Decoding RSS :- Formula of Success (Part 2)

In 1^st part I had explained “Idea behind RSS” & how Doctor Hedgewar cultivated a great idea into an organization but a great idea do not guarantee success. Every year innumerable commercial, social, political and many other type of new organization start with some great idea and passion but most of them collapse in their early days, either due to some internal issues or outer pressure, the question arises about RSS survival after 90 years of genesis and an unhindered growth.

In Last few years we have seen commercial giants like Lehman Brother, Nokia, Satyam, and Yahoo, etc. collapse like pack of cards or their downfall from the pick to the perils just because of some internal or external reasons. So survival & growth of RSS for almost a century is a surprising factor, specially when there is no monetary benefit to its members nor it is a religious organization to bind people together because of their believes.

Critics can easily raise questions about the success of RSS.  On 27^th September 1925 Dr. Hedgewar started RSS in Nagpur with one shakha of 10-15 swayamsevaks or precisely of boys without any fanfare. After 90yrs in Bharat (India) you will not find a single city or town where RSS does not have a direct presence and if we consider the RSS inspired organizations then it will be hard for us to find even a village without some connect. Not only in Bharat (India) but all over the globe you can find footprints of RSS or it’s Inspired organizations, in around 110 countries either RSS or inspired organizations have presence directly or indirectly and in around 35-40 countries these organizations are in influencing position which helped in forming pro Bharat (India)  and Hindu policies. If the growth of RSS is substantiated on the ground of it’s inspired Organizations like BMS, BJP, ABVP, VHP, Seva Bharati, etc. then even opponents will not have any doubt about success of Doctor Hedgewar’s efforts.

There are many documentaries and books available on success story of Steve Jobs Apple or Bill Gates Microsoft commercial, there are documentaries studying Muslim brotherhood or Al-Qaida but it’s strange to note that no one ever bothered to study and represent the success of Doctor Hedgewar’s social and peaceful experiment.

There are 2 main reasons for this negligence by intellectual classes

1) Indian intellectual’s space remained dominated by communists & socialists and they denied any alternative idea as they thought it could cost their existence, so rather than accepting RSS, they almost denied the existence of such a great experiment or considered the idea to be vague.

2) Doctor Hedgewar give a significant emphasis to the thought that society and nation is above self, this thought kept members away from propaganda of organization and own leaders

So obvious question will come in anyone’s mind; what is formula of success so that Doctor Hedgewar’s experiment is still going strong even after 90 yrs. The answer remains simple, he set his own life as an example and pushed values at base of the organization, with growth of organization those values and ethos got inculcated in to every individual associated to the organization. Below are few values which kept RSS alive & flourishing.

