Nayi Disha: A People’s Pipe for Prosperity (Part 5)

Past Writings – 4

My Manthan talk brought many of these ideas together. “Our revolution is to change the rules of the game, not merely replace the people while the rules continue to be the same…To de-couple governmental power from the power to extract wealth from the national economy, the institution of political parties has to be dismantled. That necessitates a new set of rules, not new rulers who wield the same old power to control the lives of others. To do that, the netas and the babus have to be defanged, and the political party system has to be dismantled…We the people must control the Lok Sabha. We have to elect MPs who are independent of political parties. They will have the incentive to serve the people…This will require unity among voters – a selectorate larger than that of any political party. This is “United Voters of India” (UVI) – new power to replace the old…This is a decentralized movement that has no central command and control. Every UVI candidate is chosen by the people of the constituency and therefore only accountable to the people…Community organising would be required to convey the core principles of limited government, of self-determination, and create a sense of shared purpose among the lakhs of voters in each constituency. This can be achieved through a combination of in-person persuasion and digital coordination. Done right, UVI, built on the foundations of grassroots community organising, can make Mission Free543 a success by winning in the national elections to form a Lok Sabha of Independents… The primary focus of the new government will be to unshackle the Indian civil and commercial society from the clutches of the license, permit, quota, control raj. The result of achieving this would be to increase economic growth, and create well-paying jobs. The economic part of the agenda is Mission 10-20-30. It stands for the creation of 10 crore (100 million) jobs, within 20 months, paying at least Rs 30,000 a month…We can choose a Nayi Disha. Or we can choose to be what we are. It’s up to us – to choose and act.”

I discussed the pipe in an earlier series on Changing Minds for Nayi Disha: Attention to Action. “A content factory and a pipe. These are the two building blocks for changing minds. To get people to act, we need to get them to pay attention. The content factory needs to lay out the new ideas and package them in an attractive manner so they can cut through the clutter and impact people… How does one create a content distribution mechanism to reach tens of millions daily, cost-effectively? In doing so, each of these recipients has to become a micro-influencer spreading the messages further downstream. New “customers” must be attracted continuously to increase numbers to reach the 30% critical mass in every polling booth, neighbourhood and Lok Sabha constituency in India. And eventually, this pipe must also help attract candidates aligned with the Nayi Disha agenda… The combination of a content factory, an email distribution list, and WhatsApp redistribution can lay the foundation for a pipeline to get a different set of messages out to people – messages which they will never get from their regular media sources…To change minds, we need to get their attention and then nudge them towards action. To get attention, we need to create a content factory which educates and persuades. This content needs to be then distributed via email and WhatsApp to tens of millions – a pipe that bypasses government controlled media properties and platforms. One person at a time, this all-digital movement needs to grow in strength…Once the outreach is there, attention needs to be transformed into action. This is where the Nayi Disha app needs to play a starring role. By borrowing ideas from successful mobile games, it needs to encourage actions and teamwork to create winning coalitions in every part of India to fulfil the endgame of a Lok Sabha of Independents. The numbers are there – two-thirds of Indians are either non-aligned or non-voters. This is the audience that must be persuaded to unite against the politicians and their parties for a free and rich India.”