I was impressed by the speed of response…My comment was acknowledged within a day and I got responses to my email questions within a week…Without further ado, below is an email interview with Deepak Mittal, Founder President of ”Jago Party”.

Please also read Interview with Ujjwal Banerjee - Part I and Interview with Geeta Gokhale, BPD - Part I 

*** Interview begins ***

Q. What is your stance towards economic reforms?

A. In a recent (2008) survey done by World Bank in respect of ease of doing business, India stands at the dismal rank of 122 out of 181 countries. There is an urgent need to facilitate private investment in all areas of economy. Besides, several government and public sector enterprises are working as a drag on the economy by remaining financially unviable, inefficient and corrupt. They should be either privatized or run on commercial lines. Number of taxes and tax rates need to be reduced drastically. Government spending in the name of the poor by way of various welfare schemes and subsidy is ridden with massive corruption and inefficiency and hence it must be completely dismantled. This should be replaced by direct transfer of cash to the poor. All these measures have already been included in the manifesto of Jago Party.

Q. What is your position on campaign finance? Corruption in elections/ vote-rigging?

A. At present, political parties are partly funded by individuals and companies, some of whom expect special favors from such parties when they come to power. Ideally, core campaigning by all political parties must be done through mass media and supported by state funding. This would reduce political corruption substantially. But, in a democratic set up, people and institutions should not be prevented from funding a political party. So, political favors to donors must be checked by alert media, stringent laws and transparent decision-making processes in the government.

Computerization of the entire voting process would substantially reduce malpractices in voting.

Q. What are your views on reservations in education, jobs, promotions, private sector (and reservations on the basis of caste, religion, socio-economic measures?

A.  Jago Party is against all reservations – whether it is based on caste, religion, sex, place, income or whatever. Reservation devalues merit and hard work and thus is an impediment in our progress. Dismantling of all reservations and providing free, vocation-oriented education in English medium private schools for all is therefore the first objective of Jago Party. For pursuing higher and technical education, we support providing scholarships and soft loans to poor students.

Q.  What is your position with regards to hot-pursuit across the border?

A. Hot-pursuit of terrorists across the border into a country is justified if the latter is not taking any action against terrorists and offers safe refuge to them.

Q. Views on sanctions against Pakistan?

A. Jago Party is against having normal relations with Pakistan until Pakistan stops instigating terrorism in India and dismantles its  infrastructure for breeding and training terrorists.

Q. Views on taxes – should there be an infrastructure tax?

A. At present, India has too many types of taxes such as Income tax, Corporate tax, Wealth tax, Sales tax, Service tax, Excise duty, Customs duty, Fringe benefit tax, Gift tax, Luxury tax, Octroi, stamp duty, Revenue stamp etc with rates as high as 30% for highest slabs in Income tax and 33% for Corporate tax. Since Jago Party would reduce government activities and eliminate loss making public sector undertakings, its need to raise revenue by higher rates of taxation would be much less. Besides, the earnings from disinvestment capital would also reduce the need to tax at high rates.
Hence, Jago Party aims at reducing the number of types of taxes. Besides, no tax rate including Income Tax would be more than 10 %. Persons having annual income up to Rs 4.0 lakh would be fully exempted from Income tax. Tax laws would be simplified by abolishing all exemptions and exceptions. The increase in economic activities would compensate the loss of revenue & will increase job opportunities. Low tax rate would mean better compliance, more revenue and less corruption.

Q. Views on the parallel economy: how do you see the problem and who would you deal with it?

A. Generation of huge amount of black money in India (which we call parallel economy) is due to high tax rates, too many bureaucratic hurdles in earning an honest livelihood, “looting” of public money by politicians and government babus in the name of the subsidy to the poor/public works and weak legal system to detect and punish the corrupt. Lack of state support for election campaigns also gives rise to unaccounted money. All these institutional shortcomings in the system result in corruption and generation of black money.
 
Our emphasis on reduction in taxes and free market economic policies will resolve all these issues automatically. Dismantling of all bureaucratic hurdles and subsidy regimes would unleash private enterprise tremendously. We also support state funding for election campaigns.
We will bring back this black money into the mainstream economy by permitting it to be invested without being asked any embarrassing questions from the government and with just 10% taxes. This will give a big boost to the growth of economy eventually yielding more employment, wealth and taxes.

Q. Views on “criminalization” of politics and views on banning people with criminal convictions from standing for elections?
 
A. Criminals are being given tickets by certain political parties in order to win elections. These criminals win elections because through muscle power, they can deliver certain goodies to voters. This sorry state of affairs is symptomatic. It is due to the fact that government institutions intended to provide justice, infrastructure and honest earning of livelihood by a common man have collapsed.

Hence, Jago Party intends to overhaul justice system and empower police. It wants to dismantle all obstructions for growth of a healthy private sector, which alone can ensure putting in place the required infrastructure and jobs at a fast speed. For example, if a slum dweller can get water connection easily at a reasonable price from a private service provider, why would he pester the local criminal MLA to get him a connection from the municipality through the use of threat?

Q. What is the single biggest problem in Indian politics today? Is it corruption? Criminalization? Lack of competence? Fragmentation of electoral base – along casteist, religious, regional lines? Something else?

A. The biggest basic problem in Indian politics is the inability on part of a large number of voters to rise above their narrow individual interests on lines of caste, community, place or religion. An enlightened political leadership could have refused to pander to such narrow interests of voters and put before them only those options which were in the national interest. Unfortunately, Indian politicians succumbed to these narrow group interests. As responsible leaders, they could not guide people properly. Jago Party refuses to be a part of such spineless leadership. We believe that with sustained educational campaigning, people can be made to understand what is in the interest of the country. It may take time, but we are prepared for it.

Q. What is the most important “social” issue facing our country today?

A. It is the rise of religious fanaticism. Despite so much development of science and technology, majority of the people are unable to think scientifically. They still stick to their religious dogmas without any rational basis and are ready to kill or be killed for the sake of such irrational beliefs. Roots of terrorism lie in such beliefs.

Q. what is the most important “economic” issue facing us today?

A. It is the mismatch between demand and supply. Today, there is a demand for skilled people, but government - controlled educational system is unable to supply it.  There is a demand for good roads, electricity, water etc and people are willing to pay for these products, but governments which have monopolized these sectors, are unable to supply these goods.

This mismatch is happening because we fail to realize that governments are inherently inefficient as service providers and hence their role should be that of a facilitator, not of a service provider.

*** End of Interview ****

Thank you Deepak. You and your members will have my strong support in your endeavours. And I do hope we will get a chance to meet face-to-face in the not too distant future.  Jai Hind!