Discussion on ‘New Age Political Movements in India’

Monday evening of 15^th February 2010, got fairly warmed up not only with the weather but also a panel discussion on ‘New age political movements in India’, held at the beautiful campus of St Josephs College of Commerce.

To throw some light on the topic, we had two eminent political thinkers of the country: Dr Shankara Prasad, an e-governance evangelist, who also happens to be an Executive Vice President of the Loksatta Party of Karnataka and Mr Shantanu Bhagwat, who was a one-time diplomat and venture investor and has now chosen the thorny path of political activism to launch his own club called Freedom Team of India.

See the photographs here!

Mr Shantanu started his presentation with a dark prediction. According to him, in forty years, India can either be a successful economy or on the brink of complete turmoil. He casually asked a rhetorical question: Where are the leaders who will take us there? It is to fill this gap that he’s launching Freedom Team of India, a platform for individuals from any background who can join and believe in their philosophy which encourages classical liberalism, equal opportunity, maximum freedom and a minimum but strong and enabling government.

Dr. Shankara Prasad of Loksatta is standing for the BBMP elections this year. His views on new age politics began first by giving the audience a clear cut definition difference between new age and old age politics. According to him the main problem is that there are too many elected leaders and people are unaware of how to interact with them. The other main issue is that most of these elected leaders are illiterate. According to him, new age of politics should comprise of new politicians with a new mindset and more importantly people who are willing to transform the nature of politics. “These new politicians should be able to envision the future and create it,” he said. Dr. Prasad spoke about his vision stating that he chose the party for “its national vision, its people, its philosophy of zero corruption, rejection of money and using muscle power”.

As pointed by Dr.Prasad the mainstream parties are trapped in a vicious circle and neither capable nor willing to transform the nature of politics. This is where both  leaders think the new age political parties make sense. But the biggest challenge the new parties face is in attracting 300M middle class Indians to participate. This is where we at Janaagraha think programs like Jaagte Raho can make a difference. With its programs aimed at middle class indians specially Youth, Jaagte Raho tries to increase the participation of citizens in democracy. 

Check out our twitter account IJanaagraha for more quotes and live updates. You might like to follow us for future updates.

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Krithika Gopinath

Volunteer, Communication Team, Janaagraha

krithikagopinath@gmail.com