Forum for Swadeshi Democracy

The Constituent Assembly committed a grave error in rejecting Gandhi and instituting an anti-people Constitution, based on exploitative colonial institutions. Legislators will not now institute reforms that reduce their own power. The only legitimate, non-violent process is reforms by the sovereign people themselves, through referendums. If not instituted soon, poverty through exploitation will increase violence escalating to anarchy.

OBJECTIVES OF THE FORUM

1 Mobilise public opinion about the fundamental flaws in our anti-people Constitution based on exploitative institutions that can only lead to increasing human, environmental, economic and political degradation.

2 Create awareness about the need for a total change in the system of governance based on the Indian ethos of power flowing upward from the people, as advocated by Gandhi and practiced in the best democracies of the world.

3 Launch movement for instituting Sovereign Rights Commissions with authority to direct referendums, to bring about reforms through the will of the common people.

MEMBERSHIP

We invite you to join the Forum for Swadeshi Democracy by sending a cheque for Rs 50/- (Write particulars on the back. No receipt will be issued.). We plan to bring out a monthly newspaper "Swadeshi Democracy" to keep you posted about the developments and write about your initiatives.

Convenors: Ashok Khosla & SK Sharma

August, 1999 Managing Trustees, People First

Swadeshi Democracy

FOR ALL ROUND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT AND SELF-RELIANCE

Origin of the Constitution,

not of Sonia Gandhi, is the issue.

The Constitution has been authenticated in the name of "We, the people". We, the people assigned all our resources to the union and state governments, authorised the representatives elected by us to take all decisions on our behalf, and allowed them to keep the decisions secret from us. We authorised them to institute an overbearing state bureaucracy not accountable to us, and empowered it to rule over us at the local level. We, the people, may be poor and illiterate but not morons to give to ourselves such a constitution! It was clearly imposed on us without ascertaining our wishes, and authenticated in our name in violation of our trust. The legitimacy of the Constitution, authenticated in violation of the trust of the people, is questionable. Except for the fundamental rights, declared sacrosanct as the basic structure by the Supreme Court, the Constitution is fundamentally faulty.

Power having got centralised, the common people never got the sensation of freedom. They are still subjects of the local bureaucracy. Remote control democracy with no local accountability led to criminalisation of politics and abuse of land and forests, perpetuating poverty and illiteracy. Reluctant to let go power, the legislators have now instituted Panchayati Raj, as a dysfunctional diarchy of the district bureaucracy and elected Zila Panchayats. It has increased abuse and corruption. Absence of defined jurisdictions with accountability at every level, and effective transparency mechanisms, have led to excessive overheads, resulting in an all round social, environmental, economic and political degradation. The Westminster parliamentary system, by mixing-up the executive and legislature, violates the basic principles of management. It is not suited for a large nation with diverse interests such as India.

1 Basic Structure of Universal Democracy

Democracy can best be defined as how the common people would like to be governed. If given the choice, the people would first retain their resources with local governments (village/urban-neighbourhood, sub-district/city-ward, and district/city) for handling all local matters including administration of justice, police, education, healthcare, water systems and forests. They would devolve the remaining resources to the state and national governments for (1) providing a higher level infrastructure, (2) supporting regions with inadequate resources, and (3) coordinating, but not interfering in local decision-making.

In order to prevent the abuse of authority, people would institute their sovereign rights to information, consultation, participation and referendum. These are higher than the fundamental rights. By involving the people in the decision-making, these rights activate the mental and spiritual energies of the people for self and social development.

The people would make the elected executives at all levels directly accountable to them, and not via the elected body, with the right to reject all candidates seeking election and to recall those elected. Legislators would perform watchdog functions, not assume executive powers.

The people would also institute effective mechanisms, such as departmental heads appointed on contract with the approval of the elected body, to make the bureaucracy directly accountable to them.

