Opinion Not so fast

Starting a political party is hard work. Few people realise that Mahatma Gandhi did not just fast,but he built up one of the largest democratic political parties the world had seen. He made Congress a mass membership party by fixing the dues at four annas (25 paise). He devised the structure of committees at district and provincial levels with delegates elected to the All India Congress Committee. The party he built was a monument to internal democracy until 1969 when Indira Gandhi changed it all. She kept the structure but killed the democratic spirit.

Building a political party is hard work. Team Anna has so far not shown much patience with people’s weaknesses. In starting a political party,the first task is to have sympathy for people who want to make change but also restrain them because they are too impatient. The British Labour Party,which I know best,has made significant gains over its hundred plus years’ existence but each step has been beset by obstacles,compromises,betrayals and disappointments before final achievement. The Party recruits members widely and raises small contributions from them in an open fashion. It involves members at the lowest level in ward meetings. Wards add up to Constituency Party which decides the candidate for the election and discusses policy relevant for the area.

It is about time India had a political party which will induct members openly and give them a voice at every level. Internal democracy is absent in every Indian party. It should elect its leaders annually in openly contested elections. The Party’s finances should be transparent and each member’s contribution should be recorded. Each candidate of the Party fighting an election to office at any level should declare his/her assets (family included) continually while active. The Party should have open debates,with resolutions formally moved and votes recorded.

The most difficult thing is to have modest ambition. Changing a society is a long hard slog. One election will not be enough. Nor will success come to Team Anna Party anytime soon. The best it should expect is that if it works hard and puts up around 300 candidates,it may win 10 seats. This would be a triumph. The election next time will have a fragmented outcome with no party winning more than 125 seats at best and many parties with single or low double-digit seats. To have ten seats will give Team Anna Party clout.

But above all,a political party has to work in between elections,recruiting members,keeping a political debate going on within and outside the party,publishing magazines and books. The CPI used to be such an engaged intelligent party in the 1950s when it contributed to modernisation of Indian society. Indira Gandhi emasculated CPI by giving them patronage.

If Team Anna wants change,it should first change itself from an arrogant,impatient,self-righteous clique to an open,patient,transparent party. It wants to defeat the Congress in 2014.Congress will manage to defeat itself,no thanks to Team Anna. If the new party understands that it can start as a small but significant force,which can expose and then arrest corruption more by example than by proposing new laws,that would be change enough.