LOK SWARAJ
People’s Manifesto
For
A New Polity
The
entire constitutional structure of India, by omission or commission is a fusion
of exploitative conspiracy against the Polite, the Poor, the Proletariat, and
the Common citizen hatched by Criminals, Capitalists, Intellectuals and
Politicians. We too are either overt or covert facilitators in fortifying this
status-quo. A cerebral deliberation is essential to break this status-quo.
‘Society’ is supreme, ‘nation’ its
organ, ‘state’ an aid and ‘religion’ its guide. The root of all contemporary
problems is the intense competition by The Nation, The State and Religion to
assert themselves and marginalize The Society. A Systemic overhaul is called
for to bring The Society into this mainstream.
Preamble
We, citizens of India and the voters of the
Parliamentary/Assembly constituency of …………………………………………………………. in the State of
……………………………………………. Herewith express our deep concern and anguish at the critical
situation through which the country is passing and resolve to do our utmost to
rectify it.
The dawn of freedom had naturally raised hopes among the
people that there would be an early end to their poverty and exploitation, and
that the country would march towards progress. More than six decades have
passed by, waiting for the good days.
It is not that nothing has happened
during this period. Many development plans have been undertaken, and some
results were achieved. But, obviously, the direction and the priorities of our
plans and policies were wrong and that is why rich-poor chasm is widening,
unemployment is rampant, corruption has broken all records and exploitation
continues to thrive. In the last 60 years of multiple
party governments, a common factor is that the morale of anti-social elements
is incessantly expanding and the morale of The Society is continuously
deflating. Those who break the law are ceaselessly going up the success ladder
and the law abiders are perennially unsuccessful. Decent people are not allowed
to coagulate. At the first sign of their coagulation, professional politicians
fragment them in the name of religion, caste, gender, age, economic status,
consumer-producer, employee-employer, language, region etc,.
The thousands of
crores of rupees spent on development have mostly benefitted only a small top
section of the people. While they have secured for themselves all sorts of
amenities and privileges, large sections of the common people have remained
deprived of even basic necessities as drinking water and proper sanitation.
There has been a gross misuse of resources on pomp and pageantry, and in
providing a luxurious living for bureaucrats, parliamentarians, ministers and
the elite. Our present plans and policies are against the mutual co-operation
and sacrifice which were established through the ages of striving and which
have helped to sustain our society during the many ups and downs through which
it has passed. Hence the plans and policies have led to moral degeneration. Our
social structure has been rendered hollow and fragile because of rampant
corruption in public life. Growing mutual suspicion, violence, hooliganism has
become the order of the day and made our lives insecure and miserable.
While the
agricultural producer, physical labourer and artisan were denied a fair return
for their produce and labor, the manufacturer and middlemen were assured their
profits and left free to manipulate the former. The whole organized sector
which includes the government, public sector, corporates, financial
institutions, as well as labor under trade unions gets maximum advantage at the
cost of unorganized sector, the unemployed, underemployed and villagers. They are
hence left to fend for themselves and end up marginalized. This has led to
increased disparity between the rural and urban economies. The system of
control is constitutionally vested in either union or state governments which
has strangled the initiative of the people. They have been left with the choice
of either obeying the government dictats and suffering hardships at every step
or taking the easy path of corruption. In fact, it is the government policies
which are responsible for the increase in corruption.
Government And The People
Power and authority have become the instruments for
exploiting and oppressing the people instead of removing their hardships, the
laws, rules, procedures and methods adopted by an alien and immoral power for
its own ends are not only being continued, but even further strengthened in
free and democratic India. The exploitation of the masses in collaboration with
national and multi-national vested interests is growing by the day.
Those who have got
into the seats of power are trying to restrict and furthermore end whatever
initiative or freedom is available to the people in the pretext of framing ever
newer personal laws. The press and the judiciary too are threatened of their
independence. Normal democratic processes are being short-circuited blatantly. The
legislatures are becoming arenas for testing political strength or have been
turned into market places. Elections have become, without exceptions,
degenerated into games of money, caste, brute force and empty slogans. With the
democratic process having thus been vitiated, political parties and elections
are fast losing the respect of the people.
Freedom should have
meant a growth in the power and initiative of the people. Instead, there has
been rapid erosion in these matters. ‘People’ are becoming progressively weaker
while the ‘State’ is becoming all powerful. Even our day to day affairs has
come under the clutches of the government. The people, who are supposed to be
masters in a democracy, have actually been reduced to the level of slaves.
LOK SWARAJ
Our freedom fighters, particularly Gandhiji had sensed this and
advocated an India of village republics having full power. Prior to foreign
invasions, such a system was well entrenched in India. Even today, almost all
advanced democracies all over the world have adopted this same system.
