Tag: Jay Panda

Why Arvind Kejriwal will transform Politics in India?

India has now reached the inflection point in which the post liberalization generation who have not experienced the License Raj economic climate of the days of ‘Hindu Growth Rate’ demanding a scale up. Economic Reforms 2.0 have taken a back seat of sorts as the Congress led coalition focuses on delivering Welfare measures as it concentrates on Main Street than Mint Street. A ‘chowraha’ or a four point crossing-intersection, emblematic of a town centre like Sangli or Anantapur is an image that conjures up in my head. The electoral politics of the Congress dictates a pro poor orientation (which the writer full heartedly endorses as welfare is an enabler for the poor) and the urban voter base is not the target audience which it normally courts. Although the Congress dispensation, has been ruling urban Delhi over the last 15 years.  It is quite ironical but Sheila Auntyji has been doing a good job with Infrastructure in spite of the CWG Scam and poor security for the better gender.

Discontentment with the current government has reached a tether. The economy is tanking although ‘Governator’ Rajan has started off with a bang. The encouraging development in this state of political churning is the role which the educated middle class is playing in shaping the political discourse in a small but critical fashion.  The National Advisory Council is the best illustration of an Educated Citizen Elite contributing to construct policies.  While Aruna Roy and Harsh Mandar spearheaded the Right to work Program Bill, Jean Dreaze and Prof Amartya Sen extended intellectual legitimacy to the Right to Food Act.  Welfare Legislations help in transforming voters into citizens as democracy is not only about voting but about governance.

 The idea of the Citizen Elite was sparked while reading the famed Indian Sociologist Dipankar Gupta’s new book “Revolution from Above: India’s Future and the Citizen Elite”. A breakthrough read, Prof Gupta enunciates the concept of the Elite of Calling’s role in creating transformational change like bring universal healthcare and suffrage in 19th Century Victorian England. Closer home, Sati practice abolition was an act of the educated elite who thought of the greater good of the ‘public’.  Remember Raja Ram Mohun Roy and the Bramha Samaj Reformation Movement?

The educated intelligentsia usually confined to the civil service and the academia has found a voice in think tanks and the electronic media. Legions of bloggers-online writers such as me write on topical issues to generate a conversation in communities we reside in rising above discussing mundane ‘Big Boss’ and ‘Grand Masti’. It is the Citizen Elite who has the bright and the right set of ideas for masses even if they might not be popular at the moment. The masses do not have the time or the resources to agitate. Even if they do, it fizzles off as the ruling class throttles the oxygen for the masses to survive.  It is easy to harass the activist bunch in India by accusing him of tax evasion and something more heinous that even.

The Jan Lok Pal Agitation is an ideal case study to illustrate the soft and symbolic power of the Caravan reading Indian cultural elite. Aided by the 24×7 beast called as the electronic and social media to fuel the rage, Anna Hazare had his Nelson Mandela moment as the political totem symbolizing the dearth of moral leadership in this nation. Much diluted ombudsman legislation was ratified in a shoddy manner, but that was a victory for the ‘Elite of calling’ lead by civil society leaders as Mr. Arvind Kejriwal and Ms. Kiran Bedi. The Jan Lok Pal Team is a bunch of Moral Entrepreneurs with an exemplary track record.  Mr. Kejriwal, a Magsayasay Awardee led the movement for the Right to Information Act.  Shazia Ilmi, an excellent journalist who traded positions to be the media contact person for the Jan Lok Pal Agitation.

These people had good ideas, went to elite educational institutions, worked in the top echelons of civil service and corporate sector to bring those skills to the advocacy and political conversations. More importantly, they had a profusely keen sense of destiny that they can make the world a better place.

That is the differentiating element between the ‘Citizen Elite’ and current crop of political leaders who are political entrepreneurs; second generation legislators or business tycoons who buy their way through Rajya Sabha like Bellary Mining Tycoon Avinash Lad or the revered Dr. Mallaya. A Jay Panda is a parliamentarian of the Citizen Elite Genre. Naveen Jindal, although an Industrialist has pioneered the path for a common man to unfurl the National Tricolor sans inhibition.  

