Saturday, November 20, 2010

My vision of a Green Party in India


Perhaps the most finest and strongest realization of my life is coming to terms with essence of life which defies any scientific rational except survival-survival for families, children and for the next generation. Now imagine, what are we leaving behind for next-generation? Will that be habitable India at all? Truth is, our modern cities have less amenities and urban planning than Harappa and Mahenjodaro civilization. On the top, the whole population is the victim of a system where political parties do not pay any heed to environmental need of India. The result is worse than a terrible impending environmental catastrophe- our forests are getting depleted faster than we can even fictionalize, rivers are being killed rampantly by greedy population supported by a very short sighted politics ( I made a documentary on
killing of rivers 3 years back -please watch i
t ), the entire political process of the country has been hijacked by the nexus of BIG corporates, mainstream media, bureaucrats and politicians and the quality of Indian water and air is degrading every day. Food security is worsening, energy security is in political quagmire and a roadmap to green economy is unheard!

That does not mean green activism is new to India. There are thousands of NGO working in this area but unless we can form a political force, a formidable voice of India for green and environment, these NGOs will not be able to execute efficiently. Green economy which needs Government support can not get any sailing wind unless a political force is born to push our policy makers.

On the top, there are issues of democracy. Our political parties allow very little democracy to its members as evident from the expulsion of Jaswant Singh, Ex-speaker Somnath Chatterjee and many more incidents exposing the lack of intra-party democracy inside our political parties.
Yes, there are a lot of corruption issues and I believe only technology and democracy-working in unison can solve most of it. Technology provides an efficient system of monitoring and
democracy provides a public vigilance. Therefore, instead of taking to street, we need to strengthen democracy and adopt more technology in Governance.

What's about country's 300 million half starved people and 400 million illiterates?
What I hate in all political parties is their crocodile cry for India's poor. Experience
and history taught us-poverty has been eliminated only in the system that guarantees
and promote high level of production, innovation and entrepreneurship in a social
welfare set-up. Instead of taking up battle for rural economy, our political system
is more interested to show their face in camera. And taking a photograph with the
poor people is as good as it gets for their concern for India's poor.

Possibilities of a green economy is enormous-and yes, we need a Green party of India.