This book is written by Arvind Kejriwal and is supposed to
be one of the very few writings for AAP volunteers, as a guideline to their
ideological stand and guide for work!
The author starts the book to show how the people, the owner
of this country, have no control over the government employees, government or
the public money, government policies and laws and finally no control over the
natural resources! He even “suspects” that the big corporates of India and even
those of foreign origin control our politics and economy! I quote the author on
page 3, “I now question myself, ‘Do foreign powers actually control our
Parliament?’” In next page he substantiates his suspicion by quoting Civil
Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill, which ensure Rs 1500 Crore, Radia tape
scandal!!
The author has widely travelled and the above is not bookish
knowledge but part of his personal experience while working within system and
promoting his NGO, and trying to find a solution to corruption, unemployment
and miseries of people!
It is natural that outcome of his findings were part of his
personal experience and he had no or minimum, or very little knowledge of
others’ findings before him or even that of his contemporaries; what are the
root cause of exploitations of the people!
Page 14- “It is obvious that the government does have money
but it is being used on things that are unnecessary”! He further quotes various government schemes,
like old age pension, widow pension, NREGA, etc! If people have control over
the money allotted to them, road to Swaraj will be built!
On BPL author says, everybody wants to be a beggar. Everybody wants to
be on a list of beggars. There is race to be beggars. How is such a country
ever going to progress?
So far, I have been able to, at least I think so, to explain
the mind-set of the author! A petty bourgeois mind-set! Middle class, honest may be, but pseudo-intellectual!!
With all his travel, work with poor through NGO, he is not able to shed off his
philistinism, blames people to be wanting to become parasites! Today the world
has amassed wealth enough to feed more than 10 times the existing population on
Earth for decades and all that due the labour power produced by the workers and
peasants!!
His observation on
Land is very right! On pages 19-21, he gives reason, why land acquisition is
against farmers. It is taken by force, at the lowest compensation, talks of
tribal land, nothing is given to peasant labours, who had been working on these
lands! Few who get lands, ‘compensate’ the bureaucrats and political leaders
but the peasants, the landless peasants and the labour gets ruined! SEZs are
approved in Cabinet meeting within minutes and farmers are routed!
Same goes for minerals. I quote, “…. Government is selling
them to private companies at unwarrantedly at low prices. Private companies do
not use these resources for the betterment of the country. They mine these
resources and sell them in international markets for huge profits.”- Page 21.
Forests
This chapter is heart
breaking. “Tribal had no papers to show
the ownership of the land on which they had been living for centuries……..
became criminals on their own land…….. declared government property”, author
rightly shows meaning of “development” after the British left India!!
Very well brought
out, this phenomenon is not Indian but of the world but sadly author fails to
link this to “Private Property”! He is of the opinion that the remedy is
removing corruption and not socialisation of the land; negation of original
small natural plots, brought about by the dispossession of 10,000s tribal
natural habitats and even in the other parts of India and transferred them to
the few capitalists and MNCs and now need is to negate these huge chunk of
lands in hands of few to the society, to the government and re-establish the
landless peasants and workers, as part of commune but not as individuals, as
before, surviving on small plots, forest produces!!
Now forest produces in form of Tendus, Bamboos, etc worth
Crore is being enjoyed by the contractors, politicians and the capitalists,
whereas the tribal get few bucks in lieu to work for them! So is with water resources, including river
being given to foreign companies!
So, having described the woes of people, the author asks if
we have democracy. Do we have control over our own national resources?
Solution, as per him, is participation of people in decision making, denying
the basic of democracy is election in 5 years. He doesn’t attack the right to
property!! He doesn’t attack capitalism!
In fact the author will love to have king as head of
society, who listens to his people as he explains with some story. He wants us
to believe us that such society is possible and nothing wrong with the past
system. He glosses over happily, that the history of Monarchy is history of
tyranny, dictatorship, inequality, degradation of woman’s honour and their
exploitation! Going back into history is utopia or worse to befool mass and show
them a dream, which will never be fulfilled and by the way makes the ideologues
of capitalism happy!
