Resolve, for India

We tend to make new year resolutions for ourselves, but never for our country, as a nation. We forget that we cannot succeed unless our country succeeds. It is time we made some important resolutions that will truly help our country and speed up its success

Cheers to the New Year as it gives us another chance to set everything right. The New Year comes with a 365-page blank book and it is for us to write a good book. The year 2019 has gone by both with bitter and sweet memories. One most important good event that happened was that we participated in large numbers to elect a government that got a majority mandate yet again. The new government took some path breaking decisions in the national interest. The bad happenings included slowing down of our economy when the GDP fell down to 5% and 4.5% in two successive quarters. The country was also a sad witness to riots in many regions where public properties were vandalised and there were violent clashes with the police.

As Indians, for India

While celebrating the New Year, normally, we make resolutions after introspecting about our lives in the past year. We identify our mistakes and resolve to do better in the coming year. Resolutions are for ourselves and for our families, but never for our country. We forget that we cannot succeed unless our country succeeds. And so, with the coming of the year 2020, we must also pass resolutions as Indians for India. This column is a humble attempt to list some such resolutions.

First, resolve as an Indian citizen is to be an honest taxpayer. Our tax-GDP ratio is not good enough. We cannot become a rich and powerful country unless there is a steep hike in our tax collection. The population is rising but there is no commensurate rise in the tax revenue, which remains the main source of income for the country. Our total estimated income receipt for FY 2019-20 is slightly above Rs.20 lakh crore including our tax income. This money is to be used for welfare measures for about 135 crore people, for development works in the country, for interest payments on huge accumulated borrowings, for payment of salary and pension to a bulging workforce; for strengthening our defence sector when we have two bad enemies on either side, etc.

It is sad but true that many of us indulge in tax evasion. We only believe in becoming rich ourselves at the cost of the country and that is the reason for the mushrooming of economic crimes and tax frauds.

GST is a good legislation on the principle of ‘one nation, one tax’ but its collection is suffering badly due to clever scheming of tax frauds. Many intelligent tax professionals are allegedly involved in helping tax evaders in claiming bogus input-tax credit based on artificially generated bills. Many self-employed business people and professionals having taxable income, do not pay income tax or pay less tax, by concealing a part of their income. A small step of becoming an honest tax payer will be a large step for the country for maximising its income and hence this should be the first resolution.

‘The British ruled us by using clever tricks against us and finally partitioned our country by instigating us on religious lines. We have to guard ourselves as similar tricks are being used to divide our people’

Population load

The second resolution as an Indian citizen is to keep the family small with not more than two children. This is really needed urgently as the huge population is the cause of many problems. We have the highest number of malnourished children in the world. With smaller families, it may be easier to tackle this problem. Our agricultural land is not increasing but with the in-creasing population, it is becoming difficult to provide an adequate food supply for everybody at a reasonable price. We have already started seeing the problem of water shortage both for drinking and for agriculture. Many parts of the country are witnessing fights over water. We have environmental problems and problems of choking cities. We have the problem of unemployment as more people are added every year,seeking jobs rather than jobs being created. There is a limit as to what load mother India can bear and feed. Don’t we have any duty to wards our motherland? We have to ponder over this question.

Be employable

The third resolution, particularly as a young Indian, can be to get a good education and to get skilled so as to become employable. It is a fact that we have many universities and colleges and they produce a large number of graduates but they are not employable for skilled jobs. These graduates go on to add to the swelling number of unemployed youth. The solution is in not only creating more jobs but also in creating more employable workforce. Business entities are not charitable organisations, as they recruit people to help them earn a profit. They give jobs to only those who can run the machines in the factory or work in the office as managers.

Love your culture

The fourth resolution by a citizen should be to love one’s culture and civilisation and to have a harmonious society based on love for fellow brethren. ‘India First’ should be our guiding mantra. We are a big country and also a rising country. We have enemies who do not want us to be powerful and rich. They use the services of agent-provocateurs to disrupt our peace and harmony. Media perception is being created, both within and outside the country, that Indians are a divided lot, based on caste and religion. And that they are fighting amongst themselves and hence the country is not good for foreign investment. The media hype is created about rapes in our country when the per-capita rape in our country is much less than that of developed countries like the United States.

In this context, I quote Lord Macaulay’s address to the British Parliament on 2nd February, 1835: “I have travelled across the length and breadth of India, I have not seen one person who is a beggar, who is a thief. Such wealth, I have seen in this country, such high moral values, people of such calibre, that I do not think we would ever conquer this country, unless we break the very backbone of this nation, which is her spiritual and cultural heritage, and therefore, I propose that we replace her old and ancient education system, her culture, for if the Indians think that all that is foreign and English is good and greater than their own, they will lose their self-esteem, their native culture and they will become what we want them, a truly dominated nation.”

The British ruled us by using clever tricks against us and finally partitioned our country by instigating us on religious lines. We have to guard ourselves as similar tricks are being used to divide our people. Nobody can harm us if we love our country and remain vigilant.

Fake news to malign

The fifth resolution is against spreading rumours and rejecting fake news. It is seen that the social media platform is being used by some vested interests to weaken us. The net result is chaos and violence. There is absolutely no harm in criticising the government. Freedom of speech is the fundamental right granted to us by our constitution. But there is a limit since coupled with fundamental rights, there are also fundamental duties enshrined in our constitution. What is happening today is that fake news is being propagated which malign our country. Governments will come and go but we will suffer if the country suffers. The fake news industry will die a natural death if there are no takers for them. We should have faith in our institutions like our parliament and judiciary instead of falling for fake news. If particular legislation is wrong, then it will be struck down by the Supreme Court and for that, there is no reason for arson, violence and vandal-ism, which get further fuelled by rumours and fake news.

‘Media perception is being created, both within and outside the country, that Indians are a divided lot, based on caste and religion. And that they are fighting amongst themselves and hence the country is not good for foreign investment. Media hype is created about rapes in our country, when the per-capita rape in our country is much less than that of developed countries like the United States’

Clogging the courts

The sixth resolution can be not to go for needless mushrooming PILs. We have the constitutional right to go to courts for seeking constitutional remedies but we must think twice before going to the courts. We should avoid wasting the precious time of the courts. There is a huge pile of pending cases and our justice delivering system suffers because of meaningless litigation. Our developmental work also suffers, if each of such work is challenged, for some reason or the other.

Be a law abding citizen

The seventh resolution should be to be a law-abiding citizen. Laws are created for running the country. For example, drunken driving is prohibited by law, and so if it is not followed, then there will be anarchy and chaos. There can be serious road accidents, which can also be fatal. Laws should be obeyed in the spirit of constitutional duty and not out of fear for them. Disciplined law-abiding citizens do not require too much policing.

Be a creator of wealth

The eighth resolution should be about becoming a creator of wealth for the country, even if it is small. As each drop is important to fill a pot, similarly each step by the people is important for the country’s growth. One step by each of us Indians will add up to about 135 crore steps, and if they are intended for wealth creation, the country’s GDP will rise further. China today is five times bigger than our economy though we started almost together and are similarly populated. This happened as the Chinese worked harder and put up cottage industries to produce small things and became big exporters.

The year 2020 has come and we have to work extra hard to give effect to the vision of Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, as we saw in his book written in 1998 - ‘India’s 2020: A vision for the New Mil-lennium‘. The book offers a vision of how India can emerge to be among the top four economic powers by the year 2020. The vision is dedicated to a ten-year-old girl whom Kalam met during one of his talks and asked her about her ambitions, to which the young girl replied, “I want to live in a developed India.” We all have to resolve if we want to live in a developed country or in a developing country.