Socialist Party (India)
Resolution for ‘Chaukhambha
Raj’ Convention
A
different step in the creative evolution of the constitution will have to be in
the direction of the four pillar state. Village, district, state and centre:
these very four equally important and equally honorable pillars. (Dr. Ram
Manohar Lohia)
The country is
going through with unprecedented impulse towards centralization. Political power
has come to be centered in the Prime Minister’s Office, or more correctly, the
Prime Minister himself. The entire economic power seems to be devolving unto
certain national and international corporate houses and global institutions of corporate
capitalism like the World Bank, IMF, and WTO. All social and cultural power is
being orchestrated by a few majoritarian organizations with fascist prejudices.
The values of the struggle for independence, as well as the ideals of the Constitutions
are being sidelined to enforce the centralization of power at every level. Socialist Party believes that this is not a
sudden development, but the result of that ongoing process since Independence,
wherein a heavy industry based highly centralized economy and executive, and the
concentration of power in the huge bureaucracy, have helped convert our
democracy into a mere formal democracy. In this scenario, the participation of
the people in the democratic process is limited to the event of voting every
five years. The public deprived of its actual power have become either paralyzed
or lost direction. Not just this, it is now headed for social disintegration
and self destruction. Buried under the burden of the WTO, IMF, World Bank and corporate
houses, lakhs of farmers have been driven to suicide.
During the
struggle for freedom and even after it; leaders and thinkers have continuously
debated the important issue of the development/progress of the nation. This may
be somewhat simplistic, but nonetheless one could argue that two different
philosophies of development/progress have existed in our country. The first was formed in terms of the matrix
of heavy industry, urbanization and centralization. The second was based on
small scale industry, vibrant rural administration and the principles of
decentralization. Needless to say, the first philosophy alone has been
politically successful, while the second has always been present as a moral
imperative. The first philosophy has been represented by Jawaharlal Nehru, and
the second has had Mahatma Gandhi, Lohia and Jayprakash as its proponents.
The serious repercussions
of heavy industry, multipurpose projects, urbanization and centralized planning
came to the fore. Political parties and
leaders grew more and more irresponsible. The huge bureaucracy already
entrenched in colonial attitudes progressively absolved itself of any
answerablility. The lack of development of institutions of local governance led
to even further reduction of people’s participation in decision making
processes. Institutions like the Planning Commission scripted this entire act
by centralizing both power as well as resources. The results were visible right
from the second Five Year Plan. Population displacement was seen on a massive
scale, environment was destroyed, the gap between the rich and poor widened and
many communities and classes on the margins, like dalits, tribals, unorganized
labourers, small farmers, landless farmhands, fishermen, minorities, women and
children were en masse pushed over the edge economically and socially. Villages
and forests kept getting wrecked, quite as cities and industries grew and
flourished. These industries and towns have not only destroyed the environment,
they have also raised within themselves such appalling slums for displaced migrants
that are the very core of misery and permanent destitution. In such conditions even our legal structure
proved to be a mirage for the disempowered. Various anti-people colonial laws
rendered the lives of ordinary people increasingly difficult. Plans were made
for the deprived categories from time to time, but even these plans had a top
to bottom approach. There was no public participation in the plans. As a
result, these plans became the hub of corruption, and the public was even more
beholden to mainstream political parties. Now the Prime Minster has dissolved
the Planning Commission and declared that a ‘think tank’ will be instituted
instead of it. This ‘think tank’ will be directly answerable to the Prime
Minister. Which means that policies will now be made purely to benefit
corporate houses. In fact, they are quickly being thus made. Forest rights
laws, land acquisition laws, labour laws will all be changed to suit corporate
convenience. These neo-liberal policies will wreak further havoc on the already
suffering public.
From
Independence up till now, if we were to try to name one cause behind all the
problems plaguing our nation, it would be centralization : Centralization of power,
of decision making ability, of money and of resources. However, along with
this, we also have a parallel philosophical tradition available to us, based on
the principles of decentralization. This philosophy is based on the faith that
the general public is capable of deliberating upon, planning and executing
policies on all matters and issues that concern it. This philosophy believes
that our capitalistic, representational democracy is merely a formal
arrangement and it has no scope for a truly representational participation of
the public. This philosophy believes that the direction of directives,
decisions and plans in this country should not be from top to bottom but in the
reverse order. Authority should be decentralized and dispersed through every
locality and village. The need is to
work out a system where power is decentralized, which is based on people’s
participation, where all plans and projects of development can move upwards
from basic people’s units, and in which there is no interference of
bureaucracy.
On 26th
February 1950, astute socialist thinker and freedom fighter Dr. Ram Manohar
Lohia presented a detailed outline of participation based democracy in his speech
“Chaukhambha Raj” (four-pillar state). In a very lively analysis he says, “This
will be a way of life, which will be connected to every aspect of human life
like production, ownership, management, education, planning etc.” In this way
he conveyed how direct people’s participation is the life-force of democracy. Drawing
upon these ideas of Gandhi and Lohia, one demand has been ever present in this
country. This demand has manifested itself in various forms of laws and
experiments. Belated though it may be; our constitution has tried to embrace these
manifestations in the form of 73rd and 74th amendments.
To an extent our
constitution also provides provisions for the implementation of this
participatory democracy. Directives Principles of the State articulate the aim
of overcoming economic and social divisions with the help of people’s participation,
leading to the creation of an egalitarian society. Through constitutional
institutions like the panchayats, municipalities, district planning committees
and the state finance commissions, the structure of planning and finance
allocation from bottom to top is already in place. After the 73rd
and 74th constitutional amendments, local institutions have been
assigned such responsibilities and powers that ensure public participation at
the level of planning as well as implementation. The constitution calls these institutions of ‘self
governance’ instead of institutions of ‘local self governance’. Local self
governance implies institutions at local levels to resolve local issues. But
self governance means swaraj, that is, the public gets to decide and implement
decisions. This means that it will not be subservient to central institutions,
but will have equal status in the democracy. It has sovereign authority to make
plans, implement plans and to allocate finances as required. In this way our
constitution has provided us with an institutional structure which we can
strengthen to promote a participatory democracy.
Socialist Party
believes that the struggle for such participation based democracy and
sustainable human ecology centric development, moves forward on two planks. On
the one hand it uses people’s movements to raise the consciousness of people,
thereby empowering them; on the other, it uses as the starting point for its
ventures, the structures afforded within the Constitution for participatory
democracy.
Through this Punjab
convention, Socialist Party has launched a campaign for administrative and
economic decentralization in the country. Under its aegis, ‘Chaukhambha Raj’
convention will be held in all states and programs will be conducted at the
village, district, state and central levels. Without the decentralization of
power, the redistribution of wealth and land is not possible, which remains the
prime goal of socialism. Socialist Party calls out to other people’s movement
groups, political parties, social organizations, civil society activists,
intellectuals and especially the youth (who are opposed to corporate capitalism
and its model of development), that they
come and join this movement for constitutional and constructive
decentralization.
Thus stands the Socialist Party
Upholding brotherhood and equality
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