Recently, the 2024 Lok Sabha elections have ended in stalemate. The results announced a mandate of 293 seats for the ND A, and 232 seats for the INDI A. The BJP has won 241 seats, and the INC has won just 99, their respective power is represented by these big parties. Rahul Gandhi will be the principal leader of the Opposition, while Narendra Modi will be the Prime Minister.

The political stalemate is probably not good news for either party. However, it can potentially be great for the people of Bharat. There is a theory called “prisoner’s dilemma”. In this theory, there are two prisoners who are arrested. The police do not have all the information needed to arrest them. They give both prisoners two options: either remain silent or confess to their crimes. If only one of them confesses, then they get to walk out free, while the other prisoner gets 20 years jail. If both of them stay silent, they both get only 1 year of jail due to a lack of evidence. If both of them confess, they will both get 5 years of prison time.

Now, our current mandate of 293 vs 232 is very similar to this prisoner’s dilemma. Knowing how angry both parties are with each other, their animosity towards each other, as well as their personal ambition to be the “ones who get 0 years of jail”, we can consider this political stalemate, one where both parties are dying to be the ones who walk free. This means that the “walk free/0 years jail” option is going to be taken by both parties. This means both parties will play VERY dirty throughout these 5 years of tenure. They will both get a jail of 5 years.

If there is a nightmare for the politicians, that means the common people are in for a good time. Stronger systems of responsibility, stronger boundaries defining free speech, more anti-corruption monitoring, more control on the speech of parliamentarians (whether it is Mahua Moitra or Ramesh Bidhuri).

We can expect constitutional reforms, broadening of the UPSC, removal of reservation, repealing of UAPA (justice for both Nupur Sharma and Umar Khalid), making Sanskrit the national language (to end Hindi imposition), we can see a new reorganization of states, removal of anti-defection laws, the end of the FIrst Past The Post system, and the list can go on and on. Since neither party will be in the mood to compromise, we can expect the best to come from both extremes of the discourse.

Which bills will be perfect for this stalemate? Which things would suffer, and where is the loophole in them? Let us discuss below.

NEET Exam and Reservation

Let’s start with another news of the week. Recently, the NEET papers were leaked which caused massive outcry. Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi took up the issue for NEET Paper Leaks and promised a system to ensure papers don’t get leaked in the future. While the problem pointed towards is apt and needs serious acknowledgement, as regime after regime has failed to address this problem, can we go one layer deeper?

2007’s NSSO report tells us that OBC are 41% of the country, SC are 20% and ST are 7%. This puts them at a total of 67% of the total population. Meanwhile, according to the Ministry of Education, 68 out of 122 students who committed suicide are SC, ST or OBC, meaning the remaining 54 were General Category students. The general category, while only 30% of the population, accounts for around 45% of all suicides in such institutions.

The root cause of this comes down to reservation. While affirmative action, primarily for those who are economically weaker, is a huge part of any country’s social policy, such affirmative action has to be simple and effective.

We live in two Indias, one where students don’t get enough marks to make it past the cutoffs, the other where there are vacant seats reserved for a select few. To build institutions to scale, they need to be free of such regulatory shackles. Once there are good quality schools in every village, when every village is fully industrialized, then the question of equal representation would make sense. Until then, we should remove this red tape and let schools grow.

If both political parties are willing to burn down the other party’s voter banks from next election, as per the prisoner’s dilemma, these solutions in parliament are sure to make both the BJP and INC lose their voter bases!

Delimitation of States, and its effect on language and regionalism

The map of Bharat proposed by Gautam Desiraju, who is the grandson of Shri C Rajagopalachari, had a peculiar set of proposals over how a new delimitation of states must be done. This includes 75 states of around 2 crore population each, with more fixed identities than merely language.

The DMK, a member of today’s I.N.D.I.Alliance, has always been a proponent of more federalism. While often exaggerated, there is definitely some truth to the divide between the north and the south over disproportionate representation in parliament. Further, with delimitation coming in 2026, expect this issue to take center stage. Meanwhile, the state of Uttar Pradesh lost several seats to the Samajwadi Party, due to a sidelining of Yogi Adityanath.

