Workshop from 5-8 January 2004 to determine

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

Dear friends,

On behalf of all of us, and on behalf of the India Policy Institute, I would like to welcome all of you to this 5-day workshop-cum-seminar. All of you have taken considerable trouble in coming all the way to attend this effort, some from different parts of India.

Brief background

Just a brief note about the background of this workshop, from my perspective. While understanding limitations of resources with the Liberals over the past decades, in my view these are minor issues, that can be overcome with some determined hard work.  I have felt, since I came across so many fine Liberals in India since 1998, that it should be possible to leverage this enormous potential by working together in a planned and sustained manner.  In 2000 I made a small attempt in this direction and found that something was missing.

Upon resigning my job and moving to Australia, there were significant health problems I had to face and when I managed to regain my voice through technological advance, I raised the matter once again – in April or May of 2003, why can the Liberals of India not work together in a planned and sustained manner? This intensive four-day workshop followed by a one-day seminar was arrived at as the only way to find an answer to this question.  Parth and Gurcharan Das were the first supporters of this concept, but obviously we all felt the need to know the answer to similar questions, and so we're here. The IPI Board is to be thanked for its support  - including financial - to this effort.

My role

I am and will remain an Indian citizen. I believe that one can do a lot from outside India - possibly more than by coming back full time at this stage. The income of Indians outside India is equal to that of India itself. We need to mobilise these resources, and write various documents/ provide research input. I am also sure we will need an international 'face' of the political group we are trying to form.

When things are ready for 'take-off' and I am really needed 'on the ground' as one of the many hundreds of pilots, I will come back, but in a focused manner - ie. not doing other work that will take away valuable time. Till then I wish to be one of the many volunteer facilitators and promoter of the liberal movement in India. In the meanwhile, and possibly even after the take-off, one can work on building the 'aircrafts', 'runways', etc. - and this can  - in some ways, be better done from outside, with access to high-speed cable internet, good libraries, etc.

This workshop

Most of you would have become extremely tired by now of my constant messages over e-mail for the past many months, and would like to get on with the real discussions.

Let me therefore introduce the structure of this first session, and then we begin.

First, the logistics. Please feel free to walk in and out if you so feel, such as the various calls of nature, or a possible smoke. You may also feel like taking a walk when the pressure of discussions gets too high.  Water is available …. and tea will be served at …… If we begin to exceed reasonable time limits for a particular topic and we need a break, please raise your hand and seek a short break.

I will facilitate this first session for purposes of making notes of the issues raised by you in your introductory comments, and later, in finalising the agenda for today.

We will begin by introducing ourselves briefly and talking at some length about our expectations and hopes from this workshop. This may take anywhere from 1 ½ hours to 2 hours.

Once the agenda is finalized, I will need expressions of interest from those who wish to facilitate different sessions over the coming 4 days. A facilitator’s job is to be completely neutral and seek out the views of different participants.  The facilitator will also have to organise notes for everybody to see (flip charts etc.) and ensure that the goal of the session is broadly achieved.  At the end, the facilitator may also wish to add his or her personal views on the topics under consideration, but essentially the facilitator is just that - person who facilitates that particular session.

We will need at least two different facilitators per day.

And with this brief introduction, let us begin from the (left/right) … Each person should preferably take not more than 10 minutes, since we have a lot to cover.

C