Nine 2026 Resolutions to Recharge India's Democracy & Economy
Let’s plod forward with the hope that 2026 will deliver a delayed democratic and economic renewal.
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Every new year begins with the audacity of contrived hope, for individuals and nations. Last year, I had written about Nine 2025 Resolutions to Resuscitate Indian Democracy. Most disappointingly, we’ve barely crawled forward, despite the passage of a full year.
But quitting is not an option.
So, let’s plod forward with the hope that 2026 will deliver a delayed democratic and economic renewal.
Top Two Resolutions Again: Restore Trust in the Election Commission of India
It’s a sorry—but even more forceful—repeat of last year. There’s no ducking it since opposition parties have given irrefutable evidence of errors in electoral rolls and discrepancies in voting data. It’s a wake-up call—If trust in the sanctity of India’s elections is lost, everything is over. So here goes:
1. We resolve to respect the right of opposition leaders to bring hard evidence of electoral malpractices to our attention. We shall not deny, deflect, counterattack, denigrate, or mock. Instead, we shall order a thorough and transparent investigation by credible, independent experts.
We resolve to upload past and current electoral lists for each polling booth in electronic files that political parties shall access easily. We shall not evade our responsibility to video record all voters who stuff their ballots after the end of polling, and put these videos up for scrutiny, as required by law.
2. We resolve to do a 100 percent count of VVPATs to validate the EVM results for all elections in 2026. We hope to squelch suspicions and whiffs of controversy around the integrity of EVMs. We shall use bar codes on VVPATs to ensure a rapid and scientific count, so nobody can object on grounds of “inordinate delays”.
Top Two Resolutions to Restore the Unimpeachable Reputation of India’s Judiciary
3. We resolve to quickly adjudicate on the amplitude and validity of critical laws. We acknowledge that immense damage gets done if these are left hanging. For example, we shall settle the challenge to the Places of Worship Act and conclude the mischievous suits that are riding on it. We must expeditiously decide whether the twin bail conditions in PMLA are correct or a violation of the law.
So, businesspeople are being incarcerated for heinous crimes like money laundering while at worst their offences may be punishable for breach of trust or cheating or wilful defaults or under-payment of taxes.
4. We resolve to hold truant courts accountable for flouting our instructions. We agree that we've been lax in allowing bulldozers to continue demolishing despite our explicit ban. We shall henceforth summon the culpable officials/politicians and inflict exemplary punishment, including arrest.
We acknowledge that harsh laws aimed at egregious offences—like drug running or terrorism or inciting large-scale violence—are being used against civil society activists who are branded as “urban naxals”, a term or category that is not legally defined. We vow to put a stop to such an unconscionable weaponisation of laws.
Top Four Resolutions to Create a Genuinely “Goldilocks Economy”
5. We resolve to not get swayed by the euphoria. We acknowledge that India’s macroeconomy is appearing to be in a Goldilocks embrace. General inflation is less than 2 percent, while food prices are declining. The fiscal deficit is trending down, even as government capex has vaulted over 3 percent of GDP.
Interest rates are softening, and there’s a twin balance sheet bonanza, as banks have shed bad loans and corporates have deleveraged. The stock markets are at a hefty premium to most competing economies, despite the rupee's precipitous fall.
But two of the most vital parameters—viz private investment and personal consumption expenditures—have been stubbornly flashing red for years. Private capex has fallen 0.6 percentage points of GDP below the pre-COVID-19 level, while household consumption has shed three percentage points. Why? We shall find out and fix the problems.
6. We resolve to lift the hood and look at the “invisible spectrum”. Here are two devastating stats that are not quoted too often. India’s Net FDI has fallen by nearly 97 percent, to a shocking $353 million last year. Why? Because Indian investors are taking as many dollars out of the country as foreigners are bringing in.
7. We resolve to curb our adventurous tendency to slap sudden bans! As soon as we see a tiny trespass, we slam the kill-switch for everybody, crashing large legit businesses along with the fringe illegal ones. But henceforth, we shall benchmark our regulations to global standards, we shall monitor to control excesses, we shall catch the culprits—but we shall not ban everything for the good guys!
8. We resolve to flatten out the iniquitous K-shaped swell of India’s economy. It’s a severe infirmity when the top 1 percent imprison 40 percent of our total wealth, and the bottom half of the population has to make do with barely 7 percent. Equally, it’s a shame that the top 10 percent capture nearly 60 percent of national income! We cannot allow this disease to fester.
9. The ninth and final resolution of 2026 is a bigger imperative because the political environment has become more toxic: We resolve to convince our political leaders to re-learn the art of smiling! We have noticed how bitter, angry, morose, unhumorous, and viscerally combative they always are.