This proposed solution, added with a “One State One Vote” method where each state only gets one vote and there are 75 states. This solution would end the dominance of UP in Bharat’s politics and also make parliamentary representation of each region more fair.

There would be 75 new states, each with their own capital and demographic. This would make the politics more representative within each unit.

Further, services like rivers would come entirely under the central government, whose role would boil down to merely resolving conflicts between two states. We see how neighboring territories within the same state (like UP) manage water conflict better than two different states (Karnataka and Tamil Nadu). Hence, water should be under the center alone.

Further, the dominance of the Hindi language can end with replacing the official language in the constitution to Sanskrit. In the parliamentary debates, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar wanted Sanskrit to be the official language of the country. His proposal lost by one vote.

Not only would such a proposal turn off the remaining voters in Uttar Pradesh, it would also make the DMK a permanent ally of the NDA, bringing us back to the Vajpayee era. This would also bring the northeast to the forefront, further agitating UP and Bihar. Another “confess/confess” for politicians, another win for the people.

Language Technology

While the INC has promised its I.N.D.I.Alliance partners to maintain regional language, there are many dying languages which need a revival. Marathi, Gujarati, Magadi, Braj, Mewadi, Marwadi, Bhargi, Pahadi, Punjabi (Gurumukhi) and Dogri are some of the many languages that face the risk of extinction. This is where government plans to make translation technology like Fluenttalk by Timekettle, but made for the Indian context, can be handy.

This can also help translate many regional movies, like Assamese, Malayali, Telugu and Punjabi cinema, from their native language to Hindi or Sanskrit, and vice versa. AI technology today can also mask the lip sync dissonance using the same technology used to make deepfakes, which makes the output more entertaining to watch. This can boost the regional industry to new heights.

Also, freeing of Hindu temples and empowering temples to have their own movie industry devoid of “adharmi actors” can become a new art form of its own.

As the BJP loses its voter base for promoting more regionalism, and INC loses its voter base for “Sanskritizing” movies, I think the audience would be the happiest here.

Village Redevelopment

There are many tribes which do not have a fixed state, yet they have a strong culture. The Kukis and the Bishnoi are two good examples of this. Several tribes in Odisha and other places do not always get their due. Sometimes, their dietary habits are looked down upon by many, including eating rats or bugs.

Religious conversions tend to wipe off these unique identities. As these villages industrialize, so will their dietary habits. While some level of “exotification” and limiting of this diet should be normal, this should be the non-veg diet of the average Indian. China is never afraid to say they eat dog meat. We need a tribe-specific and region-specific voice to say the same in Bharat. Such practices are to be celebrated.

As the INC loses its voter base which supports Abrahamic religious conversions, and the BJP loses its “vegetarian UC” voter base for normalizing everyday tribal practices to the rest of the country, this too would be a win for the people.

First Past The Post system

Both J Sai Deepak and Shashi Tharoor, Gautam Desiraju and Neelakantan RS, agree that the first past the post, or the FPTP system, is flawed. Most elections in Bharat happen on a cult of personality basis, which are more suitable for the presidential system. The Presidential election also acts as a further stopper of too radical a leader to get power; the leader must have a universal appeal to win.

Books by all 4 authors mentioned above (Bharat series (India that is Bharat, India; Bharat and pakistan), An Era of Darkness, Bharat: India 2.0 and South vs North) have, despite their leanings, come to the same conclusion of re-imagining our system of governance with something practical, and this would go down to amending the constitution to make it happen. These books are much more comprehensive on this topic.

Retaining it in spirit, changing it in form. That is what is needed. A modernization of the Nehruvian ideology on Hindutva lines. It is once again easy to see how this would annoy both sides of the political spectrum with the committed fanbase. The real winners would be the non-committed voter.

One Nation, Two Elections?

