{"id":143523,"date":"2020-12-03T00:54:32","date_gmt":"2020-12-02T19:24:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/?p=143523"},"modified":"2020-12-03T00:54:32","modified_gmt":"2020-12-02T19:24:32","slug":"citizens-common-cause","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/2020\/12\/03\/citizens-common-cause\/","title":{"rendered":"Citizens’ Common Cause"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Inder Jit<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\n(Released on 4 September 1979)<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the backdrop of the churnings in the society we are witnessing, it appears that times have barely changed, whether under one government or another. The article threw up ideas what we could do as citizens. Indeed, food for thought.<\/p>\n

\nRevulsion against the current state of politics in the country continues to snowball. Never before has greater contempt and abuse been poured on politicians. A few persons have even mildly reproached me for being \u201csoft\u201d towards politicians and describing all that has happened during the past two months as no more than \u201cthe politics of the gutter.\u201d Complained a respected elder: \u201cYou have been unfair to the gutter. It is a lot cleaner.\u201d Disgust with the developments has unfortunately tended to create widespread cynicism. Most people see nothing but trouble and travail ahead and a dark, forbidding future. Not a few have panicked and even bewail: Dictatorship is perhaps our only answer.\u201d Things, however, are not so bad and without hope. In fact, some good may well come out of the evil that has transpired. Happily, 1979 is not 1977. Many citizens are no longer merely angry. They are awake and aroused \u2014 and anxious to do their best to stem the rot.
\nMuch of the trouble has arisen because good people have largely shunned politics over the past two decades and more. \u201cPolitics is dirty, terribly dirty\u201d has been the patent excuse. Even persons who could spare time from their successful careers have stayed away on the familiar plea: \u201cThere is no place for honest people. We will not last 24 hours.\u201d Many are, however, beginning to realize now that politics has turned dirty and is certain to become dirtier so long as good persons do not actively participate in national affairs. Time was when following independence Nehru inducted men of acknowledged ability into the Congress with a view to improving the quality of public life. But things greatly changed after the first decade. The professional politician took over and today some 10,000 men and women comprising India\u2019s new feudal lords are holding the country to ransom and playing ducks and drakes with its life like the Pindaris of yester centuries.
\nCan something be done by the ordinary citizens to mend matters and, what is more, to prevent India from going over the brink? Some fifty persons committed to democracy and hailing from different disciplines of life met over the last week-end at the Gandhi Peace Foundation in New Delhi and came up with an answer which deserves widest possible notice and consideration. Yes, they deserve widest possible notice and consideration. Yes, they concluded, the people could rectify matters. The forthcoming general election offered both a challenge and an opportunity. But little could be achieved \u201cmerely by complaining about the behavior of the politicians\u201d who had wantonly destroyed the 1977 spirit of democratic resurgence. The citizens could bring about a change. But they had first to acknowledge and appreciate two basic truths. Every people got the Government they deserved. Moreover, the citizens themselves had contributed to the present state of affairs. They needed to realize their own responsibility and learn from the experience of the past two and a half years.
\nFortunately, the group, which included representatives of the Citizens for Democracy, Lok Sevak Sangh, Sarva Seva Sangh and the National People\u2019s Committee, and some independents, did not stop at merely offering a homely. Instead, it put forward a programme of action to involve the people and help \u201csecure the return of better representatives to Parliament.\u201d Specifically, it proposed the establishment in all constituencies of the Voters\u2019 Councils consisting of persons \u201cof democratic convictions who do not belong or owe allegiance to any political party and will not run for office.\u201d Such Councils should principally seek to \u201cstrengthen democracy (Political, economic and social) and oppose all authoritarian forces and parties and extra-constitutional tendencies.\u201d The voters, it was agreed, should be cautioned against yielding to \u201cthe blandishment of potential dictators\u201d and convinced that \u201cdemocracy, however, defective it may appear to them, was a better form of Government than dictatorship.\u201d
\nThe Voters\u2019 Council will have important functions to perform. Before and during the poll, it would do the following: help eligible voters to enroll. Call upon the people to secure the return of persons of moral integrity who would place public interest above private advantage. Defeat defectors and other guilty of betraying the people\u2019s trust or of unethical conduct. Assist voters to exercise their franchise rationally, without yielding to considerations of caste and community. Help secure free and fair elections. Prepare, circulate and monitor a code of conduct and secure pledges for future action. After the poll, the Voter\u2019s Council would function as a standing organization to maintain a two-way contact between the voters and their elected representatives and the Government. It would also demand, among other things, legislation on electoral reforms and setting up of a Lok Pal.
