A sneak preview into the work of a foreigner & how she worked on the details for AAP over 3 months of internship at Kabir.
Few questions raised here:
- Was Kabir, the NGO started by Kejriwal while still in Government service receive funds?
- Was it funded by BVD & AIVD (Dutch Intel agencies)? Dutch were banned from funding any NGOs in India in 2002. But, Kejriwal received funds in 2006-2008. Illegal?
- Was the foreigner here with a valid visa? Or was here on Tourist visa, as she was in Egypt during Tahrir protests?
- Since she was also attending conferences, did she have a MHA approval?
- What was the financial transactions she was involved in?
Lot more questions are propping up. Refer to attached document.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/196502999/Publif-power-India-and-other-democracies
Conclusion
The Economist Intelligence Unit's Index of Democracy in 2008 cites a number of examples in
which “flawed democracies” have evolved into “full democracies.” For example, Italy has
successfully made the transition, improving fair elections and ensuring that all parties have
equal access to the media. In South Korea, improvements in civil liberties and a further reduction in
any residual risk of a return to military rule underpin the move to the full democracy category.
Such groundbreaking shifts in levels of freedom are not impossible to imagine. Nations throughout
the world are striving towards greater public participation. Through mechanisms of participation and
decentralization, accountability, and transparency citizens are increasingly becoming the rulers of
their own destinies. In order to grow and progress, it is crucial for any country to take on a global
perspective, analyzing and understanding the ways in which others have struggled for the same
democratic goals.
On paper, India's democratic system is spotless: elections every five years, a three-tier structure of shared power (central, state, panchayat), citizen's charters, a guarantee of female participation, and so on. However, it is important to delve deeper and examine the realities of the system in a more critical manner. Indian democracy has been described as a “hollowed out scaffolding” with nothing inside there is no citizen participation. To what extent does such a democracy speak to the needs and desires of the people? How can a transparent, effective, and accountable government be realized? How can “Jaanne ka haq aur jeene ka haq,” the “right to information and the right to life” be understood
against the backdrop of the politics of exclusion that exist in India?
Not only must one examine the system from the inside, but it is also critical to step outside of one's familiar basis and analyze the structure from the outside, with a global perspective. This requires discovering the unknowable, imaging how others live, and exploring experiments of democracy that are taking place across the world. Democracy is a constant battle. Even if results are not immediately realized, it is the struggle itself, the means, the anger, desires, needs and dreams of the people that build a democracy that is truly of the people, by the people and for the people. Aglobal imagination is crucial to this process.