Many like Minhaz Merchant have pointed at how, while there should be unified state and central election to ensure elections are not happening across the country at all times, hence we need one nation two election. This is similar to the One Nation One Election model proposed by Shri Narendra Modi; but with a twist. State elections  can happen every 2.5 years after the central elections.

I would take it a step further and say that state parties should not be allowed to participate in the central elections and vice versa. National issues should revolve around resolving inter-state conflicts alone, as well as defense, education, etc. States can choose self determination for most other things, and focus on creating manufacturing sectors within their map.

Freeing temples will also become a regional issue, with temples like Adinath Mandir, Kapaleeshwara Mandir, etc getting their due justice. This justice will not be restricted to UP alone.

This would de-polarize the polity by taking them away from constant elections, and also give people of Bharat a separate headspace to think about national issues and a separate headspace to think about their regional issues. This is obviously a huge loss for both the INC and the BJP, who make huge political gains by polarizing the polity on caste, religion, economic status and other markers 24/7, never focusing on real issues.

#FreeHinduTemples and Equal Secularism

#FreeHinduTemples has been a sizzling topic for the last few months leading up to the elections. This refers to the fact that Hindu temples like the Padmanabhaswamy temple, do not let the temple or priests take the temple money to their own organization. Instead, this leads to the government taking 100% of all proceeds and donating it to make secular and de-religionized spaces. This disadvantage is not spread to other religious organizations like the Mosque and the Church.

Added to this, Hindu organizations are not covered under the Right to Education. Hence, we see many Christian and Muslim colleges across the country, Church services ripe with guitar and musical performances, and strong communities, but almost no community of the Hindus. Land is further given monopoly through acts like the Waqf Board Act, and land is inherited mostly by male heirs due to Muslim Personal Laws.

Further, many pieces of literature, like books such as The Satanic Verses, and YouTube channels like “Ex-Muslim Sahil” and “Asli Nabi” are banned by the state. Movies like ‘Hamare Baarah‘ and ‘The Kerala Story‘ have seen perpetual delays and injustice from the apparatus. On the other hand, movies like PK, comedians like Munawar Faruqui, and other anti-theistic content only target Hindus and are rife across all mediums. Even historical masterpieces like “Rangeela Rasool” are banned.

A lack of police protection against the slander of Savarkar, the mockery of Sanatani deities, or of Hindu sentiments in general, has led to the creation of vigilante organizations like RandomSena, which are filling the governance gap that emerges from the blind spot within the system. The law needs to protect these sentiments or else street level action will continue to remain on the rise.

Even courts are selective on these cases, as seen in the public trial of Nupur Sharma and Vikas Divyakirti. Such a Nupur vs Divyakirti dynamic is unseen in Muslim community because of the speech laws.. Muslims are kept closed off from reforms by selective laws. Fake news is also dealt with selectively. Where journalists like Mansh Kashyap are kept in jail for more than a year, people like Muhammad Zubair can roam free. People like Umar Khalid can keep rejecting their own bails to gain more public sympathy. Free Speech systems are completely broken.

Challenging Islam as a theological ideology would be much more fruitful than trying to normalize Muslims in Politics again. The latter would be turning the clock backwards and undoing social progress made from 2014 to 2024.

There also needs to be a discussion on reclaiming temples. If the conversation can be had freely, then it must be protected by law. A comprehensive list of all important temples must be made and they must be reclaimed at once, together. A committee that looks into renaming cities and reclaiming temples is also recommended to be set up. But this needs strong free speech and a bedrock of egalitarian laws, and not biased one sided thorns.

Therefore, an introduction of the UCC and abolition of Waqf Board, removal of Places of Worship Act, strict and agnostic definitions of “Free Speech”, and a flourishing of “Muslim Atheism” art. Free speech should never be suppressed, and only in a free speech reality can we talk of hate speech. The same rules also should apply to all.