Hitherto, we have been kept under the impression that after the attainment of
if independence, the people could rely on the government to work for their
welfare. After all, it is the people who elect the government. Unfortunately
their hopes have been belied. It is now clear that we can no more depend on the
government to set matters right. Power has developed its own vested interest in
the status quo. It is the people themselves who should now take the initiative
to build the new order in which they shall have full control over their own
lives and destiny. Fortunately for us we have had a long tradition in our
country of people managing their own day-to-day affairs. This is what is meant
by Lok Swaraj.
The Program
1.
THE PRIMARY UNITS
We believe that the villages, the mohallas in the cities and
other places where people live and work face-to-face, should be the basic units
of our polity. Life in these communities ought to be organized and conducted on
the basis of mutual co-operation and good-for-all, priority being given to the
uplift of the lowest and the last. All the people in these communities should
be able to participate fully and directly in the management of their affairs.
Only thus will it be possible to build an unshakeable foundation for democracy.
(i)
The Gramsabha/ Mohallasabha
The
gramsabha/mohallasabha consisting of all adults of the village/urban locality
shall have full powers to run its affairs as detailed hereunder.
(a)
To manage village/locality lands, forests,
water and all natural resources and commons.
(b)
To plan its agriculture and
industries in such a manner as to provide full employment to all able bodied
persons, achieve self-reliance in basic necessities.
(c)
To protect and develop its cattle
wealth
(d)
To encourage and promote community
initiatives
(e)
To run its schools for its children
(f)
To run healthcare units open for all
(g)
To take care of sanitation and waste
recycling
(h)
To maintain peace and harmony and
supervise its security
(i)
To provide cheap and quick arbitration,
settlement and justice in that order to disputes within its area.
(j)
To set up a village fund
(gramkosh/mohallakosh) in order to provide a capital base for development of the
village and to serve as its bank
(k)
To organize the marketing of the
community’s product, run co-operative stores, home/cottage industries, procure
and sell necessary commodities from outside and store its surplus products.
(l)
To act as a channel of distribution
for essential and rationed commodities.
(m)
To secure a just and fair price for agricultural
produce, products of local arts and crafts and of the processing industries in
cooperation with neighboring communities
(n)
To settle with appropriate
authorities, the quantity of food grains to be supplied for the procurement
program of the government, if any
(o)
To maintain local roads
(p)
To levy and collect taxes on
agricultural income, professions, local fairs, vehicles etc,. for raising
revenue
(q)
To exercise supervision and control
over the government officials working in the area.
(ii)
Block And Districts Bodies
The representative bodies at the block and
district levels respectively should also have appropriate powers in respect of
such subjects as law and order, small and medium scale industries, pollution
control, higher education institutions, specialty health care, transport,
thoroughfare roads etc.,
(iii)
Statutory Recognition
The rights and duties of the local bodies should be embodied in
the constitution. There should be an additional list specifying subjects within
the domain of the Gramsabha/Mohallasabha in addition to the existing list of
‘union’, ‘state’ and ‘concurrent’ subjects. Residuary powers should vest with
the primary units.
Local bodies should have ‘real autonomy’ and
should be free from interference from the unit ‘above’ them. Their decisions
pertaining to their own domain shall not be dependent on any kind of approval
from the bureaucracy, State, or the Central governments. The government shall
also not have power to supersede these bodies at will indefinitely. Periodicity
of elections to these bodies should be statutorily fixed and elections should
be conducted under the jurisdiction of the Election Commission.
We pledge ourselves to strive to weld our
villages into united, self-reliant and peaceful communities by rising above
caste, religious and linguistic considerations, by giving equal status to women
and weaker sections of the society in whatever form, by resolving conflicts
through non-violent means with welfare for all as motto.
We will set up Garmsabhas/Mohallasabhas and
start working towards the goal of Lok Swaraj in the manner set forth in this
manifesto.
2.
THE HIGHER BODIES
We realize our responsibility to the nation and to the world.
We will work for the unity and well-being of our nation and all the people of
the world. We will keep ourselves apprised of the needs and problems of our
country and the world, and look at own interests and needs in the larger
perspective.
We will participate
in the policy making at the national, state and other levels, and exercise
control over the administration at these levels through our representatives. We
shall organize ourselves constituency-wise into ‘voter councils’ and select our
own candidates for election to these bodies called as ‘Lok Sansad’. The Lok
Sansad may recall an erring legislature through rules prescribed.
a.
Centre-State Relations
The present tendency on part of the central
government to usurp all powers and resources and reduce the States to total
dependency of the Centre will have to be reversed. The States should have more
autonomy, particularly in the fields of planning and resource mobilization.
