Indian origin US-based doctor sets up party to contest general elections in India; hopes to reform democratic process

Ritu Jha-

Chicago-based doctor Munish Kumar Raizada[Above photo], a follower of Mahatma Gandhi, Anna Hazare, and a former AAP supporter has taken on a new challenge – to cure India of corruption and restore democracy to its spirit.

He has taken charge as the national president of the Bharatiya Liberal Party (BLP), a political party now based in Delhi.

Raizada, 54, is a board-certified Neonatologist with a practice spanning 21 years in the United States. He returned to India past September to work for political reforms.  In an interview with indica over the phone, Raizada spoke about his political ambitions and why he has now returned to his motherland.

“I moved to the US in 2002 to appear for some interviews and in 2003, I got a fellowship in neonatal medicine. Since then, I have been in the US. But I was always passionate about some real policy changes in India. When I came to the US, I figured out that though it’s a huge country, there are systems in place. India is such a huge country that it takes an enormous effort and time to manage. I realized that if there’s a bill aided by science and technology one can achieve bigger things. Policy changes were always my focus when Anna Hazare Andolan started in India in 2011. I became a part of that and the Aam Aadmi party was formed. During those years I spent a lot of time in India. I joined AAP officially because I thought the party could bring real change in the democratic system,” Raizada told indica.

His hopes for policy reforms were however dashed after AAP came to power in Delhi. “I realized that what they didn’t mean to follow through what they were preaching. The first assault came when AAP hid the donation list. Financial transparency was one of the fundamental principles for which this party stood for. As soon as AAP came into power in Delhi, the first thing they did was to hide the donors’ list, fiddling with the principle of financial transparency that they so vehemently espoused. I stood up against that. Nobody likes people who give sane advice once you have risen to power. Then some like-minded activists met Anna Hajare again in 2016. We started a no-donation campaign and went to Punjab also. We agitated in Delhi and I filmed a web series called Transparency in 2019 chronicling the untold stories of AAP and even Anna Hazare.”

His passion for reforms and the realization that “things are not changing the way we were passionate about” took him back to India 12 years after Anna Andolan. “I’m passionate about electoral reforms because the parliament has to bring certain reforms so that the politics becomes a level playing field. However, the central government is not interested in enacting those laws. The parliamentarians, when they get into the sanctum sanctorum of democracy, are no longer interested in bringing fundamental changes like overhauling the system because that goes against their interests.”

While BLP is contesting the 2024 parliamentary elections, its main focus is the upcoming assembly elections in Delhi which are due in February 2025. “We are participating in this Lok Sabha elections and will contest the Delhi assembly election too. For Lok Sabha, we are contesting in Chandani Chowk and northeast Delhi. Our focus continues to be fighting corruption because we want to bring good governance. At this point, India’s politics is dominated by caste and religious considerations and other kinds of parochial issues where the politicians are exploiting the sentiments of the electorate. But we are bound to the constitution and our focus is fundamental issues that affect the common man like governance, policy issues, and containing corruption. Faith is important, but it cannot be the primary instrument to run polity in the country.”

When asked whether BLP will align with the other larger parties, he said: “Electoral bonds are a prime example of how in this digital era the governments are able to hoodwink the citizens. It was enacted as a law in the parliament and every single party supported it. You can’t just blame the BJP for this. Every single party supported the electoral bonds, though it was nothing less than a scam. So why should we support any of these parties?”

Even with lofty ideals, it’s not easy to run an election. “The fundamental question of any election campaign is the finance, the campaign expenditure. We are struggling on that. As a fledgling newborn party, no one is supporting us to the level we should be supported. But we will continue to make efforts. And we are also asking the public to donate and support us. Some donations are trickling in but that is insufficient to fight the mega system. We hope the public continues to support us.”

Raizada says the government’s hyperbole on improving India’s urban infrastructure does not paint the correct picture. “If you look at Delhi too, most parts still need infrastructure. Delhi is developed but not every area of Delhi. Viksit Bharat remains a dream, it’s still a long way to go. China was able to bring uplift the population out of poverty within a generation, in a span of 25 to 30 years. India is no way closer to that. India’s infrastructure is in a mess. And I’m just talking like a citizen here, without any agenda. Even if you spend a few days in Delhi, you will see for yourself how bad, and pitiable the situation is. The Municipal Corporation of Delhi earns through toll tax but it is highly corrupt. It’s a den of corruption. This is the real challenge for the Indian electorate and citizens how do we stem this corruption? Corruption is rampant and has become part of life and the politicians are not interested in containing this.”

He believes that unless the people stand up now, the existing conditions will not change. “But people are unable to speak out. If an honest person goes into politics, he will be marginalized in no time because of black money and a lack of inner-party democracy. In the US we see that a Republican can stand against his party’s candidate or a colleague because the party ticket allocation doesn’t depend upon his boss. It’s a democratized primary system where the people choose you, not the party bosses or hierarchy. In India, it is such an entrenched system. Political parties are like organized gangs where if you even speak a little bit against the party line you are automatically an alien and the only thing that matters is blind faith in your boss or leadership and just parroting the party line. We need some reforms in the democratic system where people can participate in the democracy.”

On how he proposes to deal with the vote polarization: “People are being exploited. The political parties are polarizing the citizens and people fall to these vulnerabilities. But if they focus on fundamental principles of democracy like secularism then the choice of parties or candidates will become easier. Appeasement policies in the last several decades have caused this polarization. The real challenge lies in following the constitution. Across the world wherever the countries are being run on a religious basis they are in bad shape. Religion or faith is not the primary way to run a country. In India, this is happening in the last many years.”

“I think politics is the best means to serve the society and the country and we should focus on good governance and policy reforms. The country desperately needs electoral, administrative, and judicial reforms to upgrade the economy and democracy. India definitely needs to upgrade its democracy. These incremental changes are not going to help,” he added. “India’s Press Information Bureau (PIB) of the government initiated a subtle change which the Supreme Court has now stayed. PIB set up a Fact Check Unit to verify social media posts and instruct online platforms to take down posts that it found to be objectionable or factually incorrect. The question is, why should the government get into this and obstruct the fundamental freedom to express opinions, and speech freedom? All of these are not good. I’m concerned about these attempts to change the fundamental principles.”

“We want to contain this damage which has happened in the last many years and decades. If we focus on fundamentals, we should be able to achieve our goals.”

 

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