The Janata Party is a political party that was founded as an amalgam of Indian political parties opposed to the Emergency that was imposed between 1975 to 1977 by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi of the Indian National Congress. In the 1977 general election, the party defeated the Congress and Janata leader Morarji Desai became the first non-Congress prime minister in independent modern India’s history.

In the first Election manifesto (1977), the Janata Party, had declared: “The Janata Party is dedicated to the values and ideals of Gandhiji. It is dedicated to the task of building a democratic state in India, drawing inspiration from our rich heritage, and the noble traditions of our struggle for independence”. In other words, the Janata Party’s ideology is to foster democracy in all its dimensions, economic, political, social and cultural.

This has to be done by learning from our ancient history and the Freedom struggle; within the Gandhian framework.” The Janata Party was ushered in to power in 1977 on the strength of the youth (who constitute over seventy percent of the electorate). However, this mandate of the youth was soon betrayed through splits and defections in the 1980’s, but it is still alive and kicking today. The mission of the Party, given to it by JP, is still unaccomplished and yet relevant. Those of us who have remained steadfast and suffered the wilderness for it, have kept this historic Party alive. In 1977, the nation’s democratic structure was under siege and the nation was in crisis. Today, the nation is on the throes of deep identity crisis and ideological bankruptcy. At the cross roads of history today, the future of our country is crucially dependent on making the right choice on the direction for the country. While the Freedom struggle had given the people a clear identity and the underpinning of its ideology, the last one and a half decades have thrown up anti-national and anti-social forces which now seriously threaten our national integrity, and have sown doubts in the people’s mind about the nation’s future. No political party has come forward to provide an answer.

The political parties of today have in fact failed so far to formulate a concept of our identity and relevant ideology. The continued inability of political parties to formulate an acceptable concept of identity and ideology is

dangerous for our democracy. No wonder, our people are confused about the future, and the youth led astray. If this continues, the ensuing disorder may threaten the collapse of the Indian Union, which, in the Soviet Union and
elsewhere has become a reality. But still no political party today is thinking along these futuristic terms. The Congress Party of today cannot provide the frame work for our identity and ideology. There is a wide gap between policy and practice in the Congress Party. With the collapse of Communist rule in the erstwhile Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, the ideology of the Communists stands discredited.

II. APPEAL TO THE VOTERS
The Janata Party in all humility asks for a mandate to give the country a government responsive to the people and respectful of the country’s constitution, and democratic freedoms and institutions. The Janata Party’s programme is as follows.

1. Political
a) Decentralisation
A qualitative change in the sphere of political management requires a package of measures starting with a principled and rational distribution of powers and functions between the Centre and the State on the one hand, and within the State upto the village level on the other, aim being that the burden of political management is shared by many shoulders and as appropriate at each level. For this purpose Janata stands for (a) a constructive review of the Centre, State and concurrent list of subjects; (b) establishment of an effective Inter-State Council as envisaged in the Constitution for harmonious, speedy and productive resolution of Centre/State issues; (c) financial viability of the States will be ensured through various constitutional, legal and fiscal arrangements; (d) effective implementation of Article 40 of the Directive Principles of State Policy in the Constitution relating to decentralisation through “units of self government: upto the village level; (e) appropriate reorganisation of States, where necessary to improve administration and enhance the satisfaction of the citizens.

b) Electoral Reform
At a parallel level, Janata stands for substantial reform of the structure of political parties and the electoral system. Political parties recognised by the Election Commission should be required by law to have an inner democratic structure based on periodic elections as a part of their constitution. They shall be made to submit audited accounts regularly. The state shall contribute to election expenses. Voters should have identity cards. Voters lists should be displayed publicly and permanently at each polling booth and updated annually. Combined with this, Janata will initiate a review of the existing political and administrative divisions. This will presage the formation of multiple tiers of democratic institutions to oversee the implementation of policies. Administrators will have to be responsible to local and regional political institutions and not to distant masters. In short the top down paternal system of the colonial era must go and the true democratisation of the Indian nation must begin.