The UCC must also address the question of Tribal Marriage rights. While on one hand, all marriage customs must be respected, on the other, the state must guide uniform reform. This means, certain values like “one man one woman” and “equal inheritance” must be taken as a give-in. If a person wants to, within these boundaries, give their inheritance as per tradition, they can, but if the tradition is perceived as discriminatory to either gender, then either man or woman can approach courts. This should be the broad outline of the UCC.

It would also be nice to remove the anti-defection bill, to at least allow some leeway for parliamentarians to disagree with their party, albeit on the ideological lines of their party itself. The anti-defection bill will enrich the parliament by allowing more individualism of each parliamentarian elected to parliament.

This would also address several issues of men’s rights, which either of the two parties has to pick up considering its rising prominence.

These solutions are bound to irritate and agitate all. Man or woman, Hindu or muslim, Tribal or Casted, hinduphobe or islamophobe, party president or fellow MP’s; the list goes on. Still, it will unite all people and that too against their government. And maybe, they will remain united over other issues like education, healthcare and foreign policies. A win for the people, a loss for the politicians.

Flag and Anthem

This one is maybe too one sided. But let us either edit the national anthem to include Kashmir, northeast, Middle India (Madhya Pradesh), and others. OR, we can simply make Vande Mataram our national anthem.

There is also the debate of replacing the old flag with the Calcutta Flag. We can only wonder which is more politically neutral.

Of course, we should consider this. Many other countries have already changed their flags. We are not only behind on such developments, we are also perpetually dragged down by our large democratic. Then again, being a democracy, our arguments should be well fleshed out.

But this would make the BJP lose those voters who don’t want a moon on their flag, whether it means Shiva or Islam. For the INC, it would finally reduce them from “country makers” to “just another party”, which they are. The national anthem, on the other hand, would be much more representative of the country’s diversity.

Educational Reforms

Once again, we have seen people across spectrums, Shashi Tharoor, Vikram Sampath, J Sai Deepak, Anirudh Kanisetti and who not who have proposed a need to change the history of the subcontinent, and to teach regional empires. But when pushed to what exact changes, conservatives like Shashi Tharoor get cold feet in listing them, and alt-left neo-conservatives like Anirudh Kanisetti are too afraid to point to real changes.

Can we agree upon the fact that the Mughals were invaders? That they came from Uzbekistan? That the destruction and loot of temples happened and it did hurt the natives? Can we agree that the Aryan Migration Theory is fake, and that the northern Saraswati Sindhu Civilization was more cosmopolitan than the south (which explains the intermingling)? While the conservatives like Tharoor and Anirudh will agree that history needs to change, they will not let the perspectives in those textbooks change.

Instead of being reluctant to change, they should assume the role of the fact checker. They must cite only primary sources. They must act as controlled opposition to not let textbooks slide into jingoism. We need honesty to address the invasions and colonizations of the last 800 years. We must see it for the facts, for what it was, and not for what it ought to have been.

The British too, should not be demonized. They came at a time when law and order were poor. Begum Samroo and other gangsters ruled the streets. They brought order to the country. These facts are true.

Further, regional identity almost always comes from regional Hindu kings. To teach about them should be important, and will help decentralize the narrative of Bharat. The INC opposition can probably invoke a bigger emphasis on tribal revolts like the Anglo-Kuki War, Bishnoi movement, etc, instead.

This is likely to upset all sides of the debate. Most stakeholders will withdraw from their respective parties. But it will be best for the people.

China vs USA

Assuming there is some truth to the “BJP is USA funded” and “INC is China funded” narrative; isn’t this verdict a terrible time to be either USA or China? You have an equal and opposite stake of either country in power. They can either start trying to buy politicians on both sides, bringing the USA and China in direct conflict with each other, or they can stick to their dogs.

Traditionally, both the USA and China would use Pakistan as their counter-valve to Bharat. But due to the incompetence of Pakistan, this proposition seems unlikely. The domination of the army has always been very high and this leads to corruption. Pakistan still manages to get money for funding propaganda magazines and other material, but it is at the cost of the common man starving.

