Book Review: Chanakya's New Manifesto

Book:  CHANAKYA’S  NEW MANIFESTO 
 

Author:  Pavan K. Varma 
 

ISBN:  978-93-82277-09-5 
 

Genre:  Non Fiction

Price:  295 ( I got it from Blogadda in a book review program) 
 

Pages:  248 
 

Publisher:  ALEPH BOOK COMPANY 

 Introduction:

Whatever state we are in at present has a direct incentive of our past performance, our present actions based on the correlative implication of our past and present and our future implementation and execution of goals considering all the three timelines taken into prospective.  This isn’t a book to read in a single sitting and grasp everything out of it. It’s meted out of sincere efforts put up to bring out the real scenario of the country with summoned realistic counsels to overcome from rather deplorable condition the country is facing today. This book is laid on connoting the thoughts and preachings of one of the greatest scholar world has ever known Chanakya along with the beliefs and teachings of our father of the nation Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, encompassing the present scenario.  Author's vitalizing feat can also be sensed from the 65 references which he made to make a stronghold case of his treatise.

         An eye opener for all the Indians who aren’t awake yet

Cover Page:

Black hole is of prime importance as it devours everything else. How would you represent a black hole in terms of color? Black isn’t it? Yes this color has significance in the cover page of this book as it encompasses everything India needs to do to envision itself as “Sarvagun Sampoorna” (To bring out the best in terms of completeness).  If an adequate action isn’t taken now we would drown our self to a pitiful grave which is looking more promising similar to engulfing in a black hole.

About the Author:

Pavan K. Varma,studied history at St. Stephen College, New delhi and took a degree in law from Delhi  University.He has been press secretary to the president of India, official spokesman of the Foreign Office, director general of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, and India's ambassador to Bhutan. Having taken premature retirement from the Indian Foreign Service, he now seeks to be actively involved in public life.

Pavan K. Varma has authored several acclaimed and bestselling books, among them, Ghalib: The Man, The Times; Krishna: The Playful Divine; The Great Indian Middle Class; Being Indian: The truth about why the 21st century will be India's; Becoming Indian: The Unfinished Revolution of Culture and Identity and When Loss is Gain. He has also translated into English the poetry of Gulzar, Kaifi Azmi and Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Compostional Report:

Prologue of this book covers the bases or the roots from which a theme is derived and later matured into a fully fledged blueprint for a change.  Starting with Chanakya's preachings from Arthashastra , an ancient Indian treatise on statecraft, economic policy and military strategy  written by the great scholar dating back 2300 years BC Era, captivating  to our present day scenario which needs an immediate alteration.

Author of this book Pavan K. Varma has succinctly exploited the prowess of demarcation to mark 5 significant areas which requires a prominent stance in terms of actual implementations. This book covers an equitably devised areas of concern viz. Governance, Democracy, Corruption, Security and the creation of an Inclusive society with a prior liaison with our immediate Past, since our Independence in 1947 highlighting all the pros and the cons linked with each and every decision taken by our fore founders of the country.

This book covers all the 5 eminent lurking dangers with detailed analysis of each with the basic knowledge of what is the current situation, why are we in such a state and what is the probable outcome if we continue to progress or rather regress with such a rate and the most importantly what needs to be done to overcome our stricken state and be amongst the fortified nations. This book has sought 354 lines of immediate action points covering all the cornerstones along with the detailed reasoning of each and every point stated (57-Democracy, 87-governance, 111-corruption, 58-security and 41-creation of inclusive society)

The best part according to me was the presentation of the real India to its mass and detailed action plan mention to root out the all the evils from our country. This is not a novel for a literate person but a bible to an educated citizen, perhaps this is the best and the worst thing which it contains.

Worst- let us take an example mentioned in this book
“5 years ago shortage of coal was 43 million tones and now it is 140 million tones. India being a 4^th largest in cola reserve this is something unbelievable.”
 What will a common person understand with 43 million tones and 140 million tones except that it has further decreased?

Best- As I said this has nothing to do with a literate mind but means a lot to an educated citizen. The reason being the exponential decrease of coal reserves in spite of all the planned (unplanned) strategies that let to shrinkage of reserves, policies of the government (governance), Use of resources ( democracy),Coalgate scam(corruption), Proper utilization and growth of available resources along with its security (Security) and harnessing resources for a sustainable progress(creating an inclusive society). This book covers everything and that’s why I recommend it to all educated minds, a must read as I always believe a knowledgeable citizen is much better than an ignorant one when it comes to tackling a situation at hand.