He shows his
philistinism by quoting Lord Metcalfe, acting GJ in 1830 on page 33, “…the
foundation of this country was gram sabha. People would meet and the whole
village would decisions. ….”!! Who will like to remind him of the deep feudal
exploitation in India and world over and such statements is gross injustice to
the people, peasants, surfs who suffered infinitely in hands of landlords,
casteism and who even had to let their women be used by the masters as sex
slaves and who fought bravely and sacrificed their lives to change old feudal
system???
(See a glimpse of repression of peasants by the feudal in
Hyderabad in pre and post independent India http://indiaopines.com/sardar-vallabhbhai-patel-telangana-movement-politics/
)
Short comings of Gram Panchayat, author lists out limited
power, dictatorial Pradhan, though he rues the unlimited power of Collector or
BDO who can suspend Pradhan for being corrupt! Logic fails!
Today, capital is concentrated in few hands, one example
will suffice. There are 100 Indians who control more than half the wealth, that
what the rest of Indians have! So, is the centralised political power,
judiciary and bureaucratic power to help the capital grow further. Capital; a
dead entity, but grows only on living labour power, must remain in motion. Any
decline or even being stationary, the capital loses the competition and gets
merged into the winner or even gets annihilated!
The centralisation of power in state and few influential
hands is not due corruption but due need of capital and corruption, bureaucracy
is a by-product, though necessary, of this need, not understood by the author.
Yes, Swaraj, need to decentralise the power, has to abide to
the central power, while the centre must understand the need of local units of
society, as ‘different’ entity of the full nation! This is contradiction, like
that of a family and a child! Family must understand the need of child for the
latter to grow, while the child will have to follow the family’s culture,
economic limitations, and latter’s position, where it has reached in the
history!
Swaraj, like in Ralegan Siddhi, is utopia. It receives all
industrialised products from the rest of India, like electricity and even
thread and needle! 1000s of Ralegan, if united, will destroy the nation, as
nation needs the modern industry and agriculture to survive, nay, progress
enough to be free of economic chains and act like humans, not like animals,
working 24/7/356 to manage subsistence and not give time in humanly acts,
music, arts, education, science, spiritualism!
Backward Region
Grant Fund
Author takes us to 2 villages, where this scheme is in vogue
and exposes the whims and fancies of the Collectors of these regions in
spending the grant and how corruption nullifies the ‘would be progress’!
Author wants us to believe that once power is ‘transferred’
to Gram Panchayat, things will be alright, as these people will sit together,
decide what they want and do wonders with the grant they are getting! Forget
about class contradiction, the need of capital to grow and exploit the working
class, the root of corruption, law of uneven development, etc which is
essential part of capitalism; is obliterated; knowingly or unknowingly is not
important!
Example of Other Countries where People Participate in
Decisions Making!!
Now, author wants us to believe in US democratic system, he
says, “In America, no decision is taken without the participation of the
people, be it at the local, city, municipality, or even the country level…….”
Page 49!
I can’t believe, is author such naïve or he wants us to be
naïve or is he a real agent of capitalism and imperialism! Do I need to cite
examples of US democratic norms in domestic matters; there are 1.6 million
children in US who survive on food stamp and on country level, millions of
people were in street against Vietnam War and before invasion on Iraq, who took
decision?
Next example is
Brazil, he says literacy rate due people’s participation is 100% and other
progress has been stamped by World Bank! What lie, literacy rate is high but
close to 92% and he wants us to believe in World Bank and not what millions of
workers and students were on streets only previous year against unemployment
and corruption! Arvind Kejriwal is spreading superstition!
Even, the example of Switzerland, as a ‘best democracy’ is
misplaced! One must understand the meaning of ‘super profit’, these nations
make by squeezing their own workers and peasants, in addition to those of 3rd
world nations through finance capital, FDI(By the way, AAP opposes it) and even
through outright military aggression! These nations bribe the labour leaders
and the upper stratum of the labour aristocracy. These minority section of
working class, do enjoy a portion of ‘development’ and other facilities jointly
with the elite capitalists and us, the philistines, envy them and try to
emulate them!
