BPD, BM, LP: Light at the end of the tunnel?
The dogged persistence in the last few weeks seems to have paid off.
By yesterday, I had spoken to four members of Bharat Punarnirman Dal (BPD) and three members of Bharat Uday Mission (BM or Bhumi).
Sadly, no contact with their Presidents yet, but I now have a lot more clarity on what each of them are trying to achieve
Attempts at contacting these groups over the last few days (see here and here) and getting them to articulate their views on some important issues was an eye-opening exercise.
The discussions and the conversations that ensued led to a number of thoughts that I’ve briefly described below. That led to a set of recommendations outlined here:
- Learn to effectively manage your communications and be responsive;
- Think hard about strategy and tactics – they are different for good reason;
- Resources don’t materialise from thin air; they need to be amassed carefully and over time;
- Learn to cooperate and coordinate; the broader your coalition, the more sustainable it is likely to be;
- Get some grey hairs around you, and finally
- Develop your next level of leadership.
I hope that a set of core ideas can emerge from this debate and discussion that could form the template for Next Action(s) for these parties. Here are the observations and thoughts in some more detail:
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1] External Communications/ Responsiveness:
Almost all the groupings do a less than perfect job of articulating and (more importantly) communicating their views & vision. The best of the lot was Bharat Punarnirman Dal (BPD), the worst was Lok Paritrana (LP).
Loksatta was equally bad in terms of responsiveness but I am giving them the benefit of doubt because of Shri Jayaprakash Narayan who has written in depth about some of the critical issues facing India today.
This is worrying because a point will soon be reached where would be members or sympathisers may be turned off simply because no one got in touch with them or shared the vision with them.
As I wrote in my previous post, it does not take much time and effort to respond to emails (one could create about half a dozen templates which would easily take care of 80% of the queries) and how hard would it be to find someone dedicated to external communications/public relations?
I am afraid that the groups are perhaps missing out on leveraging a very powerful tool that they have at their disposal – i.e. the Internet and the medium of mass communication (particularly TV/ radio). Thoughts/comments welcome.
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2] Strategy and Tactics:
This is a hard one. On one hand, you have BPD and LP – both eagerly campaigning and contesting elections (see here and here); on the other hand you have Bharat Uday Mission (BM) which is concentrating its energies on what I would call “political activism”. BPD has also had electoral success while LP did get some votes in the TN Assembly elections last year.
It appears that both BPD as well as LP are focused more on making a statement (and create a buzz) than actually winning a seat.
Why do I say that? Simply because in the hinterlands of UP, where caste politics runs rife and emotive issues still dominate, IITs mean nothing (most of the electorate would not know about them) and the ideals of both these parties are far removed from ground realities.
If, however, the idea was to create a buzz, they have certainly succeeded. Both of them made national news headlines and BPD even got profiled by the Times in London. This is good news because it will generate more awareness and hopefully attract more members/volunteers.
But it is only partially good news because such activities have a habit of raising expectations which may be very hard to live up to and we have seen far too many dreams crash to ground after what seemed to be a spectacular start.
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3] Funding/ Financing/ Resources:
I am guessing that almost all the parties/groupings are struggling with the issues of funding/ financing and/or raising resources.
Although I only spoke personally with BPD and BM, I have no reason to believe that others are in any different situation. Is that a surprise? Not really. But what did surprise me a little bit is that this issue did not appear to have been thought through right at the beginning
It felt as if the groups had come together and almost as an afterthought realised that they will need money (significant money) to carry forward their activities and funding will be one of the key challenges of sustaining the momentum in the long run.
This point worries me the most. Funding and financing the activities of a political group is a far bigger challenge than funding an NGO or a charity – I would say it is more difficult by almost an order of magnitude or even more
For one, donors who otherwise may readily open their purse strings for charities will usually think twice before donating to a political party for another, the scale of the resources needed to fight even a single assembly election is significant and very large compared to even a mid-size charity.
Unfortunately I did not hear any creative ideas around this I feel this should be priority #1 for all these groupings if they want to survive over the longer term and not be reduced to a watered-down NGO or political activist/interest group.
4] Coordination/ Cooperation:
A few words on coordination. Often during the course of the dozen or so calls I had, I got the feeling that these groups were operating fairly independently of each other – almost in a vacuum
This is not strictly true as they all knew of each other – both as fellow travellers in a cause – as well as at a personal level. And yet, I did not see as much cooperation and coordination as I would have liked to see.
Having said that, I know BPD and YFE support each other and YFE and BM also cooperated in some areas/ (and more recently in the Delhi elections). Unfortunately this is not enough. As some of you know, LP and BPD are at loggerheads with each other in UP and this is a great pity.
Quite apart from the short-term benefits of cooperation, what these groupings have failed to do is to have some kind of a mechanism for coordination at a national level – a clearing house of ideas, opportunities and issues – which would help everyone come together on a common platform where need be and yet retain their individual identities
As far as I know, none of these parties has a dedicated resource person(s) for this role – something that I think needs urgent attention.
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5] Grey hairs and the follies of youth:
I was struck by the one common thread in almost all the conversations I had with people who were involved with these groupings: the energy, enthusiasm and huge optimism shone through and yet, I often saw glimpses of naivete which had the potential to unravel the whole vision pretty quickly.
Partly this is to be expected. I am guessing that the average age of members in these groups is less than 30. Certainly the people I spoke to were all younger than 30, the oldest was 28! (I am forty).
So it was not really surprising that they had all the enthusiasm, freshness, excitement of youth and the unshakeable belief that they can change the world. It was hugely invigorating and yet I was also a little worried that they did not seem to have around them any counsel(s) with grey hairs, with wisdom born out of experience and mistakes, dashed hopes and failed expectations
It would be good if the leadership of these groupings makes an active effort to surround itself with experienced people from a wide variety of backgrounds – they will not only be useful as counsels and sounding boards, but will add credibility, be a big asset when it comes to networking for resources/funding and finances and can be the voice of calm when things look like they are going awry.
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6] 2nd and 3rd tier of leadership:
One final point in conclusion. I did not get any sense during my discussions that the groups had thought about a model to develop the 2nd and 3rd tier of organisation leadership. This is perhaps the weakest link. Why do I say that?
Most of these leaders are in their 20s or early 30s and over the next few years will increasingly face the challenge of balancing their families, careers and professional aspirations with this work unless there is a 2nd generation (and 2nd tier) of leadership in place, the organisations might crumble more quickly than one can imagine
This is probably something that I would put amongst the top 3 agenda items to work on for these parties
So to conclude, below is a summary (and the implicit recommendations):
- Learn to effectively manage your communications and be responsive;
- Think hard about strategy and tactics – they are different for good reason;
- Resources don’t materialise from thin air; they need to be amassed carefully and over time;
- Learn to cooperate and coordinate; the broader your coalition, the more sustainable it is likely to be;
- Get some grey hairs around you, and finally
- Develop your next level of leadership.
I look forward to readers’ views – this has been a very stimulating exercise and has given me hope that all is not (yet) lost.
I eagerly look forward to all your comments, responses and thoughts.
Jai Hind, Jai Bharat.
Image courtesy: Wikipedia
I think your ideas will definitely help these enthusiast people.
