India needs civil society movement

AAP still does not represent the change that this country needs

prahlad

Prahlad Rao | February 6, 2015 | New Delhi


AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal campaigning in Delhi on February 05.
AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal campaigning in Delhi on February 05.

The national capital votes on Saturday for its assembly. The aggressive campaigning by all political parties came to an end at 6 pm on Thursday. Campaigning took a dramatic turn in the last phase as opinion polls gave a kind of walk over to Arvin Kejriwal-led AAP.

If these opinion polls are right, the AAP will return to form government in Delhi. Other state parties and communist outfits have declared support to Kejriwal brand of politics.

But, the Kejriwal brand of politics is possible only in Delhi. It cannot be replicated in states or in other urban areas. Delhi is different; it is national capital and people see the working or non-working of the government at close quarters.

The birth of Aam Aadmi Party can be attributed to citizens participation but it is not a product of enlightened civil society movement. The AAP’s victory will be an expression of disenchantment with politicians and the current political culture. Unfortunately, it may not spread to India, at least for few more years.

Consumer India is one important reason why rest of India may not see AAP in its backyard. Consumers buy a product or reject a product and the AAP is still not a properly produced product. The party and its chief are feeding on disenchantment and discourse of impractical solutions.

Unlike what many commentators are saying, AAP’s win in Delhi will not be a turning point in national politics. India needs a civil society movement at local levels and no party in Delhi is talking about this civil society.

Agreed, the way we are being governed has to change but grand promises are not way forward. The civil society should know its duties first and rights later. A citizen has to act like a driver steers the vehicle on the road.

Delhi will vote and polling begins at 8 am on Saturday, and wraps up at 6 pm. A total of 1,33,09,078 registered voters -- including 73,89,089 males, 59,19,127 women and 862 from "other gender" – are eligible to cast their ballots. Results will be out on February 10 (Tuesday).

Comments

 

Other News

Boost to offshore wind energy projects

In a major decision, the Government has decided to grant waiver of ISTS charges to Off-Shore Wind Projects and extend the waiver to Green Hydrogen/Green Ammonia. This decision has been taken to facilitate wider execution of offshore wind energy initiatives, to promote the expansion of Green Hydrogen / Gree

Duty of stakeholders to provide cost effective, alternate energy fuels: Gadkari

Urging use of alternative and cost effective fuels to reduce pollution caused by vehicles, union road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari on Thursday said finding cost-effective fuels is the need of the hour and underlined that use of fuels like bio-CNG and green hydrogen help in protecting the e

Record production of rice, wheat, and sugarcane estimated

The foodgrain production of 3305.34 lakh tonnes is estimated in the current agricultural year 2022-23 – higher by 149.18 LMT as compared to the previous year, according to the Third Advance Estimates of production of major crops released by the ministry of agriculture and farmers welfare.

India`s ‘AIRAWAT’ ranks 75th in top 500 Supercomputing List

The AI Supercomputer ‘AIRAWAT’, installed at C-DAC, Pune, has been ranked 75th in the world. It was declared so in the 61st edition of Top 500 Global Supercomputing List on Tuesday at the International Supercomputing Conference (ISC 2023) in Germany. It puts India on top of AI S

Ocean Dialogue a great opportunity for G20 members

The ongoing third Environment and Climate Sustainability Working Group G20 meeting (May 21-23) has focused on three aspects: land degradation and reclamation of mining areas, Blue Economy and sustainable ocean management and resource sufficiency and circular economy. Leena Nandan, secretary,

Semi hi-speed trains, buses could be primary alternative to cars

We are not paying sufficient attention to the rapidly growing oil imports (from pre-Covid-19 to post-Covid, in 2022). They surged from 102 million tons (MT) in 2019-20 to 168 MT in 2022-23, an increase of 68%.   India is the largest importer of oil in the world, and, at current rate, we

Visionary Talk: Amitabh Gupta, Pune Police Commissioner with Kailashnath Adhikari, MD, Governance Now


Archives

Current Issue

Opinion

Facebook Twitter Google Plus Linkedin Subscribe Newsletter

Twitter