Lok Sabha election: India Greens Party set for poll debut
No political party is willing to put environment and ecology as election campaign issues, says party founder Suresh Nautiyal.
For the uninitiated, and there are multitudes of them, a Green Party that campaigns for environmental causes in the political arena, is typically a Western, developed nation concept.
Well, times are changing. India too has a newbie in its midst, the India Greens Party. And in the forthcoming general elections, they are putting up at least half-a-dozen 'serious' candidates in Delhi, Mumbai, Punjab and Chhattisgarh.
“We are under no illusions about the poll outcome, given our meagre resources and reach, as compared to what the mainstream parties can conjure, but a start has been made,” Suresh Nautiyal, the party’s founder and mentor told this reporter, adding ”we are the party of the future."
Nautiyal has shared the vision of the fledgling party to make India clean and green – ecologically and politically.
As a matter of fact, the India Green Party must contest this time, or risk disqualification. In July 2019, it was registered with the Election Commission of India under Section 29A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951. Now the time has come to show its hand in the heat and dust of Indian elections, dominated by money power and identity politics.
"We are reaching a point of no return. If we overlook climate change, global warming and food security, we are doing so at our own peril. Once things go beyond the pale, it will be difficult to turn back the clock,’’ this former journalist and campaigner points out.
Nautiyal goes on: "When we decided to make environment and ecology as our calling cards, there was a good reason for doing so. No political party is willing to even put these issues on the table, let alone make them part of their poll campaign.”
It should, indeed, be considered a sign of under-development in an emerging economy, if you please, that ecology is not a frontline political issue, as it is in the world’s most advanced democratic nations - Britain, Germany, New Zealand, Australia and the Scandinavian countries to name just a few.
The drastic fall in India's ecological standing is best encapsulated in the Environmental Performance Index (EPI), an international ranking system that measures the environmental health and sustainability of countries. According to the Environmental Performance Index 2022, India ranked the lowest among 180 countries, after Vietnam (178), Bangladesh (177), and Pakistan (176).
With an overall score of 18.9, India is at the bottom of all countries in the 2022 EPI with low scores across a range of critical landmarks. This rank is steadily going down. In 2019, India was ranked the fourth-worst country (177) in the world out of 180 nations, a steady drop since 2014, when India was ranked 155th, globally.
According to Nautiyal, many NGOs have members who are “much more familiar than me” on issues related to the environment, but are "less than keen to get into a political position to bring about change, which we are willing to do."
The imprimatur of Western green politics which now dominates several European parliaments, is more than obvious on the India Greens Party. Nautiyal has enjoyed positions on the Green parties’ top international body, Global Greens, and on the Asia Pacific Greens Federation (APGF) for several years. Currently, he represents the APGF on the Global Greens' top body, Global Greens Coordination as Full Member. He is also the Founding Board Member of the Germany-based Democracy International, an organisation devoted to direct and participatory democracy.
He says, "We have travelled to several places in the country to convince people that there was a great need for a Green party, which has a national perspective with an international approach. Whenever we visit a foreign land, people enquire about the Green party in India and it leads to embarrassment."
Now with several hundred delegates in 27 states and Union territories, the Green party is breathing easier. “We are telling the people, don’t vote for us if you do not want to but listen to us,” Nautiyal states. That would indeed be a sound beginning.