A common man's request to political parties of India on what he would like to see in their manifestos for the 2014 general elections.

1. The manifesto aam aadmi wants
M. P. Premkumar
The views expressed are personal. Copyrights of all images rest with original publishers.

2. The Aam Aadmi
• First, this term was used
by the Congress back in
2005 and now it has
become a household
name in Indian politics
thanks to the Aam Aadmi
Party.
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3. The views expressed are personal. Copyrights of all images rest with original publishers.

4. The views expressed are personal. Copyrights of all images rest with original publishers.

5. The views expressed are personal. Copyrights of all images rest with original publishers.

6. The Aam Aadmi
• The typical Indian or Aam
Aadmi is actually a
politically neutral person
with simple expectations
of governance.
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7. The Aam Aadmi
• He votes for different
parties at different times
depending on the
elections and the issues of
relevance at those times.
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8. So what does the Aam Aadmi want?
• The Aam Aadmi has probably sent messages
any number of times to any number of
political parties but here is another attempt to
state what a common man wants from our
political parties.
• Personal influences and experiences apart, this
is an attempt to capture needs of the 21st
century Indian from the political class.
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9. Right to Livelihood
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10. Right to Livelihood
• Please let us earn a decent living doing whatever we can to the best of
our ability.
• We may be poor but we are actually happy if we can retain human
dignity.
• Don’t sell us out to foreigners or to Indian businesses out to make a
quick buck.
• We don’t want doles either.
• Irrespective of caste, what we are looking for are opportunities – to be
relevant and to make ourselves useful to others.
• Tell us how you will enable millions of us to be the best we can be and
be of use to others.
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11. Agriculture
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12. Agriculture
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13. Agriculture
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14. Agriculture
• We the farmers of this country are a tough lot. But even
we are forced to commit suicide.
• Because physical labor is not valued in the market place
today. Our blood and sweat amount to next to nothing
when our produce is bought.
• But we pay high interest rates to finance our
occupation. If weather plays truant or market forces
play to their advantage, we have only our dignity left
and that is why we commit suicide.
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15. The views expressed are personal. Copyrights of all images rest with original publishers.

16. Agriculture
• We are ready to automate but high capital
costs in this scenario is a non-starter.
• With dole schemes even labor costs have
become high.
• We don’t need free power or free fertiliser or
free anything.
• Tell us how you will bring back dignity to our
occupation and make it viable.
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17. Retail
• You see, we are a nation of
micro entrepreneurs. We
bought and sold within our
own country and with
others even thousands of
years back.
• Some of us just have
pushcarts and cartons while
some of us have corner
shops or showrooms.
•
We are proud to be working for ourselves and
having the financial freedom to earn our living.
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18. Retail
• We really don’t understand cold chain linkages
some of you talk about when you talk about
FDI in retail.
• We thought that Mr. Cherian had figured that
out back in the 70s with Amul.
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19. The views expressed are personal. Copyrights of all images rest with original publishers.