However, one thing I have noticed that when anybody address these new parties, they say “If they don’t do this, this will happen.” That happens to be the tone of many other people as well. From what I believe the tone should be “These people should do this and it will help in this.”
I still think your criticism is quite important and wiill help them.
Regards
Anurag
Anurag, Thanks. Thats a VERY GOOD point…
So let me say this straightaway, this post should not be read in the tone of “criticism” – if it comes across as criticism, I am to blame.
My intention is to surface some important points – not to dampen enthusiasm.
As I said to everyone I spoke, I consider all of them heroes in the truest sense since they have gone beyond words and suggestions…
While we struggle with our day-to-day worries, these youngsters have gone ahead and taken the plunge. For that, they need to be applauded.
Having said that, there is need for some introspection and perhaps room for improvement – I hope this is “constructive criticism” and as I mentioned to everyone that I spoke with (or emailed), they can count on my support – in whatever way I can.
I feel these parties should do more grassroot level work and bring in people to work with them. They should work on some specific problem in some specific village/town and succeed. This is give them more exposure in the area and people gaining will start supporting them. Then the supporting people can be used for more work in adjacent areas.
The starting point could be one single village in every state they operate or even few states combined. It depends on the number of people in that area.
As you mentioned, this needs lot of funding and can also effectively use TV and internet.
The grassroot level work is missing even in large parties like BJP (especially in south). These work should be an ongoing effort and never stopped.
Dear Shantanu,
There is a need of political and public will to improve the functioning of government. Head of political parties need to think million times before selecting a candidate for any public representation. He/she should always try to provide honest and dutiful candidates to contest the elections, even if candidates are going to loose the elections. Parties have to sacrifice the greediness for the power and should think only for the welfare of the state. Party workers should be motivated to work for the welfare of the state, and public in general, and must be restrained to think of for earning money for their welfare using unconstitutional means. Members of political party should be asked to sign the statements stating that they really want to serve the state honestly and don’t want to join solely for money sake or any benefits more than they would be entitled for now or in the future. Also, they should give in writing that that they will not make politics a money making business, and if they elected for public offices they will not use their positions/influences for indulging in inappropriate activities. They should also state, they don’t want any favor in any circumstances for being members of a party and will not involve in corrupt practices to earn money for the personal benefits or for the benefits of a family member. If they go against their oath, they must be shown the door and punished as per the law.
Though the political parties could play an important role in transforming a state in a true democratic state by having a will to sacrifice but none the less, the great role will only be played by the public itself. The public have invaluable voting right to send right persons into assembly of any kind to represent them. The public need to review the bio-data of each and every candidate in the field during the election, and then vote. We need to vote based on the quality of a candidate, and not based on the name of a political party or head of a party. Now it’s call of time for general public like us to analyze the candidature of a person and think and think many times before taking a decision to vote for him/her. We should question ourselves if the person to whom are we going to vote is really going to serve us, will he/she be honest during his/her tenure and will he/she not work only for his/her and his/her family welfare. If we find satisfied with the answers, exercise our vote to him.
Thanks,
Vinaya
Hi Shantanu
I appreciate your inputs. Really! I think you have been quite fair in your analysis without being overly cloying because we seem to be doing good work!!! We will definitely take your inputs well and act on them. Btw, we already have a couple of experienced people who are guiding us. But we want our advisory committee to be more well-rounded and with people from different walks of life.
I would love to see more responses on your blogs because we feel that we represent all Indians and everyones suggestion will help us move forward.
thanks
Sundeep
G. Sec
Maharashtra SWC,
BPD
Hi Shantanu,
Thanks for the write up
Concerns that you have raised are very valid and our members are working on that. For BM it has taken almost 5 years to come this far. It will take a lot more time to acheive bigger milestones. As you have mentioned we are in it for the long haul.
Thanks once again for the writeup
Balajee C
Secretary
Pune Chapter
Bharat Uday Mission
09423531374
Dear Shantanu,
I generally agree with your suggestions and guidelines on building a solid and well-founded org. structure. That is fine and quite essential too.
But another thought —just a thought of course. Is it possible to have a National Political Party in India sans a regular source of emotive issues to make it acceptable to all parts of the country?
Let me give examples:
Freedom – sustained congress for a long time and it could even push through for 20 years even after independence.
Bangla Desh War – Indira Congress got the National status
Emergency – Janatha Party came into being,
Assassinations of Indira & Rajeev Gandhies – brought back Congress to the National scene
Hindutva – BJP got the National presence,
Anti Hinduism & Ninority Appeasement – My reading is that this may bring smiles back to BJP’s face in the coming Gen election.
So my point is that, it is very difficult for any party to have a common strategic focus which is valid, viable or acceptable to the entire nation, unless they have a handy emotive or poignant issue to fall upon every time. This is a unique situation of our country. Though USA is much bigger in area, it does not have our diversity, variety or distinct regional/linguistic based problems. That is one of the reasons why USA or UK can afford to have two or three party system going strong.
Of course, I may be wrong, as I mentioned, it is just a thought.
Kartha
Shantanu
You make a very improtant point about coordination among these like minded parties. Seeing that they are thin on resources at this stage, it is even more pertinent that they come together under one banner (or atleast coalition) so that the resources are better utilisied. It would really be a waste if such organisations were to fight against each other with no one actually able to win anything and make difference.
..but certainly they have taken the first step and your analysis will only guide them in a very difficult journey ahead.
Hi Shantanu,
Great analysis of these nascent political parties. I feel that the following 3 points that you make stand out for me as far as how far these nascent parties will go.
1) Vision and Communication:
A clearly articulated vision is absolutely essential to the success of any organization. Further, it is important to know your core audience(youth in this case?) and make sure your vision resonates with them
2) Coordination:
It is unfortunate to see divisions such as those between BPD, LP. If anything, they should try to work together.
3) Light of experience:
There isn’t a dearth of experienced ppl, what you address as grey hairs, in the political arena (like Jayaprakash Narayan). It is important to get such people experienced in various aspects of running a party/organization but especially so in 4 aspects:
a) Legal & Political experience
b) Financial (including taxes aspects etc) experience
c) Vision Evangelist experience
d) organisational leadership experience
I feel that these are the key to the success of these great parties.
best of luck and my whole hearted support to them.
murali
Srinivas: I agree with you about the need for grassroots work. However, by definition, grass-roots is very long-term and it will probably be years before the impact begins to be felt. In the short term, while essential, it is unlikely to have any impact on the firtunes of these parties..(in my humble opinion).
Vinaya: You make two points. 1] That public servants should not consider politics a money-making business and must remain incorruptible – and therein lies one of the biggest problems that plagues our system – the issue of campaign finance. Add to that the fact than an hones MLA’s salary is unlikely to help anyone live even a half decent (as in comfortable) life, you will begin to understand why most honest people do not join politics (and also why most politicians need other “sources” of income to survive) 2] the challenge of “educating” the public to exercise their right to vote in a wise manner is again easier said than done – try saying it to someone who is starving and/or being promised a few hundred ruppes and/or being threatened with dire consequences. Having said that, the BPD leadership specifically told me that this is something they are focusing on (as is BM)…Without a better electorate, we cannot expect better politicians….so a change is essential.
Sundeep: thanks for the comment and good to see that you are already working on your advisory committee.