• Flexibility: - Todays corporate giants are spending billions of $$ to make their organizations flexible. All IT firms are jumping from water fall to agile to dev ops methodology, just to make sure their organizations are flexible enough to accommodate customer’s needs & fast changing business environment but most of them failed, as flexible organization never meant flexible process but it meant flexible workforce who are ready to adopt any change. Dr. Hedgewar was aware that if RSS wants to survive for decades then it needs to be flexible. He worked with multiple ideologies so it was easy for him to be flexible not only that but he created mechanism/tool (RSS shakha) to embed this quality in people and that’s why RSS inspired organizations without any hesitation work with communist, church, Muslim organizations, etc on specific issues. Both Doctorji & Guruji have shown this quality through their actions, in China war Guruji aligned RSS with Nehruji lead Cong Government in national interest. Other sarsanghchalaks continued this tradition like RSS easily mingled with socialist & communist during emergency. Flexibility is deep rooted in RSS and that’s why swayamsevaks work even with ideological and political opponents for betterment of society.
• Adopting Changes: - Flexibility of thought process is one thing but adopting changes in working is very tough as human nature resist change. Individuals who are set for a bigger goal can adopt any change easily once they realize that change is required for achieving goal. For RSS it is easy to adopt change as flexibility in character allows swayamsevaks to hear and experiment in new territories and once they get convinced that a this change is needed for betterment of society then it is easily adopted. Doctorji in early days of RSS setup a process of discussion and adopting changes, RSS Prarthana (Prayer), Dress Code, shakha structure everything changed and that process is continue till today. Adoption is not always of process or structure but Organizations even need to adopt to people and their working style; easy transition from one sarsanghchalak to another is a good example of deep rooted value in swayamsevaks. Doctorji was military style person whereas Guruji was like a spiritual leader then also transition was smooth and that tradition is continue till date. Like other organizations you don’t hear controversies when sarsanghchalak at top or shakha level office bearers change as in RSS everyone is ready to accept change for bigger goal.
• Internal corrective Mechanism: - It’s easy to say organization is flexible and ready to adopt changes but most fail as slowly organizations get weak internally, best example is of “Satyam”; it failed internally as there was no corrective mechanism. Doctorji created an organizations which is like open source software project so that anybody can come and improve code. One surprise visible only in RSS, on its supporting platforms (Ex social media) people criticize and debate on how to improve organizations without moderators interfering; this same culture is in shakha’s or in RSS meetings. That’s why when youth flow started declining, internal corrective mechanism automatically come-up with IT Milan like concepts. This is only organization in which you can go to their platform, criticize them and they will not mock you but will invite to shakha to implement solution which you suggested.
• Nation (Goal) above Organization and Organization above Individual: - Most organizations fail as those get trapped into individual personas or dynasty cult. In a country where family, Caste, Group or Regional pride is prevalent, Doctorji’s success in creating RSS like organizations is a miracle where people work together keeping individual ego aside. By Making Bhagwa Dhwaj (Saffron Flag) as RSS guru, he taken a revolutionary step of making sure that RSS will never become a personality cult. Organizations which are process or goal oriented are successful than organization which are persona oriented. From Apple to Infosys, Congress to Shiv Sena; Baba Amate to Satya Sai trust; common question is who will take ahead work after one person? But you will never hear this question in RSS like ‘Who after this sarsanghchalak?’ or person as in everyone’s character it is embedded that organization is my responsibility and I need to work for it. Take an example of Congress, before independence it was an organization with rainbow of leaders with different ideology, all committed for a common goal but after Independence organization became a property of one family, members lost focus on goal as relationship with family became more important than the performance. Doctorji had a practical experience and he was aware of this danger, by keeping himself aside he made sure that Organization will not became individual cult and soon he got a chance to show that goals are even above organization when Laxmibai Kelkar approached him, it was easiest decision to start a women wing under his leadership but he taken a conscious decision to allow Laxmibai to start a parallel organization as he always said to build a nation and strong society, one RSS is not enough and if many organizations work parallel then goal can be achieved easily. His one decision set a future path for RSS that goals are above organization and that’s why we see flexibility that RSS don’t back out even when it comes to working with ideological opponents. Jan Sangh merged into Janta Party during emergency, this was simply means giving Jan Sangh political strength in hands of Socialist which were ideological opponent of organization but goals taken precedence over existence of one political outfit.
• Firm on Core Values: - Organizations which are flexible and ready to accept new things are always at a risk of getting carried away from core strength and that’s where APPLE became a unique company under leadership of Steve Jobs, even after market pressure he never given on core beliefs like support to Flash and many other things. Even though RSS is in different domain but same applies to it. RSS never go away from core values of nationalism and Hindu culture even after criticism & pressure, organization stayed firm on core values and always maintained a delicate balance between flexibility and firm stand on issues. This can be seen in RSS stand of staying away from all activities and freedom to swayamsevaks to work on different cause; many debated this is a wrong strategy in PR sensitive world but RSS stayed firm as it believed in this model.
• Innovation: - Starting RSS like an organization was in itself an innovative idea and that tradition continued at every level. If you want to understand what is mean by innovation in daily life then just go for RSS outings and you will be surprised from game to food to songs to even traveling  some type of innovative twist would have been given so that participant of any age and background feel comfortable. In family outings 3 or 4 generation from all professional, cultural and regional backgrounds participate but things are planned in such a way that everyone enjoy and get connected. Different initiative like IT Milan, family shakha, Skype shakha, Projects like Kanyakumari Vivekananda Kendra, 1 teacher school (and list goes on) shows Swayamsevaks innovative mindset for betterment of society and growth of organization.
• Planning: - “Failing to plan is planning to fail”; this quote may have overlooked by corporate people but it is embodied in RSS character. In every program or day to day activity Planning, POC & dry runs are followed meticulously, simple task like taking flowers is planned in advance and allocated to owners. This planning habit helped RSS swayamsevaks in executing big programs attended by lakhs of people with 100% precision and in running some of world’s biggest organizations without creating Chaos.
• Leadership: - RSS aim is not to create cadre to follow organization dictates but aim is to create leaders who can go to different walks of life and solve problems in society; that’s why RSS don’t use term Cadre but use word “Swayamsevak” which can be translated in English as Volunteer but thought process is not exactly same. Even though swayamsevak & Volunteer both have same character of alignment with Goal and not organization but like volunteer, swayamsevak will not just support a cause but expectation is he must lead solution and that’s why so many RSS inspired organizations are there. In society when swayamsevak see a problem either he try to solve or create an institution to solve it but approach is different than communist activism. Communist believe in instigating people against Government or system and start class struggle but swayamsevak believe in finding out solution, he will try to setup school & hospital for lack of education or medical facility to poor. Leadership is not necessary means leading people but it also means owning task and get it done like starting a new shakha or just making sure Dhwaj(Flag) reach daily on time. RSS don’t believe in passive participation of swayamsevak and that’s why in programs everyone have separate ownership from reciting prayer/song or Quote; carrying flag or contacting to other members etc., everyone is involved and owns something or leads some area which ultimately build leadership quality.
• Collective decision making: - Most people misunderstand innovation and leadership as walking alone but this will defeat RSS purpose of uniting people. RSS leadership very carefully cultivated a process of collective decision making and this kept RSS away from internal controversies or fights as everyone in involved in decision making. In any other organization, selection of person on sarsanghchalak like powerful and nominated post would have been hot potato but in RSS things are smooth as even for a nominated post outgoing sarsanghchalak discuss with all office-bearers and senior swayamsevaks and that’s why announcement may come as a surprise for outer world but for inner circles this is just one another change as most people know in advance why & who? This quality kept RSS intact and strong as swayamsevaks of different views fiercely discuss ideas but decision is taken on merits of argument or on majority and this keeps all united and moving ahead together
• Discipline: - Once person start attending shakha, he automatically becomes disciplined by shakha activity and surrounding. Innovation and flexibility does not means anarchy; for success a disciplined team which can work together in one direction is 1^st requirement. RSS swayamsevak are disciplined not only in parades and programs but even in decision making process; if a decision taken even after fierce debate then also you will never hear any RSS office bearer or swayamsevak speaking against collective decision and that’s why RSS strength get multiplied by many fold as once decision taken, all efforts get focused on working on implementation.