20. How about replicating
the milk cooperatives
model with fruits,
vegetables, pulses and
the like? We hear that
works in Switzerland.
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21. Retail
• We really don’t fancy losing our financial
freedom and working as uniform borne
minimum wage earners in mega marts.
• Tell us how you will modernize trade without
mortgaging our freedom and dignity.
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22. Industry
• We are next to none and we can rule the world. We have
proved it.
• We don’t need SOPs. We don’t need favours. We are perfectly
capable of standing on our own legs.
• We need encouragement to go beyond our comfort zones to
conquer new horizons.
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23. Industry
• We can do without the red tape that holds us back
from doing our best.
• We are responsible but please allow us to be so
without demanding money to enable us to do our
business.
• Tell us how you will help us unleash creativity and
productivity to conquer the world with our products
and services.
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24. Labour
• We have great hands and great minds. We can think high and make high
quality products. Our products and services are used by the world.
• But policies seem to oscillate from wild west to the communist east.
• We are ready to work and get our fair share. But we don’t want to be
“temporary” assets.
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25. Labour
• We have as much equity in the business as
promoters and managers. Collective
bargaining is not what we want.
• We want individual recognition commensurate
with our inputs.
• Tell us how you will promote manufacturing to
make our country the best in quality and
equity.
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26. Defence
• We want security and we are ready to pay for
it.
• We realise we are in a region that is not very
stable or democratic.
• That doesn’t mean we should spend more on
defence than on education.
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27. Defence
• It anyway seems that much of the money
allocated is either not spent or ends up in
corrupt hands.
• Our soldiers put their lives on the line. But
our babus, netas and generals seem to be
negotiating for crumbs from guns to
helicopters to trucks.
• Tell us how you will ensure security to this
vast nation without squandering resources.
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28. Home Affairs
• We sincerely believed that the British had left and that we were
the masters of our land.
• But we find that the British left the police force intact and
appointed you to exploit them to continue subjugating us.
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29. Home Affairs
• We are treated as potential criminals all the
time by policemen.
• We are afraid to go to police stations.
• Many of us are detained in our own country
arbitrarily and merely on suspicion and kept in
jails pending trials.
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30. We see police serving only the politicians
faithfully.
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31. Home Affairs
• Tell us how you will transform the police force
to serve the public courteously giving
confidence that our security will be ensured
without us losing freedom and liberty.
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32. Health
• We are mostly healthy except when the basic
infrastructure is found wanting near where we
live.
• We welcome hospitals but we would rather have
better basic infrastructure to live.
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33. Health
• We don’t understand all these medical tests by
imported equipment or the costly medicines
that our doctors prescribe.
• Tell us how you will ensure basic hygiene in
our cities, towns and villages and enhance
access to affordable healthcare for all of us
while keeping drug prices low.
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34. Education
• We want to learn how we can be relevant in
the 21st century.
• We want our children to learn more than what
we learnt in our schools and colleges.
• Can you ensure that schools and colleges
“teach” students rather than “coach”?
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35. Education
•
We are ready to invest our time and life savings in the pursuit of
knowledge.
•
We don’t necessarily want free education. But can you ensure that
seats are not sold?
•
Tell us how you will enable world-class education of our children but
not push them to corruption right from LKG seats to medical seats
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36. Women & Family Welfare
•
We, the women of this country work doubly hard – we work on the
fields, lay roads, construct buildings, lead banks, win medals and take
care of our families.
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37. Women & Family Welfare
• The least we expect is some respect!
• You have not ensured enough women leadership in your parties
though we have demonstrated our potential.
• You have colluded to keep more of us out of parliament.
• You have allowed us to be used, abused and derided. We are warning
you to not take us for granted.
• We don’t need reservations or SOPS. Just allow us space and we will
show you what we can do.
• Tell us how you will ensure parity for women in everything from
politics to business to science & technology and family welfare. You
see, we are not just homemakers anymore.
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38. Sports & Games
• We have been and will be world
champions in many of the sports
and games. After all we have
taught the world many of the
sports.
• We want to be able to enjoy
playing sports and games. We can
definitely do without the
associations dominated by
politicians.
• We want sportspersons to run the
sports bodies in this country
assisted by professionals.
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39. Sports & Games
• We don’t want awards and don’t need allowances.
• We want you to provide better infrastructure for our kids
to play.
• We want a fair and open system to promote talent to
represent our states and countries.
• Tell us how you will ensure sports bodies are run by
sportspersons and provide infrastructure across the
country to support the various sports our children want to
play and excel in.
The views expressed are personal. Copyrights of all images rest with original publishers.

40. Social Justice
• We know our castes/tribal ancestry and we are proud of our
ancestry. We don’t need you to play to our ego.
• Our past was not perfect and we believe it is the
government’s job to even the playing field to enable
opportunity to all.
• We don’t really want the handicap to continue forever as
you see we are perfectly capable of standing on our own
legs once we get opportunities.
• Tell us how you will help social groups to develop with
opportunities while preventing enmity among groups.
The views expressed are personal. Copyrights of all images rest with original publishers.

41. Minority Affairs
• We are not sure if you know that almost all of
us are minorities in our great diverse country.
• We however appreciate the open heartedness
that enables us to settle anywhere and earn
our living.
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42. Minority Affairs
Please don’t divide us on religion, language, caste,
creed etc. and then kill us with agitations and riots.
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43. Minority Affairs
• We are really not blood thirsty and
would rather share a cup of chai with
our fellow countrymen.
• Tell us how you will protect the
plurality of our great country without
dividing us and poisoning us of the
threats from our fellow brothers and
sisters.
The views expressed are personal. Copyrights of all images rest with original publishers.

44. Taxes
• We pay income tax, sales tax, customs, duty, excise,
VAT, service tax…
• The more we pay the more we seem to be taxed
while the others seem to stay out of the tax net.
• We are actually proud to pay our due for our
country. We are only pained at how this money is
spent. And how some are beating the system.
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45. Taxes
• The privileged few from politicians to judges to bureaucrats seem to get a
lot of perks that are not treated as income.
• Doctors and lawyers never seem to accept cheques or credit cards. They
only accept cash and rarely give genuine receipts.
• The celebrities seem to own every luxury items under the sun but don’t
seem to pay commensurate tax.
Finance Minister said that just over 42,800
people have declared taxable incomes of over Rs
1 crore annually.
Sales figures for luxury cars:
2010 - 15,068
2011 - 25,000
2012 - 25,516
That's more than half the number of
assessees who reported income in excess
of Rs 1 crore that year!
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46. Taxes
• Tell us how you will change the taxation
system to be fair and transparent.
• Tell us how you will spend the taxpayers
money prudently with checks and balances so
that our country doesn’t keep borrowing to
make ends meet.
The views expressed are personal. Copyrights of all images rest with original publishers.