c) Induction of Good and Honest Man into Politics and Public Life
Janata Party will carefully induct into the arena of politics and public life, honest, efficient and qualified persons in order to rescue the nation from the clutches of usurpers of Independence, thieves and goons. It is a task of metamorphosis of a nation. Janata Party promises all patriotic Indians who feel ashamed, humiliated and enraged at the way the Independence and the Republic have been hijacked that they will have the good fortune of again participating in the resurrection of their great nation and thus vindicating the honour of the real martyrs whose supreme sacrifices brought us our freedom.The overall objective is to enhance the responsiveness and accountability of the nation’s managers – elected or administrative – to the people of India and to gear them to meet the challenge of providing a vibrant government that protects life, upholds the constitution and leads them on the path of growth with social justice.

d) Basic Secularism
1. Articles 102 &191 of the Constitution of India will be amended to make any appeal to voters in the name of religion a cause for disqualification from Parliament Legislatures.
2. Encouragement of inter-caste marriages with the aim of building up a casteless India.
3. Educating the masses on the equality of the religions and fostering equal respect for the theology of all religions, which includes freedom to preach and follow religion of one’s choice without state interference.
4. The right to enjoy the reservation in employment and education for backwards and dalits without regard to religion professed.

e) Moral and Ethical Values
1. Restructuring education system and including the basic precepts of all religions to promote truthfulness, courage and austerity.
2. Emphasis on character building and government assistance to voluntary organisations who conduct classes and programmes, camps to promote character building through an approved syllabus.
3. Propagation through Doordarshan and other mass media for casteless society, the equality of sexes and a concern for the poor and underprivileged.
4. Promotion of festivals, cultural events, get togethers that promote social inter-action based on equality.

f) Dual Citizenship
All the non-resident Indians would be given the option of “Dual Citizenship”. This simple step will result in an accelerated flow of NRI investments in India.

g) Complete Revamping and Restructuring of Public Administration at all levels.
If the liberalisation measures taken in the last three years have to produce their full impact, we have to completely restructure the existing systems, structures and procedures of public administration in India. Our bureaucracy, after independence, has degenerated into system in which everything is delayed by inflexible rules of inertia and indifference, with total commitment to neutral performance or perpetuation of status quo or both. The current system is marked by delay, red-tapism, inefficiency, carelessness and callousness, contempt of the public and above all uncontrolled and unabashed corruption. Janata Party will constitute a National Commission on Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances to study the systems, structures and procedures of public Grievances to study the systems, structures and procedures of public administration in India and to make suitable recommendations for making the entire administrative apparatus of the Centre and the states more efficient, effective, economical and responsive.

2. THE ECONOMY
a) Globalisation Liberalisation and Privatisation
There is a broad consensus today in India on the merits of freeing the economy from the shackles of the state by a process of deregulation and liberation. The more a country liberalises the more competitive it becomes. Though there is disagreement over how much to open up to foreign participation, yet India cannot achieve the full benefits of liberalisation without becoming a global player in the world market. For this we must combine technology from abroad with our skilled low cost man power. The gains from combining foreign capital and technology with Indian human talents are best illustrated in the Computer and Software Industries.

A major stumbling block which keeps India behind East Asia is its hesitant and ambivalent commitment to the reform process. Janata Party pledges itself to the cause of deepening, widening and broadening the vistas and processes of Globalisation. Liberalisation and Privatisation in India with focus on maximisation of production, employment and exports. Liberalisation cannot stop with every election, to be resumed now and then under IMF conditionality. Stop-&-Go policies do not inspire investor confidence. Janata Party wishes to create an economic environment in which the business community in India can get behind the Government to keep up the momentum and thus help in accelerating the process of liberalisation in India.