RSS leadership try to strengthen Swayamsevak character by embedding above qualities through Shakha,some of the qualities get automatically adopted as they realize that these qualities need for working as a team towards betterment of society. 

Decoding RSS:- Idea behind RSS (Part 1)

You must be wondering why we need to Decode RSS; Is RSS some complex chemical or mathematical formula that someone need to decode it? Actually understanding RSS is as simple as kid segregating same color balls but only if you are inside RSS and have proper perspective to understand things else it is as complex as investigating origin of universe. This complexity is not because of nature and working of RSS but because of over complexity of our own thought process. Kids grasp things fast as they are open minded and their mind is not cluttered & pre occupied with specific perspective. Opponent or supporter both approach RSS with complex mindset and hence it becomes hard to understand so let’s decode RSS in layman terms.

Before I decode RSS, First let’s make it more complex.

1) The table below gives us the sense of what the Opponents & supporters think about RSS? The wide gap between both groups understanding and how they portray the organization makes any neutral person hell confused.

Opponent	Supporter
Secretive organization	Open organization whose all activities happen on public places.
Violent Religious Organization	Socio-culture organization which work in peaceful manner.
Restricted to upper caste of society	Open to all & believes in removing all types of barriers.
Divides nation	Believe in uniting everyone & even celebrate Akhand Bharat din.
No entry to women.	Parallel structure for women exists with same stature as RSS.
List goes on	List goes on

  

2) RSS Second Sarsanghchalak Golwalkar Guruji once made a famous statement “RSS will not do anything and Swayamsevak’s will not leave anything” ,this statement adds more confusion. If RSS does not do anything then what RSS will achieve? What are its goals? If RSS claims that they don’t do anything except uniting people then why there is so much debate on what RSS has done? & what’s not?  On RSS old website there was a line that stated; we don’t know how many RSS inspired or Sawayamsevak’s run organizations are there. This shows how wide RSS is to understand.

3) In so called “Sangh Parivar”(term used collectively for RSS & RSS inspired Organizations) RSS is neither biggest nor most powerful organization Ex in Pure numbers BMS & BJP are much bigger than RSS and both are in more powerful category so question remains in practical world how can a weak and smaller organization control bigger & mighty, specially a Political organization where people are not even under control of own organization (Babulal Marandi is still out & Uma or Yeddyurappa joined back BJP after floating own party ).  2009 Article showing strength of different SanghParivar organizations.

4) Who is most powerful in RSS? The blind reply of media houses is “Sarsanghchalak” but as per RSS organizational working Sarsanghachalak post is of guide & philosopher; without having much power when it comes to organizational matters; all powers rest with Sarkaryavah. Is it not strange that most people don’t know organizational power/structure of leadership but then also we don’t hear about power conflicts within organizations?

I hope this is enough to justify decoding needed if not then list will go on.

When we start decoding 1^st question is eminent, what is RSS?

To understand RSS you need to divide RSS in 2 parts:-

RSS as an Organization: - Nothing special here, RSS have same strengths, weaknesses, processes, structures like any other organizations with some changes here and there. Even though RSS is a simple organization like any other but it runs more effectively than even corporate houses as there is a great idea behind it.

RSS as an Idea: - This is most interesting part, Dr Hedgewar took a courageous step when he decided to give an idea an organizational structure which was known for ages to most philosophers from left to right & east to west. This idea was explained in depth in Bhagwat Geeta, also proposed and rejected by Chanakya. Most probably Doctorji was aware about this Idea much before the starting of RSS but after working with Revolutionary movement & congress, he realized, this is the only permanent solution to all social problems.

What was this idea? Very simple; to change or fight any problem in the society, change individual (Masses) thought process (behavior) which will ultimately result in change in society & solve all problems forever as they will stand against any problem. This was known to all and many great leaders used this to solve temporary problems Ex in Indian independence movement, many leaders awaken masses but that was limited to specific cause and with the end of cause the zeal ceased.

Chanakya suggested this path but was not sure about its success and the reason was simple; changing masses is not a one day task and most probably you will not achieve anything in your lifetime (Link from Chanakya serial ) It’s like sowing Mango tree which will give fruit to our 3^rd generation and that’s where Chanakya chose a quick hybrid path of making politics as a primary tool of achieving change and using Gurukool to achieve individual character changes but as Gurukool had access only to students and not to all section of masses so impact on society was limited; hence awakening the sense of fighting unitedly for nation got lost in few centuries after Chanakya’s death. In villages there are always few Old wise man’s who care for the future generations and take efforts on Mango trees (present generation) so that their grand kids will enjoy fruits and Same was attempted by Doctor Hedgewar in form of RSS. He started working on something which will not achieve much in his life time & same thing happened but his effort created a strong base for future generations.

It was not that easy to implement this mass awakening idea as no one ever tried it. Obviously conventional way of going around and lecturing people was not going to work if the change needs to be permanent then some innovative way was needed. Innovation does not always means finding something new and presenting an old idea in new format is also a kind of innovation.