Balajee: thanks for your comment and update. I have no doubt that all of you are in it for the long haul. Keep up the good work – and your spirits.
Dr Kartha: Thought provoking comment and interesting analysis that I broadly agree with. You mention that, “it is very difficult for any party to have a common strategic focus which is valid, viable or acceptable to the entire nation, unless they have a handy emotive or poignant issue to fall upon every time.” I agree with it – but how about making “Rashtra Seva” this strategic focus? or “Country before Self”? I am a little more hopeful than you…but only time will tell.
Manoj: thanks for your comment and you are right, “Its a difficult journey ahead”…these guys need all the help and support we can offer them (and encouragement!)
Murali: thanks for distilling the core of my thoughts…Lets see how things turn out over the next few months.
Do continue to post your thoughts…and ideas. This is an ongoing discussion.
Jai Hind, Jai Bharat.
I think communications are very important. Responding to e mails, while it might seem trivial would only allow people to get involved. If these parties are trying to build themselves differently from err… other mainstream parties, then they have to tap resources like internet.
Having said that, they should build a broad coalition for fighting elections, for example in U.P. Unless they get involved in ”dirty politics”, nothing much will change on the ground.
Good post.
Dear Shantanu,
I think that the MPs, ministers, MLAs, IAS, IPS are the most paid and facilities getter public servants of India. I don’t know what type of more comfortable life they need. This is our mentality that we are thinking them as VIP and provide all the comfortable life to them. But why don’t we think that there should be no discrimination within government’s servants. A Sentry (peon/helper) should have the same regards as a Mantry (minister). If a Sentry can maintain his family in his salary so why can’t a minister with all those extra facilities and perks provided by the government. I don’t think they deserve more than that. The only think we are missing is that we don’t have equality in practical in any area in India because of practicing faulted democracy. One of the main principles of democracy is equality. A state can’t be developed, if its citizens are not treated equally in every aspect of life. Equality could be socialistic or gender-wise. Both, a person on post of governor and a rickshaw puller, should be treated equally by government institutions. There is no difference between them. Governor is carrying his/her responsibilities of serving the people like rickshaw puller, whereas a rickshaw puller is doing his duty by providing mobility to public. The only difference among them is in the salary, since the governor’s responsibilities are to provide his/her services to whole public of state whereas a rickshaw puller serves limited ones. But, they should not be differentiated by their positions and should be treated equally by each and every government agency.
There were many incidents reported to me where influential persons (MLAs, MPs, bureaucrats etc.) were given preference over general public. One person told a story that while he was waiting in a queue at office of Superintendent of Police (SP) to register his complaint, a local MLA suddenly appeared at the scene. All the office staffs of SP’s then were diverted to welcoming the MLA and he was allowed to see the SP out of turn, and thus delayed the turn of other individuals by couple of hours. Generally speaking, an MLA is a lok-sevak, but that MLA didn’t care about the suffering of the loks (public) at that time. It would have been better; if either the MLA would have waited in queue for his turn or SP’s office staff would have not entertained him. This incident shows that there is no equality in India and a person is being respected based on the position he/she holds. Very Important Person (VIP) word should need to be abolished from the government dictionary. Only the general public has right to be called VIP in a democratic state rather than the government servants. Author’s research shows that persons at high positions (like MLAs, MPs, IAS, IPS etc.) don’t want to change the system in fear of they would loose the respect and authority to rule.
A MLA/minister should think as he/she is servant of public and rather than he/she being a VIP, the general public is VIP. The public service commission (Lok Seva Ayog) is established by government to provide efficient and capable public servants (Lok Sevaks) to serve the people but most of us want to join that because of not serving the people but to get power to rule the public. Therefore there is craze to become Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, Indian Police Service (IPS) officer, minister etc. If we really imagine we have to work as servant of public and not as VIP, only those of us can opt for this job whose real aim is to serve the public. The author is not sure how many of ministers, governors and bureaucrats (let’s call them as lok-sevaks in future references) think themselves that they are servants of public and they should use words like Your Excellency, Me Lord, Your Honor, Sir, Hakim, Your Majesty, Reverend, Mahamaheem, Honorable etc for general public rather than expecting the same for themselves.
I came to know that people are dying to become MLA/Minister/IAS/IPS and they are ready to pay any cost for that. They have crores of rupees in bag and running here and there to get such positions so that later they can use their position to get respected as VIP and may do whatever they want and law will do nothing for them. These positions in India are now being treated above the law and people at that position think law is not for them but only for the poor public. The main problem India facing nowadays is corruption and this could be the cause of revolution one day. If any part concentrate on corruption as main issue and give a motto, “Bhrastachar Miato, Bharat Bachoa (remove corruption, save India)”, it may really gather a momentum like Jay Prakash Narayan. If corruption would have not been there, those bastards would not think to spend crores of rupees to become servants of public. Anyways, now election commission is doing good job on some extent to control the expenses and now there are many good and honest people taking part in contesting the election. I found that there are many constituencies in UP from where more than 20 candidates are there in fray.
The main problem because of which educated public is not taking part in contesting the election is that there is no guarantee of job in politics. Politics is a career where you can’t be sure of getting permanent job to fulfill the obligations of family’s responsibilities. In the past, this field was chosen by social workers who wanted to serve the public without expecting any thing in return. There aim was, “to give, not to take”, but now in this materialistic world no one wants to serve public going hungry. Political workers also have a dream of living life king size therefore they are landing into corrupt practices. The solution to this could be to allow the government servants e.g. great scientists, engineers, DMs, SPs, etc to contest the election during their service period and have option to join back their job, if they loose the elections. This looks simple but could create problems but a national debate on this can bring some solution.
Also this is not hard to educate the people to vote the right person. It may need hard work. I think there could be less efforts involved in education the public in urban area than the village public. But it is not impossible. The public in village still believe in custom and social obligation and are easily manipulated based on cost and religions. That is what happening and most of the parties taking the benefit of it. Here also the election commission is taking steps to control bribing the voters. Only thing is that to educate the public we need full time workers on this job. But how to get these workers? We definitely should not think, they could devote any time without any benefit. Again, we should indulge government employees who have income to survive and will not expect anything in doing this or party should pay to workers who fully devote their time on this. Thus it will basically land in financial need for a party, and wherever money comes into picture, there comes corruption which is a dangerous disease like cancer. So again the first duty of any party should be to remove this cancer. The corruption is so deep in villages too that even the schools, the place of worship of our futures, are not untouched. I am hearing every day that government provides money to build the rooms for schools in the villages, contractors build the rooms and next day rooms are getting flatten because they are not built as per the standards. All the money going to somewhere else because of corrupt practices.
………………………….To be continued
Dear shnatanu!
This is a true analysis and I hope that all these parties will take a note and will incorporate your points.
BM will be benifited by your valuable writeup.
Hi Shantanu,
Its very interesting to read your analysis and the related discussions.
Thanks for creating an unofficial forum where all the communities with similar vision can come together and have a healthy discussion. Constructive criticism is all that we need.
Among the points that you mentioned, I think strategy and tactics is the most important.
because everything else depends upon that. We can attract more funds, more people and media attention.
Politics is a very dynamic world and there cannot be a full-proof plan.
I haling from software industry, am used to creating project plans. but here there are too many factors affectig upon it.
but nevertheless, these inputs are going to very helpful in fastening our pace.