Overall, the Government’s major economic role would be to use taxation and set interest rates – which raise the rate of saving; and to induce investments that promote employment, to modernise agriculture to encourage efficient small industries and to encourage grass-roots capitalism to improve the lives of rural and urban poor. To achieve better results, we have to transform our economy to a low-cost employment generating economy. This is the key element of any liberalisation programme, which element is entirely missing in the current liberalisation process. In short, the Janata party believes in economc reform tempered with national interests and social justice. We have to structure our programme to harmonize with these two basic objectives.

b) Privatisation of Public Sector
The full benefits of the liberalisation process can be achieved only by accelerating the process of privatisation of public sector. There are about 1000 non-financial public enterprises in India, of which 300 are owned by the Central Government and 700 by the State Governments. Public Enterprises have been the Government’s most important vehicle to channel resources to key sectors of the economy. As a result public enterprises now manage about 55% of the economy’s (excluding households) capital stock and account for one-fourth of non-agricultural GDP. As documented in several Government publications such as the annual Economic Surveys of the Ministry of Finance, the Public Enterprise Survey of the Department of Public Enterprises and Eighth Plan Documents, returns of PEs have become increasingly dependant on Government budgets. Because of their economic importance, it will be costly to delay the transformation of public enterprises into competitive, dynamic and profitable commercial concerns. Janata Party pledges itself to the cause of full privatisation of public sector in accordance with a suitably drawn up time-bound programme.

In this context, two of the most important and related issues, pertaining particularly to power, roads, irrigation and telecoms, are highlighted briefly below. They are:

a. redefining the role of government (central and state) in some case; and
b. providing an appropriate legal, regulatory and administrative framework for ensuring a smooth and accelerated flow of private investment which must now assume the dynamic economic role played by public investment for over four decades.
Janata Party will tackle the above issues on a warfooting

C) Industry Status to Agriculture
Janata Party would transform the rural economy by according ‘Industry’ status to agriculture and by opening up export opportunities for agricultural and biotechnological dairy products. Rates of Interest for Investment in Agriculture, Agricultural Exports, Agro-based products, Biotechnology etc, would be brought down to a level of 5%

d) Free Ports
Free Ports are the gateways of international trade and commerce. Keeping the examples of Singapore and HongKong in view, Janata Party pledges itself the policy of declaring the ports of Bombay and Tuticorin as free ports.

e) Control of Inflation – A New Programmed of Food Stamps
The common man today has been battered and shattered by the continuous rise in the prices of essential commodities like food grains, sugar, potato, onion, salt, cooking gas, kerosene, medicine,electricity etc. For poorer and middle classes, day to day living has become a nightmare. All the social tensions today are attribute to the never ending rise in the cost of living. Janata Party will take effective steps not only to bring down the prices of essential commodities but also to introduce a New and Revolutionary Public Distribution System. The existing System of Public Distribution is marked by total inefficiency and total corruption. “Too little and too late” seems to be the prevailing motto. Janata Party will introduce a new system which will make it possible for the poorer sections of society and the middle classes to get all their essential commodities at very reasonable prices.

Janata Party will introduce a New Programme of Food Stamps in lieu of the existing system based on large scale procurement, massive storage and a large network of distribution through ration shops. The major advantages claimed for the Food Stamps Programme are that they ensure higher food-consumption of food-based income without entailing the administrative burden and costs associated with a system of general price subsidies. Food Stamps transfer income as food purchasing power rather than cash per se to vulnerable households. Moreover, food stamps do not have the allocative inefficiency effects of good price subsidies. Rather, Food Stamps foster greater consumption, thus stimulating local production by raising demand for basic local products.

Once the Food Stamps Programme is introduced, the Government can do away with the entire network of FCI, the State Civil Supplies Corporations and the fair price shops and thereby the associated budgetary costs of commodity handling to the Government and the attendant economic costs to the society. The targeting under the New Food Stamps Programmed can be suitably fine-tuned to meeting the requirements of the most impoverished and vulnerable sections of society.

f) Southern Rivers Grid for adequate Water Supply
In the irrigation and water sector, there is an imperative public need for both a redefinition of roles among governmental entities, as well as vis-a-vis the private sector. In India, planning allocation and management of water resources are all conducted at the state level with minimum recourse to price signals. State Irrigation Departments take the lead role in the sector, since irrigation is the largest user of water. Janata Party believes that the planning and management of water resources should be conducted along river basin lines and be based on the appropriate pricing of water, and encompass all users of water – urban, industrial, power and agriculture. This presents an additional level of complexity in the Indian context since river basins rarely fall neatly within existing state boundaries. In addition to negative externalities, the lack of coordination creates serious conflicts among water users. While some success in harmonizing inter-state riparian development has been achieved through cooperation and specific tribunals (for instance, the sharing of Narmada, Krishna and Subernarekha waters according to tribunal awards), agreement is lacking or requires clearer definitions in a number of basins. One example is the highly contentious inter-state dispute among Tamilnadu, Karnataka and Kerala regarding the waters of the Cauvery, which has remained unresolved since 1974. Keeping this background in view, Janata Party pledges itself to the policy objective of creating a Southern Rivers Grid for ensuring adequate water supply in the Southern States. A gigantic National Programme will be launched for Desalination of Sea Water in the Coastal Areas for providing protected drinking water supply.