How to awake masses? : - Bhagwat Geeta shows how Lord Krishna changed Arjun’s perspective towards war. Arjun asked “whether I should not get angry on Draupadi's insult”; Lord Krishna replied “Draupadi’s insult is not only your problem but a social problem; if a lady with a powerful background like Draupadi can be insulted and molested publicly then what will be the situation of normal women’s in the society; you must fight against those who support such mindset” this explanation changed overall perspective of Arjun’s fight. Reference 

Same Arjun, same war but now goal was much bigger. This was used by many leaders like Gandhiji who linked Charkha, Khadi, Swachata with Indian independence and suddenly a small action became a cause of big change. RSS tries to achieve the same by alternating thought process and try to make people good citizens. RSS gives them a big goal of making our nation “Vishwa Guru”; once a member gets committed to this goal then every small action of his gets attached to higher objective e.g. to make nation “Vishwa Guru” or take it to “Param Vaibhav” members need to take small actions like unite by demolishing caste barriers, help poor sections of the society, help in natural calamity, fight for democracy & list goes on. Once eyes are set on big goal then people will find out their own ways to contribute to achieve it.

This theory was known to all and many tried it by focusing the idea on a specific cause and these experiments showed that motivating masses to stand against specific problem will not help as for every problem you need to fight separately. Doctorji planned to make this idea big and generic and realized past  better option was to create citizen who cares for society and once that is achieved, they will automatically find out solution of all problems. For a problem in family no one need to tell or provide instruction on what to do? Person try to do everything in his or her capacity. Bhartiya Philosophy says “Vasudhav Kutuambakam” world is one family then why people don’t react to problems in society the same way they react to problem in the family; because from childhood we have seen how elders react to problems and that’s how we realizes that these are my people but for society no one gives that realization or we have not seen such people around.  But question remains how to make people realize that society is your family and more important how to keep that feeling forever and pass from one generation to other.

Gurukul or families passing traditions & values effortlessly form one generation to other and even Bhagwat Gita explained this. Lord Krishna explain to Arjuna why doing correct things is important because it’s not only about impact on you but if you do wrong things then people will follow blindly considering you as model and repeat same. In ancient times; Kids were sent to Gurukual to learn values from teachers behavior and not from books; in families kids learn from their elders; same process Doctorji put ahead in form of RSS where elders put an example and behave in such a manner that those Values get transferred effortlessly and automatically like a family and that’s where “Parivar” word get associated with RSS.

Doctor ji were aware that role model need to be of very high standard then only people will follow and that’s why Doctor Ji started Tradition of “Pracharak” & he was the 1^st Pracharak of RSS. Pracharaks have no family, no earning only goal of life is serving to society; but what is work of these “Pracharak”? They don’t lecture anyone, they just stay around like a family member, friend, guide like any other normal person. Kid’s, youth or even elders who come to shakha automatically start thinking if Pracharak giving life to society then is it not my responsibility to give some time, resources, money or anything else to society. Few get motivated to go ahead and live same life; they become next generation of Pracharak and will motivate next generation people. This proses is called “Deep se Deep Jalana” means lighting one candle from another; one life effortlessly passes values to another. That’s why in Shakha nothing special happens, yoga, games. Discussion, going out for food or family get-together etc which create a bond between members and their families. Pracharak becomes part of RSS member’s family and slowly a sense of responsibility towards society automatically get transferred not only in member but in whole family and that’s why you will see not only RSS members but their families also whole heartedly supporting to any social cause. This process was started 90yr back by Doctor Hedgewar and I suspect that anyone would have noticed this than and even if few had; they would have just mocked Doctorji. Most would have been scratching heads why a Doctor wasting time in playing with kids & youths; he never explained anyone the goals of playing with kids. He did not lecture anyone on the process of character/society building as this process is so slow that even person going through change will not notice leave alone he convincing others. Even now RSS Sarsanghchalak says if you want to understand RSS come in & stay for 1 or 2 yrs, you can’t understand RSS by reading or staying out.

This song is on theme line how people sacrifice their life to create silently a role model example so thatothers can walk on that path.

In next part I will cover how RSS works and More on Sangh Parivar.

Note :- This write-up is on basis of my own understanding of RSS & nothing to do with organizations official position.

Twitter :- @prafulnikam

Thank God: - Indian Revolution Failed

Gajendra Singh’s suicide in AAP rally shocked and surprised public, a different type of reactions started pouring but I was neither surprised nor shocked and my only reaction was “Thank God: - Indian Revolution Failed”. Masses don’t study history and feel that present events are 1st of its kind, they get mesmerized by such events & emerging leaders but most of the time, it is just replay of history. 

Let’s rewind time and start re-plotting some event from 2010, Arab Spring was extensively covered by media and Indian started feeling that Tahrir Square is somewhere in Delhi or Mumbai. One after another country was coming under fire of Arab Spring and suddenly IAC (India against Corruption) surfaced on Indian horizon, this organization was so mysterious that just after 3yr of successful anti-corruption movement, now there is no record of this organization and no public information available on who started IAC? Or who collected crores of a fund? And where is remaining fund? Etc. Today all these questions are irrelevant when we look into a bigger perspective. Same like IAC, Anna Hazare appeared in Delhi from the small village of Maharashtra and announced: “2nd fight for freedom started”, one more person “Arvind Kejriwal” appeared more mysteriously on the scene to announce “Indian Revolution started”, we all know what happened next.