Form of Swaraj or people’s participation is understood by
his model, visible in p56-57, where he wants people to select doctors, teachers
(Teachers from village itself with Rs 5000/month!!!!!!) and if needed be fired
by them only and not by a panel of experts, appointed by governments! Poor
villagers, what will they do, appoint a panel of experts to appoint the expert
to serve them! It’s not simple childish but its opposing the technical,
organisational, social, scientific expertise that the humanity has achieved;
instead of moving ahead of present, with all the knowledge acquired by us, but
he wants us to move backward in history, which is impossible, and that too with
the ill knowledge of past feudal India, that was a historical ugly spot in our
progress in civilisation, which saw endless miseries and exploitation, known as
“Asiatic Barbarism”!!
Author gives an example of a village in Chennai, where a
Sarpanch plans to start production of soap, oil, bricks, etc (P 60-61). He does
not consider economic viability of small scale industry and also does not talk
of consuming entire products or will he be asking them to sell them,
anti-thesis of production is distribution and if so, who will buy these
expensive and qualitatively ‘poor’ products (Mass scale production, permits
higher technology and cheaper and better products)! Petty bourgeois romance in
name of Swaraj!
Small scale industry
was negated by big scale industry for higher rate of profit due technology,
management, lesser cost due mass production, comparatively smaller size of area
needed, and better quality and this phenomenon is not national but
international! Bigger industry destroyed smaller en-mass world over, yet there
are ‘day-dreamers’ who fantasise reverse to take place, even they try so, and
like philistine, take pride in few success, whereas 100s of them get destroyed
due competition or get merged into the winners!
Author, now, rues on lack of democratic norms in political
parties, against their leaders’ high handedness, that of Sonia Gandhi,
Mayavati, Gadkari, etc. He is right but he would have never known what is
Central Leadership or Democratic Centralism; lack of that understanding forced
Shazia Ilmi to quit AAP and now I am happy to note that the author, as Delhi CM
has understood its meaning by his personal experience and implementing;
Yogendra Yadav, Prashant Bhushan who did not ‘obey’ the leader, are out of AAP
undemocratically!
Solutions as per the
Swaraj
Having seen the problems cited by the author; basically the
corruption, allotment of resources in wrong hands and bureaucracy are the root
evil and naturally the solution lies in decentralisation of power and
resources, at least at smaller level. The author will like to see Panchayat’s
control over Land, Mine, Forests, Water. The tasks and authority must be
clearly defined between the state and Panchayat sphere of action!
He is not for change in constitution but only for reforms
and feels, if people have power, the politicians’ corrupt ways will be curtailed
(P-70-71)!!
Few examples do
follow but cannot be verified by me, yet taking it to be true, we must also
have more examples where such villages who did well under Swaraj but perished
later due stiff competition against monopolised market and other administrative
reasons!
Where all this Swaraj help? Author wants us to believe
education, health, Naxalite problems, Alcoholism, poverty/hunger/unemployment
will be tackled in favour of mass!
Book is unnecessarily made lengthier by adding chapters like
“Baseless Fears…..”, where he says Dalits won’t suffer by Panchayats. He gives
his full support to Gram Sabhas against Khaps (Khap in Modern India http://awazaapki.org/aap-on-khap-panchayat/
), Social evils will not increase, infighting will reduce, etc.
Author has rightly,
no faith in MLAs or MPs, even if they are individually honest and good as their
power as part a party or system is limited. But in next line, while dealing
reforms(105), he falters; though says that reform to change political system
must to change power centres but does not talk of real power centre that is
capital! Political economy remains obscured!
Character Building
and Structural Reforms: I recommend readers to read pages 106-107 as author
rightly says individual can’t defeat system and remain honest!
Well, the book shows concerns of author, his analyse but
inadequate solution, where he wants to cure symptoms! I believe large number of
copies are sold (Have seen thousands of them were distributed free, or from the
funds of party), rate is only Rs 10/copy), but same time I know, very few AAP
supporters and volunteers have read it, forget about understanding it!
Hope mass leaders and mass itself get freedom from imaginary
Swaraj, Ram Rajya; where the society wants to move back in time and gains even
worse society based on deeper exploitations by capital and henchmen!