g) Tax Reforms
Janata Party would bring about a radical transformation in the taxation system, so that it becomes objective, transparent and non-discretionary. The personal income tax accounts for only 2% of the central revenues and it is a source and fountainhead of corruption in India. Janata Party will abolish personal income tax and liberate citizens from the tyranny of income tax officials. At the same time a massive exercise would be undertaken for the simplification and rationalisation of the existing system of indirect taxes. Tax deductions will be allowed for all expenses of corporations that promote the social welfare of employees by schemes for housing, transportation, medical care, education and training.

3. REFORM OF THE LEGAL SYSTEM
i) Review of all Legislataion with a view to abolishing the redundant acts and provisions. Bringing together diverse amendments, notifications, ordinance, orders etc. so as to reduce the present plethora of legislation to four; civil, criminal. economic and social. The social epoch and the license-permit-inspector raj has produced a veritable legislative jungle. The common man lives in a state of uncertainty and is often subjected to extortion, blackmail and litigation. Entire body of laws will be reviewed, laws that serve no purpose, harass honest citizens or help criminals will be weeded out. All valid legislation will be edited in four volumes which will be published on 1st December every year to take effect from the following 1st January. This will ensure that even the man in the street knows what the law is. All future legislation whatever its date of adoption will take effect, unless there is reason to have immediate effect, only on the first day of the following year.
ii) Systematic arrangements for updating the codes so that the presumption of knowledge of law applies only to what figures explicitly in the latest edition of the code concerned. The presumption of knowledge of law updating of law should be limited only to such legislation’s as appear in a formal manner in print in systematically updated volumes referred to above.
iii) Computerisation of all recognised jurisprudence, and connecting all courts through a modern infotech network.
Computerisation will make it possible to have jurisprudence and precedents listed out with specific references. This would permit much shorter arguments and should permit judgements within a period of, at the most, a week after the commencement of hearings.

4.PROVISION OF BASIC HEALTH FACILITIES
Today if we critically evaluate our medical education and healthcare delivery system, we will find that they are not complementary and not serving the common man viz.,the 75% of the lower middle class and poor who mainly live in rural areas. We do not produce doctors for the P.H.Cs and general practice. An average M.B.B.S doctor after completion of his course is mostly looking out for a post graduate course. He is not keen or confident to set up a general practice or join the P.H.C. The post graduate education is such that the post graduates in M.D. (General Practice) who can be in-charge of P.H.Cs or be senior general practitioners are not produced. Our medical education system is oriented towards producing only specialists who can work only in urban areas to the detriment of service in P.H.Cs, Taluk and District headquarters hospitals. Janata Party commits itself to the cause of correction of the existing gross anomalies in our medical education and health care delivery system. A national Programme for training Village level workers in the Science and Art treatment of common ailments through well known medicines would be launched in the rural areas throughout India.

5. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
The environment in India is under continuos threat because of the forces unleashed by economic growth-urbanization, industrialization etc. and aggravated further by a rapidly growing population. This becomes clear when we examine a few environmental indicators that are correlated broadly with human health and or with the health of ecosystems. These include measurements of the presence of pollutants in India’s air (such as suspended particulates) and water (such as coliform) and indicators of the extent to which habitats have reached levels that are well in excess of levels judged to be adequate to safeguard health. The health picture corroborates these environmental indicators, reflecting patterns of disease and death characteristic of unhealthy environments. Vast areas of India’s original endowment of natural terrestrial habitats have been transformed and those that remain are under threat. To keep the environment in balance, it would call for an integrated enrichment of the village ecosystem and a systematic ‘greening’ of rural India.
The calculus of priorities for conservation of forests, biodiversity and wild life is inherently not very clear cut. The task is doubly difficult in India today because of the scarcity of hard, quantitative data and information about what is happening to India’s ecosystems and why. One clear priority thus is the development of more and better information and data.
Janata Party will introduce a suitable Environmental Action Programme(EAP) creating a comprehensive regulatory and strategic framework for control of pollution and conservation of forests, wildlife and biodiversity.