Let’s pause for a moment on India to look back towards Gulf, after 5yr of Arab spring, all those countries ruined where the revolution was successful. Iraq, Libya, Syria, and Yemen are now in bloody civil war and so-called revolution already killed more than 5 lakh civilian in these countries, Egypt after the death of more than 5 thousand people is again in army hand. This clearly shows blind and sudden revolution most probably end with creating a bigger problem than the problem against which revolution started. Problem with such revolution is that most of the time even protestors don’t know the masterminds behind the game and about peoples who will take over once revolution end. It’s like riding on lion and once you reach the destination, you don’t know what to do with lion, now either Lion will eat you or you will need someone who can control lion, in both scenario you will be at loss as the one who can control lion will always take advantage of situation. Same happened in Arab countries, the revolution was just a beautiful front end for Al-Qaeda, Saudi Arabia, Iran, USA and many others to execute their plans and take control over oil rich countries or keep constant petrodollar flow. The important point here is, if in tiny Gulf countries so many players have interest then India like the big and powerful country will always see many local and international players playing own games on the name of revolution so I said: “Thank God: - Indian Revolution Failed”.

I don’t want to repeat all event which happened in last 3-4yrs as most of us closely watched ,How common people was forced to believe that a law can solve all India’s problem from rape to poverty to lack of resources to corruption as some gods messenger was coming in form of Lokpal, How a so-called nonpolitical movement has taken shape of political party?, How a leader emerged as dictator and for greater ambitions thrown a state in instability? But again did you feel all these events unique and no reference in history then hold on …………. You are wrong, this is one more story of individual dictatorial ambitions which comes ahead in form of left/communist revolutions. 

If we check world’s 3 most famous revolution and what was the result of those then you will realize that what happened in India was not unique and luckily we survived a sinister design. Study Lenin & Stalin of Russia, Fidel Castro & Che Guevara of Cuba and Mao of China and you will see a clear reference to all events happened in India. Let’s analyses few main points 

Deaths & Killings: - Anna Hazer fast still death, Killing/Accident of Santosh koli and latest in series is “Gajendra Singh” but if you see above-mentioned revolutions then killings or death was always part of game and not necessary only opponents got killed but Lenin, Stalin or Mao, all killed own people for Control of power or getting advantages.

Arvind Kejriwal or AAP is not a communist movement: - Please give me a break J;  even Fidel Castro publicly announced in the USA that he is not a communist but what happened next? Model is easy; as Communism is attractive so put it in policies but the world knows it is failed model so simply stay away from proclaiming it.

Use and Throw policy: - Stalin sidelined all colleague, Mao killed own party men, Lenin started red Army specifically for killing or sideline people who supported revolution in early stage, read in history what happen to Kronstadt Sailors who helped Lenin in getting power.

Kejriwal behaving as a dictator: - On this only smile 😃; Lenin killed all who asked elections; Castro appointed himself as a head of nation and party, he even in retirement handed over power to brother. Mao seems close to Kejriwal, remember the statement that “I will take away 67 MLA and you guys keep party” is in the line of Mao actions, when pressure mounted on Mao to leave the position after ruling almost 20Yr, he chooses to destroy the same party which he started rather than handing over power.

Compromise with Ideals: - Ideals were always easy way to grab power & not to walk on those, Lenin lost the election so he grabbed power by violence & killed all those who demand an election, Castro did same & list goes on so history show anyone expecting democracy or Lokapl in AAP is simply fooling himself.

Conspiracy Theories: - If Kejriwal blame everyone then nothing surprising as even Mao called everyone “capitalist agent of USA” & in agent list Mao included his party men, media, intellectual, teacher, and parents but later on gone ahead to tie-up with same USA. 

Failure in Governance: - All revolutionary failed in governance and implementing ideal which they preached so you will not be surprised if Kejriwal fails and reason is simple none of these so-called revolutionaries had any past experience of governance or they never proved the fact that ideals preached by them are even implementable take example of Russia, China or Even West Bengal, communist-ruled for decades but never able to implement even 50% of what they preached. So what remains is another revolution, Mao went ahead with one after another revolution and killed many people, Che failed to revamp Cuba economy or implement ideal so he moves ahead to another revolution in Congo & Then Bolivia. This is what we are seeing in Delhi, one after another confrontation because revolution must go on J.

That’s why I started by saying “Thank God –Indian revolution failed”, Indian strong democracy & people maturity made sure that revolution got restricted to Delhi corridors else we would have seen Moa or Stalin or Che or Castro or Lenin like dictatorship and killing of own people. I always believed that Indian systems are designed to slowdown things and keep check and balances at every stage and not for speed but today I feel that same system saved us from Indian Mao’s & Lenin’s. Kejriwal is CM but has many check & balances which will save the nation from taking India to that extreme corners of revolution, Kejriwal colleagues must thank god & Indian constitution that they are just shown door for asking Ideals as Kejriwal don’t have army otherwise history tells a lot about those revolutionaries. 

So thank god….

References to documentaries which referred in the blog.

Lenin Russia revolution:- https://youtu.be/Me7vZ1qes8k

Mao revolution: - https://youtu.be/Wd0aW-4mV68

Castro & Che revolution :- https://youtu.be/g-ZJAS_ZzKU

Who is killing our farmers?

Because of LAB, suddenly Indian farming is a hot topic and at the center of all discussion, even PM Narendra Modi addressed this topic in his famous “Mann Ki Baat” Program. Actually these discussions are funny as LAB has nothing to do with farming or overall farmer community welfare. LAB whether 1894 or 2013 or 2015 will just change process how land will be allocated for projects and will not affect future prospects of agriculture or farmers. But when agenda is discussion and not actual solving problem then you can relate each and everything to discussion topic, like one political party linked even Rape like sensitive issue to election agenda of free wifi.

