Why Jayaprakash Narayan came to Politics instead of doing Social Service?

This was the question asked by one person, and he gave example of Lok Nayak Jayaprakash Narayan, that Loksatta Jayaprakash Narayan should follow him. This post is my answer for his question.

In this article, wherever I mentioned a normal person, We or You, I meant a very rich person/entity, who/which does not want to bribe more than 2% of the money that the person/entity plans to donate/invest.

India is spending Rs.4,000 crore per day. In just 10 days, it spends almost equivalent to what Bill Gates had donated in his whole life (more than 90% of his wealth) (We have to consider the money proportionate in local currency, not exchange value). If Bill gates' wealth is negligible, then there is no need to speak of our donations that we do in our whole life.

To improve the country in fast way, we have to take the big problems and solve them. After that, we have to take the next biggest problem and solve. If you have to chose between, making sure that Rs.4,000 crore per day would be spent properly Vs spending Rs.20,000 per month, I always chose former. I don't know about others.

Even if we go with the social service, I am sure a normal person cannot solve many of the problems faced by many.

1. If you have Rs.1,000 crores, you cannot start another IIT for better education, unless you bribe atleast Rs.50 crore.
2. If you want to start a small school for 6th class for 50 students, I don't think you can start unless you spend atleast Rs.1 lakh to Rs.1.5 Lakhs.
3. In almost all the cities, everyone is facing problems with transport, and we cannot solve their problems. Only government can solve their problems.
4. Farmers are facing problems with power supply. We cannot solve those problems.

I can list hundreds of problems like this, where we cannot solve those problems, or if we solve, it would be very inefficient. We cannot scale it up. The biggest problem is, in most of the cases, we are not allowed to solve the problems. Only government has patent rights to solve those problems.

So, those who want to do significant contribution, spend time and money in getting the power, and after getting the power, they fix the problems easily. Those who do not understand those, spends their time and money in social service, and wastes lot of money and time.

If Loknayak Jayaprakash Narayan had not formed Janatha party, I am sure he would not be in history books. He did not become PM, that is another thing. But, at the same time, his party could not sustain for full 5 years. Had it sustained for 5 years, it would have really changed the history of India. Sayings like, I don't need power, and I am sacrificing it, looks very good. But, that is not good for the development of the country. The leader has to lead the entire team to a very good shape, and after they find other leaders as good as them, then they can give the control to them. Had Loknayak JP done that, we would not have required Loksatta JP. Of course, there were other things like, his health was not good, and he died within 2 years after forming the government.

A politician should be like a pure businessman/woman with the only motive to develop the people of the country. They should be ready to do anything and everything for that. If they don't do it, then the country will not get that much out of them. If they don't find leaders as good as them, then they should take the leadership. If they want to sacrifice, when there are no leaders as good as them, I would suggest them to become a monk instead of coming to politics.

What has Dr.Jayaprakash Narayan done so far?

Following are the few things that Loksatta (Organization, not political party) has done.
* Arrested increasing criminalization of politics in AP; led to mandatory disclosure of electoral candidates' financial and criminal antecedents across India
* Political funding law reform (2003) enables transparent and legal contribution to parties through 100% tax-exemption
* 91st Constitutional Amendment to limit size of Council of Ministers
* Tightening of anti-defection provisions in Constitution's 10th Schedule
* Right to Information Act (2005)
* Citizen's Charters introduced in India
* Bill to establish Local Courts & Constitutional Amendment Bill to liberate cooperatives from government clutches (both in final stages, before Parliament)
* National Rural Health Mission (NRHM)
* Procedural reforms in Indirect Taxation
* Voter roll-improvements reduce errors (from 44% to 12% in urban areas)
* Post Offices now made permanent nodal centres for voter registration (starting with AP) . Easy, permanent, 24x7 and universal access to voter rolls achieved

These are just few things that Loksatta organization has done. By the way, don't expect to transform the entire country by just becoming a social organization. You need to have power to transform the country.

What does Dr.Jayaprakash Narayan promise to do?

Please Read the manifesto at http://www.loksatta.org/images/50_Guarantees.pdf. There is no political party which promises to do the points in the Loksatta Manifesto. All the 50 guarantees in the manifesto are for the improvement of the people and state.


Personally, I never give any respect to anyone who is doing social service in an area, where government can do significantly more, but not doing. I expect them to join politics and fix them instead of doing social service.

In an area, if government does not have restrictions, then we should do it in such a way that, more employment is created, and more opportunities are provided by scaling it up. I am not saying that, we should not have social organizations. But, we should try to eliminate the root cause of the problems as much as possible. At any time, I give more respect to N.R.Narayana Murthy than any social worker.