6. WOMEN’S RIGHT – ELIMINATION OF GENDER DISCRIMINATION
Atrocities and violence against women are on the increase throughout the country, more particularly against women to the weaker sections of society and the Minorities and Scheduled castes and Tribes. The instruments of the state for enforcement of law and order and giving protection to women like the police, the Judiciary and the Bureaucracy have themselves become indifferent to the cause of women. Part of the reason for this indifference and apathy of these institutions arises out of a male dominated scenario where most of the men are part of a socialisation process rooted in the shackles of outworn tradition, prejudice and ignorance.

An analysis of the status of Women’s education reveals that the Progress of women’s education has been very slow. We must give importance to female literacy and women’s education for the simple reason that the mother is primary teacher of the child. Women in order to become equal partners with men in all walks of life should have proper education. Today the literacy of women lags far behind that of men. Janata party will strive to bridge this gap by expanding opportunities for women’s education in the rural areas, opening Child Care centers, Hostels for Working Women and Students.

Janata Party would create new institutions and formulate new programmes for strengthening the training and employment potential for women. National policies and programmes of health, Nutrition and Population Control will be streamlined so as to reach all women.

Special programmes will be introduced to create political awareness among women and involve them in policy Decisions at various levels. In this task the voluntary agencies will also be made to play a vital role through various streamlined incentives. All the existing laws affecting the security and life of women would be suitably amended with accent on “Equal rights for Women”. In short the Janata Party views women not as the weaker segment of society or as passive beneficiaries of the development process, but as a source of unique strength for reaching national goals.

7.RESTRUCTURING THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM
a. Priority to Primary Education
The destiny of India is being shaped in her class rooms. In a world based on Science and Technology, it is education that determines the level of prosperity, welfare and security of the people. On the quality and number of persons coming out of our schools and colleges will depend on our success in the great enterprise of national re-construction whose principal objective is to raise the standard of living of our people. Many studies have shown that in the field of education, investments in elementary and primary education yield the highest rate of return and have a significant impact on productivity and the general well being of the masses. In India, while most of the children enroll at the beginning of primary school, more than 50% of the Rural students drop out before completing the cycle because of the poor quality of the schooling and the pressures of poverty. Among those who drop out as well as those that stay, learning achievement is low. Furthermore, gender and caste disparities exist. Likewise wide disparities remain between and within states. These critical problems will have to be effectively tackled and solved.

b. Removal of Adult illiteracy
Janata Party accepts the removal of Adult illiteracy as an imperative goal to be achieved through the implementation of broad-based functionally relevant educational programmes. Janata Party would strive for the achievement of universal literacy through a mass movement involving the entire administrative and political apparatus and utilising the services of voluntary organisations and indeed of every educated person.

d. Doubling of Teacher’s Salaries
Without ensuring the economic security and well being of the teachers, it will not be possible for us to improve the educational system.

8. STRONG LAW AND ORDER MACHINERY
The mandate of political criminals and criminal politicians has become more effective than that of the law and order machinery. Police administration has been subverted by corrupt recruitment, plethora of laws and criminal politician axis. The criminals generally are much better equipped in transport, communications and even armaments. These and other related issues will be tackled effectively through the following measures;

a) Ruthless suppression of gangsterism, terrorism and bellicose fundamentalism and Reestablishment of the Rule of law.
b) Revamping the Intelligence System.
c) Inducting Research Studies.
d) Efficient Interpol interaction and coordination.
e) Computerisation of Criminal Record History.

