301.014 : Getting RTR drafts printed in Gazette via Aandolan, not via Election Winning (17-Dec-2011) No.037

December 17, 2011

301.014 : Getting RTR drafts printed in Gazette via Aandolan, not via Election Winning

https://www.facebook.com/notes/rahul-chimanbhai-mehta-rrg/301014-getting-rtr-drafts-printed-in-gazette-via-aandolan-not-via-election-winni/10150423250791922

(for downloading complete PDF , containing 50 chapters on full law-drafts needed to reduce MNC-domination, nepotism in courts, corruption in police/courts/education, improve education, improve Military, reduce cow slaughter, see http://rahulmehta.com/301.htm )

(For index, see notes #301.Index at http://facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150422423416922  )

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14.1    What do I mean by Aandolan?

First of all, what do I mean by “mass-movement” aka “Aandolan”, that too, “Aandolan to force PM, CMs to print  RTI2, RTR drafts in Gazette” ?

What I mean by Aandolan is where crores of unpaid unorganized citizens are directly approaching all party workers, MLAs, MPs, Ministers to force CMs, PM to print the draft in Gazette without delay. And mediamen have no role to play And the citizens are doing it on their own, not because there emotionally pressurized by activists. The “approach” can be in the form of letters, phone calls, SMS, rallies, gherao, demonstrations, newspaper ads, slogans etc. The PM, CMs may set up a system to show objectively how many citizens want RTI2. And citizens must not take any violent actions till it is objectively established that majority of citizens do want RTI2. There is a difference between true mass-movement which involves crores of citizens , and difference between an illusion of mass movement created by media.

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14.2    Are citizens powerful enough to force PM , CM? Examples

The intellectuals of India have created a false notion that citizens are legless and handless, and are so weak that they can never ever force PM to sign a piece of paper against PM’s will.

I need to show that this is a white lie.

The citizens are powerful to force PM, CMs to sign RTI2 draft against his will. And also, the PM and CMs are extremely weak fellows – they are not strong at all to withstand hostility of even few lakhs of citizens. In fact, our existing PM, MMS, is so weak that he can even say NO to MNCs and even weak countries like Pakistan openly ridicule him. Surely, we citizens are very much strong enough to force such as a weak PM to sign a piece of paper.

Theory apart, let me give some real examples of how successful Aandolans have been

1. In 1974 in Gujarat, about 50000 students demanded resignation of the then CM Chimanbhai Patel. And many lakhs of citizens supported them. And later students demanded resignation of every MLA. Within months, CM resigned and so did every MLA (i.e. Assembly was dissolved). Surely CM did not resign willingly and MLAs did not resigned willingly. The force of citizens of intense enough that CM and MLAs had to do things unwillingly. Hence, it is possible for citizens to force CM, MLAs to even resign, forget forcing them to sign RTI2 draft.
2. In 1984 in Gujarat, some students demanded resignation of the then CM Madhavsingh Solanki. And many lakhs of citizens supported them. The agitation went on for several months. Finally CM resigned. Surely CM did not resign willingly. The force of citizens was  intense enough that CM had to resign. Hence, it is possible for citizens to force CM to even resign, forget forcing him to sign RTI2 draft.
3. In 1977, Devi Indira Amma ended emergency. The most important reason was that prisons were over flooded with activists of all age. The prison becoming houseful with activists is a nightmare for any Jailer and PM. Why? Because when police/prisoner ratio becomes too low, prisoners may dare to break the prison from insider. Now if policemen shoot down murders, rapists or thieves inside prison, the citizens will support them. But if policemen shoot down  activists with no otherwise criminal record, the citizens might burn down the whole prison. And when one prison breaks, the news gives courage to prisoners in prisons all across countries and many more prisons break. And when prisons break, the policemen at local police stations have only one option left to deal with aandolankaries – to shoot. Because there is no prison to imprison the aandolankari.  Since shooting 1000s of people is non-option, when prisons breaks, policemen have no option but to watch aandolankaries like a bystander. This increases the courage of citizens and more and more citizens become aandolankari and aandolan grows.. Devi Indira Amma could foresee that prisons can now break, and if that happens, aandolan against her grow like wildfire. So all in all, it was aandolan or fear of aandolan, which convinced Devi Indira Amma to end the emergency.
4. As a small example, the student’s aandolan in 1991 played important role in forcing the then PM VP Singh to resign.
5. Recently, in Apr-4-2011 and later on Aug-16-2011, Anna Hazare sat on Anashan i.e. fast till death, and got Govt to work on Lokpal bill. This was not a true mass movement, but some 10% of it was indeed mass movement.