Geeta Gokhale
Bharat Punarnirman Dal
National Working committee.
http://www.bharatpunarnirman.org
Confused: thanks for your comments.
Vinaya: Lots of good points…Please give me some time to respond.
Mahesh and Geeta: Thank you. If this has helped even a little bit in your work, I think my purpose has been served.
Beyond that, as I mentioned to you and others, I am always available for any help that I can provide.
Look forward to staying in regular touch…this is a long journey and we need many friends along the way.
I agree Mr. Vinaya Singh
All this is because general public is unaware of their rights and correct treatment they are entitled to as a citizen. When equality will take front spot, competition and mindset for civil services and many lucrative jobs will also die. Because more or less people come to this posts to enjoy power above others, money and to show off their Importance among avarage people. Ofcourse, who will like to serve public. If that was their intention they could have done it without grabbing strong posts.
It is we who have to become more active in each and every town and cities to question IAS and IPS officers for its ongoing development. Right to information has to play more role in it.
Dear Indidan and Shantanu,
I appreciate you heartily for being supportive of my views and I am really looking for the people like you who can help in revolting against the faulty democratic system in India. I also need support to move forward the issue of corruption and request our people to concentrate first on “Bhrastachar Mitao, Bharat Bachao (remove corruption, save the India)”. This is a very big obstacle in development of our country.
A true taste of democracy…….
I remember one instance when I was working in one of the fifty states of United States of America (USA). There was a function organized in the gymnasium of my daughter’s high school. The gym was packed with teachers, students and their parents/guardians, and there were many people sitting on the floor of the gym due to lack of spaces. I was surprised to find that the governor, the head of the state, and his wife were sitting together on the naked floor, just beside me as general persons, and then I realized the taste of the true democracy in US. The governor’s daughter was one of the participants in the function and his visit was a low profile personal visit in the function. Therefore he didn’t get any better attention than the general public. At the end of the function, the organizers thank the governor for his presence and when he was leaving the place, children rushed to him to get his autograph. We also would like to see India in that position and I am always dreaming for that.
A story of my district man…..
In one of my encounters with a resident of my district Ballia in UP, India, I found that that resident was unhappy because of behaviors of DM of Ballia. This was because DM wasn’t handling his complaint properly. He reported that DM treated him in-humanly and shouted on him because he pointed out the DM’s mistakes and faults. The DM took it heartily since his ego was hurt and didn’t solve the resident’s problem. This should not happen in democratic state. A citizen has right in a democratic state to argue and correct the government official for his/her mistakes. A citizen is eligible to check the accountability of DM and not only MLAs, MPs or DM’s bosses. Rather than inhumanly treating the general public, the DM should correct himself/herself and apologize, if he/she is wrong. My district-man explained beautifully that in a democratic structure, he is one of the bosses of DM, Chief Minister (CM) or even Governor and has right to direct and govern them. I asked him how? He described as DM bends to CM, ministers or politicians because they are DM’s boss. Also, politicians help in appointing the governors. CM, ministers, politicians and public representatives bend to general public for getting the votes. Since he is part of a general public, thus is indirectly the boss of DM. I was stunned by the analogy given by my district man. But does this really work in India or will work in India, is a million rupees question. Do politicians and bureaucrats allow the democracy to work like this in India? This would be an ideal democracy which we would like to see happen one day in India. We listen in political rallies where politicians regarding public as their god and say they are there to serve them, but this could be only a gimmick, or trick and tactic to please the public and rule them. In real life, they don’t think so.
My efforts….
I am trying hard to pursue some reforms in UP for the benefits of the general public and have contacted many leaders of various parties for this purpose. Based on the meetings with some of them, I finally realized that most of them are there for their welfare and not for the state’s welfare. They didn’t have any interest in businesses of UP to change it, but their only interest and aim is to earn the money by any means (hook or crook). Based on the conversation of the head of the various parties, I concluded that they want to implement the policies that will suit for their aim and them to grab the power. The sad thing is that only that kind of people has charisma to pull the crowd and has influence on most of the village public in UP. I have been tired of with my efforts with these leaders. Only few are there who really care but they aren’t so influential. We desperately need crowd puller people who believe in “To Give and Not to Take” and can easily motivate the villagers. Most of the public who can decide the fate of a government live in villages and these leaders grab power because they are able to easily manipulate the villagers. Based on my research, I found that the main issue/concern which stalls the development in UP and elsewhere in India is corruption and we need a motto: “Bhrastachar Mitao, Bharat Bachao” (remove the corruption, save the India).
Thanks & Regards,
Vinaya
Thanks Shantanu for putting in a good analysis. Thanks Geeta for pointing me to this Blog.
Self Intro:
I am struggling to give my time to LP (Balancing act of funds for life and time for country). I have been with LP Bangalore since its inception but feel guilt for not contributing my best.
Few questions:
1. Are these start-up parties having the right intentions (Including LP)?
Why I ask this question:
If we all are having the same dream (a dream of better India), then why run different marathons? Cant we burry our ego’s and work together? Cant we all work together with a common goal and better planning? The current scenario to me looks like our History. The history of our freedom struggle from the Brits…. We had many small groups, all working without any sort of synchronization or relation, independently and chaotically.
2. Do we have the right visionaries guiding these start-up parties ( Including me at LP! And I am one of the Leader @ LP Bangalore)?
Why I ask this question:
I have not see strong personalities emerging out of any of the upcoming parties. At times I get a sense that they (or should be we) don’t know what they (we) stand for…..Its just by accident or by the forces of nature they (we) are where they (we)are!
Few Thoughts:
From your Blog, I don’t agree on one item! Funds …..
I believe there is more than needed money available at the disposal of these parties. There are many folks out there keen to support an initiative like this. Just imagine, if we can bring all the start-up parties together, iron-out a strategy and do a focused attack! Then do you really think there is an issue with money????
Money will be an issue as long as the following are missing from these parties (Even one strong aspect will fill in the void of money)
1. Strong Visionary Leaders
2. Strong Execution Teams
3. Clarity on what the party stands for and courage to speak it out loudly what they believe in.
Ex. Should have the courage to say no to reservation if they don’t believe in reservation or should have the same courage to say Yes to reservation if they believe in it.
4. A Promising Dream
5. A clearly defined strategy
6. A clearly defined financial plan or budget (What you plan to spend. When you plan to spend. How you plan to spend. )
Dear All,
Thank you for your comments, thoughts and suggestions…I am overwhelmed…I sense that a quiet revolution is in the making…where there is a will, there is a way…and there is hope.
I sincerely wish that at least a few of these new parties go on to become a real serious and credible alternative to the rot that we have today. The quality of this discussion and the support that these ideas have convinces me that this is a real possibility…
In fact the discussion has generated so many ideas that I am thinking of collating them together and publishing them in the form of a brief document – something along the lines of “A blueprint for Bharat”. Please keep writing in with your ideas, thoughts and comments. It is through discussion and debate that we will arrive at the best strategy.
On to some specific comments:
Vinaya: I re-read your comments and although some ideas may be utopian, some are possible (although may be very complicated to implement in practical terms – such as getting govt servants, IAS, IPS etc to stand for elections with the option of re-joining the service if they loose)
You also make an important point about having leaders with charisma, vision and the ability to pull in votes – I would lump them together under the broad title of “leadership qualities” – Revolutionman also mentions this point specifically…and really, I cannot agree more with both of you on this…
Revolutionan: Great comment.
