The Choice
While everyone is looking at the leadership question and seeking that single magical mythical being to take on Modi, the question we should be really asking is: what does India really need? A continuation of the 250-year-old odyssey that has kept us away from liberty and wealth creation or a new direction that transforms our nation by giving people civic, economic and political freedoms and dismantling the anti-prosperity machine that has been fine-tuned by every leader to maximise power and control over the people? There is no leader in India who would free us and let Lakshmi into our homes.
Once they ascend the throne of Delhi, all leaders in colonial and Independent India have done their bit to increase controls on our personal and business lives, deny us our rightful share in the wealth of the nation, interfere with education and agriculture, discover new ways to tax us to increase the size and scope of the government, divide us even more along new fault lines, and put ever greater constraints on our freedom of speech – in other words, exercise the power to rule, not change the rules.
We need to reframe the question. The alternative India seeks is not to Narendra Modi, and the alternative is not Rahul Gandhi, Sharad Pawar, Mamata Banerjee, Nitish Kumar, Arvind Kejriwal, Akhilesh Yadav, or one of that ilk. Each of the others would continue what Modi did once in power just as Modi continued the lineage that had begun with Robert Clive and continued with the Governor Generals of the British Crown, Nehru and Indira Gandhi – deny the people of India the freedom to live their lives the way they want.
The alternative we should be seeking in India is freedom from our politicians and political parties. The alternative we should be wanting is liberty and prosperity. Unfortunately, there is no leader who will do that – they are all the same. So, if it’s a choice amongst one of them, it really doesn’t matter whom we choose. But if we really want to craft a new future for ourselves and our children, we need to create a new alternative which draws its power from the people – a national movement to free every Lok Sabha seat from the politicians and their parties to form a new government of prosperity which breaks the 250-year-old curse of poverty, which turns ‘caged and poor India’ to ‘free and rich India.’ This is the Nayi Disha Indians need. This is the real alternative India needs.
