Regards
Sanjeev

Vishal

Happy to do that (We have outlined a few things we could do once we reach that stage. We can discuss those things in more detail if you wish and work out things that FTI would do once it has assembled.)

One of these things which Shantanu was inquiring about from Umesh Tewari was the idea of Adharshila, who first conceptualised the name and idea many years ago but never got around to doing anything about it (yet). I had also suggested somewhere that Adharshila could encourage its members to join the Territorial Army. Now, setting up Adharshila on the ground can start even before these 1500 people assemble. That is one thing that can be discussed and finalised. The other is a detailed plan for the launch of political awareness at a suitable point in time. Maybe I’m contradicting myself when I say we can do these things but must still wait for 1500 to launch, but essentially what I’m saying is we need coordinated action, and robust (strong) action which makes an impact. A few random actions here or there are going to be unsuitable.

So we can start a discussion on Adharshila or the other issues, if you wish.

Regards
Sanjeev

Sanjeev’s response -
Yes, in brute summary, “no point working on that till (as FTI) we assemble 1500 members”, noting that individual experiments are fine. I’m not planning for either failure or wasting time and money. Our effort should be focused on getting more members, not in running NGOs or political campaigning. And no, we will never become an NGO ‘on the ground’. We don’t plan to run schools, etc. Although, Adharashila (a concept similar in some ways to RSS with radically different objectives) could be operated by FTI (see: http://www.indiapolicy.org/adharshila/adharshila.html)

We have outlined a few things we could do once we reach that stage. We can discuss those things in more detail if you wish and work out things that FTI would do once it has assembled.

Anupam

The matter you have raised is best discussed under this blog post (outreach strategy), since this is not the first time it has come up and it is not the last time it will come up. Over the last year we have created a broad ‘plan’ for this, based on extensive discussion. This plan which, as you are aware, is now publicly available at: http://freedomteam.in/blog/content/214

Let me summarise my views first (extracting from my internal FTI email).

“Nothing stops any FTI member to go ahead with a range of ground based activities and still remain on FTI to work out a common policy framework. When did I ever (or anyone ever) stop free citizens from doing whatever they want?

“It is just that it is simply not the way most people on FTI will function. In particular, I will NOT waste my time for a minute on the ground in India, and thus waste my precious life, if I’m not assured that at least 1499 others are working at the same time all over India through a well-resourced campaign, both with a common policy framework and marketing strategy. I dont’ want to get 1-2 per cent votes. I want to win, and I want to form government with 299 others. I do NOT believe in ground work (at this stage), but I do not stop anyone else from doing whatever they want (I can’t, can I?) and wasting their time and money.”
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Your views:

“By ground work I meant NGO kind of work, I didn’t mean political campaign. As an example I had mentioned that BM has adopted a village in Bihar.

“I am supporting couple of NGOs today with monthly contribution, NGOs like shankara foundation and a microfinance NGO. But that is not bringing any visibilty to FTI. But if we can form trust and support and existing NGO or somehow form our own, this will give visibilty to FTI and make things easier when we start the 3 year campaign.”
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First, just for the record, it is not true that “LokSatta has done that for 6-7 years.” Lok Satta was launched as a political party on 2 October 2006. Before that it was a pure NGO. Indeed, by taking the same name as the NGO, it created a lot of confusion in many people’s minds, as well. And had Lok Satta moved into politics in 2004 when I called JP for a week-long seminar on this issue (details at: http://www.indiapolicy.org/workshop/strategy.doc) its political existence might have been about 5 years by now. But Lok Satta (as a political group) is precisely 2 1/2 years old. And it has not done any significant homework nor involved all liberals in India. Its preparation time was too small, its policy development process rather inward looking, and so on. Therefore it is unlikely to form government this time around. Other groups we know of are even less prepared; not worth talking about. None of them has done the kind of ground work I have in mind.

Second, I have mentioned many times that ‘adopting’ (like we may adopt a pet?) a village or two (out of 600,000 villages in India) is a totally unviable idea in terms of our objectives. People are welcome to do that if they wish, but that won’t get them a single Parliamentary seat. Be sure of that.

As indicated on this page (http://freedomteam.in/blog/content/214) I have in mind a three year clear-cut POLITICAL (not charitable) campaign conducted by at least 1500 leaders once they have assembled. That is the minimum requirement to win a significant number of seats. That may still not work, but other ideas (like rushing to contest elections like Lok Satta, adopting one or two ‘pet’ villages, etc.) will only demotivate all of us and waste a lot of our very limited money.

I’m theerfore very negative about un-coordinated and well-organised efforts. I do not hide my negativism about such activities which are guaranteed to fail. However, if good ideas emerge, they should form part of our outreach strategy. I haven’t shut my mind to good ideas. So please propose your specific solutions, keeping in mind existing work on the outreach strategy, and we could run with these solutions as a team. And at the end of the day, nothing stops FTI members from doing a number of things and seeing which works best. Just because I may not participate in something doesn’t mean others on FTI can’t do it. We are a team, not a one man show.

Regards
Sanjeev