“Clean Politics” in India – Guest Post by Dipinder Sekhon

Can understand the need for a clean party, but the biggest mistake Indians are making is, in not recognising the urgent need for a pan India national level party that has political experience. We are living in a globalised environment and the world isn’t going to stop and wait for any of these clean parties to catch up on national level and become a pan India phenomenon. Vested interest will invariably seep in after a key person from these parties lay to rest their responsibility. This is an era of opportunism beginning from local level all the up to global level. For me this just seems the historical syndrome of a fragmented nation with all the more fragmentation based on who is right and his definition of right (transparency included), while the vested interest across board (beginning from religious ideology) are consolidating pan India. And this fact has to be drilled into every Indians mind. We are a failed nation with the “socialistic, secular republic” clause. No need to elaborate on that, for if ever we had been a truly a Hindu nation (going by Nehru’s mockery by using the term the Hindu rate of growth) we would’ve by now have been sitting on the G-5 table and would’ve been recognised a developed nation, not a 3rd world (more politely an emerging economy). Let Hindus not be squeamish about religious identity just to showcase ourselves as “seculars”, “liberals”, “minority appeasers” et al. Whom are we trying to appease? Question is what is paramount? A strong unified nation that is considered a global power or just a have run country as the west looks at India, thanks to years of fragmentation as is evident by the numerous parties with their own agenda and ideology cropping up. It’s really funny how political correctness and diplomacy is been used as excuse to run away from facing facts, beginning from creation of India & Pakistan (a muslim dominated country and with enough ethnic cleansing happening to this day). Sorry to be repeating historical facts, but that’s the truth. As the saying goes more we try to run away from truth, more it will keep chasing us till we face it. And we have been trying to run away from this very uncomfortable truth for the last 65 years. No point in just saying “Unity in diversity”.

Thanks Munish. I know about Lok Paritran, and yes they had a sad ending. However, several people from Lok Paritran actually are continuing – they formed new groups or joined other clean politics initiatives!

There is a churn, and with every iteration/restructuring/consolidation, I think the clean politics movement is becoming stronger.

The case study of Swatantra Party is also interesting. It was the first major opposition party in India, and won 44 seats in Parliament at one time. Unfortunately, it fizzled out after Rajaji’s death.

@K P Ganesh: The hope is that the clean politics initiatives will also consolidate.

Separately, a strong unified nation (means) is important only to the extent its people are free, prosperous and happy (end). A strong unified secular liberal nation (India) may be better than several liberal secular nations (sub-divisions of India), which may be better than a unified unsecular illiberal nation?

@Dipinder

I have strong reservation against IAC’s Shoot and Scoot,Hit and Run actions.
Before this,people saw beacon of light in the judgments of Rama Setu,2G 122 licenses cancellation.Now people are happy to see politicians exposed in media but IAC wont file PIL and take them to conclusion,which made people think that justice wont be served.Now even media isn’t discussing 2G,CWG,CoalGate,Thorium Scam and we all know paid media wont do that.

Mr.Prashant Bhushan and IAC has to come open on what are his and their views on J&K.Should J&K be with India or independent or give it to Pakistan in a silver platter.Mr.Prashant Bhushan already expressed his controversial views on J&K.If they come to power how come IAC convince Mr.Bhushan to not to part away with J&K.

In political and anti Main Stream Media circle there is talk,If Sharad Pawar gives a clean chit to a politician then that person is definitely corrupt.And if NDTV does a special programme praising a politician(Arvind Kejriwal) then he is definitely a Congress stooge.As I said its a talk in the circle.

Another point, WINNING ONE OR FEW SEATS IS NOT SUFFICIENT, as one individual in opposition can only do so much.

Chhavi has been finding it very difficult to work with the lower bureaucracy on developmental issues – even with support from higher bureaucracy, local people and others!

Nisha has been trying to creatively influence things towards progressive development, but finds limitations being alone (in a 35 or so member MCG).

Mr Adolf D’Souza lost in the municipal elections Mumbai 2012, when he tried for the second time. I do not have but complete facts, but I think he had to contest from an adjoining ward as him ward got reserved for women or something like that?

Loksatta could not win even 1 of the 7 municipal ward elections which come under Dr J P’s state assembly constituency – this after Dr J P had won, and was the sitting MLA. It will be interesting to understand the kind of impact Dr J P has managed to make as an MLA, and problems he/Loksatta are facing in Andhra Pradesh/Kukatpally.

This is an ongoing debate … which of the following routes to take:
1. Incrementally increase presence, vote share, wins (Loksatta approach)
2. Prepare for comprehensive nation wide effort, and do it big when you do it (FTI). Aim for majority in the Parliment, and have a clean plan to achieve that.
3. Join an established setup (Congress/BJP..), and clean it up from inside

Difficult to ‘prove’ which is optimal. People are fair to go by their gut feel and circumstances. Perhaps it is best to take multi-pronged approach – some people trying all 3 routes … this is a complex problem and we cant say for sure which of the above routes (or combination/s) are optimal.