You also refer to the problem (or lack) of coordination amongst the different parties…I agree this is a real problem although I am little more charitable and believe that over time this will resolve itself as the parties become more mature and the leadership stabilises itself.
Thank for raising the issue of funds. On one hand, I agree with you that with the right kind of people, policies and leadership, funds will not be a problem…on the other hand, as far as I am aware, none of the parties have raised any significant amounts of money (I would not count anything less than Rs 10 Lakhs as significant) or have created a donor base. It could simply be because they have not made a concerted effort – in which case I stand corrected and funds may not really be an issue after all…
If true, this would be very satisfying and would add even more weight to my belief that change is afoot.
By the way, I like your 6-points related to the issue of funding.
Dear Vinaya Singh
How can I help You? Please let me know. Presently, I am out of India and not in touch of its system. What ever I have in my mind is because of I lived there many years and have experienced the frustration and depression what you have mentioned in your post. And I keep reading news about India all the time. My vision is the same which we all are sharing through this B. Shantanu’s blog. One day I want to come India to fulfill my vision in my small little way. It is frustrating to see people living like an animal at lower strata. Just look around railway station we get a glimpse of whole India and its system. I dont feel like boasting India is developing. I liked your thoughts and vision. Now the million dollar question is -Can corruption be eliminated from the system?
I have an example of Mr. Khairnar, a muncipal commissioner of Mumbai in front of us. He was in a mission to wipe out corruption in his small way, but he was ended up becoming the victim and culprit without any fault of his own. Just he spoke against corruption in the system. He may have thought that corruption is the big issue, once he will start protesting other will also join his hand. He may have thought people are fed up with corruption but it was other way round. Corruption has become the convenient
lively-hood for many, and those who tries to take away this advantages ( you can also say this privilege comes with the job and post) from them they will not like it. Mr. Khairnar was left alone nobody came to him and said we are there with you in fighting this menace of corruption. Even biggy political party who shows we are against corruption played a role and handed him suspension letter.
Everyday we hear Indians social status is progressing, yes, it is progressing it is progressing by the fund provided to Govt. agency to carry out development. Many govt. employees have their private shares in the funds provided them by central govt and to the regional govt. and from their to various department. 50% of the fund is used for welfare of the people and 50% for the welfare of the families of the department’s employees. So we are progressing by not our own hard work salaries but…So really in what way India is progressing we have no account for it.
I think and believe that we need mssion with sound strategies and tactics. After all we are fighting with thick skinned people. A strtegy that we don’t have to play game for long and finish the game before opponent thinks their move. It is not impossible but we need time to catch that nerves of the system.
Thanks Shantanu for providing this space to share our views and ideas on various issues.
Dear Indian,
Again, thanks for your comments and I completely support your views. You can help in this cause many ways. You may spread the word in our fellow Indians to change their mind-set of assuming lok-sevaks as VIP and treat them as equal. These lok-sevaks are public servants and they are there to serve and not to oblige us, and demand respect from them. My research shows that Media also support in making lok-sevaks a VIP and don’t involve in educate the public of their rights. I was surprised to hear from many villagers that DM is their big Hakim (Malik/master) and they are his servants. They can’t do anything against to annoy him and this reminds me the British rule. I have written to Media to educate public and awake the people on many occasions but for them I found always no-news is news. They are mostly busy in boasting few cricketers, politicians and film stars in the news. Their news runs around these VIPs and brilliant and great people like Lalu Yadav, Mulayam Simgh Yadav, Mayavati, Rahul Gandhi etc. The reason behind most of the parties surviving regular divide is that, looks like, those parties have only one person, the head of the respective parties, as greatest and most educated leader. If we get more educated in a party, it may surely be divided into the pieces.
Dear India, you may also contribute creating a welfare society and educating the public. I am doing so via the organization “S. N. Singh Welfare and Education Society”. There are many government institutions that are mainly established to look into corruption cases but they aren’t yet so effective since corruption is there too, but there are ways to control the corruption. Government must make it compulsory to audit the bank accounts and properties of government servants and elected members including their family members every year to check the corruption. If their earnings found more than their sources of incomes, they must not be let go Scot free in any circumstances. We need effective anti-corruption system that every day monitors the day to day activities of government officials and elected representatives. Even the DMs in serious cases are just getting the transfer as punishment, but they should be dismissed from duty immediately, if they are either found involved or unable to check the corruption. The NGO can be involved in controlling the corruption by help of their sting operations based on public complaints, and net the officials red-handed. These operations should take place every day at every level viz. Village, Block, Tehasil and District. Government need to assign budget for these NGOs.
Apart from above, we certainly need help of general public. The readers of this site can spread the words to politicians and well-wishers of India, “Bhrastachar Mitao, Bharat Bachoa”. They should tell the owners of India and influential persons to first work on removal of the corruption and later think of any other policies. It’s my opinion that for the political parties, corruption is not an issue and they have other preferences over it to work. They could have some reason behind it.
Dear Shantanu, A point to debate, “Do lok-sevaks really need Lal Battee (Red light) and Neelee Battee (Blue Light) on their cars in India to serve the general public?” I heard time to time that the government is distributing theses Battees to lok-sevaks to serve better way to public and become a real servant of general public. Isn’t it a status symbol in India? Can you create a blog for discussion on this?
Thanks & Regards,
Vinaya
Hi All
Great comments and issues have been raised!!!
I don’t feel that corruption is the biggest issue of the day! I feel the biggest issue in India is law enforcement and the judiciary!
We need an extremely efficient and agile judiciary system by way of which we can eliminate most if not all the evils of the system including corruption.
Our police force is something to laugh at! and our so called strong judiciary is even more despicable. according to some research with the current system it will take more than 100 years to clear the backlog of all cases. Because the justice is slow, it is used more as a tool by the tormentor to scare the victim because the victim knows if he goes to court it would take away all his time, patience and money!!!
This has increased the cost of honesty. You know why in developed countries people are generally so law abiding? It is because it is very cheap to honest and extremely costly to be dishonest. Over time this fear has transformed itself into a characteristic behavior.
In India it is very cheap to be dishonest and in fact life-threatening to be honest. So who would be honest in such an environment. right from the peon to the dean of an organization are dishonest. Everyone wants to make a cut in the entire flow of money which finally is just a trickle when it reaches the intended people.
So according to me it our police force and judicial system which needs real radical reforms to create an efficient democracy where the people
We have to make dishonesty very expensive and honesty as easy as ABC. Only then we will see a new India.
Sundeep
BPD
Gen. Sec.
State Working Committe
Ph:9890046594
I WISH THIS COMES TRUE:
UP’s white-collar party dreams of clean politics
Reuters
Posted online: Wednesday, April 18, 2007 at 1322 hours IST
Updated: Wednesday, April 18, 2007 at 1324 hours IST
Kanpur, April 18: In Uttar Pradesh, where corruption and caste have long dominated politics, a group of professionals from engineers to doctors are trying to challenge the grip of traditional parties.
The new party, led by a handful of middle-class youth educated in elite colleges, has almost no chance of winning the state election this month where party politics, strongly linked to caste identities and wealthy party machinery, are entrenched.
