When the blatant form of Rajneeti institutionalised in our polities–India, since independence, and Nepal, since the monarchy had been dumped to pave the way for the democracy to take shape–the power, instead of being concentrated in the people, had been monopolised by the oligarchs in both the countries. Hence, a sunlit path towards the people becoming masters of their own destinies beckons them with a tremendous sense of urgency. No wonder, A Journey from Rajneeti to Lokneeti, the book which envisages the resplendent path as a way out of this Himalayan mess that the both countries are in today.
Vivekanand Jha Ranchi: The World today, especially the Asian sub-continent, is negotiating with the duplicitous times where the ‘individualism’ is skillfully camouflaged as the shining glory of a ‘robust democracy’, where a leader is showcased as the raison d’etre and the summum bonum of the nation. Significantly, whereas India evinces an immeasurable pride in showcasing its leader with 56 inch chest, Nepal too, a close neighbour next door, albeit till the recent past, stood beholden to the behemoth of an individual seeking to usurp the system, unless the Supreme Court of Nepal put a halt to K.P.Oli’s megalomaniac tendencies to subjugate the nation to his whims and fancy. Unequivocally, these are the the times of hypernationalism, where the econimic travails has been mischievously relegated to the backburner and the unconscionable degree and magnitude of religious frenzy is sought to be whipped up to institutionalise the religious polarisation for the sake of cementing vote bank politics. Worse still, the peoples of both countries who should logically and rationally have been the masters, have been pathetically reduced to being the cheerleaders of their representatives. Once, the process of election is over, the political representatives are safely secured in their cocoons, whereas the people who elect them run from the piller to post with their owes and sorrow, ironically though, finding no traction with their representatives, stand devastated at the altar of the never ending cul de sac.
Significantly, with the benefits of hindsight, since independence, with the advent of Constitutional Democracy, where the power was vested in the people, paradoxically though, found themselves utterly helpless once they elect their representatives. The various political permutations and combinations worked out to hoodwink the people by politicians, invariably exposes the myriad lacunae within the framework of Constitutuonal Democracy, where the votes of individuals, over time, became purchaseable for even as less as five hundred rupees or in lieu of some beer bottle. Worse still, those elected –even at the grassroot level, the Village head–consider themselves kings with full impunity from any omisssion and commission they commit in the process. Should not the people who elect their representatives have the right to recall them as and when they so wished, if they prove themselves as NPA as our nationalised banks? Should democracy, as it operates today, more like monarchies in the real life scenario, than the democracy as it should be, deserve a metamorphosis; a trasformation into the form of democracy that our constitutional forefathers had actually envisaged? Indeed an upcoming book A Journey from Rajneeti to Lokneeti does prescribe a way out of this Himalayan mess that both India and Nepal are in today.
The potent instrument envisaged in the book which will ensure the return of the power back in the hands of people is, ‘Public Rating’. Public Rating, henceforth, will be the pivot around which the whole idea of governance shall revolve. No public project, of whatsoever level of significance, can kickstart unless the Public Rating has given the positive signal to go ahead with the project. Public Portal is another conceived mechanism to ensure that the public communicates its views and opinion through the Public Portals. Moreover, the system of Public Rating and Public Portal shall be institutionalised from the top to the bottom–from the Union government level to that of the Gram Panchayat level. Significantly, the double pension claimed by MP’s and MLA’s shall stand quashed; henceforth, the pension rule for people’s representatives shall be at par with the people. No special privileges shall be extended to the representatives of the people. Moreover, the politicians, bureaucrats and judges shall be subject to Public Rating. The new journey towards Lokneeti envisages the complete public scrutiny of judgements pronounced by judges. Significantly, the Contempt of Court’s Act, 1971 too shall be amended to make judgments amenable to public scrutiny.
Significantly, a journey from Rajneeti to Lokneeti is long overdue, both in India and Nepal, and even across the globe. However, the politicians, in both India and Nepal, have robbed the peoples of both these countries of enjoying the power. On the contrary, they have been misled into believing that their cheering for their leaders tantamounts to ensuring their political salvation. This wrong perception must cease; few people, in the name of democracy, should not be allowed to control our destinies. It is the time to call the bluffs of our leaders to be our Bhagya Vidhata; it is, in fact, the peoples of India and Nepal should be their own Bhagya Vidhatas, not their elected representatives; the latter, in fact, should be treated as the servants, which they defintively are. Even though we are late, still it is never late to open our eyes to see the reality before us: religious identity should be subsumed by the national identity of being Indians and Nepalis, first. Small wonder then, let us all say ‘no’ to blatant form of ‘Rajneeti’ which has made us prisoners of our own past belief, and boldly, yet definitively, welcome the resplendent vision, as encompasses in A Journey From Rajneeti to Lokneeti to dawn in both of our countries. No wonder, the paradigmatic shift that is visualised through a kaleidoscopic vision as envisaged in the book A Journey From Rajneeti to Lokneeti ushers in Ram Rajya in India and Nepal and across the world. Let us all wecome the glorious vision of Lokneeti which is awaiting to tangibly empower us as the citizens of Bharatvarsha and Nepal.
Vivekanand JhaAuthor of A Journey From Rajneeti to Lokneeti.He is an author, academician and a Public Intellectual.
He is the Convener of Education pe Charcha.
