Children First Party of India initiative

The unfurling of the tricolour on the ramparts of the Red Fort, Delhi, the impeccable discipline exhibited by leaders and jawans of the defence services, and the enthusiastic display of order and neatness by school children, cannot but arouse intense sentiments of liberty, equality and fraternity in even the most cynical citizens and analysts of the Republic which somberly celebrated its 67th Independence Day on August 15. Yet its difficult to recall an Independence Day — normatively an occasion for celebrating the gains of freedom from banishment of oppressive foreign rule — when the mood of the nation was more despondent. A contributory cause of the cloud of gloom which has descended upon the nation was the flood and devastation visited upon the people of the northern state of Uttarakhand (pop.10 million). The prime cause was not so much an overabundant monsoon, but continuous dam-building  activity on rivers flowing through the state, uncontrolled mining, construction and timber felling in a region sited in the foothills of the Himalayas, which precipitated floods and landslides in July-August, killing over 5,360 citizens and causing property and livelihood damage estimated at Rs.3,000 crore. In his address to the nation on Independence Day, the prime minister dutifully expressed sorrow and solidarity and promised that our government is working with all the resources at its command to rehabilitate those whose houses have been destroyed and rebuild damaged infrastructure. But theres the rub. Under the Congress party which has ruled in New Delhi with occasional breaks for 57 years after independence, the cancers of corruption, nepotism and dynasty rule have so deeply permeated government and politics at the Centre and in the states, that even if there was will, the State has lost the capability to rebuild or rehabilitate. While theres general unanimity that the first term (2004-09) of the UPA-I government was a period of satisfactory economic growth and development when GDP growth averaged 7.9 percent, the seeds of the fiscal disaster and disarray which have flowered in the second term of the UPA government were planted towards the end of its first quinquennium, when massive giveaways aggregating Rs.100,000 crore were made by introduction of the NREGA (National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) and farm loan waivers. This heavy burden imposed upon the economy enlarged the fiscal deficit and made it impossible for the Central government to release resources for investment in law and order and justice, education and health. Moreover this fiscal irresponsibility ignited the wildfire of inflation. Against this dismal backdrop your editors have launched the Children First Party of India, recently registered by the Election Commission of India. CFPI has drafted a compr-ehensive manifesto covering all sectors and issues of the collapsing India polity (see www.childrenfirst.in), and has been promoted on the premise that while it may be too late to save independent Indias first generation, its not too late to save the next. By recklessly electing the dynastic Congress and communal BJP in election after election, you have ruined your lives. But you…