Dear Well Wisher of India!
Loksatta made 50 irrevocable promises in 2009 general Elections. Our manifesto is the most implementable and honest one. However, we grossly failed to reach out to people to make them understand it, or failed to make people believe our manifesto is implementable or failed to 'make them believe' that we can deliver.
In the last elections, pole issues were Free Current, Rs 2/KG Rice, Rs 2000 Per family, free Colour TV for each family along with cable connections, National Employment Guarantee scheme, essential groceries for Rs 100/a month, etc. People mostly debated them alone in spite of a progressive alternative agenda being available from Loksatta.
Our Core Manifesto is very simple...
- Dignified job and livelihood for all(without being forced to migrate)
- Education for all
- Healthcare for all
- Infrastructure development
- Self-Governance, power decentralisation
- Police & Judiciary Reforms.
We divided these issues into 50 irrevocable promises, and unfortunately we made the whole thing too complicated for ordinary people to understand.
In essense, we created an impression that our agenda does not effect their daily lives, or we created the impression that this is unimplementable agenda.
And We are heading for another general elections in 2014. Most likely our agenda is not going to change. But our approach to reaching out to people should change for sure. We can no longer confuse people with a complicated agenda. Our propaganda should be simple and single pointed, yet covering every aspect of our core concerns.
And this single pointed agenda must address the needs of entire state. In other words, instead of projecting 50 promises, we must hightlight one Promise. One promise that will effect every family in the entire state, one promise that will address all primary issues such as Employment, Education, Health Care and Power-decentralisation, one promise that will change the map of AP for good.
Developing one SMALL Town For Each Mandal in the state is that promise (it is one of Loksatta's 50 irrevocable promises). It only requires 6% of State's budget to develop one Small Town in each Mandal that has Small-scale Industries for Local Employment, Educational Institutions for Education, Good Hospital for health care of entire Mandal. Other infrastructure such as roads, transport will automatically follow once small towns are developed in subsequent years. According to Loksatta's intial calculations, we can create some 30-50 Lakh jobs in the state if we develop small towns, apart from developing educational institutions and hospitals. Once Rural Mandals can offer jobs, there will not be any forced migrations, and cities do not explode with slums. Since 70% of population live in Mandals(rural), this is inspiring agenda for a Big section of voters.
Not just that, it is also historical requirement of India to develop small towns that can provide alternative job opportunities. Today, Rural India contributes only 18% of GDP due to its sole reliance on agriculture. If we need inclusive growth, we are obliged to create alternative jobs to agriculture for nearly 40% of our population.
From Loksatta's point of view also, it is important that we get closer to rural voters, as they are the ones who actually come to polling booths and vote. Middle class urban people usually vote for the same parties that have grip in rural areas(they call it winnability), excepting a small minority(current voters of Loksatta). Dr JP subscribes to this theory.
Let us agree that 'Developing a Small Town in Each Mandal' is the slogan for Loksatta in 2014 general elections. But, can it win votes for us? No! not if we do not work to raise aspirations of people above these 'free rice, free money, free current kind of politics'.
So, The task is to...
- Propagate the idea 'Small Town for Each Mandal' extensively in Mandals of AP
- Make people believe, if at all this happens, their problems will be solved
- Make people believe, it is just 6% burden on our state budget, all it requires is Govt's desire
- Make people believe, Loksatta is fighting for their cause, not for elections
(will be continued)
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