A pleasant political evening

Nowadays I don't mind getting spammed about events in town, and that's how I learnt about a panel discussion called "New Age political movements in India", at St. Joseph's College of Commerce earlier today. It was organized by Jaagte Raho, which I guess is the continuation of the "Jaago Re" voter registration drive set up by Janaagraha. Around 70 people attended.

The panelists were a member of Lok Satta Party (link) called Dr. Shankara Prasad, and an ex-IFS man called B. Shantanu, who has founded a political group (not party!) called Freedom Team India (link). The overall theme was energizing more people to vote, spread electoral awareness etc.

Dr. Shankara Prasad (left) and B. Shantanu (center) with moderator

Shantanu believes that in a couple of decades, India will have a big enough middle class that classical liberalism can be a viable political plank. Until then, when most people are living hand-to-mouth, they won't be interested in individual freedoms or restricting government. He also believes that by then the Internet and mobile will cut down publicity costs for any political party, and it's possible to build a grassroots network that circumvents mainstream media.

Slide about Freedom Team India's ideology

For now, Shantanu is only interested in getting people "to think, and to read" as he put it and engage in serious debate on political issues. He hopes that in a few years he'll have MP's running as liberals in some Lok Sabha seats. And Freedom Team will remain a non-electoral but political association of like-minded people.

Dr. Shankara (who also happens to be contesting BBMP polls from Rajarajeshwari Nagar) spoke next and emphasized the need for honest people to contest elections, and how Lok Satta is slowly but surely making a difference. He pointed out that India has 3 million elected representatives counting from Gram Panchayats to MP's, some of them illiterate or socially backward. That being the reality, we have to start from the bottom up and put competent people in charge of local governments first. He cited his own efforts in the outskirts of Bangalore due to which the gram panchayat there operates transparently.

But it seems a stretch to call this platform an "ideology":

The Q & A session that followed was fairly long. Much of it involved the mechanics of voting itself - why turnout is low; is voting worth it; should it be mandatory..so on. A word here about Jaagte Raho: These people are pushing for voter registration with a missionary zeal! And there are a lot of young volunteers who are willing to work hard towards that. I wish them all the best.

However Shantanu made an admittedly outrageous remark that he thinks increasing voter turnout is an over-rated concept and he wished people would be more aware of the issues instead. Well, I do wish that Jaagte Raho doesn't get consumed in electoral politics and these young minds expose themselves to a wide range of ideologies also. As the moderator himself confessed, sometimes after a lot of campaigning they only see a marginal change in turnout and it's not like better candidates are getting elected anyway.

A gathering like this is also fascinating for the kind of people who you encounter. Like this one guy (mid 20's) behind me who stood up and said he contested for Lok Sabha from Bangalore South last year as an independent. Wow!

And another person called Anand Bala (early 30's?) who's quit a decent private sector job and travelled all over India last year just in order to "politically sensitise" himself in a deeper way. He mentioned that he's changed many of his viewpoints after these journeys. He raised some opposition to Shantanu's free market approach by arguing a role for government intervention too.

And there was this other chap who had a foreign twang and asked very pertinent questions. Most memorably why does Shantanu's plank not talk about healthcare and schooling? He introduced himself as a bachelors student in History, Econ and Political Science. I was stupefied to see a flesh and blood sample of this endangered species in Bangalore.

Later on, I spent some time in a group who were chatting with Shantanu mainly. In fact what piqued me to go for this talk was a reference to Hayek's Fatal Conceit in the very first page of the FTI's principles. He runs a blog called Satyameva Jayate, and is currently shuttling b/w UK and India as he prepares to move back to India. I haven't checked him out in any detail yet.

My only previous experiences of political gatherings are a couple I attended in London. Over there once the formal discussion is over people head to the drinks table and pick up where they left off, and I used to look outlandish sipping bright orange-coloured juice. But here it's hot samosas and smaaall cups of tea for everyone :)