I agree with the author “it’s time to change and if we fail, India may never succeed. Our future is at stake.” I would rate this book 4.5 out of 5.

Life Adjudication ofthe book:

This is a book to awake our sleeping brains and start acting towards our cumulative goal to progress



This review is a part of the biggest Book Review Program for Indian Bloggers. Participate now to get free books!

On the much needed election reforms

Time and again we forget one thing; the constitution is an active document and not some sacred scripture that is to be preserved under lock and key. Ever since Ambedkar scripted the constitution it has undergone many amendments. But have these amendments really kept pace with the changes in India? Have we made amendments to those sections of the constitution that define our way of life today? Do these amendments plug the crevices and loopholes that exist today and were (hopefully) absent 60 years back? We may have the best constitution in the world but in many ways I feel it’s wanting.

The Indian today is very different from the Indian of the 1950’s. Today we Indians be it from the highest layer of the upper class to bottom layer of the lower class are subjected to some sort of social evil in different degrees. What was then a mystery now is become common knowledge. Infact I’m sure corruption, inflation to name a few are the first English words a child would learn. Repeated attempts have been made in the past of routing out what seems to have become our way of life. The Lokpal made its appearance for the 6^th or 7^th time and galvanised the nation until it was killed, raped and murdered by the very people who said they would pass it through in the 3 high-voltage day/night session of Parliament. (I seriously wonder what was Team Anna thinking? You make an act that is practically accountable to no one and expect our corrupt parliamentarians to make it a law knowing that the axe would first fall on them? In simple words that was really bad strategy.)

The only way forward and what we should all be putting our energies into is the way we elect out representatives. A party puts up a candidate and we as voters vote for the one we feel is the best. (At times it’s not the candidate we vote for but the party. And now with people changing parties so often we vote for the person without bothering which party he represents) But the question is not which party or candidate would not only solve your problems of today but also prevent the problems of tomorrow. I often wonder how can a person without the basic qualification to secure a job of a professor be allowed to make laws for a demography involving highly qualified and skilled people. Does being elected to the house entitle him to make decisions on my behalf without even caring to know what I feel? Does he bother to know whether I need a flyover bridge or not and consequently spend crores of taxpayers money on it? (I’m not even taking into consideration the increase in costs due to delays) Does he think of how painful it is for me and my kids to travel to office/school/college in crowded trains and choc-a-bloc roads? Does he ask me whether I want my 150 year old city’s name to be changed to a vernacular version just because he doesn’t like it and has the power to change it and also run after me just because I choose to say the old name over the new one?

I believe that an elected representative has an obligation to know and understand what the needs of the people are and then formulate and propose and table in the house a law that solves the issue. Present-day Indian democracy lies in members making decisions as per their will for the entire state/nation just because they have been elected. A member should remember that he/she is a representative and should act like one. He has not been elected to do as he pleases and thinks legitimate but to represent me and be my voice.

But how can I as an individual make sure that only the right person is elected. Going by what we have now is horrible to say the least. In our present-day democracy we have the option of choosing a candidate but do we have a choice? Can I as a lay man reject all the candidates in the fray? One may argue saying that there is section 49-O where I can declare that I wish to vote for none. Agreed but is that a secret ballot then? Why should I make a declaration that I have no interest or confidence in any of the candidates? When I do not have such an option the only option I have is not to vote. Now does the low voter turnout make sense?  

What I propose is that the Right to Reject as in a “None of the Above” (NOTA) button on our EVM’s. The rules are simple. If NOTA wins then all the candidates will be disqualified and will also lose their deposit money. The elections will be re-held with a different set of candidates. Incase NOTA wins again we repeat the same procedure. Many of my friends will complain saying how many elections do you wish be conducted? Well at the beginning we may have some held twice or even thrice but in the long run the parties will be much more responsible and careful about the candidates they put forward and the voters will have much greater role and participation rather than choosing the less evil from the fray.

This would not only bring greater accountability to our politics, check the flow of money during elections, get better people to represent us but also start the trend for a better India and a better tomorrow. After all true democracy is only achieved when the people have a greater role and participation in the functioning of their nation and their nation’s future.