I am from farmer family and specifically from Vidharbha region of Maharashtra which is famously called as a “Graveyard of Farmer” because of high number of farmer suicide in last decade. Even though I am now settled in Pune, I travel frequently in region and now spent a 1 week in Yavatmal district which is one of worst hit by farmer suicide crisis. During my stay, I have talked to many people involved in various profession which include farmers, farm workers, part time farmers (Farming + Job like teacher) , shopkeepers, teacher, lawyer, businessman, traders of farm products etc and realized one important point, we need to stop emotionally analyzing/discussing agriculture  and need to ask hard question “Who is killing our farmers?”

I know this is tough question but let’s start with usual suspects or expected answer from opponents.

BJP: - Congress & Left always blamed BJP as anti-farmer party but data shows that not BJP but so called farmer messiah harmed farmers. Decade in which farmer forced to die was ruled by Cong and Left (UPA1) in center and two region which consistently top farmer suicide list, Maharashtra & Andhra Pradesh both was ruled by congress for 15 & 10 yr respectively. Communist (Left) who ruled West Bengal for 34yr was also not shown any model which can be replicated as ideal for rest of India and even people of West Bengal are forced to migrate out of state. In contrast to all this stories, BJP ruled Madhya Pradesh which was referred as “Bimaru” (ill) state during congress tenure is now leading in Agriculture growth. Gujarat like deserted state performing much better and above expectation. Most important question is, if after Indian independence most of the time “farmer messiahs” ruled nation and states then why farmers committing suicide?

Industry: - Many AC room activist blame Industry as farmer enemy or pitch this topic as farmer Vs industry fight but conveniently forgetting that Vidharbha or Rural AP or Bundelkhand are areas which have not seen any industrialization or land takeover for Govt or Private projects. Farmers are committing suicide in rural India and not in area near by heavily industrialized cities.

One clear point, either we as a nation analyzing topic in wrong direction or we are misguided by people who are pretending to be framer well-wishers. Biggest Irony of agriculture sector is that it is represented by people who are neither successful farmers nor created a model which will give a prosperous futures to framers. Even if we forget intentions of people who are leading farmer agitation or AC room activist then also it is like some passionate air traveler lecturing on health of aviation industry. In case an industry is in crisis then whom we will approach? Caption Gopinath who created an Air Deccan as successful business model or Vijay Mallya whose Kingfisher is down to dust or someone who like to see Aviation industry on discovery TV.

So we need to change our analyzing points.

1. Stop being emotional about farming and farmers when analyzing agriculture, “No More slogan like Jai Kissan”; it’s just yet another industry which is in crisis.
2. Change AC Room Activist and representatives who are leading or talking about agriculture industry; interact with farmers who are successful in agriculture or people who successfully taken alternative path rather than committing suicide by staying in farming.

My own family story is in 2^nd category, my father unlike his 2 brother decided to leave traditional farming as per person land owned by family member was shrinking. This decision paid off as family got another income source and specifically my family got access to better education and other facility. When it came to our education, my father sold ancestral land and house; this decision paid off as both me and my brother earning much higher and even living better quality of life. Story of my 2 uncle who decided to stay in farming is same like any other farmer family, not much progress and quality of life remain same even after 30yr. This is not a corner case but almost all farmer families have same story and if we as a nation (especially AC Room activist) forcing people to stay in farming rather than providing alternative jobs and opportunities then we are forcing our farmers to commit suicide.

When it comes to solution, we are forced to believe that loan and money is only problem of agriculture industry and one after another government just either go for loan waiver or some package. In my view this is dumbest approach, tell me one industry in world which progressed because of bailout packages? Governments are giving packages to PSU year after year but experience shows, none of PSU progressed as we have not dealt with inherent problems of industry and just try to hide problem by giving packages. In agriculture industry same story is getting repeated from independence.

Above analysis show we are doing everything wrong in case of farming and this mistake is getting repeated as agriculture is only industry where experts and activist are not successful farmers. Let’s analyze farming like any another industry.

Excess Manpower: - 

Agriculture is only industry in which there is excess manpower than industry can accommodate. Excess manpower is not because people are skilled or passionate but population is stuck because there is no alternative jobs available in rural India and this unskilled manpower from generation know only farming. Land is transferred from one generation to another so farm size per family member is shrinking rapidly which makes farming expensive and unprofitable. We need to move and utilize excess manpower in other industry such as manufacturing and processing which need unskilled labors in large number. Moving excess manpower in other industries specifically in agriculture product processing will not only reduce load on agriculture but even help in increasing family income of farmer and labors. Industry will make sure that rural economy start booming which in turn increase farmer investment capacity with better prices for farm product.

In United Kingdom when industrial revolution started around 80% manpower was in agriculture; man power rapidly shifted to other industries and less than 25% manpower remained in agriculture. This migration helped both agriculture and other industries and we have seen a major boost in industrial production and per capita Income of citize

Population over Dependency on agriculture :-

Agriculture and allied sectors like forestry and fisheries account for Less than 14% of GDP but more than 60% population directly dependent on these industries, this shows how income is unevenly distributed which result in poor quality of life. Agriculture is mostly dependent on nature and hence a large section of population impact because of natural disasters like drought or floods and government need to compensate with higher subsidies and packages. This over dependency make a land emotional commodity and any move to allocate land to other sectors is meet with stiff resistance which hamper other industry growth and nation progress . LAB show; how opposition and activist making land allocation an emotional issue rather than evaluating compensation and logic of national growth. We will need to reduce this dependency by either moving man power to other sectors or promoting supportive businesses like dairy products, poultry, goat farming, fishery etc. Even industries which can provide part time jobs to farmer families in their own villages will be helpful like food product processing or assembling of electronics and other product.

