Another reason we are not even able to find 100 people is the bad reputation of politics, people are ready to support but not ready to join.

Above two obstacles apart, I agree that people need to change their thinking. They have accepted the current situation and have learnt to live in the system. Change is going to be to make people realize that they need to challenge status quo and make political parties more accountable. People need to realize that casting vote for short term gains is a very bad idea and is not just jeopardizing their future but future generations as well.

Bringing this change in people’s thinking and then using that power to change political class is definitely going to take time and might take years. I hope, with the change in thinking a new batch of politicians will come at center stage, either in current political parties or through new ones.

This process is likely to take years if not decades…A large part of my “making people aware” is making them aware about precisely this point – that it will need sustained effort over many many years before they begin to see evidence of any movement…

Unfortunately, most peoiple get disillusioned rather quickly…

For instance, at the Mumbai memorial event that we had in December, a lot of people expressed interest in participating in some kind of a political movement. When I said that our first meeting will be on Jan 23rd, quite a few felt that “it would be too late”.

I say to such people, if we need only 6 years to fix the mess of the last 60, we will be lucky!

As for alternatives at the national level, I am beginning to think that this change will need to be precipitated from inside (the national parties) and externally (by lobbying and public pressure).

Newer political formations (alone) will not be enough…and alternative political party is a distant dream when we do not have even 100 people willing/able to get into politics full time….

Yes, not being financially independent is one reason…but I know at least a dozen individuals who are substantially better off than me (and some considerably better off) but would never even think of joining active politics…

On the other hand, there are people I know who are already in full-time politics but struggling to make ends meet – or reconciled to a very modest life-style…

So being financially independent helps…but will probably not be enough.

Thoughts?

I agree that people need to be aware that change needs to happen but at the same time I feel that in India we are at a point where people have been looking for a change for a while and are at a stage where they are giving up when they see nothing coming up. Although, recent security lapses and terrorist acts have brought the need for change to forefront again.

When you talk about kind of change needed “(e.g. clean, committed leadership, transparent political processes and a government that actually “listens” to its citizens)”, I think, people want that today but there is no alternative. We don’t have a single national level political party which qualifies above criteria( LokSatta in AP is a good beginning )

I think need of the hour is to actually provide an alternative political party. This brings us back to the question of finding educated non-corrupt people who are ready to enter into politics. Most of these people have personal and financial obligations to fulfill.

How do these people become financially independent to take the plunge ? How do these people become comfortable to be part of political activities, as we are so used to look down upon politicians ?

Anupam

Quick one: “To develop a platform/forum (most likely online) which can serve as a knowledge/resource base on a wide range of policy issues. Might this evolve into a Think Tank? I do not know. Also it may already exist in some shape/form”

I’m trying to revive my 1998 effort – India Policy Institute which is intended to be exactly this – a forum to create resources and policies.

Current website: http://www.indiapolicy.sabhlokcity.com/
I’ll soon get it pointed back to http://www.indiapolicy.org with which it started. I’m also trying to revive the associated Yahoo group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/IndiaPolicy/

The problem I’m suffering from is shortage of time. I’d appreciate if you want to lead the revival of this effort. That means also re-doing the website suitably.

IPI has a huge internet presence and has a ‘brand name’ of sorts because it is the one of the oldest internet institutes of India by now. So advancing this and making it into a professional body which publishes regular magazines/journals will be useful rather than creating a new institute.

Ajay Gandhi, its settlor, is also a member of FTI. So it can provide a liberal perspective. We can discuss offline if you are interested.

Regards
Sanjeev