Democracy and AFSPA : A paper presented by Raghavan Srinivasan
At one-day discussion on "Democracy and AFSPA", 13th October, 2012 at Imphal
- Part 2 -

Raghavan Srinivasan *

A Day long fasting against AFSPA initiated by MMAB, Bangalore on Nov 5 2011

So, the issue here is not just the repeal of the AFSPA, but also the rewriting of a people's constitution and the setting up of a people-centred democracy. We cannot wish away AFSPA without looking at the foundations on which such laws operate with impunity. If it is not AFSPA then some other draconian law such as UAPA or MESMA or Disturbed Areas Act or the sedition law will be used.

Today we have a system of parliamentary representative democracy in this country. In this system of democracy, power is concentrated in the hands of the executive, in the hands of the Prime Minister, the President and the Cabinet. The legislature and the judiciary act as the instruments of the executive in making sure that power remains in the hands of the ruling elite.

The executive can push through policies and legislation even without full consultation and consensus in the Parliament, through executive decrees. The executive is not accountable to the legislature which is elected by the people. In turn, the members of the legislature are not accountable to the people who have elected them. The role of the people in this political process is only to vote this or that political party to power.

Lok Raj Sangathan has been demanding that this political system and process needs a thorough overhaul. This party-dominated political process has to be replaced with a people-dominated political process. As long as the people are marginalised from political power, the institutions which the Constitution has created – the executive, legislature and judiciary – will not be accountable to the people.

The people of the north-east are already very political. Faced with bayonets and encounter killings every day, they are trying to become an organised force to assert their rights. I feel that there is a need now to create mechanisms that increase the scope for our political activity and end our political marginalisation in Manipur and elsewhere.

An important part of this immediate step is recognising what this political system and process stands for and what it has done to keep us marginalised from political power and decision-making. Then, all of us will be convinced that this political system needs to be rejected and that an alternative is possible.

This is why Lok Raj Sangathan has put all its energy behind building local, village, district, city, national and all-India level organs of people's struggle – the samitis and Councils. I feel this is the immediate practical task facing all political forces which stand for the empowerment of people.

In Manipur itself, people have built their own organisations and activists such as the meira paibis, and others. Manipur's history is full of people's revolts against their oppressors like the Nupi Lal. And Manipuri women have been very active in asserting their rights. Manipur has its own traditional forms of governance by the people. Such people's groups have to participate in all forms of struggle and activity that will assist to bring their agenda onto the centre-stage of political life.

What I would like to re-emphasise here is that in order to repeal all black laws forever, in order to build unity among the people of north-east, in order to set up the kind of government and political process that work for us, we have to organise the entire people of north-east. We can neither empower the people relying on the activities of some armed groups or on the useless debates of the ruling and opposition parties in parliament and the state Assembly.

The people of manipur are fed up with political parties and their two-timing. They give lot of promises on the eve of elections and then go back on them with excuses as the Ibobi government has done after the elections. This would not have happened if people had the right to select and elect their representatives and not the political parties. We must agitate for the principle that there can be no election without the people having a decisive say in the selection of candidates. Lok Raj Sangathan has tested in practice the method of selecting candidates at open mass meetings in the constituency, where every nomination is examined, approved or rejected.

Lok raj Sangathan has consistently championed a political process where the people will have right to recall their representatives if they do not serve their needs. We have demanded that people should have the right to initiate legislation to protect their interests and once such legislation is enacted, mechanisms should be created to enable people to ensure the correct implementation of such legislation.

We have argued for the delimitation of electoral constituencies in such a way that the people will know their representatives fully and can ensure their accountability. We have also strongly argued that the state should fund the political process and not political parties.

At the same time we definitely believe that political parties have an important role to play in society. Instead of working for political power in their own hands, they should work for transferring power into the hands of the people. Instead of acting as gatekeepers between the people and political power they should act as facilitators for empowering the people.

We should prepare the ground for the election of people's committees in every electoral constituency. These Committees should be mandated with the responsibility to organise the selection and election of candidates for election, to recall elected representatives when they don't perform, and to initiate proposals for new laws and annulment or revision of existing ones. So, these Committees do not work only during elections, but are active before and after elections, as well.

Our organisation believes that this is the right time to study the limitations of the existing Constitution, its institutions, and electoral laws. This will enable us to develop a roadmap for setting up a Constituent Assembly, through non-partisan elections, with the mandate of formulating a new draft Constitution to be placed before the people of India for discussion and adoption.

The people of each constituent would have a decisive say in how the political process would operate in their territory, and in the whole of India. For instance, the people of Manipur would decide on the final shape of the constitution of political power in Manipur, and decide along with other constituent peoples on the Constitution of the new voluntary Indian Union.

The times are calling for change. Massive struggles against corruption, price rise, malnutrition, setting up nuclear plants without the consent of people, land grab by monopolies and multinationals assisted by the government, stoking of river water disputes between fraternal people, state-organised communal and sectarian violence, and state-terror have all thrown up fundamental flaws in the existing system of representative democracy and economic orientation of the forces of the status quo. They have brought to the centre-stage the question of vesting sovereignty in the hands of our people.

I am very hopeful that the discussions we are having here today will contribute to that momentous task of vesting sovereignty in the people.

I thank you all for giving me this opportunity.

Concluded ...

www.lokraj.org.in