Welcome Mr. Advani to our world

So L.K. Advani started a blog. I'd say a very positive step. I thought I should also contribute my tuppence to the myriad number of comments to his inaugural post giving him solutions to everything from world hunger to creating "potting soil" in India. More on potting soil here. Here's the comment I posted. Oh and if I haven't said this before, I'll say it now. Comments are more than welcome. I believe in the freedom of speech and unless you're trying to sell me male organ enhancing pills or weight loss magic drugs I promise to accept all comments on my blog. Here goes:

Advaniji,
This is a very progressive step for the BJP. I have long held the view that Indian political parties are not using the web enough to promote their own agenda. Additionally I believe Indian political parties have the additional responsibility of educating the public on their democratic duties and helping them make the right decision for their own future and that of the country and the internet is an excellent medium for the same.

My only complaint to you Sir, is the fact that more of party leaders aren't doing the same. I was a big fan of the BJP government in 1999-2004 due to the fact that the cabinet and the leadership was a portfolio of stars. Atalji, the two Aruns, Mr. Fernandes and the others on your cabinet were all forward looking visionaries and every day I heard India developing on several fronts. It was a time of positive energy in the whole country. That is far from what I can say about the current government. They have a few achievements of their own, but the cabinet and the party leadership seems so uncharismatic and banal that I feel we have a rusty government. As we approach the next Lok Sabha elections, my wish is that BJP come back to power with a strong mandate. However your current campaign seems to promote that I'd be voting for yourself or Rajnath Singh rather than the greater force that is the BJP. I want to be convinced that what I'm voting for is not 1 or 2 individuals but that portfolio of stars. This is also a perfect way to illustrate differentiation from the Congress which begins and ends at Soniaji.

Thank you for taking the time to read my comments,
Sujeet Pillai

As election season heats up watch out for more of my posts on that little debated topic. The Indian Polity.

Full disclosure: I'm a BJP supporter, I don't claim to be a unbiased observer or in the terms of those who have corrupted the use of the word for their own differentiation "Secular".

Bring the government closer to home

Nilekani in his latest blog post "Where was the mayor?" and Basab Pradhan in his "Singapore and Indian Cities" proposes the need for India to have more local government especially in cities. Our cities have specific problems which they need solved and a "closer" government may be able to help us further on this front.

Are we sure that the solution is more local government power? What makes us think that an additional set of 'responsible' local government functionaries would be able to fix the problems of our cities as compared to the state government? For example, in Mumbai's case, the state government sits in Mumbai, so I doubt that they aren't aware of the issues with Mumbai. Shouldn't the state government just have a sort of departmental system where urban centres in the state are managed separately and solutions are created for their specific problems. I agree that the west and some cities have prospered very well with stronger local govt. within cities and districts. However I'm unable to agree with the proposition that our unique problems may be solved with their solutions. This is central to my thinking on all governmental and policy related topics so I'll quote it.

"We have our own unique problems. We need to create our own unique solutions to these problems. Just like Newton's laws of motion does not apply to subatomic particles we can't use someone else's solutions to our problems."

I am against increasing the complexity in the governmental system by adding another layer that I as a taxpayer pay for. Although my resultant tax burden may remain the same, however the total cost to the govt. would increase to handle the logistics of this extra layer, leaving aside lesser money for more important uses. Obviously my argument being, if the state government couldn't get it right what makes me feel that a special local government could.