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Please help make the Manifesto better, or accept it, and propagate it!
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Dear Umesh: Thanks for your views. My personal response:
a) Direct interaction: IPI is essentially a 2-year old internet
"organization." It has about 200 subscribers and many others who browse its
web site each day. It has an office at Hyderbad, for sure, but that has
remained a little dormant in organizing 'local' interactions. Perhaps Ajay
is not fully convinced about the viability of the ideas compiled here.
b) Making up one's mind: Second, "IPI" has barely succeeded in making up
its mind, after many iterations. The "manifesto 2000.3" is some such
'consensus', representing a 70% consensus, I think, among the participants
here. I continue to think each day about some of those conclusions and am
even inclined to disagree with what I agreed with, say, 2 years ago. This
might be happening to others, too. It is perhaps best for us to clear our
views on many seemingly contadictory issues, and to make up our mind on
what 'we' - this amorphous group, stand for. This is essentially a research
enterprise.
c) Lack of research interest: I have been raising the issue of -ve income
tax at length so far, an issue of such far-reaching magnitude that most
others pale in comparison, and the response has been exlusively from
OUTSIDE the IPI forum. Apparently 'we' on IPI do not wish to do our
homework. We perhaps need more 'experts' not less, to help us make up our
mind. There are many more depths we have to explore in order to understand
if our 'prescriptions' are really the best. And while on this topic, why is
there no respose to the research I have done on the electoral system? I
studied the Shillong Parl. Constitutency in detail. Have we agreed to all
that I said? If so, are we clear on our 'prescription?' Can we persuade
others to this conclusion? Apart from education and reservations, little
excites the folk here.
d) Difficulty of consensus: The education debate, for instance, must have
shown how difficult it is to arrive at a consensus. The conclusions on IPI
are radically different from the prescriptions of 'mass' organizations who
advocate rights to education etc. Except for Deepak Lal who spoke in a
similar vein in a recent interview on ET, the popular press and 'radical'
movements have got it all wrong, at least according to 'us' (and I do not
even know if the folks who objected to the IPI consensus on this list are
willing to accept 'our' consensus and advocate a position radically
different to what they earlier believed in). Next, on the Women's Res. Bill
debate, according to some on this list, has got into areas which are merely
'second-best' for India. A consensus on IPI is not going to be possible, as
I can see. IPI is looking for 'first-best' ideas. Further reservations are
NOT the best solution to the backwardness problem. Finally, the IT bill has
been debated sufficiently in the popular press, and I suspect that people
like Dewang Mehta (of NASSCOM; not on IPI) do represent views of the
majority on this list, and hence perhaps no one raised this issue
separately. Yet, no one was prevented (or is prevented even today) from
discussing this threadbare.
Finally, you said:
>Every individual legislation that IPI goes after and engages local
>communities in, and succeeds, or fails successfully (after having generated
>sufficient awareness on the issue), IPI will gain acceptance and popularity
>and then perhaps one can imagine it being an authentic platform to initiate
>political reforms in India.
I agree. Let us wait and see if anything such as this emerges. The
enterprise of converting this preliminary consensus into a 'mass-based' one
is VERY large, and requires effort (much time - a lifetime, much money,
much commitment, based on consensus) that I find is not likely to happen
easily. It appears that "we" are the middle-class, and we have our own
little lives to live. Someone needs to be power-hungry as well as 100%
dedicated to India despite all the stupdity we see today. I suspect "we"
are somewhat weak on both these issues.
I do echo most of your sentiments, though. The challenge is: FROM THE
INTERNET TO THE GROUND. All previous suggestions/ attempts in this area
have not worked primarily because "our" inertia as an Indian middle-class
is too great. That is why ideas such as those on IPI remain mostly on paper.
The enterprise is very ambitious and daunting. Our effort too weak. Yet,
even then, IPI does contribute its mite to the national cause, you'll
agree. Some tiny achievements can be counted.
I marvel at the efforts of Madhu Kishwar, Barun Mitra, SV Raju, and Parth
Shah, among others, in continuing to plod on despite the miniscule effect
of their work on India. But as they did not have ambitious goals, they are
not unhappy. Lowering our goals is perhaps the easiest way to personal
happiness. Let us look for miniscule effects. The cumulativity of such
effects may help budge India.
Giving up is not the solution.
Thanks. Sanjeev
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