But the Bharat Punarnirman Dal (India Reconstruction Party – BPD) has given vent to a simmering despair in the middle class over rampant corruption and crime in Indian politics and frustration at problems not being solved.
READ full news at http://www.expressindia.com
Dear All,
Sundeep, good comments. Please see my research paper at http://vinay1340.wordpress.com/, which covers most of the points which should be considered to change an Indian state in a real democratic state. You are right at some extent that one of the issues in India could be law enforcement and the judiciary but it could not be corrected until you have a solid system to check the corruption. If you see above, ‘Indian’ quoted a paper where it shows that the corruption is main hindrance in development of India and an evil which could be the main issue to tackle first. This is because you can’t ensure a law enforcement agency to work properly without having a fear of punishment for taking a bribe. The police department is basic law enforcement agency in India and you know that how corrupt that department is. I read a new in a news paper that a person went to local police department to register an FIR for a murder of his brother. I came t o know that the murderer was so rich and powerful that he made the case opposite with the help of police officers. Now the FIR is reverted and the victim and he will be in jail any time. The police officers have fabricated the false case such that it’s difficult for the victim to prove the murderer a murderer. He is trying to get a bail from local court but judge is also being paid a heavy bribe and judge rejected the bail. Now let us see what happens at high court, as victim is trying there for the bail.
So now let us talk about what is the cause of this story. If there would have been an effective system to check the corruption, the police officers would have not dared to take the bribe. My question is how we can make law enforcement agency and judiciary effective if it can be broken by corruption. Corruption is making a person above the law and order in India. If corruption is there, law breakers will be there and therefore we can’t dream for clean and honest law enforcement agency and judiciary. Because of corruption, the law and order has become the kept (in Hindi Randi) of powerful, influential and rich persons.
My proposals are based on real experiences and ground scenarios and I still on agreement on that the corruption could be a point of revolution. All political parties should consider first the “Bhrastachar Mitao, Bharat Bachoa” and the other issues later.
Thanks & Regards,
Vinaya
Yes, Vinaya singh
——–You can help in this cause many ways. You may spread the word in our fellow Indians to change their mind-set of assuming lok-sevaks as VIP and treat them as equal.—
I have this points in my agenda, sure I will stir the mind of people whenever I get a chance.
——–I have written to Media to educate public and awake the people on many occasions but for them I found always no-news is news. —-
This shows dont depend on media. Attitude should be -Let them come to us.
I have planned to establish NGO. I agree with your comment on educating general public about their rights and responsibilities and questioning authorities where public interests are involved.
Catch official red-handed for taking bribes, you have also mention this in your posts is the only effective solution when all things have gone ineffective.
I still wonder, how come auditing of bank balance and properties have not been able to bring out anything so far in case of existing many corrupted officials.
To Sundeep
Very well said, I agree. Ethics and moral has its part to play in daily life.
Vinaya, Sundeep and Indian: Thanks for your comments and active participation in this debate.
Vinaya: Good ideas but some of them are not practical. I also feel that you are somewhat confusing cause and effect here.
For example, when you say: “My question is how we can make law enforcement agency and judiciary effective if it can be broken by corruption. Corruption is making a person above the law and order in India.”
Is there a law and order breakdown because of corruption or is there corruption because of law and order breakdown?
This is something to ponder and my instinct is to side with Sundeep on this issue and focus on making it hard AND painful to be corrupt…How do you do that? 1] By ensuring that there is a credible risk of being caught and convicted and 2] by making it far more attractive to be not corrupt (this borrows from economics and I think it is worth almost a separate post in itself).
What do you think?
Secondly, corruption is not unique to India – it is widespread even in the developed world although it does not really impinge on the day to day lives of most people (and usually does not come in the way of enforcement of law).
Hopefully I have triggered some more thoughts…I am a little rushed for time just now but am eagerly looking forward to comments.
P.S. Have a look at this article that I wrote almost 18 months ago: http://www.ivarta.com/columns/OL_051119.htm
P.P.S.
Indian: thanks for the article link.
Vinaya: I did have a look at your paper. thanks.
Dear Shantanu,
I am sorry if there was any confusion but I would like to make it clear that there is a law and order breakdown because of corruption and corruption is not there because of law and order breakdown. Mostly people are breaking law and order because they allured to money and become corrupt. Assume if people are afraid of loosing their job, if caught practicing corruption. What they will do? Definitely they will avoid breaking the law and try to punish the culprit. Now, think another way, if there is breaking in law and order, what will happen? A person can kill other person or one may give money to other to break the law, right? So, in this logic what is happening finally is breaking law and order may create more criminals, both general and corrupt. But guess what, why one will allow breaking law and order, because being corrupt. If a law enforcement agent is not corrupt, he may never allow anyone to break a law, and in case a law is broken, it could be a slippage or by mistake. For example, if police officer is not nabbing a murderer because he would have taken the bribe. Thus corruption is breaking the law. Otherwise if the officer is just breaking law without taking any bribe, then murderer is getting benefited without paying anything for that, but it will not create the corruption. Thus we first need to devise a mechanism to catch the corrupt and punish them and reward the honesty, and that is what you have well said …
“This is something to ponder and my instinct is to side with Sundeep on this issue and focus on making it hard AND painful to be corrupt…How do you do that? 1] By ensuring that there is a credible risk of being caught and convicted and 2] by making it far more attractive to be not corrupt (this borrows from economics and I think it is worth almost a separate post in itself).”
Thus, finally we land into issue of checking the corruption first, this will automatically cover the issues of law enforcement, judiciary and development. Our first aim should be to ““Bhrastachar Mitao, Bharat Bachoa”. I talked to one of US friend of mine on corruption and he said me that if a police officer is found indulged in corruption, he will loose his/her job without any mercy shown to him and with that he will also loose all the government benefits too. Guess what, if he is being sued, he might land into begging since he could be ordered to pay the penalties and losses due to corruption to plaintiff from his savings. He would become bankrupt. Now you can imagine why a police officer in US can’t dare to break the law by taking bribe.
Thanks & Regards,
Vinaya
Vinaya,
Please do read the article (link above) that I mention in my last comment.
Secondly, my feeling is that single-point agendas are a good beginning but are not enough to sustain momentum in the long term.
Third, a debate about what is a bigger problem is not really constructiive – I am sure you agree.
Let us instead focus our energies on what little we can do around us to change things.
There is a powerful tool now available to the public in India – RTI – you may consider using it (along with the always available PIL).
Finally, corruption in politics and government service is to a large extent linked to the criminalization of politics…It is difficult – almost impossible – to look at corruption alone as a problem – it is inextricably linked to the other issues/ problems in our polity and governance.
Lastly, I admire your obvious passion for Bharat and hope that we (all of us) can work together to make us a great and proud nation…It is more important than ever to stand together – whatever our differences may be…
With that, I would like to call time-out on this aspect of the discussion…there are several other critical issues on which I would love some inputs and thoughts – e.g. social inclusiveness, reservations, affirmative action and foreign policy.
What do you think?
Jai Hind, Jai Bharat.
I agree with shantanu.
