Why can't all the honest leaders contest as independents and win the election without affiliating with any political parties? If they do then no one had to worry about high/low command nonsense and pick the most deserving leader who did some real 'praja seva'/service. Pool in all such winning leaders and assign portfolios based on their vision for a better state. What is wrong with that? Why can't we do that?
Here are my thoughts:
- Party Vs Individual: Let the work speak for the person. I am sure we have people who worked for the society without being affiliated to any political party or a group. Medha Patkar is known for her work. Not for her affiliation to any particular group. Now she is contesting as AAP ticket, but if I was living in the same constituency I would vote for her irrespective of her affiliation. Same goes with P. Palagummi Sainath, Vandana Shiva, Dr. Rao Chelikani and the like. I prefer to stay an optimist hoping that it might work now as people are more open to it. Parties are okay in certain case, but individual work and commitment should not be sidelined in the name of political party.
- Commonality: I understand that national leaders need a commonality for policy making and implementation. Having said that, we all are different in our own way with our own strengths and weaknesses. I shared this post on my FB wall last week and had 10+ people responding to this post. Some are skeptical, some are optimistic, some are non-committal etc. But the *common thing” with all my friends who responded this post (I am glad that they did) is we all want to have a strong leadership in India armed with vision, honesty and integrity. I am happy to note that. Now, on the same lines, when I am asking for honest people to contest as independents and we elect them based on their merits and service that they already did for the community (even in their own little pockets) have that commonality you are talking about. They want to do something good for the society. They are already fixing things. Armed with a position in the government they do a better job than the selfish and corrupt politicians.
- Unity in diversity: If the common ideal is to serve the nation, I am sure these individual leaders will develop a better camaraderie among the others who are elected on the same basis. I am sure leadership among them will not be driven by selfish motives. I have faith that initially there might be differences, but eventually all those will smoothen out as they have a common goal and pick a leader among themselves. I do not still think they all should belong to a common party. They should be driven by a common goal of serving the nation. Yes, in policy making they might differ in several ways at times encounter delays and discussions. But I am sure you will agree with me that a difference of opinion among rational thinking intellectuals towards building a better nation is far better than a bunch of elected representatives who are bound by party ideologies and agree upon a point in the name of leadership and selfish goals. I think the former is less evil. The latter - we are all witnessing it right now.
- The Need & Necessity: I also notice that the political clan we see today (not just in India) is totally disconnected with ground realities of the nation. I am exposed to such ground realities while working with MV Foundation. As I read the children's case studies and try to reason out why they were put to work at such young age and now when they are in school what these kids aspire to be when they grow into adults, I noticed some basic things. I might sound dramatic but I am sure you will agree with me - (It is not them or us - but this is common to all human beings) - Food, water, shelter, clothing, education and work. These I am sure all of us will agree are the most important things for survival - atleast the first 3 of them, irrespective of class and inequalities. Now the problem arises when the leaders ignore these basic necessities of survival and focus on hollow developmental aspects where the main problems of food, water and shelter still exists. Once you have them ironed out, ensure that the nation is free of these problems, and parallelly develop on education which eventually leads to work we are already building a better nation.
- Leadership: Leadership is not just about bringing everyone to agreement on the issue to benefit a few in the society or empowering a certain class of people. It is about empowering everyone to live with self-respect earning their daily bread. A true leader does not want followers all the time. Trust me that can be quite claustrophobic. Leadership according to me is bringing people to an agreement or close to agreeing to a common goal that will benefit the country on the whole, without any bias towards any segment of the society.
So choosing someone with these common ideologies and bring them together as a team will benefit our nation or any nation as they are driven by common ideology. They are already serving the nation, given them the authority, they will do a good job as elected representatives. I am quoting an example - Medha Patkar is an ideal example. I have inherent faith in her that she will not leave any stone unturned if natural resources in India are exploited. She needs to be given the right portfolio if elected and she will figure out a way to set things right in her area of expertise. And rest of the rational thinking leaders will understand, support and even respect her decision as it in the nation’s interest. Yes there will be difference of opinions and some delays, but don’t you think it is better to have a heated argument for a good cause than bulldozing opinionated arguments for selfish reasons?
Having said that, I am not against honest intellectual visionaries contesting elections by joining a political party. You might very well question my intention of talking about Medha Patkar who is contesting Loksabha elections on AAP ticket. Let me explain, as I said their work and commitment towards serving the nation and its people speak louder. If these kind of leaders take charge of the country, I believe they are driven by a cause - something that is not self-centred (Thank God) So, Medha Patkar joining AAP or contesting as independent or through any other party doesn't make a difference as long as we voters know that she is the right choice and she knows what she needs to do with the responsibility bestowed on to her if she wins the election. That can never go wrong even if she belongs to a particular party. I am counting on that. That is HOPE.
Political parties can exist- but the ideologies of these parties revolved around selfish motives as we are seeing now. So essentially the voters should look at the candidates bio and the work they did in the past for the community and cast their precious vote. I admire the way AAP selects the candidates - So far I haven't seen any political party in India selecting the candidates based on the work they did outside the party's purview. I earlier was having doubts about Aam Aadmi Party Andhra Pradesh too, but my doubts were cleared after I saw the AP committee members. Each person in the committee has spent over 10-15 yrs in social work delivering results. Now that gives me immense faith and hope that these guys who already did what they had to do as leaders and now a part of a political party will definitely deliver. I am not against political party. Also, such honest intellectual visionaries won't join a shady political party which is tainted with scams. That's a relief. Leadership emerges... Don't you think so?
Suggested Exercise:
- List out all candidates who are contesting polls in your constituency
- Assess their qualifications in terms of social work, earlier responsibilities they have shouldered, positions held to gauge their leadership qualities, personal assets, professional qualifications, etc, - all merits and de-merits should be listed. I am counting that intellectual and socially responsible individuals to do this without any personal bias.
- Pick the top 5 most deserving candidates using your own judgement. Share this info in your blogs, local media and educate voters on the candidates’ background. You won’t be promoting these candidates or asking people to vote, but rather sharing results of your own assessment with outside world so they can choose the leader.
- Adding credibility to your analysis: Invite these candidates for a debate to test them publicly in a community forum. – Facilitate them to interact with public through Google hangouts or through main stream media or both to ensure that you picked the right guys. Remember you may be wrong at times, so, it will be a good exercise to know if we are on the right track.
- My perception - The most deserving candidates will have focus on the 70%* of their voters who live below the poverty line. How these candidates can help in uplifting the poor and provide the basic necessities like clean water, food, shelter, education, work etc.
*Yes, 70% of Indian population is below poverty line – you can flush the Planning Commission report – I have numbers to prove this.
I understand this is process-oriented activity, so, probably you need to choose a team who is rational and willing to work without any personal benefits which I believe most of the patriots are willing to spend time & resources on this. And please do share the outcome of your exercise with others so we all can improve. I am hoping this might work.
