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Cockroach Janta Party’s (CJP’s) chief spokesperson Saurav Das’s statement that this new outfit will work as a grassroots-level movement and not a political party is pleasing to the ears. This is what he actually said: “There are already plenty of political parties. If people still have pain, suffering, and anguish, it means the answer is not a political party. The answer is a grassroots-level movement, an awakening. And that’s what the CJP is doing.” Indeed, words of wisdom and maturity at this young age!

It would be good if CJP draws lessons from the movement launched by Jayaprakash Narayan (JP) in the 1970s, which arguably is the largest post-Independence grassroots based civil movement in the country.

As a prelude to the launching of the movement, JP said this: “We should understand and do our duty as citizens of a democratic country. Political parties, legislators, and ministers are becoming autocrats. They are not afraid of public opinion since there is no public opinion. They care less for their voters because voters are not enlightened and organised. Political parties make their own propaganda, but that is not to create a healthy and impartial public opinion, which may rise above party politics and effectively express itself in matters of right or wrong, moral or immoral. Just or unjust. To build public opinion is the greatest national task and bounden duty for us (Jayaprakash Narayan, Towards Total Revolution (Volume 3, Bombay, Popular Prakashan, 1978, cover page),”.

The difference between ‘citizen’ and ‘subject’

According to JP, this public opinion should be built around the understanding of what democracy is all about. Democracy is defined as a society in which the citizens are sovereign and control the government. The vast majority of Indians, even now, do not understand this and mix up ‘citizen’ with ‘subject’.

There is an ocean of difference between these two. ‘Citizen’ is one entitled to the rights and privileges of a free man, whereas ‘subject’ is one who is placed under the authority or control of a monarch or government. While it is the duty of a ‘subject’ to obey the government, it is the right of a ‘citizen’ to command the government because it is he/she who forms that government by exercising an electoral franchise. In short, democracy, in essence, is ‘people’s power’.

Mahatma Gandhi’s political idea was that democracy would rise, storey by storey, from the foundation, consisting of self-governing, self-sufficient,........

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