Often people have accused me of being negative, of criticizing everyone and everything, while proposing no positive alternative. So let me state my positive ideas :
As I have repeatedly said, a crisis is building up in India, due to massive poverty, unemployment, malnourishment, lack of healthcare and good education, price rise, etc and there seems to be no solution to our problems within the present system. All our state institutions--Parliament, the executive, the judiciary, etc seem to have collapsed and become hollow and empty shells, and so the solution to our problems lie outside the system, which means a revolution. But what will be done after this revolution ? Let me present my broad outlines
1. We must have political leaders who are genuinely patriotic and who work for the welfare of the people
These leaders will be men( and women ) who have no special privileges, no secret foreign bank accounts. They will be men and women of the highest integrity, for without that they would be like most of our present politicians, who indulge in empty talk about helping the poor but instead amass fortunes for themselves or their families.
One of my ideals for such leaders is Robespierre, the great leader in the French Revolution of 1789 ( see my blog 'Robespierre 'on my blog 'justicekatju.blogspot.in )
Nobody ever questioned Robespierre's personal integrity, whereas the financial integrity of some of his colleagues in the Revolution like Danton was always suspect. Robespierre never benefited personally in any way by being one of the leaders of the French Revolution. When he died he left behind him hardly any assets.
His secretary, Pierre Villiers, has written in his Memoirs " Several times I have known him to refuse offers of money that required from him no return, not even thanks, and if sometimes I allowed myself to insist on his accepting, he abused me " .
People will accept the leadership of such leaders if the leaders suffer the same privations which the ordinary people are suffering. People will accept sufferings if they know that their leaders are suffering personally the same way as themselves, eating the same simple food, and living the same kind of difficult lives which they are enduring.
Who will be these leaders and where will they come from I do not know. But surely despite all the corruption, selfishness, low ethics, and stupidity all around us today there are some patriotic, modern minded and honest people among us
2. These leaders must set up a 4 year or 5 year national scientific plan for reconstructing the economy and raising the standard of living of the masses. This must of course be done with the help of top level scientists, engineers and managers. The plan will include setting up thousands of industries, high standard educational institutions, technical institutes and healthcare centres free of cost for the masses all over India. Where will the capital for this come from ? The biggest capital is the power of organizing the masses. The masses will voluntarily and enthusiastically give their labour once they realize that their leaders are dedicated people who genuinely wish to abolish poverty, unemployment, etc and are aiming at raising the standard of living of the masses.
Private enterprize will have a place in this plan, for individual initiative will be needed, but it will have a subordinate role, and cannot be allowed to override the welfare of the masses
3. But if thousands of industries are set up how will the goods they manufacture be sold ? At present people are too poor and do not have the purchasing power. So we will have to raise the purchasing power of the masses. How will that be done ?
It will be done in this way : the government will fix the prices of most commodities, and then steadily reduce their prices, say by 5-10% every 2 years or so. In this way the worker will be able to steadily buy more goods with the same wage because prices are falling, and so his real wage is going up ( wages are relative to the price index ). In this way the market will keep steadily expanding, and simultaneously industrial ( and agricultural ) production can be stepped up, and the increased goods produced will be absorbed in the indigenous market, instead of there being overproduction and a glut.
We have to mainly depend on our own indigenous market for stability, because dependence on foreign markets is very precarious, as they may be cut off by some other country, or there may be a recession in the country to which we sell our goods, causing our own export industries to close down. No doubt we must have some exports ( to earn foreign exchange for buying some machinery which may not be produced indigenously, and which may be required for our plans,), but that should be much less than supplying our domestic market.
4. Simultaneously with fulfilling the national plan, a powerful cultural drive must be launched by our leaders to combat feudal and backward ideas and practices such as casteism, communalism and superstitions, and spread scientific and rational ideas to every nook and corner of the country. This requires a great deal of patient persuasion over a long period, maybe decades, because it is more difficult to change the minds of people than change physical things. At present most of our people are steeped in casteism, communalism and superstitions which they have inherited over the centuries. To change their minds and habits of thinking is an enormous task. I have often said that 90% of our people are fools. That was of course not to denigrate or demoralize them, but to state harsh realities. It is the patriotic duty of the 10% enlightened section of our countrymen to patiently educate the 90%, spread scientific ideas among the masses, and uplift their mental level so that they too become part of enlightened India.
These are only my broad general ideas, and I do not claim that they are perfect. I welcome any criticism, provided it is in polite language
