The Alternative
To change minds, channel votes and win elections, we need to offer an alternative. A new direction, a Nayi Disha. We need a clear purpose, a messaging pipe to reach out to people, political entrepreneurs to rise, a platform to unite these entrepreneurs and the voters, leading to a path to power and eventually prosperity. This is our struggle for a better India.
Purpose: The objective is clear – freedom. A completion of the unfinished mission of the Indian freedom struggle in the first half of the 20th century. We only attained independence from the British; we did not get political and economic freedom. We need the Indian Revolution to change the existing political and economic system. The current political system has concentrated power with a few at the top in politicians and bureaucrats who have become the new British – enacting law after law to extract and exploit Indians. The present economic system constrains enterprise and wealth creation. We need an India where individual freedom is the norm, where government is limited, where markets are allowed to function and where rule of law exists. We need an India where free and responsible Indians can engage in voluntary exchange that are win-win for both sides. Only in such an India will mass flourishing and prosperity happen.
Pipe: The first step to making this alternative vision of a new India a reality is to get the message across to large numbers – a pipe to the masses. In an increasingly repressive environment where the mundane could be seen as seditious, we need a mechanism to create safe spaces for people to communicate and coordinate. A content factory needs to constantly separate fact from the fiction we are fed, and to spread truth in a melange of falsehood forwards.
Preneurs: The second step is to facilitate the rise of political entrepreneurs – let’s call them ‘preneurs’ to distinguish them from business entrepreneurs and politicians. These preneus need to rise in every neighbourhood. The triad of debating societies, local circles and Sabhas can help the emergence of people with a genuine interest in making a better India.
Platform: The third step is to build a political platform that unites the non-aligned and non voters who together comprise two-thirds of Indians. This is where UVI (United Voters of India) comes in. It can facilitate digital co-ordination between the preneurs and the people.
Power: The final step to power is by winning elections. Independents, backed by UVI and selected via primaries, need to be voted to create a Swatantra Lok Sabha – independent of the politicians and their parties. This is the big, hairy audacious goal, the loonshot. Because without winning elections and forming a government, no change will be possible. The government so formed must dismantle the anti-prosperity machine and undo every measure that holds back Indians from wealth creation. This is the premise of the Nayi Disha manifesto and Dhan Vapasi.
Prosperity: An India that is free, equal and rich will be the eventual outcome once the new rules and processes are in place. There can be no prosperity without freedom for all and equality before law. We have not seen either in our lifetimes except as words in the Preamble of the Indian Constitution. Our lighthouse must be the US Constitution – get the rules right and let the people do the rest.
This is the better India we can create in our lifetime; this has to be our struggle. A billion Indians free from the tyranny of the state can look after themselves much better than a predatory government ever can. Indians thus freed can also contribute immensely to global progress and innovation, and Make Bharat Mahaan, as it once was.
