It appears that there is fear in the minds of many people that in the absence of money power and muscle power , it would be impossible to win elections in the present scenario. But, we are yet to give a try for honest people to get into the electoral fray and provide an opportunity to the citizens to choose them amongst the various contenders. Perhaps, if concerned and honest people contest elections, people may support them and provide some surprise to the politicians who seem to think that only manoveuring and corrupt practices and alliances even if unprincipled can win elections.
The important fact is that when concerned people swearing by Gandhian ideology in personal and public life would contest in the elections, it would give a sense of hope that the tide of corruption and dishonest dealings would be stemmed. The dishonest practices would be challenged even if they would not be defeated totally and immediately.
Concerned persons like Mahatma Gandhi and Jayaprakash Narain were able to do positive things and create an atmosphere that gave confidence to the people about probity in public life. But, today, the intellectuals and concerned people largely remain as armchair critics. This appears to be the real issue.
With the objective of restoring Gandhian ideology as the central theme in the forthcoming parliamentary elections, Mr. V. Kalyanam, Personal Secretary to Mahatma Gandhi has come forward to give a lead to the nation by supporting good and committed citizens, capable of meeting the Gandhian standards in private and public life to contest the elections.
Mr. V. Kalyanam, aged 87 who served Mahatma Gandhi as Personal Secretary during the last five years of Gandhiji’s life and who had the opportunity to observe and work closely with this great soul, feels that enough is enough and struggle to restore Gandhian standards in Indian public life cannot any more be delayed.
DESIA PAADHUKAAPPU KAZHAGAM will contest the election in South Chennai and Central Chennai Parliamentary constituency . Mr. N.S. Venkataraman, a Chemical Engineer by profession and Founder Trustee of Nandini Voice For The Deprived, a Chennai based NGO serving the cause of deprived and downtrodden , will contest from South Chennai Parliamentary constituency. Mr. Niranjan Kasthuri, a management consultant will be the candidate in the Central Chennai Parliamentary Constituency.
The message above was released by Mr. V. Kalyanam, Personal Secretary to Mahatma Gandhi .
UNDER THE LEADERSHIP OF MR. V. KALYANAM,
PERSONAL SECRETARY TO MAHATMA GANDHI WILL CONTEST IN THE PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS, TO RESTORE GANDHIAN IDEOLOGY IN THE NATIONAL AGENDA
Desia Paadhukaappu Kazhagam ,a registered political party has decided to contest in the forthcoming parliamentary elections under the leadership of Mr. V. Kalyanam , personal secretary to Mahatma Gandhi.
TEN PROMISES OF DESIA PAADHUKAAPPU KAZHAGAM
- Restore political decency
The standards of politics and political debate have considerably deteriorated in the country during the last few years. There is urgent need to elevate the country’s politics to Gandhian standards, where the political opponents argue but do not hate and destroy each other.
We will conduct our campaign at least expense and with great dignity and under no circumstances , we will use offensive or vituperative language against anyone . We will contribute to bring down the political temperature in the country drastically by our good will towards one and all, so that the atmosphere of fear and violence will go away once for all.
- Strive for clean politics in India.
The countrymen feel that adequate laws do not exist to prevent corrupt people /criminals from contesting in the elections for Assembly, Parliament and Civic bodies.
We will demand that a law should be enacted that would prevent a person from contesting in the election , if the case against him for corruption or criminal acts would be admitted in the court for hearing.
- Demand prohibition in the entire country :
Mahatma Gandhi stressed on the importance of prohibition policy in the country. With the widespread liquor consumption amongst the citizens now increasing at alarming rate, the moral fabric of the country is getting distorted, apart from the economics of poor families being wiped out,.
The sufferings of the women have increased multifold.We will demand that prohibition policy should be implemented in the entire country immediately, whatever may the loss of income to the exchequer.
4. Quality education for children from lower income group
The children from lower income group start their life with great disadvantages, since quality education is often denied to them. The government is unable to provide quality education in the government owned schools .On the other hand, private sector is able to do a better job in providing quality education.
We will demand that the government should issue order reserving atleast 20% seats in private educational institutions for students from lower income group, irrespective of caste and community, who should be provided free education in such private institutions. Government can extend subsidy support to such private schools for admitting students from lower income group.
- Employment generation for lower income group :
30% of the Indian population (more than 30 crore people) are surviving in below poverty line. This means that they would not know as to where their next meal would come from. Most of such poverty stricken people live in villages and rural areas , where adequate opportunities do not exist for employment or skill acquisition.
We will demand that Gram Swaraj concept should be promoted ,by encouraging self contained villages, which is possible by encouraging the setting up of tiny and small employment generation activities in tune with the prevailing situation in particular areas. Skill acquisition opportunities for such activities must be built in rural areas around the country. The services of NGOs should be utilized in a big way so that there would be emotional participation of people in such activities.
6. Adoption of visually impaired women :
There are 17 lakhs of disabled people in Tamil Nadu alone , consisting of orthopaedically disabled, hearing / speech impaired, visually impaired and mentally ill persons. Of this , around 9.5 lakhs are visually impaired persons with around 4.5 lakhs of visually impaired women amongst them. 90% of these people belong to lower income group.
We will demand that the government should adopt the visually impaired women in the lower income group and treat their welfare as the total responsibility of the government. Such visually impaired women should be given free accommodation and food life long by constructing hostels around the country.
- Reservation policy for disabled persons :
Around 3% of the national population consist of disabled people and this is more than the population of several countries in the world. The disabled people suffer from huge unemployment problem.
We will demand that the job reservation of the disabled people in government departments and public sector undertakings should be fully implemented.
We will demand that compulsory reservation of jobs for disabled people in private sector should be enforced.
8. Ban on conversion of agricultural land for non agricultural purposes :
India is an agriculture oriented country and we should be proud of this . Thousands of areas of land meant for agriculture are now being converted for industrial and housing activities, which is detrimental to the progress of agriculture economy and is creating unemployment in the rural areas. This would also reduce the production of agricultural products and destabilize the national economy.
We will demand total ban on the conversion of agriculture land for industrial and housing purposes. We will demand for recognition of the fact that strong growth of agriculture by technological measures would contribute to the growth of national economy and welfare of the people,much more than the use of such land for industrial and housing purposes.
9. Counter productive globalization measures
In the name of globalization and liberalization, the multi national companies are being encouraged to dump their consumer products in the country, which are affecting the native production units particularly in the tiny and small scale sector. Allowing multi national companies to get into retail marketing outlets is totally unnecessary and it is affecting the thousands of small scale retailers in the country.
We will demand that the globalisation measures should be selective and appropriate to the need of the country. We will oppose mindless globalization with the objective of attracting overseas investments without considering the national needs.
- Link the national rivers :
We will demand that the national rivers should be linked, so that it would lead to avoidance of wastage of water and equi distribution of water amongst all states. This will also lead to huge employment generation in the next ten to fifteen years and contribute to the creation of all round prosperity. This will also promote nationalism , which will be stretched beyond mere saluting the national flag and standing in attention when national anthem would be sung .
I beleive this is a change that some people are expecting to happen. There is an alternative to all the existing kazhagams which engage in mere hate politics and only en-cash upon the opportunities found to improve people's lives and living conditions rather than actually implementing some schemes. "Educated people should think before voting this time"
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