So I have given 3 National level examples and 2 Gujarat-level examples to show that citizens can force CM, PM to act against their will. One may add experiences of other States in India. At district\Tahsil\gram\city level, success of Aandolans is more than established. In fact, the so called Procedure of Election is routinely conducted only because elitemen see it as necessary condition to avoid Aandolans. IOW, the only reason why elections happen is to the fear of Aandolans.

So how to generate Aandolan for RTI2-draft, RTR-drafts and MRCM-draft? It is simple, though voluminous task of informing citizens about the clauses of this draft !! The intellectuals claim that citizens are fools and lack awareness, and these intellectuals are liars. The citizens are very much intelligent and aware about their interest – they only lack information on drafts that West solved the problems. Once the citizens are informed – their self interest will be sufficient to make them act. No push or pull is needed. We do not need drama like Anshan.

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14.3    Why is IMO Aandolan method better than election winning method?

Following are the reasons why I support mass-movement based plan to print RTR-drafts in Gazette rather than election-winning plan to bring RTR in India

1. In the election winning plan, over 90% of the winning candidates will sell out after winning within 6 hours, and refuse to print RTR-drafts in Gazette. And so activists will end up wasting time and energy in the election-winning. Whereas in mass-movement, since RTR-law benefits citizens, they will never sell out and so whatever time, money and energy activists spend in spreading information about RTR-drafts will have net long term non-diminishing addition. Eg in 1977, many leaders such Nitish Kumar, Laloo Yadav, Mulayam Yadav, Ram Vilas Paswan, Sharad Yadav etc got elected and they were supporting Right to Recall since 1970 !! But after they got elected, they all refused to print RTR drafts in Gazette.
2. There is a rational and valid reason why people do not vote for “good” independents and “good” candidates from small parties, even if they trust him. Say in a constituency of 15,00,000 voters, say candidates are BJP, Congress and 5 good independents and 10 bad independents. Now say 800,000 plan to vote. Say 450,000 hate and fear Congress and 350,000 hate and fear BJP, or other way. Now lets say several thousands of those who hate Congress like a good independent. But many will rightly think – this independent is not going to win and still if I vote for him, then it will be one less vote for BJP and it only takes Congress closer to victory, and thus increase my losses. Therefore despite the fact that he likes good small candidate more than BJP and Congress, the voter still has one rational and valid reason to vote for BJP and not good independent. And a person who hates Congress will think other way. So the valid fear that “if I vote for a small good independent, then the party I hate more may win” will discourage voter from voting. Whereas in mass movement for law-draft, this fear doesn’t exist. Why? Because in supporting a law-draft in which he sees gain, he cannot end up being worse off that what he is now.
3. There is a valid reason why citizen voters do not trust new comers. In every election, citizens elect some 15% to 20% first timers. And almost all first timers become as useless as veterans in few days. So many citizens see no point in giving chance to newcomers.
4. Election willing method is clone negative. Pls see chap-15 for more details on clone positivity.

So citizen has no risk in supporting a good law-draft, while there is a risk in voting for  a good small independent. And in the end, 90% of the so called “good independent” or “good small party candidates” or “good newcomers” will sell out in few months and so whole exercise of campaigning for them will be time wasted.    

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14.4    Jayprakash failed to enact RTR-laws in 1977.  How would Aandolan succeed now?

One valid question I face is : Jayprakash Narayan  had failed to force Congress leaders to enact the laws Further, JPN had also failed to enact the RTR laws after his own men became MP in 1977. So how will Aandolan succeed now, where JPN had failed?

JPN failed only because he never bothered to publish drafts needed to bring RTR and never communicated the importance of drafts to the activists. He kept focusing only on concept, publicity and movement. So when he became ill in 1977 and after his death, activists had no clue on what should be done. Whereas in the movement I have proposed, everything begins with text of the draft. The activist always approaches fellow activist or common man with RTR-drafts and talks only about the drafts and how drafts can improve India. So at each point, every activist has clear idea of what needs to be done and what he should do. All brains in this movement are independent.

So those who support RTI2, RTR, MRCM drafts must understand the draft and communicate the drafts to fellow activists and citizens. If they insist on postponing and focus on concept only and the campaign, and not draft, then movement will get diffused.

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14.5    So the only task - the task of communication

So those who support RTI2, RTR, MRCM drafts – the task is to communicate to citizens

1. that clauses of RTI2 draft, RTR drafts and MRCM drafts will reduce poverty, reduce MNC domination, improve Military, reduce corruption in policemen/judges/education etc
2. and mention to citizens that intellectuals who claim that citizens are incapable of forcing PM, CMs are liars and they speak this lie only to misguide the activists so that activists work for NGOs or political parties and do not aim for an Aandolan.