@Prakash ji:
But it is also clear that it is very difficult to bring reforms within the current political establishments. Suppose I join BJP today and get elected as MP on its ticket and then strive to work within the party for cleaner governance, well they may not be inclined for that. Even if 10 MPs get elected with the same intent that I just expressed, it is very unlikely to bring a significant change. Please note that I am not discounting good work at individual level.
Similarly, who will bring a change in the Institutions that you mention when the level of politics has stooped so low! Lawmakers (MPs) have the power to do it, howsoever strong CSOs may be (Anna Hazare movement is a case in point), they can only pressurize. Has such a popular movement like Anna’s- which in fact had a pan- India appeal and support- made the MPs to change the heart?

@Prakash: You seem to have great expectations from the current political leaders.Let me go to your arguments:
You say: “For that, it is essential to ensure that people who head important institutions like election commission, state governors, president, must be impartial, and preferably, not affiliated to any political party.”
My take: You are expecting too much from the current politicians at the helm of affairs! Simply because, they probably never joined/came to such positions with a spirit of serving the nation as you are displaying or expecting from them.
I mean is there a dearth of highly intellectual, well-educated, polished leaders and MPs in the current landscape? No. Do not ask me what they have delivered so far, but if you look at their resumes, ManMohan Singh, P Chidamabram, Kapil Sibal, Sindhia, Sachin Pilot, Naveen Jindal- all these have shining resumes. And of course, there are many more in ruling as well as opposition parties.
You say: “Each political party should be encouraged to have democratic constitution; each political party should preferably nominate people to speak on important topics.”
My take: What is preventing the political parties to do so? Why are they not doing so? And can you and I compel them to do so? Well, you have already written off CSOs like Anna, so no point in debating this point.
It is one thing to talk theoretical. It is another thing to talk pragmatism.

@Sunita Banerji:

Freedom Team of India (www.FreedomTeam.in) is one such political effort that you may want to introduce to the youngsters who reach out to you for political participation.

@Sunita Banerji: thank you for your comment.

I will request that you re-direct the youngsters who approach you to this page. They could connect with the ‘clean candidates’ via web/social media – I have provided links above. Some of them may also have provided phone numbers publicly on their homepages.

A ‘Clean Politics 101’ primer (including best practices from the successful wins), is part of the plan – followup to this post.

I liked this post. It is a very good initiative to openly acknowledge the good politicians who can win. Others good would-be politicains cane take hints from them. Two imporatant issues these good politicians should include in their “manifestos” are:
a) Far reachng electoral reforms
b) Methods to reduce election expenses and to mobilise election funding by smaller (good) parties and good politicians.
Please take time to see my following blogs on both these issues.
http://lvnaga.wordpress.com/2008/08/01/indian-democracy/
http://lvnaga.wordpress.com/2009/02/19/a-candidate’s-…dian-elections/

@L V Nagarajan: Thank you for your comment and sharing the blog posts – very useful. The second link is not working. I am hoping you meant:

http://lvnaga.wordpress.com/2009/02/19/a-candidate%E2%80%99s-budget-for-indian-elections/

http://lvnaga.wordpress.com/2009/11/22/candidate%E2%80%99s-manifesto/

It seems no amount of normal discussion or plain provocation will get people into thinking about what ‘clean’ would mean. Let me see if breaking the problem down into smaller pieces will help.

1. What defines a ‘clean’ party or a politician?
2. How long should one be in active politics for a fair evaluation of ‘clean’liness?
3. What would be the minimal political/social achievements that would qualify a person or a party for consideration as a ‘clean’ entity? (If a party or a person never attempts or achieves anything, it/he could afford to be ‘clean’, but would be of no practical value).

For further help with this tricky issue, let us consider the example of Nitin Gadkari who is under scanner for corruption. Here is a gentleman who got dozens of flyover built in a span of about 5 or so years allowing the average road speed increase to dramatically on certain stretches thereby generating considerable economic benefits to the wider society. I have no association with him or his party but if I were to evaluate Nitin Gadkari as a politician, I would be inclined to rate his achievement at a value of 90-95 on a scale of 0-100, and his ‘clean’liness at a similar 80-85 level on a 0-100 scale.

One could try to rate other politicians/parties in similar manner. Lokparitran, for example, would be 0-5 on scale of achievements and 0-10 on scale of ‘clean’liness judging by what I read on their website when Shantanu had written about them last time.

Yes Shantanu, your first statement “I totally disagree with the idea that “honest leadership” can do anything in India” is a good beginning. I would have liked to replace the word India with the phrase ‘a sufficiently large society’. I have mentioned it in my first comment on this article that I don’t quite like the statement ‘India is corrupt’ or ‘Indian(politicians)s are corrupt’. That, I believe, is an anti-national stance. Not because there is no corruption in India, but because there is enough corruption outside to render a finger-pointing towards India meaningless.

Here is something coming from an experienced and competent person.

Shailesh Gandhi, a successful businessman and (now) the Central Information Commissioner for RTI believes ‘he has developed (after studying this issue from close quarters) certain insights which show that there are design problems in our governance structure which need to be addressed.
He also believes that our corruption is a stinking by product of our poor governance. He has the arrogance to believe that there are some solutions which he can suggest, and many others which we can develop if we recognise our basic problems.

At long last, we seem to have a collection of views that are based on a better understanding of the dynamics of the society. Thus far, most any opinion was a mere value judgement.

Interesting. Chhavi has also been facing problems from lower bureaucracy.

Clean politics winning a substantial majority is important. And policy alignment among these winners is also important.

Well, with AAP win in Delhi, the list above has grown tremendously … and should grow exponentially now 🙂 We have a CM now on the list!!