The Prakash Jha directed ‘Satyagraha’ starring Amitabh Bachchan is a cinematic take on the Jan Lok Pal Movement with Bachchan portraying a loosely caricatured Anna Hazare taking the lead over an anti corruption movement.   The former Jan Lok Pal Team apart from Kiran Bedi has formed the Aam Admi Party which is creating a flutter before the Delhi Assembly Elections.  Lok Satta Party’s Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan is a former civil servant turned MLA from Kutapally, Andhra Pradesh who stands for a clean political discourse. He had put up exemplary candidates for the Karnataka Assembly Polls although none of them won. The entire point of the exercise is about signaling a change.

In the rough and tumble of politics in India, ‘the Citizen Elite’ are slowly gravitating from the periphery to the epicenter of elections. I hope for more Jairam’s and Kejriwal’s to join the conversation.

 Only the Citizen Elite can bring the Change. Yes, We Can.

 

Is Arnab Goswami framing our National Conversation?

Our  ‘Present’- tation State of the Economy is in ‘Slide Show’ mode. With an economy in free fall and governance in a coma, it’s frankly no surprise to ordinary ‘aam aadmi’ that a time would arrive when a PAN Card would have to be furnished to the vegetable vendor to purchase onions which is a staple of the Indian diet. The government is busy engineering a political relief package for itself by ‘friending’ Nitish on the social network of Indian coalition politics. Creation of Telengana as a separate state has ensured that the UPA will have a landslide in 21 seats of the region in 2014. As I had written in my previous post supporting the passage of the revolutionary welfare legislation the Food Security Bill, it will be a Killer App along with Direct Cash Transfer to bring in votes for the present dispensation.  The Food Security Bill has widespread support across the political spectrum with opposing voices only suggesting minor amendments. Even the BJP is engaging in a regressive competitive populism by supporting the legislation in order to save face as a pro poor party. As a right wing opposition party it should technically speak is opposing legislations which distribute such largesse from an ideological standpoint.  No political actor seems to be also interested in running the business of governance which is policy making on the floor of the house. A majority of MP’s it seems want to head home after a 1pm adjournment, so as to grab subsidized biryani from the parliament canteen for lunch and subsequently have a proverbial snooze.

A major reason for policy paralysis is a dysfunctional parliament and a severe paucity of democratic debate.  The locus of our national conversation seems to be shaped by the media and a social anthropologist named Arnab Goswami is its torch bearer.  When mainstream democratic channels of expression are stifled, then alternative platforms emerge such as the primetime TV debate with armchair intellectuals and Rajya Sabha MP’s who are either media tycoons or Industrial honchos (read leaders with no mass base). Having a technocrat Prime Minister who prefers silence to debate does not really alleviate the matter.  Strong Leaders in times of crisis,  require political capital and the promoter-professional management divide does not work.

There is a significant disconnect between the policy discourse in the media led by policy wonks and in general intelligentsia and the grass roots strongmen who fight elections with money and muscle power in Anantapur, Sangli or Saharsa.  It is ultimately these strongmen with mass voter base in shanties and below poverty line villages that enter parliament. I will be very surprised if they have even come across the word ‘discourse’ leave alone engage in an intellectually stimulating debate over issues such as Secularism or the Food Security Legislation.  The wonks in the Planning Commission/Think Tanks would do the research for them. Politicians such as Jay Panda are a rarity as they represent rural poor constituencies such as Kendrapada in Odisha and be equally innovative as hiring Swaniti/PRS LAMP Legislative Fellows to help him with their research.

As important policy debates are outsourced to Arnab to act as a ‘Speaker’; the educated class atleast have an opportunity to engage the political class via twitter. Arnab’s anger resonates with the outrage of the masses albeit with popcorn and coke in an Airconditioned living room.  But sadly Tweets do not equal votes and the indelible ink on your finger.

The realpolitik of politics is fought in the dust bowls of Bundelkhand and not in the tony cafes of South Bombay where the LSE-Ivy League educated intelligentsia frequent.  Let us take some of the brilliant minds on prime time debate TV such as Swapan Dasgupta or a Dr. Swamy into the hallowed alleys of Parliament.

Or even Arnab, although I am skeptical that he would win a Lok Sabha poll even from his native Guhawati.