9.EFFECTIVE NATIONAL SECURITY DOCTRINE
Janata Party will ensure the following:
1. Raise the Defense Budget to 7% of the GDP and allocate 30% of this defence Budget to the Navy, to set up an effective monitoring Naval station at Car Nicobar, and to develop a Blue Water Navy.
2. Work for making South Asia, a terrorist free zone by asserting the right of Indian Armed forces to cross the national frontiers to put down terrorism and terrorist camps.
3. Work out close diplomatic relations with Israel and China, based on the principles of mutual accommodation and interest.
4. Declare that India will defend effectively the human rights of people of Indian origin violated, anywhere in the world.

10. SOCIAL JUSTICE
Keeping these considerations and objectives in view, a special programme for the welfare and rehabitalisation of minority groups, the physically handicapped women and destitute women and all the impoverished groups below the poverty line will be introduced. The touchstone of the success of the development policies will be a betterment of peoples lives, not just the expansion of production processes. Human beings have to be viewed as both the means and the ends of development– not just as a convenient fodder for the materialistic machine. Janata Party will promote a concept of human development with emphasis on four components:

1. Productivity
2. Equity
3. Sustainability
4. Empowerment

Special attention will be given to the effective implementation of all measures and schemes for the rapid upliftment and integration into society as equal and indistinguishable members, the Scheduled castes and the Scheduled tribes. The constitutional provisions and the National Human Rights Charter in this regard will be the corner stone of our policy. The recommendations of the Eliaperumal Commission Report (1969) will be fully implemented.

The Janata Party is also committed to abolishing the heinous practice of employing child labour, bonded labour and other forms of labour exploitation by the year 2000 by adopting measures outlined in Dr. Subramanian Swamy Commission on Labour Standards Reports (1996). The party would seek to enact a National Labour Standards Act to integrate all the various laws in force since 1855 to meet the desirable International Labour Conventions of the ILO, as recommended by the Commission.

To ensure the upliftment of the down trodden, Janata Party is committed for the following:-

• Safe drinking water for all
• Minimum wages, Group insurance and subsided medical facilities for farm labour and other unorganised labour force.
• Old-age pension, proper health care and concessional medical facilities to senior citizens.
• Ensure rehabilitation of ex-servicemen, implementation of V pay commission’s recommendations about ex-servicemen, One rank one pension norm for all categories of ex-servicemen and widows
• Protection of Human Rights
• Rehabilitation of displaced persons and families from the sites of development projects
• Strengthen the NGO sector and cooperative movement. It will be Janata Party’s endeavour to create condition for an autonomous, self- reliant and democratic cooperative movement and liberate them from the bureaucracy.

SUMMARY
The salient features of the Janata Party Programme are as follows

1. Political reform by inductinghonest and efficient qualified persons into politics with unshakeable committment to secularism.
2 . Reforming the Economy by:
a. According industry status to agriculture.
b. Opening export opportunity to agricultural and dairy products.
c. Setting up free ports in Mumbai and Tuticorin.
d. Privatization of Public Sector.
e. Controlling inflation by food stamps system for providing essential commodities at low prices.
f. Southern Rivers Grid for adequate water supply.
g. Desalination of Sea water for Coastal drinking water supply.
h. Abolition of Personal Income Tax.
3 . Restructuring Educational System by:
a. Giving priority to primary education.
b. Vocational training option.
c. Doubling of teachers salaries.
4 . Providing Basic health facilities through:
a. Environment protection measures
b. Training Village level workers for treating common ailments through well known medicines.
5 . Strong Law and Order Machinery by:
a. Revamping the Intelligence system
b. Inducting Research studies
c. Formulating a Counter-Terrorist Strategy.
d. Efficient Interpol interaction and coordination.
e. Computerization of criminal record history.
6. Effective National Security Doctrine.
7. Social justice, Women’s Rights.

CONCLUSION
Janata Party would like to rededicate itself to the grand vision of a great son of India, Mahadev Govinda Ranade, as outlined in his own soul-stirring words:

“With buoyant hope, with liberated manhood, with a faith that never shirks duty, with a justice that deals fairly to all, with unclouded intellect and with all her powers fully cultivated India will take her proper rank among the nations of the world and be the master of the situation of her own destiny. This is the cherished home. This is the promised land. Happy are they who see it in a distant vision; happier those who are permitted to work and to clear the way on to it and happiest those who live to see it with their own eyes and tread on the holy soil once more”.
All Voice and Power to the People!