Water, Electricity and other raw materials: - 

Industries progress only if get abundant supply of raw materials, this simple fact lead us towards Indian agriculture inherent problem of dependency on rain water. India’s only 36% land comes under irrigation and mainly concentrated in smaller states like Punjab( 98%) & Haryana (88%) , this is the main reason why agriculture is a unpredictable and loss making industry. In Uttar Pradesh like big states, even though irrigation is at 76% but utilization of this capacity not possible as state have around 16% power deficit and after domestic and industry, agriculture power supply get last priority like Seeds, fertilizer, equipment’s etc supply and quality is another challenge, import of machinery increase overall operation cost of agriculture. Current NDA government ambitious schemes like Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana which is aim at 100% irrigation, Push for Solar and nuclear power to make India power surplus by 2019 and Make in India which will help in producing farm equipment’s locally if achieved by 2019 then a major agriculture progress blocked will get removed.

Supply Side constrained: -

Even if an industry is performing well but if output supply chain is not managed properly then ultimately industry will collapse Ex Nokia collapsed because market product needs changed. Agriculture industry supply chain is more crucial as Industry outputs are perishable. India is losing almost 20% of total production or 50K Cr output because of lack of infrastructure like proper roads, cold storage and transport facilities for fruits and vegetables. Lack of food processing industry in rural areas is a main reason that farmer need to sell products at lower cost as there is no specific consumer for perishable product Ex If a Tomato Katchup factory is nearby town then farmers know how much input factory will need and can plan crop, this model will help factory as they will save transportation cost. Processing industries convert perishable product into forms which can be stored for longer duration like frozen green peas can be stored for longer duration. So rural infrastructure improvement, creation of storage facility, food processing industries and most important is linking of Agriculture supply to direct local and international markets will be important steps to get farmer a reasonable price for their products.

Land Productivity: -

In agriculture industry land is main constrained and as urbanization & industrialization increasing, agriculture land is shrinking. India have world’s 2^nd largest cultivated land after USA but our overall agriculture production is much less compare to other countries and reason is our per hector yield Ex Australia’s(10800 KG) per hector rice production is almost 5 times of India’s (2240 KG) even after India doubled production from 1970 levels(1123 KG). This shows our problem is not agriculture land and product prices but main problem is productivity. Many countries produce 2 to 10 time per hector yield than India in different products. Many developed countries with smaller population  show us that even after diverting 5% land and 50% man power to other sectors, we can produce much more agriculture products and fulfill domestic demands and even export to add $$$ to countries economy.

We need food so farmer should stay poor and live poor quality life in rural India without access to roads, electricity, education, healthcare etc is emotional and cruel thinking. Farmers have all rights to live quality life which any metro citizen get. We as a nation need to make Agriculture a profitable industry so that Indian farmer compete in global market without the support of packages and loan waivers. If Rural India get same infrastructure facility like Metro cities then we will see educated class moving towards rural India and Agriculture as profession.

Hope we can defeat AC room activist and Farmer Messiahs like congress, communist who are scaring rural India and stopping entry of Industries which will open a new gate of job and growth opportunities for farmers and their families. In past these people played same future fear game with Mumbai mill workers and we have seen how lives of hundreds of people was destroyed. This is important juncture and we will need to raise voices against our farmer killers.

Electoral Reforms: - What suits for India?

India is world’s largest democracy and it is not just largest but hug and unprecedented experiment world ever seen. India’s population only comparable to nondemocratic China, Democratic USA stand at a distant 3rd place with 1/4th of the Indian population, so Indian democracy can’t copy concept from other countries and need own ways ahead. Overall Indian democracy performed much better than British or western world expectation set at the time of Indian Independence. Pakistan and India started the journey together on the path of democracy but Pakistan failed miserably on this experiment whereas India except emergency era continued the journey on the path of strengthening democracy. Even people fight to restore democracy in emergency era shown Indian public deep faith on Democratic systems.

Elections are the important part of the democratic process and India scores high on the free and fair election but chances of improvement are always there. Ministry of Law & Justice in January 2013, requested Law commission to consider the issue of electoral reforms in its entirety and suggest comprehensive measures for changes in the law. Commission on 12^th March 2015 submitted detail report of 201-Pages on Electoral Reforms, proposing wide-ranging reforms on the variety of issues such as election finance, candidate expenditure limits, disclosure obligations, penalties and state funding of elections. The report was prepared after due consideration and deliberations with stakeholders, including political parties and extensive and in-depth analysis of various issues.

Visit for the summary of commission report of http://netindian.in/news/2015/03/12/00032974/law-commission-submits-report-electoral-reforms-proposes-wide-ranging-chang

The commission suggested few good points but in some areas lacked objectivity, below I tried to touch each point suggested by the commission and analyze considering practical realities and size of Indian democracy.

Independent Candidates

This is most important and good recommendation by Commission, to disbar independent candidates from contesting elections. All past election shows, how the provision of allowing independent candidate is misused and impact overall outcome of the election. In 2014 LS total 3235 independent candidate contested and only 3 candidates able to win, 9 was on 2^nd  and 20 at a 3^rd position; means 99% Independent candidates come into the category of “not serious contender”. Independent candidates add confusion to overall electoral process and even cost for exchequer by increasing number of EVM required & maintains of records. 

