Giving Compass' Take:

• Amitabh Behar explains why the 2019 elections in India should be a wake-up call for civil society.

• How could the elections impact civil society? What does it mean for funders? 

• Read about philanthropy in India in 2019. 

On September 17, 2018, the Congress president Rahul Gandhi announced the formation of a new front organisation, Civic and Social Outreach Congress, under the leadership of Madhusudan Mistry.

Mistry, currently a member of Rajya Sabha and a former trade unionist and civil society leader, has been tasked to build bridges between the civil society and the Congress structure while mobilising the former for direct political action for foregrounding peoples’ issues. This news has largely gone unnoticed but has transformative potential for the Congress party if it achieves its true potential and intent.

There is a deep crisis brewing and reflects a structural imbalance in electoral politics in India, which might not directly affect the outcome of specific elections but has serious implications in the long run for the polity of this country.

On the one hand, we have the powerful electoral machinery of the BJP-propelled NDA, backed by a solid network of civil society groups spread across the county from grassroots to the national level, working under the broad umbrella of Sangh parivar.

On the other, the progressive civil society working on issues of rights and human dignity has been powerful in raising peoples’ issues and defending the core ideals of Indian republic even when the opposition voices have been feeble, but it has largely remained disengaged with electoral processes with the exception of few.

Given the historic nature of the 2019 parliamentary elections, it can be seen as the moment of reckoning for the progressive civil society, particularly, vis-à-vis its role in electoral politics.

Read the full article about India elections 2019 and civil society by Amitabh Behar at India Development Review.