Communicating these two points are necessary and sufficient.

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14.6    How can communication spread and create Aandolan

By steps mentioned in chap-13 of rahulmehta.com/301.pdf  .

It takes about 20-50 hours of communication time to explain how RTI2 draft, MRCM draft and RTR drafts can reduce poverty, corruption and MNC domination. And to become capable of explaining RTI2 draft, MRCM draft and RTR drafts to others, one needs to spend about 200-2000 hours to understand the proposed laws so that he can answer most of the queries. So recallists will need to seek as many citizens as possible, and communicate drafts of RTI, MRCM RTR etc to them.

So how can this communication spread? Following is the approximate model

First (Bootstrapping) Level

1. Using my own time and financial resources, I will spread the information about RTI2 clauses, RTR drafts, MRCM drafts etc about 1 lakh citizens in top 5 crore citizens of India, and will manage to reach about  5 citizens in bottom 110 cr of India.
2. I contest election and that further spreads information on RTR drafts amongst these individuals.
3. Of these 1 lakh citizens in top 5 crore, some 200 to 500 may agree to spend one hour or more a week in further campaigning for RTR laws.
4. Of the 10000 to 20000 citizens in bottom 95% will see that MRCM is in the direct interest. But they will wait for middle individuals in top 5 cr to take first initiative.

Subsequent Levels

1. Of the 1000 persons who like RTI2 drafts, RTR drafts and MRCM draft, some 900 will forward information to none. Some 50 will pass information to on an average 5 persons in their lifetime. Some 40 persons will pass information to 20 persons each in their life time. Some 9 persons will pass the information 100 persons on a average in their lifetime. And one out of 1000 will pass the information to several thousand to several lakhs in his lifetime.
2. IOW, at each level, the number of persons who have information about MRCM drafts, RTR drafts etc increases.
3. And at each step, number of activists are also increasing.
4. There are 100s of committed leaders in many new political parties. And some of them have reach of lakhs and crores via TV channels, newspapers etc. A few of them will decide to support RTR drafts and this will increase the reach by lakhs to crores within few months. This step will have most effect. But if at all this step happens, it will be only due to continuous execution above steps
5. Due to pressure of activists, many leaders will be forced to support RTR. Eg due to pressure of RTR-activists, Anna, which never supported RTR in his whole life, had to support RTR on Apr-8-2011 and re-iterated support to RTR on Aug-28-2011.
6. More activists will contest election on RTR-draft issue and will further spread information on RTR-drafts.

End Level

1. When information about clauses of RTI2, RTR and MRCM etc laws reaches lakhs and crores of citizens, the pressure on PM, CMs to print this drafts in the Gazette may increase

The chap-13 titled as “With just 1 hour a week, YOU can help in bringing ..” has list of some of the detailed steps one may take to spread the information on RTI2 draft, RTR drafts and MRCM drafts. Those who are pro-RTR can start reading and executing these actions.

If PM etc resort to violence, and next level of activities (please see chapter titled as “The Udham Singh Plan”) may start.

14.7    Non-decreasing nature of RTR-draft based movement vs Personality-based movement

The level of information on RTR does not decrease even if new inputs stop coming for few months because of activists getting busy in personal life or getting disillusioned for a while due low reporting in media. And in RTR movement, we don’t have to spend a penny to anyone from saying anything against us. More the opponents try to defame us, faster will information on RTR spread.

In contrast, the mass movements which are centered around personality hype require crores of rupees of inputs everyday and if inputs reduce, the hype starts receding. The inputs not only need to be given to mediamen to spread tall tales about the person, but also pay mediamen not to defame him or his views. As the movement grows, the costs keep increasing.

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14.8    Summary

One may say that bringing RTR like change via Aandolan is difficult, and it is. But it did happen in past. In UK, US etc everywhere, JurySys and/or RTR has come via Aandolan aka mass movement only. Whereas bringing RTR like change via election winning looks easy if one assumes that election winners will not sell out. But once the candidates become MPs and MLAs, they will almost always sell out, and so bringing RTR via election winning is impossible. I has never happened in past – not even once.

So I ask activists to contest elections and campaign for those candidates who support RTR, because it speeds up the rate at which information on RTR-drafts will spread in citizens. But I don’t ask activists to campaign for RTR-candidates with hope that they will get elected and if they get elected they will enact RTR-laws. The focus that to be to generate mass-movement.