\nSome of the participants pointedly raided a question of vital concern to the future of our democracy. Should the Voters\u2019 Council also set up their own candidates? \u201cWhat happens,\u201d It was asked for instance, \u201cIf the candidates in any constituency lack integrity and character \u2014 or commitment to democracy? Should not the Voters\u2019 Council itself offer an alternative candidate? Understandably, no one was in favour of doing anything which might give the impression as though a new party was being launched. However, a practical compromise was stuck. It was agreed that the Voters\u2019 Council should also assist \u201cprocesses resulting in the emergence of the peoples\u2019 candidates who may be adopted if the local constituents so desire. But this was subject to the provisos that such candidates will be locally sponsored, convinced democrats and genuinely non-party men and women of integrity. Further, they will have a good chance of success, and will agree not to run for office or defect and to remain accountable to the Council.
\nPublic effort at ensuring the success of good candidates at the polls is not new and has, in fact, yielded good dividends in the West. In the USA for instance, public interest groups wield enormous influence and play a major role in pushing legislation and getting law-makers elected. (A public-interest group or a \u201ccitizens lobby\u201d is broadly defined as a group organized around ideas that are not based on their members\u2019 economic interest). There are literally thousands of such public interest groups; a directory of these groups published in 1977 ran into 999 pages. Their membership is largely college-educated and from the middle and upper income brackets. The groups come into being in numerous ways \u2014 by capitalizing on a hot public issue, by being bank rolled by wealthy individuals or by raising funds from the public or from foundations. Not a day goes by when one group or another does not testify before the Congress on causes that may range anywhere from Congressional ethics to Pentagon waste.
\nCommon Cause, a leading public interest group, for instance, concentrates on the political process and is determinedly pursuing its goal: to make the US system responsive and accountable. Following its inception in 1970, Common Cause began a quite revolution in American electoral politics and by 1977 had successfully lobbied for two major election reforms, including limited funding of Presidential elections with the aid of public reaction to the Watergate scandals. It has been busy making more ambitious efforts thereafter to transform the American system of campaign funding, provoked by two factors. First, money has become more important than merit. Second, successful candidates either required independent fortunes or became indebted to special interest. (In 1970, twenty millionaires ran for the Senate.) Two years ago, Common cause had a budget of 5.3 million dollars annually. Most of this came from the dues ($15 a year) of its 250,000 members.
\nTime alone will tell how far the new movement for more effective participation by our people in the electoral process through the Voters\u2019 Council will succeed. One thing alone is clear. The task is stupendous, considering the vastness of the country. But it is not impossible provided those who have taken the initiative are able to back it up with effective action even in a hundred constituencies and successfully enthuse the common folk to join the new movement. Lack of funds is certain to create a handicap. However, this, too, need not prove insurmountable. The 1977 poll showed something which none could imagine earlier. Media is not necessarily the message. Indeed, message is the message. The people asserted themselves magnificently in 1977. There is no reason why they should not reassert themselves now when the danger ahead is no less. Ultimately, mere indignation, howsoever strong, will not do. Only, an organized popular effort can help clean up public life and save democracy. \u2014 INFA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Inder Jit (Released on 4 September 1979) In the backdrop of the churnings in the society we are witnessing, it appears that times have barely changed, whether under one government or another. The article threw up ideas what we could do as citizens. Indeed, food for thought. Revulsion against the current state of politics […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-143523","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-features"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143523\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}