47. Infrastructure
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48. Infrastructure
• We can build our own houses but we need the government to build and
maintain roads, bridges, railways, ports, parks, playgrounds, traffic
systems, power stations etc. etc.
• We have already shown what we can do if the basic infrastructure is in
place.
• We don’t want to pay for infrastructure only to find that mafias and
corrupt officials swindling money compromising quality.
• We don’t want to be citizens of a country known for potholes, power
cuts and accidents.
• Tell us how you will clean up the ecosystem so that world class players
can build world class infrastructure for this vast country.
The views expressed are personal. Copyrights of all images rest with original publishers.

49. Natural Resources
• We are proud of our country’s wealth of natural resources.
• We know that it belongs to all of us and that it needs to be used for the
benefit of all.
• We also know that the environment we live in is equally precious and we
want our children to inherit a world that is not degraded.
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50. Natural Resources
• We don’t want to sell out to foreigners or local exploiters
so that a few can pocket the riches leaving others
penniless in their own backyard.
• We want our resources to be judiciously used so that we
can retain our livelihoods and reduce environmental
impact.
• Tell us how you will ensure that natural resources are not
exploited at will, adversely impacting the environment
and threatening the livelihood of local people.
The views expressed are personal. Copyrights of all images rest with original publishers.

51. Railways
• We are really thankful for the Indian Railways for
enabling mass affordable long distance
transportation.
• Our lives and livelihoods depend on it.
• Thanks for running trains on time nowadays.
The views expressed are personal. Copyrights of all images rest with original publishers.

52. Railways
• However, we demand safety and hygiene in stations and trains.
• We are sick and tired of poor food, cockroaches and rats in trains.
• Tell us how you will modernise railways to enable affordable travel and
logistics for 21st century.
The views expressed are personal. Copyrights of all images rest with original publishers.

53. Civil Aviation
• We understand the need for airports and airlines.
• We don’t understand why government needs to run a heavily loss
making airline while asking private companies to build airports.
• The only reason seems to be to give away free tickets to netas and
babus. And of course to get kickbacks buying aircraft.
The views expressed are personal. Copyrights of all images rest with original publishers.

54. Civil Aviation
• Tell us how you will ensure airport fees are
lesser than air tickets.
• Tell us how you will stop taking money from
the poor and middleclass to fund airlines for
the rich and the powerful.
The views expressed are personal. Copyrights of all images rest with original publishers.

55. Telecom & Technology
• We are thankful that you didn’t understand enough to tinker
with the T’s.
• We are happy with our mobile phones and the white collar jobs
created by IT.
• Please don’t kill these industries with your greed (as you almost
did recently).
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56. Telecom & Technology
• They have given us power at our fingertips.
You cannot take it back.
• Tell us how you will leverage these
technologies to empower us even more.
The views expressed are personal. Copyrights of all images rest with original publishers.

57. International Trade
• We don’t understand much of this except that we don’t want you to surrender
our interests to foreigners.
• We are ready compete globally but only if it is a level playing field.
• While we are asked to compete, we see rich foreign farmers being subsidised to
compete with us.
The views expressed are personal. Copyrights of all images rest with original publishers.

58. International Trade
• Our traditional intellectual property is stolen systematically while foreigners
seek protection for theirs.
• They impose crops, technologies etc. when there isn’t a need for us.
• Tell us how you will enable global trade that is mutually beneficial and not
exploitative.
The views expressed are personal. Copyrights of all images rest with original publishers.

59. External Affairs
• We don’t understand international politics
except that we don’t ever want to be
subjugated again.
• We don’t really care whether a foreign country
is western, capitalist, eastern, communist,
Islamic or Christian but we appreciate mutual
respect.
The views expressed are personal. Copyrights of all images rest with original publishers.

60. External Affairs
• We don’t ever want to see what happened in Kandahar or Sri Lanka or
Australia.
• Tell us how you will protect the interests of our country and our
countrymen with principle of mutual respect and reciprocity.
The views expressed are personal. Copyrights of all images rest with original publishers.

61. The views expressed are personal. Copyrights of all images rest with original publishers.

62. Law
• We are glad that the judiciary is safeguarding our fundamental
rights enshrined in our constitution
• But judges seem to be sanctimonious and consider themselves
above the law
• We run from adjournment to adjournment while our lawyers
pocket their fees
• When judgments do come, they come late sometimes after we
die
• Tell us how you will make judiciary also accountable and the legal
process less cumbersome and justice is speedily delivered
The views expressed are personal. Copyrights of all images rest with original publishers.

63. Parliament
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64. Parliament
• We thought the laws are made in parliament. That’s what we studied in
school.
• However, we see only slogans, dharnas and disruptions in parliament.
• We watch you on TV, you know. And when we step out during an
adjournment break we see suddenly some laws are passed without
discussion.
• We elect you and pay you to discuss, deliberate and pass laws for our
benefit. However, you seem to get paid to not do your work.
• Can you tell us how you will ensure that the parliament actually functions as
the august body of policymaking our forefathers envisioned to be?
The views expressed are personal. Copyrights of all images rest with original publishers.

65. The manifesto aam aadmi wants
M. P. Premkumar
Please share your comments and suggestions
The views expressed are personal. Copyrights of all images rest with original publishers.