Workshop from 5-8 January 2004 to determine

“India's Liberal Political Strategy: 2004 and beyond”

History and India’s cultural milieu may not appear to be on our side as we begin this ambitious effort.  While it is true that there is now a greater understanding of some of our liberal concepts related to economic liberty, the core principles of liberalism were known to India a 100 years ago. Despite that, the party that emerged into India's independence was a party without any significant political philosophy and only the faintest traces of liberalism.  The Congress party was not founded on principles of liberalism or socialism.  It was founded on the principle of democracy.  It was founded to represent Indians, a task which it carried out with success.  There was little ideological debate on political philosophies within the Congress, save that on the level and type of cooperation with the government.  In such an environment of little debate on the fundamentals of the meaning of freedom, the competing economic philosophy of Gandhi and an upsurgent communism and Fabian socialism managed to get some attention, particulary given that these views sit relatively easy with the emotions.

The Congress party remains a party without ideology even today.  Its socialism is also purely self-serving.  To the extent that it can manipulate commercial activity and drive its electoral funding through black money, the Congress really doesn't care what ideology it pitches for.

Liberal ideas have therefore just been one of the many alternative ideas in India over the past many decades.  The idea of Hindu nationalism -- again divested of any significant political philosophy, has been another alternative available for many decades.  The Hindu nationalist stream derives from a mistaken sense of identity which is religious rather than geographical.  Nationalism can only be related to the unit of people that pay taxes to that nation.  The individual religious beliefs of the people can influence the laws on certain matters, but no particular religion can be allowed the right to hijack the right of taxpayers who may not subscribe to that or any other, religion.  This political philosophy has limited sustainability, since it insists that a specified group of people within a nation will put their stamp on the whole country.  This leads to conflict.  It is not sustainable.  It is an anachronism in today’s world just like Islamic states are, and these anachronisms will sooner or later dissipate as their underlying message of conflict is rejected by an enlightened citizenry.

It is my belief that the time for political parties like the Congress has passed.  Parties that are not based on clear political beliefs and are driven purely by self-interest will be unable to project significant energy into the future. I also believe that the time for parties like the BJP is soon passing.  It merely requires a clear elucidation of the conflict creating policies of such parties for the energy from such parties to dissipate.

What then will emerge in place of these parties?  As we speak, the pressure to replace these outdated entities has already gathered momentum.  From the sporadic and scattered efforts of the last 100 years, liberalism has been gathering enormous strength in the 1990s in India.  Policy Institutes with liberal flavours have been erupting; nongovernment bodies demanding good governance and accountability have become a regular feature of India's life.  Nonresident Indians and persons of Indian origin have gained enormous self-confidence and are strong votaries of the liberal policies that they have reaped the benefits of, across the world. 

Robert Clive could not have succeeded in 1757 had the circumstances not been appropriate, and the ground work laid for him by 150 years of history. Today, while some may still doubt it, India is almost fully ready for a liberal political alternative.  It will of course still require enormous skill and persuasion to expand this opportunity.  Gathering resources, both human and financial, and deploying these in a strategic manner will be vital if we are to create and sustain a long-term, effective political front.

This group, I believe, represents some of the best India has to offer in terms of credibility and capability in seeding this very ambitious effort.  For Sharad Joshi, this is an opportunity to extend the reach of his lifetime's work.  We came here because we wanted to. Had there been no urge, somewhere deep inside all of us, to get together to such an effort, we would not have come.  If circumstances are not right, Robert Clives or Gandhis do not arise.  Today we are here because we believe there is a glimmer of hope if we work together. The circumstances are right. Our time has possibly come.

I believe from now on it is ultimately up to us to budge reality and change the future. We cannot allow India's future to dither any longer. India needs a clear direction, but more importantly, it needs integrity in its governance. Together, we can lay a small foundation for what would become a magnificent superstructure in the coming decades. I do not see this as a short-term exercise.  It will take lifetimes.  If any of us is looking for quick success, we are likely to be disillusioned even more quickly.

In this workshop we can agree to work together and define our mission and direction.  The agreement to work together in the same direction would unleash unprecedented synergies and open a completely new chapter in India's history. We might then formulate a mission to provide the highest quality of governance services to the people of India based on the best liberal principles. We may also look into some detailed strategies. But the agreement - overcoming our natural doubts and inertia, is the beginning of the beginning. Let us work toward it first.

Staring us in the face today, in this workshop is the enormous potential variance of our output at the end of five days.  As a group, as a generation, and as a nation, we can achieve wonders through this effort, or we can achieve nothing.  If some magic occurs today and in these few days, this relatively motley group can convert itself in to an extremely potent instrument of change.  At the same time, we could equally lose ourselves in personality issues, or in real and imagined obstacles, and end up without focus. In my perspective, though, it really does not matter if we try but fail; if that were to happen, we could try again in a different way.  We will learn a lot simply by trying, together.  But if we do not try, we have nothing to be learnt, and the possibility of improvements in the future is diminished.

I think it is a worthwhile exercise for us to visualise to ourselves the best and worst scenarios that can emerge from this effort. Personally, I can imagine a coherent, disciplined and effective Liberal political force expanding rapidly through the use of the most powerful techniques and instruments that can be mustered, into the heartland of India, taking a focused Liberal message to the masses, and recruiting effective promoters of this cause until finally, five to ten years down the road, we are ready to take on national electoral politics and win a national general election. That of course would be only the beginning, but it would set the stage for much larger achievements in the future. We can do wonders if we agree to devote part of our time to activities such as building policy positions, writing flyers, helping in organisational matters such as writing processes and procedures, manuals, collecting a few resources and holding a few public meetings.

On the other hand, given that everybody has limited “effective years of work”, and limited resources, it is possible this Thursday that we fail to unite in a common vision and mission and that at least some of us drop out permanently from this effort, while others continue in their existing, diverse, ways, leading to enormous loss of momentum and potential.

My personal goals from the workshop are (1) resolution to work together, (2) agreement on the assumptions of a liberal, (3) a method of working together - ie. decision-making processes on policy, common platform, liberal spokesperson, etc., and (4) a strategy going forward including the place to go to and how to go there (with agreed accountabilities).  In addition, if we can sketch the design of an organisational structure going forward, as well as some more bits and pieces around that, we will have something significant at the end of the five days.

C