Strategy

-- Shri. Chandrashekhar
National President, Lok Paritran 

Strategy is derived from the abstract philosophical ideology coupled with real world parameters and setting through understanding. Strategy is instrumental in transforming the ideology into action patterns that implement the intent contained in the ideology, though still in abstract form. In strategy the higher intent is transformed into strategic principles that serve as guidelines for action decisions.

While following the principles and moving from the abstract to the concrete and the crude, the intent is always to be kept in mind in order to minimize the possibilities of fragmentation-which is faulty by itself. Some principles, at times, appear conflicting in nature while they could actually be complementary in nature. If the fundamentals of understanding are bound or derived from the principles rather then the intent, completeness will become contradiction.

Society exists as a whole object. Culture, economy, politics, traditions are various facets of society. They are not different objects or systems but a component of an integrated whole, and at best can be viewed as interdependent constructs, never independent ones. All the problems of the society are interconnected as well, whether economic, political or cultural. The degree of intermingling and interdependence is so great that any attempt towards a partial solution always fails.

The current state of society and the system is the starting point from where all the planning originates. While there is democratic setup in the country and formally everything is in right order, the gap between the formal construct, which technically borders with the “ideal” in the current setting, and the practical or the real system that prevails has been increasing in every aspect of life, to the extent that the “ideal” has become synonymous with “impractical”.

The system has degenerated so much that it is failing to fulfill the bare minimum of its functions. No one component of the system has degenerated to the limit of collapse, but the aggregate of degeneration at every level in every field has reached a stage where the fundamental basis of the system has been compromised. The entire social structure is deteriorating along with the political organization, and suffering at the collective level is increasing. Most of the problems are a direct consequence of the lack of good governance.

Due to this degradation at the political level with its inevitable implications of social degeneration and its clash with the fundamental drive for better governance at lower levels, over time the overall structure has evolved in such a way that it is resistant to change, with its own resistance mechanisms. The system, along the process of degeneration, has developed mechanisms of its own to discourage learned, honest and enthusiastic people from entering politics. The image of the entire system has led to the general notion that politics is “dirty”, and hence not for “clean” people.

Social rigidity, the system’s apathy and even the fundamental mindset of people have reached a level where any effort in the direction of constructive change at the individual level is bound to fail. At the individual level many have tried, in their own way and with their abilities, but the thresholds for success are too high, so that individual efforts go in vain.

This state of affairs is somehow deeply ingrained in the minds of the people and has resulted in a state of collective hopelessness. The sense of possibility of the entire society has been reduced. The most honest efforts are viewed with suspicion because people have lost the ability to comprehend the possibility of the existence of good will. People have accepted that nothing can be done, not as a social constraint but as a natural constraint. This hopelessness only increases the apathy of people to their surroundings, which can be understood as a defense mechanism at the collective level. The apathy and inactivity of the people is one the factors most responsible for the degeneration of the system and only leads to rigidity towards change and the possibility of further degeneration.

The attempts of improvement by economic reforms, social service, or educational awareness are fragmented to begin with and hence fundamentally flawed. They are bound to add up to nothing in the end. The reforms at lower levels that are somehow achieved by efforts at the individual or the microscopic group level are either shallow or compartmentalized and soon their effects get eroded due to the interconnectivity of the entire setup. The overall system, the social setting, the mindset of people, these require a fundamental structural change for it to be of any value.

Accomplishments that are at a lower level, or are partial in nature, in the absence of any sustaining mechanism, will only be compromised over time by the flow of degeneration from the top. The overall setting has come to a point where sustained effective change in a positive direction is possible only by structured efforts at the top level. To achieve that in the current setting, reorientation of political organization and formal power is the only way. The role of the top level is not to enforce change but to facilitate it at the lower level, the opposite of which is happening currently, where top level is either choking or absorbing the efforts from below and hacking away at the hope of the people.

While the political organization is very important in any political system, in democracy it is particularly crucial. In a democratic setup the political system exercises profound control over the bureaucracy and over the social institutions and the entire society. The political structure as it exists now is one of the fields most neglected by society as a whole. The highest level of decision making comes from the political leadership, not from social institutions or the bureaucracy. Prolonged neglect of that field has to have dire consequences for the country. Society’s marginalization of politics as a field has reduced talent inflow into politics. This has much to do with the degeneration and degradation of politics and gross intellectual bankruptcy at even the highest levels of political organizations.

The rigidities and the faulty political structure do not permit education, economic policy or other socio-political issues, to keep pace with changing circumstances and new developments at the national and global level. For any collective effort, mutual trust of people and their faith in the system is the minimum existential condition of the system. In the current state of hopelessness and inactivity, the purpose of the system that is aggregating the efforts of people has been compromised, leading to suffering and underperformance at every level.

To achieve the ultimate intent of the Party in this current state of reality, the Party’s present main strategic objective is to get the people out of this state of hopelessness, integrating higher understanding and better governing principles at both the political and the administrative level through democratic means, and provide a structured approach towards much needed change at almost every level, in the changed social, political and economic setting. The current strategic aim of the party is to get able, skillful, honest and enthusiastic people involved in active politics in a structured manner so that a sustained effort can be made in the right direction.

Accomplishment of this is to serve as the structural basis for social, economic and administrative uplifting and other principal operational and tactical objectives that the Party has set for itself. This is to serve as the deriving principle at the operational and lower levels. The preliminary details of implementation will be covered in the “Plan of Action” document.