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It makes me feel good
that there are Volunteers / citizens who will seek to engage positively when
there are disagreements or doubts.
Unfortunately, these are few and so the misguidance and pain for
many. Due to the thoroughly depressing condition in
India, many jump to conclusions not based on fast paced events. Having reviewed my essay and also ArvindK
letter, certain topics need explanations.
Clarification will be given by Mayank ... Please chat him.
1. On referendum. Yes Mumbai has the best record and given time
and proper planning it could have been done.
Each time in the past, we had over a week to implement. This time there was hardly a day. So, it
could not be done.
I am told that since
Anna sat on fasting ... 5th day, IAC Volunteers were on phone with Delhi, to
find a solution due to our Teflon Govt. leaders. Many suggested, that seeing health condition
of various key persons on fasting, that this fasting be stopped since Govt.
will not respond at all. Many suggested
that selfless persons be put in Parliament and andolan be done inside. On
ninth and tenth day, at most fasting centers, it seems, overwhelming majority
of those attending, wanted some form of parliament intervention by IAC. Understand that ArvindK, AnnaH, and others
were not in a physically fit condition to take normal discussion routines. Mayank confirms that he had relayed wishes of
Citizen Candidates to them.
So decision was taken
to put up selfless persons under a 'andolan
type party'. News channels, then ran
their own phone-in and opinion polls which verified that thousands of involved
persons wish similar but unclear methods.
2. Gram / Village status. Yes, it is a given that Jan Jaagran is not satisfactory, in cities and villages. How long must we wait, another 44 years? Will the 200 million in abject condition wait
patiently for better 'delivery of governance' or will they not revolt
violently? Sorry ... I am rhetorical,
but how else to convey my pain of 40 million households still without electric
energy after 65 years. We have tripled
our population and increased electric generation ten times, yet we are unable
to reach all, the pressure of numbers has its own arithmetic.
Your query is have
Gram/Village citizens been consulted. I
ask you, consult for what? IAC is
talking of bringing in legislation to consult them and take their consent for
all programs, resources and plans that affect them. Are they likely to refuse this? Is this not what Amendment 73 was implying by
bringing governance to village level.
This was twisted and Collectors manipulate the Panchayat under instructions from corrupt political high
command. Is this not what ArvindK book
is SWARAJ all about? He did visit a substantial sample, so has
Anna. We lack the competence to visit
500,000 villages, even if we have the intention. So trust of the village citizens should not
be lost here.
3. Honest Administrators have poor election
record. Seshan, JP, and many others are
glorious examples. They did their best
within the existing crooked system. Even
Dr. S. Swamy swears it is possible to tackle the corrupt within the current
system and laws. I asked him personally
at Pune, how many cases, how many years, and how many citizens benefited. Woefully little and small. My question is how to address the issue of
our humongous population, we have over 200 million in dire straits. Has any of these wonderful and capable
officers, been able to substantially get them independent and develop their
potential?
Yathaa
Prajaa, Tathaa Rajaa.
This is the inverted world of democracy, accept it and adapt to it. We
need to do more of Jan Jaagran to get
better persons elected and increase their strength by delivering good results
for the middle and bottom citizens.
Right now the middle have got some improvement in the past twenty years
and hence some support us, wanting more results very quickly. Even Anna said, he would lose his deposit if
he went for elections. This is a fact,
but we must not lose heart. Some of us
in JNM faced similar situation during the recent Assembly election for Andheri
constituency, when I as agent had to respond daily to numerous notices. Questions were raised about the EVMs
too. Manipulations were alleged, but we
were with one candidate, a token at best.
Now, we need to put up at least ten percent, maybe 60 for parliament for
the whole nation. India has 60 selfless
persons who are tough. Let us shortlist
them and prepare battle plan.
Let it not be said,
that we did not try all reasonable methods and stay peaceful and within the
law. Even the Courts ask litigant to
approach only after exhausting all avenues.
The citizens need to see the effort and have a feel for the pain. They need to participate and NOT vote for the
TAINTED PERSONS. How to get them to
realise this need, is our problem. We
need to bury our differences and force
them to see the light; instant gratification of money against long term gain
from authority to choose better persons. As we have been saying: do not give us handouts and benefits, give us
the right to rule ourselves and decide for ourselves. Do you understand me? The recent claim of 'free mobile' is a great
example to blast the nation with. Let us
work on cartoons, talks, TV remarks, etc focused on this issue, let us not just
stick with FB :(
4. Watching the new elected. Yes, there is no guarantee that the selfless
chosen may not go sour. We can sow, but
we must also weed, before we can reap. Any farmer ... and we have 150 million
households out of 240 who are such, will understand this weeding and sowing
business. No need for pesticide as you
put it. There are many methods, you have
listed some. The basic, is: only one
time candidate for the lifetime, with a in-house monitoring team. These methods work in corporate too, so we
need to figure out and keep changing to meet the situation. In any case, episodic corruption and misuse
of power is not stopped anytime in past or present. We need not wait for Siddharth the Buddha,
Vardhamaan the Mahavir and avataar others
to, for admin issues. The goal post
shifts, so must our methods. As you
rightly said, NaBhoto, NaBhavishyatey
even for KrishnaAvataar, let us take lessons from his reported life and act
accordingly. Chanakya Nitii. Am I
right?
5. Lokayukta
and Assembly of States. Seventh schedule
of Constitution: State List section.
This our andolan is a long drawn out battle. Let us make a beginning. Talk did occur much earlier about Himachal
elections. Let us see if we have the
Volunteers, dedicated as a TEAM to make it happen :)
6. Alternate Solution. I do not know of any, and I have personally
been talking to Judges, Lawyers, IAS officers, etc. Working on this political intervention has
been fine tuned over the past SIX YEARS by JNM.
Many political parties have been formed: Loksatta, Forum for
Presidential are two that I know off and have been fortunate to interact with
the protagonists. All realise that this
is the only available step, but let us look at other methods. No election is being fought for the next
twelve months, right?
7. Committee elections. This was done as a token with our Mumbai
Zonal Teams. I wish it could be
implemented right off the bat for the whole country for the 'andolan party' and
cnadidate selection. But from experience
of the past decade, I know it will be impossible, but we must try for 'full PAT
with a strong dose of Decentralization and Integrity'. I understand from Mayank that some work in
this direction has commenced. Please
reach him for details.
8. Political strategy. I am unable to comment on this. Obviously, being politics in India as in USA
or Japan, it will have its opponents to strategy and dirty tricks. This is the pain that some must bear; same as
Mahadev Shankar has to bear the
poison in his throat. Who wants to be in
the decision chair and who wants to give
once his-her five years? Very difficult
for the selfless and honest person to do, though the devils will make haste to
line up at 01AM anywhere :)
(compiled by Praful
Vora, iac.mumbai.vora@gmail.com)
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