Let me just start with the topic of reservations. Reservations are a means to an end and not an end in itself. The aim of reservations is to eventually have no reservations. Reservations are a means to uplift the dalits who were exploited by the upper castes for centuries. This sense of “living for the sake of living” takes a long time to go away…more than couple of generations. Case in point: we are just getting over our colonial hangover and coming into our own.
Coming back to the point, reservations should be chalked out with a plan to eliminate them and there should be parallel programs to strengthen the self-confidence among the downtrodden. reservation is just ONE of the tools. It cannot be effective in isolation. This point I think has been recommended by some govt. appointed committe (I am not sure which one).
In conclusion, there has to be a clear defnitie plan for the future and the expected results and the policy has to assessed and revised every year as per the observed upliftment of the intended class of people.
Sundeep
BPD
Dear All
Shantanu I agree what you siad. But there are some states in India, take an example of UP, corruption and arrogancy are two biggest problem and those who belongs to that state they will just think to get rid of this first. That is what in the case of Vinaya. He takes corruption as a very serious problem.
I suggest Vinaya; that corruption is not as big issues as what you think in other states of India. Take an example of Gujarat. We hardly come across all this issues in our daily life in Gujarat. Yes I can definitely say that UP is in th cluthces of this menace but for that you need statewide protest not a nationwide. Narrowing the area can also help you to gather more energy and gain more momentum. Take a case of Gujarat, Gujaratis hardly worried about whole India, they just do changes they want to bring in a state. Other state will join them or admire it later. So take it statewide protest. But you need very strong strategy. Careful. It requires lot of deep thoughts.
Take care
I read yesterday, a BJP MP from Gujrat has taken 35 lacs ruppees to for trafficing a woman to Canada. I can still say that corruption is biggest problem in India.
What ever I proposed in my research paper at http://vinay1340.wordpress.com/ , here or any other sites are neither impractical nor utopian. Everything is practical and can be easily implemented. Do you want to say that our country will remain practicing faulted democracy for ever? I think no. One day our country will certainly practice the real democracy and that day you will see whatever I proposed have become the real. I have hope. Don’t we know that the governor and chief minister say that they are the servant of public, they say every day but they don’t implement in real life. But it’s not impossible? They will start implementing in real life too, if we could educate the public. There are many who know their rights but still there are many who have not understood the meaning of democracy and we have to reach on them. In my opinion, almost every crime is somehow associated with money or in other words with corruption. Thus we may conclude that the mother of every crime is corruption. If we can make law like TADA, why can’t we make law like that to control the corruption? If government servants will have fear of called terrorists for practicing the corruption and may face rigorous punishment, they may certainly think twice before practicing it. And I would like to say here that doing this is not impractical but we need a will. We have to gather momentum from our public against the corruption and we need to prove them that until you remove corruption, nothing will work properly. The law & order, judiciary and development are basic needs of a state but they all have a tight link with corruption. If we are successful in removing the corruption, you can see the difference. The call of time is now we should all need to work on one and only one motto, ““Bhrastachar Mitao, Bharat Bachoa””. I am sure, we can make a change. If we look on current scenariosin India, the corruption could be a point of revolution and a leader crusading against this can get a stature of Jai Prakash Narayan.
Thanks & Regards,
Vinaya
(This is my last input on this. Thanks Shantanu for the space)
Hi shantanu,
That is an excellent article.your suggestions for the new parties are very good. I had been involved with BM some time ago(not now). And i can vouch for the fact that they have tremendous energy and enthusiasm but very little planning, strategy and foresight. Hope that will change soon and they become a force to reckon with.
rgds,
madhu
Sundeep: Good points…I hope to post something on this topic in a day or two…a kind of “strawman proposal” to which people can react and respond…Hopefully we will get some good ideas out of such a debate.
Madhu: Thanks for your comment and encouragement. Please do circulate this widely…we need more and more people (especially the youth) to start thinking about this matter. Feel free to use this link:
http://hindudharma.wordpress.com/2007/04/13/bpd-bm-lp-light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel/
Corruption is an interesting topic.
I believe, as country, we have excellent set of rules defined to make us corrupt! I strongly believe, many Indians (Including all the current politicians, IAS Officers, Police officers, Tax men…etc) are NOT BORN CORRUPT or EVIL! But they are seasoned to become one.
The entire system of Indian Society today(British Gifted System) is a slow decaying self destructing system with zero or no corrective mechanisms.
To give an example, a politician gets paid X Lakh Rupees as fixed salary during his tenure and there are huge cries on the amounts of money spent on the politicians. We have few of our friends in the above blog commenting it as a criminal waste ;-).
But practically thinking, its impossible for a politician to survive after his term is over if he has to live only on his savings based on his political career…. He cannot even survive a month in a city like Bangalore…There is no way he can get good education or facilities for his family….Because there is no salary after his term, he has to look for a new job or wait for 5 years to win elections….
In case of a politician who has not won an election, there is nothing in hand!! He has to live on donations or ????
In a nut shell, its not practical for a politician to survive only on his salary during his term…..He has to have second or third source of income …..
Same is true with every other actor (IAS , IPS, Police, RTO, Revenue Dept, Etc. etc) of the current day system we live in….
A radical change has to be forced in to tackle the problem of corruption…..
Revolutionman: You have hit the nail on the head.
Politics in its present form is simply not a “viable” career option for honest people – however talented and capable they may be – which is why reform of campaign finance is something that we need to think a lot about.
Dear Sir,
It was a mind opener for me to see the long list of papers on the discussion board. I really call them papers as they appear to be from people who have taken pains to understand the objective of the discussion and not rambling.
Kudos to all the participants. In this light I thought i could also thrown in my thoughts for what ever they are worth.
The summary of the whole study of these papers appear to corruption and money power and also political power with the suggested nexus of the administration.
It may not be very far to look at it objectively when we look at the concept of corruption Corruption is not something that is taught to us but we develop it.
For example something very small like a red light cutting , or a driving down a one way street. Why should we do it, why not wait for the next signal or take the correct turning? If we analyse it, we understnd that the whole thing is our own cause. We have brought it upon ourselves.
If we follow some rules the lower level corruption will be slowly but surely eliminated.
Again let us look at the corruption at the business levels. Why are we having to bribe “X” or “Y”. Is it to satisfy his ego or has it been taught in our scriptures? No, it is because we want the easier way out.
We cut corners at every level. Let us take the idea of a flat development. We get a sanction for a certain area, then we violate it and then we go around looking for some sort of solutions and we end up with the cancer called corruption.
We bring everything upon ourselves and then we try to set it right and point fingers at everybody else.
Let us all who have contributed to this thoughtful idea of yours take the first step and promise ourselves to certain acts like:
1. We will not cut the red light.
2. We will not go the wrong way.
3. We will not buy plagarised goods. (Software/DVD’s).
4. We will not buy or let our children buy tickets for any show in the black.
5. We will not buy flats that violate the requiste norms.
(The argument may be given that our laws do not permit what we require and hence we violate the it). To avoid the firsst step of corruption we shall follow the rules and then take steps to correct the flaws.
May be I am being to critical and very utopian in my idea. I am with those who are acting and let us work together for a better India.
Regards,
v.c.krishnan
VC: Thank you for sharing your thoughts.
I hope you have the chance to read my latest post – which is a summary of an essay by Sanjeev Sabhlok on what is wrong with the present system and how can one fix it.
https://satyameva-jayate.org/2007/09/14/fixing-the-system/
Do have a look and circulate widely.
