Multiple Manifestoes

Individual or people initiatives, taken at the right time and in the proper perspective, can bring about a desired change. As Victor Hugo said, no one can stop an idea when its time has come. We have seen this in world history as well as our own: movements, uprisings, revolutions. We have tasted success with the Right to Information act passed by the parliament after Arvind Kejriwal and others took up the issue seriously and successfully to its logical conclusion. Attempts to dilute its importance with amendments have been resisted, and the RTI act continues to illumine the other catalysts of change.

Spurred by its success, Anna Hazare and others including Kejriwal took up the fight against corruption up to a point where it could become a central issue in our country the last two years. However, India Against Corruption, the organization that spearheaded the movement, became too ambitious, was split, and the movement declined. We are now on the anticlimax in the fight against corruption. But the corruption issue is not dead, and the people will rise again at the right time with revised perspectives. Movements that fail in their first attempt usually take time to resume in the second, even the third avatar. At this point of time, however, we must admit it has become a political farce in the run up to the Karnataka assembly elections with the kettle and the pot calling each other black.

Hazare and other leaders of the defunct India Against Corruption may still work out strategies for reviving the movement. But that is not my subject today. And I am not discussing the merits and demerits, or the  prospects of the Aam Aadmi Party established by Kejriwal in the forthcoming elections to the Delhi state assembly.  What, however, I find worth discussing is the innovative  idea of having 71 separate  manifestoes to the 70 seat Delhi legislature, one each for the 70 constituencies of the assembly, and one for the entire state.

You may wonder what’s so exciting about 71 manifestoes when even a single state-wide manifesto of a political party is just a piece of paper that is neither respected nor implemented.  Who takes a manifesto seriously anyway? The manifestoes of parties are prepared by committees consisting of politicians far removed from the people, and released when the campaign is almost over. Not prepared by the ones who stand for elections, and interact with the people even if for the limited purpose of getting votes. Our elections are becoming more personality oriented rather than party, ideology or program oriented. Personality cults are being established in almost all parties, regional and national. In such a scenario there is little place for manifestoes.

Now comes Kejriwal to revive the manifesto as the first step to prepare for an election that is not immediate but impending. And he wants the people of each constituency to prepare their own manifesto along with the volunteers of the Aam Aadmi Party. The people’s involvement, at the level of ideation and for drawing out a program to implement during the five year term of the new government, will go a long way in empowering the voters as the real rulers of their state. Once the voters have agreed on their manifesto, they will be in a better position to select their candidate to carry out not her/his promises but the program set by the voters themselves. Rebel candidates should not be given much importance in this scheme of things.

Kejriwal says the state manifesto will be drafted by pulling common issues from the  70 constituency manifestoes, and including them in a comprehensive document for the entire city.

Will it work? Doesn’t it sound utopian?  It does at first glance. But it can work. The method should be tested in Delhi. It can be improved upon after the Delhi experience, and tried in other small states. There will certainly be hurdles of various types especially by vested interests. Democracy is not a static but dynamic form of government, and it is evolving more than any other form. Whether multiple manifestoes will yield electoral success immediately can’t be foretold. But electoral success or not, the innovation will definitely benefit the evolution to a better democracy. Other parties will have to follow the trend sooner or later. The workers of a party and other active citizens will gain a say in development of their constituencies and states. It’s a sure way to promote participation, and arrest fascism that is currently showing up.

May I add that we had a similar experience in Goa in 2010 at the panchayat level while formulating the Regional Plan 2021. Each panchayat gram sabha had a say in deciding various aspects of the plan related to their areas, and in determining their village status. The RP 2021 may have been put in the deep slumber mode. But people have realized their potential. The potential did turn into an assertion of power to vote in the Goa elections in March and May 2012.

The road is long, but if we want to, we can reach the destination. Start small, and realize that small is beautiful.

Published in The Navhind Times, Panorama 05.05.2013

The Many Faces of Climate Change

“What’s the use of a fine house if you haven’t got a tolerable planet to put it on?”

The above question by Henry David Thoreau comes to mind on the eve of the Earth Day 2013, which is observed worldwide on 22^nd April every year. “The Face of Climate Change” is the theme chosen for this year.

There have been so many conferences, symposia, debates, campaigns, books and documentaries on this topic. But the governments of most countries have not yet given climate change the seriousness it deserves. May be the governments will take up the issue seriously only when the movement gains a political momentum. But for that to happen, the idea must first have a face. Otherwise it runs the risk of being called a figment of the imagination, a cynic’s nightmare, mere speculation or the projection of the prophets of doom. It is none of these. And now it has acquired a face, many faces indeed. It is not just the human faces of the increasing number of young and old who have turned activists for the cause, but the face of climate change seen in the small but concrete devastations that are taking place all over the world. The patterns of the seasons and their duration, the variations of temperatures, the unexpected rains and storms, the intervening dry spells during the rainy season, the snowfall in places that never saw snow, the increasing water levels and the receding sandy beaches – all these are visible manifestations of the process of change and the signs of things to come if we don’t do our bit towards mitigation. 

A special report in the latest issue of Down To Earth, the science and environment fortnightly, states that Asia was “the worst affected in terms of casualties due to natural disasters – 65 per cent of those killed in 2012 were Asians.” The report says that the economic and environmental consequences of climate change are not evenly felt, that those who pollute and those who suffer are usually not the same. The attention that is drawn to disaster is also influenced by the status of the society or country in which it happens. This is a well known occurrence be it terrorism or natural disaster. The developed countries have their disaster management in place while the developing countries are the recipients of post disaster aid. Whereas hurricanes in the USA are predicted and named Katrina, Rita, Wilma and Sandy with those likely to be hit in a state of readiness, Typhoon Bopha goes for a kill in Asia with almost 2000 dead. It is high time Asians also give publicity to every local manifestation of climate change and call it by a name. Such awareness could help change the attitudes of our people. Ignorance is no bliss. We could make a start by giving alternative names to our receding beaches in Goa, each according to dangers posed by possible climate change, but not forgetting the more immediate manmade disasters that are looming large.

Kathleen Rogers, President of Earth Day Network, says: Many people think climate change is a remote problem, but the fact is that it’s already impacting real people, animals, and beloved places all over the world, and these Faces of Climate Change are multiplying every day. Fortunately, other Faces of Climate Change are also multiplying every day, those stepping up to do something about it.

There are many battles on many fronts that many people are fighting many a day. These battles are fought by people against people, states against states, organizations against organizations, individuals against individuals, and so on and so forth. But there is one battle, nay an epic war, that we all need to fight together to keep our earth safe and clean for ourselves and our future generations. This war does not need the sword, the tank, the warship, the warplane, the bomb – hand made or nuclear. It needs goodwill and generosity to join the cause, to give one’s time and effort, to sacrifice an earth destroying way of life, and to embrace a green lifestyle. As awareness grows, the army of this type of people also keeps growing, ranging from soldiers of the earth to “greenovators”. I am sure the faces of those wanting to do something for a better world will increase after the Earth Day  2013 events.

The people of the western and southern regions of India have a task at hand: the preservation of the natural heritage of the Western Ghats. This environmental issue concerns the people of Goa, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. The recommendations of the panel led by Dr K Kasturirangan have been submitted to the government of India. To what extent do these dilute the recommendations of the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel led by eminent  ecologist Madhav Gadgil? Expert ecologists should debate these points in the media for the benefit of the public. Whatever the other faults, governments in India do respond to strong public opinion specially when elections are near.

We must do what we can, for as Warren Buffett says, “someone's sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago."

Published in The Navhind Times, Panorama 21.04.2013