Only disbarring independent candidates will not be an effective solution unless we curb political parties from contesting elections. In India registration of political party is very easy and hence used as the loophole for impacting electoral process. In 2014 LS total 464 parties contested and only 35 able to win at least one seat, 391 parties were such that forget about winning, their candidates were not even in top 3 in any of 543 LS seats. 185 parties field just 1 candidate each and able to win 3 seats out of contested 185, 6 on 2^nd & 4 on 3^rd position; 83 parties field 2 candidates each and able to win just 2 seats out of contested 166, 5 on 2^nd & 5 on 3^rd position. Even though Independents & dummy parties don’t win the election but these candidate impact result of seats in multi-corner fights or low margin wins. Independents and parties with 1 or 2 candidate capture 2.4 Cr total vote which is 4^th largest in the nation. 

Above table shows how the number of parties contesting election are growing continuously so with independents, even need some restriction on political parties for contesting the election. Few measures can be implemented such as registration at least 5yr old before the party can contest election or only state-recognized parties can contest Lok Sabha and parties with Minimum 5% votes in local body elections can contest state election and other criteria can be included so that only serious parties and candidate contest election.

Election Finance

The commission focused more on transparency rather than providing the practical approach to parties and candidate for raising funding and legal means to meet increasing election expenses. Impractical restriction always lead to either finding loopholes or using illegal means. In parliament election with constituency size of average 15.33 lakh voter (exceptions like Malkajgiri in Telangana 32 lakh voter), it’s hard to manage candidate expenditure within the limit of just 70 lakh, which translate 2.20 to 4.55 Rs per voter, at this rate candidate can’t even send a postcard to the voter. Out of 543, only 8 constituencies have less than 5lakh voter means most candidate gets less than 14 Rs per voter as election expense and this lead to using illegal means or understate of expenses. On election finance most important reform will increase candidate expanse limit 50 to 100 Rs per voter and year on year increase of 10%(Or linked with inflation index), for transparency make it mandatory to announce resources of expenses.

Anti-Defection Law 

The commission recommended instead of the speaker, President or Governor action on the advice of ECI in case of disqualification on the ground of defection. If accepted this will be a good move as the speaker is always from ruling party and hence decisions are based on party lines, Latest Bihar events are the best example to understand how decisions are twisted by the speaker. We can expect more balance decisions from President and Governor as those are the constitutional post.

Election Petitions

The commission suggested few very good mechanisms for expediting Election Petitions like the daily trial, Minimizing adjournments, a time limit of 45 days to file a written statement, conclude the trial within six months etc. All recommendations are good and government can accept those but judiciary role will be important as in past judiciary rejected PM Narendra Modi proposal of fast-tracking cases against elected representatives.

Totaliser for Counting of Votes

Commission endorsed ECI’s suggestion for introducing a totalizer for counting of votes to prevent harassment of voters in areas where voting trends in each polling station can be determined. Totaliser will be good implementation as it will harm vote bank politics as parties will not come to know which areas voter voted to which candidate but this will even impact political parties’ poll preparation as without knowing areas of weakness and strength, it will be hard to prepare and utilize organization strength.

Proportional representation

The commission suggested examining the possibility of Proportional representation to bring more representative, while the current FPTP (First Past The Post) system brings stability. At this juncture country need stability, anyway with the multiparty system and independent candidates allowed to contest, we don’t have the problem of representation to all section. PR with party list method can be worth trying as this will discourage individual based parties and pre-poll alliances.

Restriction on Government Sponsored Advertisements & Number of Seats from which a Candidate May Contest

Commission suggestion on both these issues are cosmetic and irrelevant; restriction on Government advertisement in last 6 month is a good step but keeps loophole of permission for advertisement of poverty alleviation programs so this restriction will become just yet another provision. A candidate contesting multiple seats is not a big issue as in every election only 1-2 candidate contest from multiple seats and even win. Like in 2014 LS only 2 candidates able to win from both seat. So overall any such restriction will not make a big impact one or other way.

Compulsory Voting; Right to Recall; NOTA and Right to Reject

Commission rejected the proposal of compulsory voting on basis of the practicality of implementation and Right to recall, Right to reject on basis of future chaos. We are running world’s largest democracy so before recommending or experimenting policies, we need to think about implications and practicality of implementations. We will need to find out ways to increase voting percentage rather than legally making voting compulsory and adding punishment provisions. Right to recall & right to reject both are theoretically fancy but practically harmful provisions, worldwide no democracy implemented these on large scale, not even in countries with Small population size, India with 85 Cr voters will need to find out better mechanisms for improving productivity of representatives rather than adding provisions which can lead to instability.

Use of Common Electoral Rolls

Commission recommended common electoral rolls for Parliamentary, Assembly and local body elections. Good suggestion as this will lead to uniformity in reducing cost and avoidance of mismanagement which causes because of handling of same data at multiple levels.

Regulation of Political Parties and Inner Party Democracy

   

Even though commission suggested some cosmetic changes in the law but no point in discussing these recommendations, as the issue is not of legal provision but overall our political system not ready for these implementations. In all political parties, party heads get elected unopposed even after legal provisions, this means our party system needs more maturity before we push inner party democracy through law changes.