The Movement with a mission to reform the governance that is Democratic, transparent, accountable, participatory and de-centralized in electoral politics. Badlaav also focuses on the Sustainable solutions with the development in the field of Economic, Education, Healthcare, State Welfare, Rural & Urban Development, Employment, Environment, Agriculture, Infrastructure and Service, Sewerage and Sani
tation, etc that encourages human enterprise and ensures well-being for all. In a democracy, ultimate power must reside with the people. The working of democracy, especially in our country, has served to take this power away from the people. Badlaav Movement has come into being in order to restore this power back to the people. That is what we mean by Badlaav or self-rule in the political domain. Badlaav stands for people’s control over their destiny, for people’s power to decide on matters concerning their well-being and for their right to direct the apparatus of government and hold the rulers accountable. Seventy Three years after independence, the promise of Freedom is yet to be redeemed. Democracy has been reduced to a tiresome routine that involves electing the rulers once in five years, while being subject to their indifference and various indignities during this period. Political parties and people’s elected representatives are no longer channels for expressing people’s voices. They have become election machines with their own vested interests. These machines are designed to gather votes and use them as fodder to convert money into power, and power back into money. It is not just the system has rampant corruption, but the system itself embodies institutionalised corruption. Representative democracy holds out an illusory promise of good governance, but that is no substitute for self-governance. Badlaav Movement does not believe that the present system of governance can deliver Freedom to people even if run by honest and efficient functionaries. A corruption-free India is not possible without radical restructuring of our political system. The present system of distant, over-centralised and unaccountable decision-making must give way to a system where power is exercised directly by the people, decision-making is brought closer to the people, and representatives and state functionaries are made accountable to the people. Such a radical restructuring would involve radical devolution of power from the centre to the village/neighbourhood, reducing the scale of government down to smaller states or district, expanding the scope for people’s direct participation in policy-making. It would also entail wide-ranging electoral reforms and reforms to make administration, police and judiciary transparent, responsive and accountable. Electoral Reforms:
While our country has achieved a system of free and fair elections in a minimum sense of the term, the mechanism of political representation does not offer meaningful and substantive choices to the citizens, nor does it provide a level playing field for political competition. We need wide-ranging electoral reforms that would deepen democratic upsurge and are compatible with the model of political BADLAAV. This would involve:
• Expanding the range of choices available for voters.
• Fine-tuning the existing method of electing representatives.
• Ensuring fair and equal access to information and resources.
• Strengthening mechanism for free and fair conduct of elections.
