Nayi Disha: The Road to Prosperity
We have two choices for the future of India – one in which we are caged and poor, and another in which we are free and prosperous. For the first, we don’t have to do anything. That’s the path we have been on for the past 250 years under three different sets of rulers – the East India Company, the British, and our own politicians and their parties. There has been consistency and continuity across all of them – maximise power and wealth for those in command at the cost of the people. There is a second future possible – where we dismantle the anti-freedom and anti-prosperity of the past and set ourselves on a course of liberty and wealth creation; we bring Lakshmi into the home of every Indian family. This will need us to change the arc of history, to take on those who rule over us.
This is the choice we face — to act to create a new, glorious future for us, our children, and generations yet unborn; or to stay silent and let the nation continue to be run by kakistocrats who have no interest in our dignity and well-being. The fight for freedom is the harder choice because it is not even obvious to us that we are in voluntary servitude. Freedom has never been granted to people; it has always been taken through revolution and then encoded in rules to prevent rulers from exercising their writs, whims and fancies on the people. This is the choice we face. Serfdom or Freedom. Kakistocracy or Democracy. Poverty or Prosperity. Rule of the politicians or power to the people. Old Disha or Nayi Disha. The same direction as the past 250 years – or a Nayi Disha. What will you choose?
If we are to put India on a path to prosperity, we need a Nayi Disha. It is freedom which creates prosperity. Look at every prosperous nation and you will see some mix of individual, social, political and economic freedom at its core. India has been blessed with people (yes, that’s a big advantage), natural resources and fertile land. In other words, Mera Bharat Mahaan. But none of this matters if the people are caged, if entrepreneurs have unease of business thrust on them, if governments interfere continuously in voluntary transactions between consenting adults. Indians could have been 20-30 times wealthier by now – as rich as Americans or Singaporeans. Wealth in the world is not a zero-sum game; it needs an enabling environment. In India, for 250 years, government after government has impeded Lakshmi coming into our homes. Samriddhi needs Swatantrata. In India, for two-and-a-half centuries, we have had neither. Our modern day politicians since Independence have been the new British – they extract, exploit, divide and enrich themselves. People for them are sacrificial lambs – be it the Bengal Famine or the Covid Crisis.
How can we transform our nation? How can we put our nation on an irreversible path to freedom and prosperity? How can we do this transformation – not in a generation, but with the next election? What can you do? This is the Nayi Disha roadmap that Rajesh Jain will outline in his talk
About Rajesh Jain
Rajesh Jain is a tech entrepreneur based in Mumbai, India. He was a pioneer in Asia’s dotcom revolution, creating IndiaWorld, India’s first Internet portals in the late 1990s. He then started Netcore, which is today Asia’s largest marketing technology company.
Rajesh’s prosperity initiative, Free A Billion, worked from 2015-2019 to bring economic freedom to Indians. Its flagship initiative was Nayi Disha – to create a demand for freedom and prosperity. Rajesh’s previous political venture, Niti Digital, was one of the key organisations that supported the 2014 BJP election campaign for Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Rajesh writes daily at https://rajeshjain.com. He can be reached at rajesh@nayidisha.com
