Press Releases Archive

Voters in India at both the State and national levels displayed extraordinary maturity in rejecting opportunistic alliances struck solely to grab power, said Lok Satta Party President Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan here today.

Addressing the party’s State Working Committee, Dr. JP said the elections were historic in that the voters refused to vote for a party that promised cash transfer of Rs.2000 per family per month. They did not succumb to politicians who sought to stoke the flames of hatred based on caste and region. That the voters returned 33 Congress candidates to the Lok Sabha compared to a mere 157 to the Assembly testified to their discretion in choosing the party that should rule the country.

Dr. JP congratulated Congress President Sonia Gandhi, Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and Chief Minister Dr. Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy on their remarkable performance in national and State elections.

Dr. JP pointed out that the Lok Satta could not translate the abundant good will it enjoyed into votes because it did not have competent leaders who could inspire confidence among rural voters. It enjoyed enormous good will because it had a powerful agenda, and the middle classes had begun to own it. It was ignored by the media owners who had their vested interests to pursue, although media personnel by and large stood by the party. There was no reason to get dejected by the media’s attitude since the aberration would turn out to be transient. The media could not afford to antagonize the middle classes, its major constituency. “As a moral institution, the media is going to stand by the people and support the cause of democratic transformation.”

The Lok Satta as of now was in no position to guarantee that it would safeguard rural voters from feudal oppression if they exercised their franchise freely. It, therefore, envisaged formation of citizen service centers in every constituency to serve as a bridge between people and governmental agencies and safeguard them from factional pressures.

Underlining the need to strengthen the party with cooption of competent leaders and raising of adequate resources, Dr. JP said, “We are engaged in a war and we need soldiers who are prepared to fight. I am not enamored of earning a name and fame but only interested in transforming the country. Join me and share the glory.”

Lok Satta Party President Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan has described his victory from Kukatpally constituency to the Andhra Pradesh Assembly as a “small beginning for the Lok Satta but a giant leap for new politics.”

Interacting with people who streamed in to congratulate him at the party headquarters, Dr. JP said he was “deeply humbled as a citizen and political worker” with the voters turning Kukatpally into an arena of epic struggle for new politics. “It is a victory of the people at a time most believed that even a Mahatma Gandhi could not win without distributing money and liquor in the present climate of cynicism and despair.”

Dr. JP said that thousands of youth, middle class people, women and even the poor leading precarious livelihood had responded to the call for a second freedom struggle and laid a durable foundation for transformational politics.

The Lok Satta, he recalled, had faced formidable obstacles in converting the enormous good will it enjoyed into votes against the backdrop of there being two deeply-entrenched traditional parties displaying unprecedented money power, feudal elements exercising oppressive control over people’s daily lives and vested interests exacerbating and exploiting caste and regional divisions. “The Lok Satta has always been aware of these barriers. Yet it has chosen the narrow and arduous path to lead the country out of the current crisis.”

“The people in the 2009 elections have demonstrated they are ready for change. The failure lies in the political instruments available to them. While traditional political parties obstructed change, the Lok Satta has not yet attracted the kind of leadership required to inspire confidence in people that such a change is imminent. While most of media persons are strongly in favor of change, media barons have become power players and chosen to perpetuate the status quo. But since media is essentially a moral instrument, ultimately it too will stand on the side of people.”

Dr. JP called upon enlightened citizens with ability, means and influence to come forward and accept the burden of leadership at every level. “We can’t afford to remain on sidelines waiting for somebody else to come and bring about change. Fight for what is right and accelerate transformation. We owe it to our children.”

The 2009 elections, Dr. JP said, had not transformed the nature of politics. But people had displayed extraordinary judgment in rejecting opportunistic alliances with no coherent agenda except the one of grabbing power or unseating others. The voters displayed abundant maturity and self-respect by rejecting extraordinary inducements and freebies, and sobriety and dignity by not succumbing to caste, religion, region, language and other parochial appeals.

Dr. JP said that the elections might not have paid electoral dividends to the Lok Satta Party but had laid the real foundation across the State for building new politics. “The real work of the Lok Satta has just begun. We have to strengthen the party from the grassroots, attract competent and principled leadership, and mobilize resources honestly to sustain clean politics.”