However, the issue is more fundamental than Centre-State relations and
distribution of powers. As indicated earlier, the Gramsabhas/Mohallasabhas and
intermediate bodies should be the real instruments of exercise of People’s
power for the management of their own day-to-day affairs. Therefore, both the
centre and the states will have to part with many of their powers in favor of
the Gramsabhas/Mohallasabhas and intermediate local bodies.
b.
Dismantling The Centralized System
Today, the government has built up highly
centralized arrangements for such things that can be more easily handled by
Gramsabhas/Mohallasabhas. Such centralization leads to widespread corruption
and inefficiency besides making the nation weaker and vulnerable in matters of
security of its citizens. We are progressively witnessing an increase in crimes
because government is putting its resources on the chimera of development and
in the process naturally leaving the flanks on the security front exposed. The
system of education, health, food is examples which can easily be transferred
to the local bodies. Such cumbersome arrangements have to be dismantled and
decentralized.
With Gramsabhas/Mohallasabhas entrusted with
most of the tasks of development and providing amenities, the government will
be better able to assign its resources towards security of the citizens which
will decrease the prevalent crime rate. There will be no need for the present
top-heavy, cumbersome and expensive administrative apparatus. The cost of
administration will thus be drastically reduced. All wasteful expenditure on
ostensation and luxury will automatically dramatically reducing the fiscal
expenditure.
c.
Democratic Freedoms
The fundamental rights of the people will
have to be preserved and their interpretation progressively broadened.
Draconian laws curtailing personal liberty will have to be repealed or amended
suitably. Preventive detentions need to cease. Freedom of press will be
guaranteed.
Mass media like All India Radio and
Doordarshan need to be put under autonomous bodies answerable directly to the
parliament. Except for sensitive national security and foreign policy issues,
all official documents will be accessible to all via the RTI route.
d.
Electoral Reforms
A ‘Right to no vote’ will be given as an
option to the voter on the ballot. Defections will cease if elections are made
partyless affairs as voters may vote for candidates rather than parties to the
Lok Sabha/Vidhan Sabhas. The Lok Sabha may well become a house of 543 members
and not a house of parties. Alternatively, political parties should be obliged
to have their audited accounts published annually.
e.
The Judiciary
Justice in its very nature needs to be
effectively and cheaply dispensed. The local bodies should be empowered to set
up their own courts in conformity with national guidelines to deal with cases
arising within their areas. Emphasis will be on arbitration and settlement.
Courts, now centered at district and
sub-division levels should be dispensed to the local-bodies level. Appointment
of judicial officials at all levels should be entrusted to an independent body
like Lok Pal to be beyond the influence of political interference.
f.
Police and Internal Security
The local bodies should be given statutory
powers to supervise the law and order situation in their areas. The
investigative wing of the Police force should be independent. Only the
prevention and investigation part of international crimes should be under the
purview of the central government.
g.
Resources
The present system drains all the resources
from the people and gives back only a fraction of it to them in the form of
development programs. In the new decentralized system, the
Gramsabhas/Mohallasabhas, and other progressive units will have much larger
resources their disposal and the State and Central Governments will need
comparatively less resources to discharge their reduced responsibilities.
A substantial share of centrally collected
direct and indirect taxes should be given back to the Gramsabhas/Mohallasabhas
and other local bodies on a pro rata basis.
Presently, there is tendency of fixing low
prices for agricultural products and relatively much higher for industrial
products. It is a false notion that if higher price is paid to producer, the
consumer will have to pay further higher prices. In fact, it is the middlemen
who are responsible for jacked up pricings. Empowering local bodies will get
rid of this malaise as the local bodies themselves will directly deal in their
produce.
h.
Industrial Policy
Industry will be free to set up
environmentally approved industry anywhere provided they are permitted to set
it up in their local areas by the local bodies. Corporates shall procure land
at market prices from the land owners and give them proportional shares in the
functioning industry.
OUR RESOLVE
We are convinced that the programs outlined
above will help us move towards Lok Swaraj or ‘real’ Swaraj of the people. A
society in which every individual will enjoy the freedom and opportunities to
flower into a full human being without fear or favor.
We
the people of India, give a mandate to our representatives in the Lok Sabha,
Rajya Sabha and the Vidhan Sabhas to bring in constitutional amendments and
legislate to realize this manifesto.
Introductory edition:
Swarajya Sangam
Gopuri, Wardha
442114
PRESENT VERSION by:
May 2012
Please Comment on:
Disclosure:
This is the first draft and citizens are welcome to share, circulate, discuss, suggest corrections, critically analyze it and provide constructive
inputs.
