TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: The Gandhian Festival of Ideas – Rediscovering the Mahatma had a fitting finale on Saturday, with Rajya Sabha MP Mani Shankar Aiyar combining characteristic wit and satire to spoof Parliamentary democracy, the irony of babu culture and neo-liberal market policies which disempower the poor, while strongly batting for empowerment through panchayati raj.
Aiyar who was the keynote speaker, at the programme organised jointly by Council for Social Justice and Peace and Peaceful Society, sent the audience, including the Chief Guest His Excellency Bharat Vir Wanchoo into peels of laughter throughout his absorbing lecture.
While quoting Rajiv Gandhi’s hard hitting speech at the Congress Centenary at Brabourne stadium, Aiyar said the late prime minister had called all elected Congress parliamentarians as power brokers and that ordinary people were caught in a system of patronage. The term Congress parliamentarians could well be substituted with the name of BJP or any other party and the case would be no different, he said. In his acerbic style he said today there is Ganesh Prikrama at residences of certain party bigwigs.
Talking of the limitations of Parliamentary democracy, he said the chasm between elected and electors is so wide in India that even if one MP gave one minute to each of his one and half million to two million voters, he will be unable to meet all his voters in five years, thus ligitimising panchayati raj. Therefore he said the villager should be able to walk to the next lane and tell his ward panch that he has no water or that his drain is clogged and hold him accountable.
Aiyar narrated that when Mahatma Gandhi was asked what his was hi dream for India, he did not reply with “My dream is….” but said “I shall work for India where the poorest shall feel it is their country, and in whose making they have an effective voice.” Sadly this is not the case today, he lamented.
He said the entire system today is weighted against the poor and the public interest, reiterating that there was no option for State governments but to give power to the people.
“The (political) life of a sarpanch is short since he is held accountable by the villagers.”
Gandhi wanted people to have power in their hands not in Sarkari naukar. Without empowerment there can be no entitlements and entitlements lead to enrichment in the Gandhian.
In a hard hitting lecture, he derided the babu raj who felt they were a gift to the nation, at the age of 22. He called the election of 40000 women the second most momentous event after Indian Independence.
Secretary of Peaceful Society Kumar Kalanand Mani, Secretary of CSJP Fr. Maverick Fernandes, panchayat members were among those present for the lecture.