Along with certain rights regarded as fundamental to democracy, the above can be said to be the basic structure of universal democracy. Gandhi advocated such a democracy.

2 Indian Ethos

SECULAR FORCES led by the Congress, use favours such as reservation to woo minority and disadvantaged communities as vote banks. Using the policy of such favours, divide and rule, and links with the powerful in villages, they have frozen our social ills, such as caste and religious conflicts, in time and space. They now argue that in view of such discords, power cannot be given at local levels.

HINDUTVA, as advocated by the BJP and the Sangh Parivar, tends to convey a perverted view of Hindu ideology. As a result, many people associate Hinduism with religious bigotry and construction of a Ram Mandir at a controversial site in Ayodhya.

SOCIALISM has collapsed in the Soviet Union and China. Some political parties in India still swear by it. Most leaders pay homage to Gandhi, but have thrown his ideology and version of socialism in the dustbin.

HINDUISM is based on henotheism, or oneness of various manifestations of a universal super-consciousness, and is truly secular. Thus, Hinduism, in its philosophical form, accepts enlightened souls such as Christ and Mohammad as incarnations of god. On the other hand, monotheistic religions have difficulty in admitting the legitimacy of other faiths.

RAM RAJ stands for good governance, based on gram swaraj, in which the village assembly (consisting of all adult men and women) controls all village resources and decision-making. The monarch respects people’s opinion, and ensures that the smaller lords and bureaucracy provide security and other support services, but do not exploit or interfere in village governance.

GANDHI, the father of the nation, social thinkers such as Vivekanand, Tagore and Aurobindo, and the founder of the RSS, Hegdewar, advocated such a swadeshi democracy. It is practiced in the best democracies of the world and, as such, is post-modern. What we need to do is to install Ram in our hearts and in our Constitution, not in a controversial site. The people of Ayodhya district should decide about the site, being a local matter, without interference by higher level politics and priesthood.

Gandhi added some powerful features for containing consumption and promoting social justice and equity. These have become highly relevant for global sustainability.

3 A Mixed-up Ideological Cocktail

The political system has thrown the Indian ethos, values and ideology into the dustbin. It has laced exploitative colonial institutions and practices and abusive Westminster parliamentary system, with Soviet type wasteful centralised planning and an inefficient controlled economy.

Facing bankruptcy, it is belatedly drifting into an open economy – a poor copy of the consumer-driven western model. The lack of transparency is resulting in widespread abuse and corruption. It now proposes to add the German variation of the faulty Westminster parliamentary system, thus creating a totally mixed-up ideological cocktail!

4 Reforms through Referendums

The legislators, abusing centralised authority, are not likely to promulgate the desired democratic reforms. The only method by which such reforms can now be instituted is by the sovereign people themselves through referendums.

According to Justice MN Venkatachaliah, referendum is the supreme sovereign right of the people, intrinsic to democracy, and exists even if not specifically provided for in a constitution. A procedure is needed for exercising it.

To facilitate reforms through referendums, the Law Commissions should be upgraded to independent "Sovereign Rights Commissions" with authority to direct referendums, except on issues fundamental to democracy or the integrity of the nation. There can thus be no referendum on making the state theocratic, or a region seceding. This will institute a legitimate, apolitical, non-violent process for reforms, based on the will of the people.

Citizen groups should confront the political system, force it to accept the destructive nature of the present system, and compel it to institute such Commissions. Once there is a wide public demand, a writ can be sought from the superior courts for a referendum, an intrinsic sovereign right of the people, on instituting such Commissions. Many argue that the courts have no jurisdiction. An interpretation that makes the sovereign impotent is legally untenable.

Gandhi observed, "The State represents violence in a concentrated and organised form. The individual has a soul but as the state is a soulless machine, it can never be weaned away from violence to which it owes its very existence". Like the Rajguru of bygone days, these Commissions will function as the conscience keeper of the state, based on the values of the society as a whole.

5 Demand for Open Debate