Jai Hind, Jai Bharat.
Dear Sir,
I shall read it and will get back to you.
vck
I am from Indore and long time in Bharat Uday Mission
We were waiting to launch a political flag only because of fear of ” priority 1″. . . but as we see that we can onle wait and wait. . . .it is better to start. . .
I will try my level best to convey your message to president of BM. . . . In the mean time if you find a way of Priority 1. . . do let us know
Glad to hear your voice. . ..
Jai Hind
Dear Mr. Shukla,
I have not come in touch with your mission. I would like to know more about it.
Regards,
vck
***
Dear Shantanu,
My apologies on this matter. I had assured you of reading it and reverting back to you even as early as 2007. It slipped my mind.
I have just gone thru the information and I beg to disagree with Sanjeev on a very fundamental matter and that is shouldering responsibility.
We are passing the buck giving excuses. The buck stops at your level.
I would like to amplify by stating that nothing can be thrown out unless it is ‘available’. Unless you have eaten something bad for your health you cannot ‘Throw it out”
Unless you are ill, you cannot ‘throw out’ something good for you.
How can we throw up something that is non existent by passing the buck.
We have not trained our ‘Children’ to be model citizens.
We have taught them to admire tinsel stars and journalistic claptrap rather than value.
We have made them admire the ‘money’ and not the way.
We have taught them to admire ;P.hd’s’, not teachers.
We have taught them to admire ‘the acted part’ rather the true actor who performs. We have taught them to admire the ‘stars’ who sit back and have a cup of cold juice, rather than the “Stuntman” who does everything.
We have not taught them that “Any number of SHADOWS, will not make SUBSTANCE!!”
Let us make citizens of our children and make them true to their spirit, then automatically, we will have a set of superior citiizens concious of their duties and a better “BHARAT”.
No offence meant to anybody.
Regards,
vck
Recently heard about this –
http://www.changeindia.info/
This is RK Misras (Winner of Lead India) website.
@ Mayank: I will wait to hear from you but I assume that by priority #1, you meant “Learn to effectively manage your communications and be responsive”?
If that is correct, I may have some ideas; one of them being: “Start a Blog”…a blog is dynamic (unlike a static web page), allows interactivity (without necessarily having to go through the hassle of email), is searchable and can be indexed…It has several other advantages beyond this but the point is, it is almost always better than a website if you wish to communicate something.
Clearly it needs to be maintained and that can take up some resource (essentially time) although financial costs are negligible to nil.
I have thought a lot about this issue and I will be happy to talk to you and your team members about this via a Skype call if you think it makes sense…
My only caveat is that I am very tied up at work these days and so this may have to wait for a couple of months….If that is OK, send me an email or leave a comment here…
By the way, this “offer” of assistance with a communication strategy is open to others too (I mean other political formations that we have discussed here)
***
@ Geeta: Thanks for the link.
***
@ vck: Thanks for sharing your thoughts
***
All: I am very pleased that this post has continued to attract comments almost a year after it was written…
I am in the middle of some serious thinking that I hope to get down into words which will essentially be a follow-up to this post and the “Freedom Team” post by Sanjeev…
I feel that we are hitting a stone wall here and we need to do/think differently if we are to get over the “hurdle” of getting 1500 “leaders”… But I know it is the easiest thing in the world to pick holes in an argument.
So I will refrain from commenting on this until I have the time to write my thoughts down…At the very least, I can guarantee you all a fairly controversial idea/proposal – whether it is practical or not will be for you to decide.
Until then, thanks for sharing your thoughts on this topic.
Dear Ms. Geetha,
Thanks for the link. It was great that where there is a will there is a way.
I think I will get in touch with him immediately for some personal insights.
Regards,
vck
Dear All
The key is a new political culture. Loksatta movement started in 1996 by Dr Jayaprakash (who resigned from IAS) launched countrywide campaign for political reforms (voteindia.org) After 10 years of advocating reforms, it has launched Loksatta party (http://www.loksatta.org), realising that for speedy reforms it is imperative to get in a position to implement them yourself.
Now strategies are fine. But the change all of us what cannot come about unless we DO DOMETHING about it. What can you do for the country?
– Give time (part/full/ a few hours a week)
– Give Money
Contact at sovani@yahoo.com if you think you can contribute in any way. There is lot to be done and we all need to share the tasks.
regards
Dnyanesh Sovani
lok paritran gang exposed along with its boss tanmay and candrasekar.
they even tried to kill nagana ( ex-president of karnataka lokparitran) when he wanted to expose them.
they were demanding 6 lacs from each candidate in karanataka..
shame on them.
exit of ajit shukla exposed them.
this is last nail in their coffin
All readers/ commentors,
If you guys are aware of the current situation (July-2008 ) of these parties.. pls lpost the same.
1) Their statistics, progress, victories, defeats, expansion, members etc…
other point that can be considered.. since this is a free forum.. comments can / cannot be true…. wherever possible pls support ur comments with possible evidence(like photos, newspaper statement screen shots etc).. so that ppl can rely on the information…
what I also think is that first these parties have to do some kind of social work, non-political work, build forums etc, for 3-4 years while studying/observing politics around them…then jump into that… members might individually had that experience.. but as a party/ organisation (with say 50,000 members or till they reach a considerable mass) they have to work without getting into politics….then they probably have better chances…..
hi
it is a very g8 attempt taken by the youth of nation to realise the real actualisation point.being professionals it is a wonder that our nation’s youth have taken an initiative to reconstruct INDIA,which in my opinion is need of the hour.
for your information i am allready enrolled in the membership of this party.i wanted to work 4 d organisation.it wuld b my pleasure if u culd suggest me some work.
swapnil bharat
Dear Shantanu,
I read your almost two year old article on BPD and BM. I dont know whom you had contacted from BPD.As BPD is less active on net and trying to be more active on ground. It’s tough to contact BPD’s president during election time and what I remember May 2007 was election time in UP.
You have written good article and if you want more information on BPD you can write to me or contact me also.
Thanks
Gautam Kumar Pandey
Namaste everybody
Bharat Uday Mission is now a registered political party.
We are committed to Nation Building through socio political movement.
We have now taken a step towards fulfilling our duty. Now we have a far greater
role to play. A challenge of rebuilding the nation.
This registration comes at a time when general election is on the door step-as
if it is a call from The Nation.
Stand up to the expectations.
Come forward.
Letus field candidates for the upcoming general elections.
Enroll yourself: As a candidate. As a supporter. As a volunteer for canvassing.
Let us open an account with the electorate.
Let us start our march for the next freedom struggle.
We have only one passion: the rise of a great nation.
Jay Bharat.
Akalpita
namaskar, jab tak bharat me ak bhi aadmi jo ham jaise logo ki tarah sochega tab tak koi baal baanka nahi kar sakta hai, aakhir aaj iitian ya dr.ya vo log jo jayda edu, aaye na to bpd bana bas ham bhi apne sahar varanasi me jo kar sate hai kar rahe hai. mai bpd se judna chahta hoo,
yadi mile ham, aap, aur vo jo alag alag jagho per kaam ker rahe to ak takat banege phir kaun rokega isko.
maneesh tiwari bharat
varanasi up
09335471770
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