Mr. Kejriwal! Here are my wishes!
Congratulations my Nation! Our democracy is richer today because Indian voters have got one more option to choose from. Well known social activist Arvind Kejriwal announced the formation of a political party on the auspicious occasion of 143rd birth anniversary of Gandhiji.
But the real question is how his party will be different from a bunch of other parties that we have? First of all, I want his party to be a benchmark for all other parties. I want that there should be an internal democracy within the party in a democratic country like there was in congress before independence (it should be like ‘FDI in multi-brand retail’ resolution was passed by cong. With 32 votes for and 14 votes against it). I am unable to understand how almost all the decisions are taken unanimously within all major parties. I can’t agree on almost all the views of any of my friends around me. It would strengthen the idea of democracy within the party which will be helpful for the nation as people with contrasting views would learn to accommodate and respect other’s views at the party level. Secondly, I want it to be a full time activist party whether it is in power or not. Its members should always work for the people. Today I see that almost all the major political parties become active only during election time and if they lose they disappear; even the winning one’s members also do not connect with the people after the elections. I mean what are you there for? For winning or losing or bringing some change to the masses. Of course one can bring a huge amount of change by coming to power. But you can also do a lot of constructive works during the rest of the time.
I agree with Kejriwal’s view of decentralization of power that if a decision related to a village road or drinking water has to be taken, it should be taken at panchayat or block level, not at MP or MLA level. It gives enormous scope for misconduct and negligence. PRI’s should be given more power. The money spent and functioning of political parties is amongst the best kept secrets in the world’s largest democracy. This should go. There should be more transparency in the functioning of a political party. It should work for the upliftment of downtrodden sections of our society. Today our political parties stick to tokenism. They (or even masses) think that by merely giving reservations, they are done with their duty. Reservations are necessary but not a sufficient condition (I think no one disagrees with reservations per se , you may disagree with Govt. of India’s reservation policy but you need some kind of affirmative action to bridge this huge gap in the society). I feel disheartened when the educated youth of India think of politics as some sort of ‘garbage’. It is good that they feel connected with Kejriwal. He can restore their faith in our political system.
At last I would say that certainly Kejriwal’s path is ‘full of thorns’ and there will always be scores of people criticizing him (firstly, they accused him of being anti-democratic and now of having political ambitions). But he should always remember the famous quote of Gandhiji:-
First they ignore you,
But the real question is how his party will be different from a bunch of other parties that we have? First of all, I want his party to be a benchmark for all other parties. I want that there should be an internal democracy within the party in a democratic country like there was in congress before independence (it should be like ‘FDI in multi-brand retail’ resolution was passed by cong. With 32 votes for and 14 votes against it). I am unable to understand how almost all the decisions are taken unanimously within all major parties. I can’t agree on almost all the views of any of my friends around me. It would strengthen the idea of democracy within the party which will be helpful for the nation as people with contrasting views would learn to accommodate and respect other’s views at the party level. Secondly, I want it to be a full time activist party whether it is in power or not. Its members should always work for the people. Today I see that almost all the major political parties become active only during election time and if they lose they disappear; even the winning one’s members also do not connect with the people after the elections. I mean what are you there for? For winning or losing or bringing some change to the masses. Of course one can bring a huge amount of change by coming to power. But you can also do a lot of constructive works during the rest of the time.
At last I would say that certainly Kejriwal’s path is ‘full of thorns’ and there will always be scores of people criticizing him (firstly, they accused him of being anti-democratic and now of having political ambitions). But he should always remember the famous quote of Gandhiji:-
First they ignore you,
then they laugh at you,
then they fight you,
and then you win.
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Author is my friend, Avinash Kumar; Currently Mechanical Engineering, final year student at Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee. Though I can bet he does not remember even name of his courses. he can talk hours on politics and society, preferably over samosa!!
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