Clear in my mind that I got to join a political party this year. Intention is to understamd how parties work, from up close. Tired of constant flow of 3rd hand, 4th hand and via-media information, which comes in only one color, that political parties and politicians all stink like hell.
Some advise not joining any party, because then, advocacy work under Praja RAAG or any other banner may be harder. There could be some merit to this. Some advise joing AAP / Lok Satta type parties. But the my goal is to join a mainstream party to understand how they work and what exactly ails them.
My preference is to join a regional party. The best option there seems to be JD-S. However, a friend up north who is with BJP strongly advises not to join a regional party. His clear advice is to join either one of the big-2, so that every other year, there is some connect with some government somewhere, state or center. That is, should ordinary members of the political party be in a position to even do something with that connect, but that's exactly I want to learn and figure.
Coming to big-2, strong deep rooted bias against Congress (dynasty, have seen them ruin my state of birth up north through careful seeding of casteism and nepotism in early 80s, Nehruvian socialism) makes me think of BJP first. But then, BJP in Karnataka has been such a bad experience, such a disappointing and collective failure, that I think not twice but thrice.
Take a look at BJP in the state, and one can hardly think of young, bit modern yet progressive leaders around who Praja type of guys can connect with. Really, I just can't. One look at Congress, and I get 3-4 names, instantly.
There is lots wrong with every party of significant size (communalism, confused socialism, secularism, appeasement etc). So the hunt for a good or better party is usually futile. So I figure that it would be the best to join a party that has people around, here in Bangalore and Karnataka who people like us can connect with, can go talk to etc. And that is leading me to Congress right now :)
Why am I posting this though, its a personal thing after all? Just like that, wanted to share it out in the open, and encourage everyone to come out and join one party or the other. Politics has always been the real deal as far as activism is concerned. When people like you and me keep away, we contribute to this downward spiral, where public perception of politicians and parties is only worsening.
While brilliant and motivated folks try and clean up from one end by floating new and clean political startups, why not some of us enter at the other end, and experience the organizations first hand. Sounds like something worth trying, at least to me. If only I could figure which party to join :)
cheers,
SB aka Pranav
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Will go meet them, will post experiences here
Plan to go knock at Congress and JD-S doors first, and will share the experience, and whatever formalities they have for joining the parties.
In an unusual move, I have
In an unusual move, I have donated some money to AAP, meaning I support a political party as of now, with a hope that some positive changes would be brought to this rotten system! Tired of complaining and running from post to post for getting even a smallest task done ! Tried to suggest many many things in internet forums. Watched many many novel ideas(like Commuter Rail) from people(for example from praja.in) are appreciated but ignored. Watched many many parties with false promises. Even private organizations are corrupt, lethargic ! May god bring change in everyone ( in me too:-D )... This support is may not be permanent, but as of now I am impressed with what has been implemented already within the party and transparency rate at which party is working as of now. But things may turn out same even in case of AAP (if it can not fulfill what it promised), then I will write off my 500 as my money spent on a failed attempt for garbage pipe repair at my home.
PS: I am not registering with party though. So that means I am not that party ! I "studied" this Loksatta party and compared with available info at public domain.
My post in FB.
Forums can become more effective
Bheema, I feel that forums like this one here can become more effective if there is some connect with political party through individuals who are active at the forum as well as members of political parties.
Yes, I have shared Praja.In
Yes, I have shared Praja.In link to AAP, AAP Karnataka and AAP Bangalore. We have seen some Congressmen here already. Not sure if some BJP/JDS people are here officially. Lets see is someone jumps in officially. If not, I am sure, someone will come here at their personal capacity. When all parties join here, then it would a nice all-party Praja :) Lets wait and watch now.
PS: I am neither AAP man nor any other partyman:)
Surely not !
l find your logic a little perpelexing. When Yediyurappa's children used their influence to make a few crores through dubious deals, BJP threw him out and hence lost the election. When Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law earned a few thousand crores out of dubious land deals, the entire Union Cabinet was out defending him even before they went into the merits of the case. They continue to hound Khemka. So you support outright dishonesty ?
Inspite of obvious shortcomings, it is debatable whether BJP's govt. was worse than the previous Dharam Singhs of Congress. In my view it was better
Smartness not backed by moral uprightness and freedom of expression is dangerous. Hitlers lieutenants (or for that matter any dictator) were smart too. The top leadership of Congress consists of very smart people, but today corruption and bad fiscal management leading to inflation is making us all miserable. Their smartness is being used for the wrong purposes.
I worry that by joining such parties we do worse than by voting for them ... we propogate these very things we are up against.
My two pence experience. I campaigned for Loksatta. After a few weeks of campaigning where Ashwin was promising to develop Bommanahalli, there came a more glossier pamphlet from the BJP camp showing all the development done and promising more. The only way these parties would wake up is getting votes on honest and good governance agenda. Increasing their membership is only going to embolden them to continue what they are doing.
Suhas
Suhas, Sorry, to whom your
Suhas,
Sorry, to whom your post is addressed? Me or silkboard. Little confused :-D
SB, dont join Congress
should have been the heading.
Basically, dont join a party unless you are a strong supporter of its ideologicies, governance and policies. Dont join it casually, was my take., lest you promote the very thing that you are fighting against. And I was trying to explain that smart people like him do join political parties but end up getting compromised. And compromised smart people is what has created the mess today and in history. The first step to not getting compromised is not join them in the first place. In that sense it was a counter opinion to SB who felt we need to join political parties across the spectrum to get heard.
Now do I need one more post, to explain this one :)
Suhas