Our efforts of identifying community leaders to implement the Power to People Campaign in Punjab and Chandigarh, brought us to two spirited persons of Chandigarh, Mr.Surender Kumar Bhanot & Mr.Pallav Kumar Mukherji, Ex-Municipla Councillor and architect by profession. Both the community leaders assured their complete cooperation and solidarity for democratization of Police & Judiciary and local governance apparatus.
Aridaman Jit Singh,Campaign Convener, discussed the campaign strategy with Sh.Pallav Mukherjee and Sh.Surender Kumar Bhanot
The Foundation of existing governance apparatus was laid by British Rulers with the sole objective of maintaining territorial control for unhindered economic exploitation of masses in India.
Power to People All the positions of administrative officers or police officers or even judiciary were to advance the agenda of British Raj by coercion, force and surveillance on masses. In order to ensure continued wilfull subjugation, community leaders were targeted through brutal force and tried in colonial courts of arbitrary judges to break them with enormous costs. The same system of governance and laws have been perpetuated by those rulers who fitted themselves in the shoes of colonialism.
The governance apparatus, police, judiciary all these organs are in direct conflict with democratic aspirations of citizens of post British India.
The political leadership has no independent capacity to formulate policy on democratization and completely rely upon the bureaucrats who are themselves devoid of any democratic values of governance.
The colonial judiciary and colonial police have miserably failed the citizens to the extent that people do not trust both these institutions.
Victims of violent crimes die with public apathy and injustice that emanate out of the distrust on police and judiciary.
No political revolution in India against corruption and injustices can ever succeed, until the Colonial coercive criminal justice is intact. Millions of people have died in ignominy as victims of injustices due to the prevalent work culture of both these institutions.
“Power to People” is the campaign devised to have active participation of local community leaders to organize them, educate them on the pitfalls of existing apparatus and demand change from their political representatives.
It is the journey to empower local community leaders and political leadership, cutting across party lines to empower them with evidence based informations to visualize democratization by strengthening the process of peoples’ participation, transparency and accountability in local governance apparatus.
As part of campaign process 1st Punjab state steering committee will be established and later on campaign will be implemented in each district through district coordinators.
We intend to launch the campaign in Punjab by last week of July 2013.
Simultaneously we are bringing up membership drive for launching the campaign in Chandigarh too.