Students Power Harnessed for Swaach Bharat

 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi works tirelessly to lift up the nation. Whether it is the country’s cleanliness or Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) or securing India a permanent seat in the United Nations or increasing the Per Capita Income of every Indian or doubling up the farmer’s income, he is in the forefront. He uses every medium to motivate every citizen of the country both inside and outside the country to work towards the overall welfare of the nation. Not only the Indians but also people across the world are excited at the way in which the PM motivates. No other head of the state has succeeded the way in which Modi has motivated the people.  The most remarkable achievement of Narendra Modi as Prime Minister of India is, harnessing of youth power for the national development. He has reached out to the students in every nook and corner of the country. Never before students were scientifically involved in the nation building. All this is due to the complete utilization of technology to ensure the full involvement of students.

From Swaach Bharat Mission (SBM) to Solid Waste Management (SWM) to the promotion of Yoga to Hardware Heckathon, Modi government has silently weaved a web of students’ power to take the nation forward. Critics keep showering negativism. That is common to any democratic setup. The beauty of Modi is to unmind the negativity created by his opponents. His opponents range from foreign nations to local politics to cinema to NGOs to priests to industrialists to educationists. There is a blockade in each and every thing Modi has initiated. Overcoming these blockades and ensuring the smooth sailing of the nation is a herculean task. He has stupendously achieving his targets except few odd cases.  

P.M Narendra Modi launched his dream project “Swachh Bharat Mission” on 2 October 2014. Within four months of taking over the Prime Ministership, Modi has kick started clean India campaign. He fixed the target of achieving clean India within five years by constructing 90 million toilets. Construction of toilets not only clean the streets of India but also it gives better health conditions for the resident and visitors. After five years, the results are mixed. Definitely India has not become 100% clean. But definitely it has changed a lot in comparison with the past scenario.  One human being called Prime Minister cannot change the nation’s cleanliness completely. It is the responsibility of the each and every citizen. 

What Prime Minister has achieved through SBM is, the commencement of culture of cleanliness. Every household aims to have toilet facility, open defecation has become an odd case, airports, seaports, railways and other public places have become much cleaner. But the SBM has also failed to achieve complete cleanliness in both public and private places. This is because the nonseriousness and aversion of the stakeholders. Unless they change themselves to clean their places, cleanliness of India will be only a dream which can never become reality. Prime Minister can only motivate, advise ministers, order bureaucrats and check the public pulse. But to implement SBM and achieve the targeted goal of 100% clean, everyone’s support is needed. That is the missing crucial link in meeting the goal of 100% clean India.

The government of India has ensured the construction of 86 million toilets in the country in the last four years. It has reduced the number of open defecators from 550 million to just a million. This is a Himalayan achievement. But that one million open defecators pose a big risk to the overall health of the nation.  

In this big mission, Prime Minister has determined to use the students’ power. Education institutions are ranked for cleanliness. This will create a culture of cleanliness among the young people. When the students get into the world as adults, cleanliness will automatically come as their first priority. This is how a big nation like India can transform. Technology has come in handy to usher in the desired transformation in our massive country.

Brilliantly his government has initiated Swachh Bharat Summer Internship programme recently to involve the students to clean up the country. From universities to colleges, students across the country are enrolled in cleaning. They are rewarded cash prize ranging from Rs.50000/-. These are positive steps by the government led by Narendra Modi not only to clean India but also create a national unity. Definitely youth power needs to be harnessed positively and Prime Minister Modi is doing his best in this area.

Anathema of Over Centralisation

India is successful because of its federal setup. Despite its multi-ethnic, multi-religious, multi-cultural, multi-lingual and multi-political geographic spread, India survives successfully because of the smooth center-state relations. Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised during 2014 election campaign to create a Team India if his party wins majority in the parliament and to ensure “Minimum Government and Maximum Governance”. He won but there is a big threat to the autonomy of states and its auto piloted growth. Like father completely controlling the life of his children, central government is doing everything what states should do. This complete interference in the development of states will kill the efficiency of states. In the long run, federal setup will be ruined.

In his initial days, Prime Minister Narendra Modi acted truly as the captain of Team India by promoting co-operative federalism. One of the landmark achievements of captain Modi is the increase in the states’ share of central taxation from 32 percent to 42 percent. No idea why the true spirited captain of co-operative federalism is turning into a captain of conflictual federalism?

From converting state highways into national highways, from taking control of the education which is in the concurrent list to providing electricity, central government is stepping into the shoes of states. With the rolling out of Goods and Services Tax (GST) in July, states will lose more of its financial muscle. There are several areas where is an increasing interference or complete takeover of the central government. Some of them are,

1.     Conversion of state highways into national highways.

2.     Under UDAY (Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana) Scheme, state power corporations are brought under the guidance of the central government

3.     Entrance exams for professional courses conducted by the centre. NEET (National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test) for the admission into medical colleges is the recent case in point. Instead of encouraging states to improve their quality of education, a centralized system and examination will be counterproductive.

4.     Goods and Services Tax (GST) will definitely be a boon to the producers, transporters and consumers. This will strengthen the hands of center.

5.     Abolition of regional councils of National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE)

6.     Extraction of hydrocarbon in the states where there is a huge public opposition and state government’s objections

7.     Targeting of opposition ruled states. Earlier horse-trading was encouraged by the BJP in Arunachal Pradesh and Uttrakhand. The governments were toppled. Due to the interference of the courts, these governments were installed back.

The common charge by the centre for these interferences is that the state governments are not capable of delivering quick results. This may be true. But it should not be an invitation for the centre to take complete control over the development of states. For instance, the regional councils of NCTE located in Jaipur, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar and Bengaluru were abolished because these councils breed corruption. One person asked “Can the headquarters be free from corruption? There is no answer to it. Regional Councils were created to make sure the faster decisions and growth. But now India is going back to square one with the centralized approach.

Yes, there is a total compromise in quality of services provided by the government machineries. Be it education or electricity or health or roadways. Instead of completely bringing these sectors under the centre, it should rank states according to its performance and give them awards. This competitiveness can improve the quality of state’s development. For instance, ranking of clean cities has increased the competition among states to improve its cleanliness. “Doing Business with Ease” survey has been improving states efficiency in reaching out to business groups.

Central regulatory authorities must be put in place to speed up the judicious development. In this connection, TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) and Insurance Regulatory Development Authority (IRDA) are the exemplary performers. These regulatory bodies must be in the hands of sincere veterans.  

For a vast country like India, too much of central interference in state affairs is detrimental for the future national growth. Instead, the center should be a good motivator and guru to the states. Like Dhorancharya to the success of Arjuna, Centre can be a powerful motivating guru for the states.