Hyderabad: City-based Greens root for ‘Green Manifesto’ in polls

Pitching for ‘Green Manifesto’ in India, environmentalists in the City have decided to rope in political parties in larger discussion and setting the agenda for transition and change towards sustainability in the country. In their efforts to explore possibilities of ‘greening the manifestoes’ of political parties, experts have also decided to involve global personalities like Erik Soheim from Norway, who is president, Green Belt and Road Institute.

Taking a cue from Europe-based Green parties which are actively engaged in politics, the environmentalists are kick-starting a debate for their possible active role in the next general elections. “At international stage efforts are being made on climate change and there are now Green parties. In India we believe by putting pressure on existing political parties at least they will include these issues in their manifestoes and act upon them more seriously,” said noted environmentalist Prof K Purushotham Reddy.

While emphasising seriousness of environment issue, he pointed out that Telangana in the recent years turned into most unfriendly State when the issue is concerned. “All political parties are in grip of corporates. Parties have become tools in hands of big companies. Hence, we see vanishing lakes, forest and sand from rivers. Despite courts issuing orders, they are not being implemented. It is high time that people realise, as environmental degradation impacts livelihoods. We are trying our best to instil confidence in voters and hope this turns into a major election issue this time,” he added.

Erik Soheim to address symposium

As part of initiating this debate, a national symposium ‘Green Manifestos – A Direction for Political Parties in India’ (in the context of general elections) will be organised this month in the City. Apart from Soheim, it is being attended by economist Mohan Guruswamy, former commissioner (RTI-A) R Dileep Reddy, public policy expert Dr. Narasimha Reddy Donthi and L Venugopal Naidu, president Press Club.

Explaining how to tackle the issue in India Narasimha Reddy pointed out that long back the Green parties were considered one of options. However, elsewhere green parties are struggling to gain power in climate conscious Scandinavia. In environmentally-conscious Scandinavia, did Norway’s Green Party only get 3.8 per cent of vote share. The Green Party in Germany had to support a coalition, not able to form its own government, but managed to become the country’s third party. In the 2019 Danish elections, the only environmental party, the Alternative, lost half of its seats. The Green party in India is a distinct need.

In general, a manifesto is used as a guidance document that informs voters of actions promised by parties in elections. There is competition among political parties in India to promise direct benefits. Also there is not much variation between manifestoes of different parties. Increasingly, the manifesto committees are shy of incorporating transition public policies, especially those with long yield periods. “India has two options to choose either green political parties or green manifestoes. We hope that the symposium will kickstart a discussion on manifestos of political parties and how green they are and they can become,” Reddy added.