Bharat has the perfect opportunity. It needs to neutralize the Pakistani army. A leader like Imran Khan, driven to do the same, is the best candidate. Bringing the USA on board for this plan will bring an army-free Pakistan, with whom Bharat can consider opening up relations with provided they are de-radicalized. China will be forced to be friendlier with Bharat, and not annex our lands either. Our economic-military-diplomatic trade with the USA shall continue. And there is nothing that either the USA or China can do to prevent the collapse of Pakistan or to make either of them not take Bharat seriously.

This would anger both the USA, supporter of BJP and China, supporter of INC.

Farm Bills and MSP?

While the MSP is not the worst idea in the world, they would not make sense without the Farm Bills being in place, the same ones that the BJP proposed to pass and the same bills that INC had in their manifesto. Shashi Tharoor has a slip of the tongue, and admits it himself here.

Therefore, the opposition will have to acknowledge the Farm Bills, and the BJP will have to embrace an MSP factor to these reforms.

Once again, this is the only way they can get out of their stalemate.

Manufacturing with the Macroeconomic?

While the BJP has proposed major macroeconomic reforms in their third term in their manifesto, the INC has focused more on manufacturing, skill orientation, etc. These are things the BJP has also done, but to scale them up to size is the real deal.

As the BJP will start talking about the micro, and INC starts talking about the macro, i think both sides will have their stakeholders annoyed.

Data Protection vs Safety Measures

Many groups such as the Internet Freedom Foundation have talked of how Data Protection Laws are needed in our country. The discussion on how these laws can be made without compromising national security is the need of the hour. The BJP will have to listen, or they will have to pitch someone who knows what they are talking about, for these to come to fruition.

The BJP had done a wonderful job at upgrading the digital security apparatus of the country. This is where they can bring more punches to the debate. A decentralization of PSU banks like State Bank of India can help reduce the losses due to hacking attacks. If the money of the government’s employees are in multiple banks, and if one bank gets hacked, then only a fraction of their saving will get affected. Decentralization of resources is another front foot for the opposition here.

This one may be biased towards the INC, but it is something that all parties would find a hindrance. It’s the best for the people, after all.

Remove Reservation and Old Pension Scheme

Reservation and the Old Pension Scheme are two aspects of the bureaucracy that keep it entrenched in poverty. A lot of money goes into these two. Riots in Brazil happened over pension reforms. Reservation in South Africa has pervaded their cricket teams. These problems are common in post-colonial society and a meritocratic society needs to be created to end these problems.

Removing reservation and the OPS will allow the government to expand their forces in the revenue departments, of police, of diplomats and of administrators. This will allow bureaucratic systems to reach the last man in the last village as these villages industrialize. Today, Bharat has a governance deficit problem. The ideal ratio of police:people is 568:1,00,000. The bare minimum is 222:1,00,000. We have only 153:1,00,000. Fancy buildings cannot compensate for good security infrastructure.

Addressing these issues at their core will also take us back to  the constitution.The very articles that provide for this. This is bound to anger many on both sides. The BJP that pushes for “minimum government maximum governance”, and the INC that “protects the constitution”. As Tiger once said, “too much fun”.

Judicial Reforms

The Judiciary has recently given several verdicts that, despite being from every spectrum of the polity, has been made to clearly appease one party over the other. Both parties at this point have a grudge on the Supreme Court. With the conservative left defining it as “the supreme court is being put under pressure”, the BJP has been asking for judicial reforms for a while.

Once again, the INC must take the role of the control valve; they have to ensure the modification to the supreme court in light of NJAC and Judicial Reforms is given constructive criticism to. We do not want to hear screaming and shouting, we do not want to hear people call it “fascist”. We saw what the reaction to progressive reforms was from the opposition when NJAC was introduced. This is highly unacceptable. Constructive criticism is a must.

Maybe those who want a controlled BJP-led supreme court can be damned, but the INC needs to shed its ego and work with the BJP in making judicial reforms, to ensure that the courts represent the people when subsequent governments come to power.

