clutches of a single family and make it progressive party.
Hence if there are professionals, intellectuals and others who want to build a strong third party like the earlier Swantantra party which was floated by nationalist Parsis and others with these above mentioned ideals in mind, I am all for it and willing to support such people through my limited efforts.
Media Professional from New York on March 29th, 2009 1:37 pm Has anyone at Friends of BJP conveyed the following to the BJP management?
TO THE BJP’S TOP MANAGEMENT….DEVELOP YOUR OWN MEDIA POWER SOON OR THE BJP HAS NO FUTURE….SERIOUSLY!!!!
I am a sincere sympathizer of the BJP, hence this negative tone in my comments. And I am sorry but there is no other way to digest this bitter pill.
BJP’s media management team should either be fired or revamped immediately. In all these years, the party has yet to start or develop a high-reach and influential pro-BJP television channel or newspaper (except the tiny Daily Pioneer) among other media vehicles, whether it’s in India or outside.
I myself have tried to get in touch with BJP’s media cell a few times on my various trips to India within the past three years, but with no success. The few individuals that I did manage to speak to came across as typical Indian government employees; IGNORANT, UNCONCERNED and UNRESPONSIVE.
The party management obviously doesn’t seem to understand the importance of media, communications and networking for political and national success.
Are the folks running the media cell friends of the BJP? I believe that this is a very serious issue that has cost the BJP many national and state elections so far. It’s image within India and outside has taken a beating time and again inspite of it’s good intentions.
TO THE BJP….Firstly, please develop or redevelop a proper think-tank before it’s too late. And when I say THINK-TANK, I mean a PROPER THINK-TANK, not an apology for a think-tank.
Secondly, please CHANNELIZE all this pro-BJP energy coming in from various quarters systematically and sensibly; else, this ENTIRE “Friends of BJP” exercise will be in vain and become the butt of jokes in the media like “India Shining” did. I personally believe in the sincerity and potential of “Friends of BJP”, and hence would not want this to happen. Also because failure is not an option.
THE BOTTOMLINE SUGGESTION WITH RESPECT TO DEVELOPING CLOUT WITHIN THE MEDIA — “KARO YA MARO”. AND IT’S NOW OR NEVER.
Jai Hind. Jai Bharat.