Modi right person to lead NDA: Akali Dal

Chandigarh, Sep 13 (IANS) Punjab's ruling Shiromani Akali Dal Friday hailed the decision of the BJP to name Narendra Modi as its prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 general elections, terming him the "right person" to lead the NDA.

Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had "chosen the right person to lead the NDA" (National Democratic Alliance) into the forthcoming parliamentary elections.

The Akali Dal is an important part of the NDA and has an alliance government with the BJP in Punjab since 2007.

Badal even challenged the Congress to name party vice president Rahul Gandhi as its prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 elections.

"Let's see whether the Congress has the guts to announce Rahul Gandhi as its prime ministerial candidate," he said.

He said that with the announcement on Modi, more allies would join the NDA in the coming days.

Punjab Chief Minister and Akali Dal patron Parkash Singh Badal said that the announcement of Modi's name by the BJP was the start of the countdown for the exit of the anti-poor and anti-farmer UPA (United Progressive Alliance) central government.

In a statement here, Badal said that the decision was in sync with the mood of the nation and it would help the country get rid of the "grave paralysis of administrative and political will under the scam-tainted UPA regime".

"The announcement would move the scam-hit UPA government from the ICU to the mortuary as the news amounted to complete withdrawal of life support system to an already deceased body," Badal said.

I used to support the BJP once, during Atal's time.

Thereafter, especially after their corruption tainted rule in Karnataka, I was disillusioned by the party.

I moved further away from the party when they scuttled the Lok Pal bill in parliament with the active support of the Congress party and other corrupt MPs like Lalu Yadav.

That trust has been slightly, only slightly, restored by the BJP decision not to cooperate with the Congress and other corrupt MPs to nullify the Supreme Court verdict on disqualification corrupt politicians and also nullifying the CIC order of bringing political parties under RTI.

However, given a preference between a Congress, BJP and Aam Aadmi Party candidate, I would still vote for the AAP candidate as my first preference and the BJP candidate as my second preference.

Having said that, I believe NaMo is the best candidate India could presently have as Prime Minister as AAP would not get sufficient seats to select its candidate in 2014. If it did, I would bet on Arvind Kejriwal as the best Candidate, India could have. But, I am hoping he would be the Prime Minister after 2019 elections.

The Indian economy has been so massacred by the Congress that it will require all of NaMo's wits to bring it back on rail.

Here are a few suggestions.

1. India's No 1 problem is population. It is to be brought under control by introducing the 1 child per family norm as in China. NaMo should use both the carrot and stick to bring about control.

2. Although I believe corruption is No 1 problem, I have put it at no 2. NaMo has to make the CBI and all the State police force completely independent of the government if he is to stop crime in India. Yes, I agree that, NaMo himself has plenty of skeletons in his cupboard. Let the police start with a fresh slate. All past crimes will be forgiven after payment of appropriate fines or compensation by granting some sort of pardon.Economic offenders will have to return their ill-gotten wealth. I don't know whether this is possible - the judiciary should decide.

3. Education should be made compulsory up to class XI. Government schools should be improved drastically so that people do not hanker for Private schools.The 3-language formula should be adopted all over India- Hindi, English and the local language.One should be proficient in all three languages. The more languages a person learns, the better his brain develops.It is because of our knowledge of English that we have occupied # 1 position in the world for Software Development.English should be encouraged if we are to conquer the world.

4. Higher Education has gone beyond the means of most people and most colleges cannot even provide required number of staff for their existing students.So how do we solve this problem?

I would suggest that internet penetration be increased a thousand-fold with good connectivity and speed. With this we could give higher education to our masses and overcome the shortage of teachers.

5. Electoral Reforms should be given top priority.

Criminals should be in jails and not in Parliament or or State Assemblies.If the investigation agencies are made independent, no false cases would be foisted on any one and a person who has been charged with any serious crime should not be allowed to contest elections at all.Any elected person should lose his membership if charged of a serious crime.The Supreme Court is already taking action along these lines. NaMo should help the SC instead of trying to sabotage its judgement as is being done by the Congress Party.

Our voting system should also change. The present system does not give a correct picture of the popularity of a candidate.

People should be allowed to cast their 1st, 2nd and 3rd preference votes.

The person who receives 50 % of the cast votes should only be declared winner.

6. Honour killings by khap panchayats for inter-caste or same Gotra marriage should be severely punished. It is these medieval practices which are dividing the Hindus.Discrimination in accessing public places like wells or temples should be punished. Unless NaMo can bring together all people by treating them equally irrespective of caste, region and religion, India can never progress.While we are fighting over these petty matters like reservations etc, other countries have reached great heights just by bringing about discipline and equality. We are the most undisciplined nation, probably in the world.Why shouldn't we be when by just indiscipline one person has become the chief minister of a state and now preaches discipline.