Right to Health Bill

The government needs to ensure that the Right to Health Bill is passed. The BJP can, being on the backfoot, ensure the bill is business-friendly as well. But healthcare reforms and protection are a must. And it needs to be applicable to the entire country.

Either ways, free enterprise doctors who support both parties may be disappointed.

Sports Reforms

With huge anger in the sporting section of society after the wrestler’s protests, we need to see how sports can be expanded further.

Firstly, caste hegemony needs to be broken in the sports industry. This can only happen with diversification of sports we invest in.
Football is a big international sport we are missing out on. With football teams for Kashi coming up, we have to double down on this sport. China did the same, but without the far sightedness. Hopefully movies like Maidaan can inspire us for better.

There is also a huge market for indigenous martial arts like Kalaripayattu, Sanatan Shastar Vidya, Thang-Ta, and the list goes on. The average UPSC notes website barely scratches the surface. These arts need to be revived, and we need to put a stop to foreign martial arts like karate and taekwondo to allow these arts to take center stage.

The INC may not like the idea of reviving martial arts, and the BJP may not want to spend more money on football thanks to Jay Shah’s monopoly, but these need to happen. Politicians need to drag each other in the mud over these. The people have their popcorn ready.

Should Nehru embrace Hindutva?

I had said this in my previous piece: “should Nehru embrace Hindutva?”. The answer is “yes”.

The Hindutva ideology has changed immensely in the last 75 years to stay relevant. What was once seen as a ‘brahmin-baniya’ ideology has today brought the cultures and people of the most backwards of castes to the forefront; or at least the idea of it. The ideology has innovated to stay relevant. Even Savarkar believed in the Aryan Invasion Theory, but we all know that there was no invasion or sustained migration today.

This is because the ideology of Hindutva, whether it is in sciences, arts, history, religion or anything else, has fought to stay relevant against a hegemonic party.

The Nehruvian ideology has remained static. Where Hindutva thinkers are in the present day presenting new perspectives, the Nehruvian ideologues are still stuck quoting exact paragraphs and speeches to prove a point. They fail to realize this was 100 years ago. The post-independence cycle of a post-colonial culture has ended, and we have entered a decolonial reality. In such times, the Nehruvian ideology needs to modernize. And to remain on the same page with the rest of the country, it needs to modernize through Hindutva.

This includes accepting that the constitution is fine in spirit, not in practice. This includes embracing Nehru’s views on reservation and on EVR Niacker. This includes accepting that Uzbekistanis are colonizers, and people have a right to reclaim temples like Somnath and Ram Janmabhoomi in the past and Kashi Mathura (and 39,998 others, hypothetically) in the future. Everything mentioned above in this article comes under the urgent need for embrace of Hindutva by the INC.

The spirit of the Nehruvian idea should remain. But the application of it has to evolve with time. Change is the only constant, and Nehru must embrace the Hindutva change.

The opposition cannot merely oppose bills for the sake of opposing them. Their tendency to do this is wrong. Instead of questioning the intention of a bill, they should propose on how to make it better. Both sides have to compromise, but for that both sides have to be willing to compromise. This trend of 10 years of the opposition not willing to compromise even on policies they themselves have introduced in previous manifestos, is abhorrent and makes a mockery of democracy, a mockery of Nehru himself.

Nehru must embrace hindutva.

Society’s role

With our friends, families, partners, and colleagues, we should have difficult political conversations at home. Further, we should engage with media from the other side, whether it is books, movies, OTT shows, youtube videos and podcasts, Instagram reels and everything else we can come across, to bring our opinions to the center. We have to be bigger than the politicians trying to fool us, regardless of the political spectrum they come from.

Conclusion

These are some of the most defining legacy issues that need reformation asap in the country. The political stalemate is the perfect time to push these in parliament and in our living rooms as issues. Both parties are most likely to snitch on each other, and they must indeed focus on ripping each other apart in the parliament. That is in the best interest of the people. The next 5 years will truly be interesting to watch in the parliament.