Very bad book to read.. Half of the book has wordings "Give power and fund to people/ gram sabha". Every page, every sentence has the same meaning. One single sentence is made as big book.. Very depressing book to read. Giving power back to people is good but AK's vision of complete power transfer in the hands of people create chaos. AK's arguments are very weak and naive. He presumes society is filled with morality and generalises everything with few exceptional examples. He still thinks like a youth of early twenties who thinks everything in this world is wrong and I can change the world with one action(like superhero).. I read this book because I happened to be in Delhi on the day(s) of the election, and soon after when the Aam Aadmi Party swept into power on their astonishing new broom, with the promise of cleaning the Augean stables that masqueraded as the democratic polity of India. It was an eye opener to me that every driver, maidservant and sweeper that throngs the fringes of the rich and middle class homes and play places, had voted for them, and cheered as news came in indicating the complete crushing of the Congress dynasty and the bruising of the BJP elephant.So to the book, it's a simplistic book of no great literary value, but it's a passionate cry for a better and more viable mode of democracy that currently scars India as she is bled dry by the corrupt and powerful, while the middle classes shrug and turn away whinging about corruption and doing nothing about it. (I have to shamefacedly include myself in that sorry bunch)Some people seem to think its a political manifesto, but given that it was written in the days before the AAP came into being, to me it reads like something of a technical manual of how to fix the problem of corruption that begets endemic poverty.Given that the Westminister model in India has been bastardised to such an extent, there is no harm in trying another model of Swaraj, or self rule. Kejriwal lays out the problems and proposes a model blinding in its simplicity, extreme local government by the people, for the people and of the people. Other people cry out that it is anarchical, and mobocracy, but the greatest thing of Kejriwal's thinking is the respect and trust he gives the 'aam aadmi' or common man. Surely they can do no worse than the current mobs? In this current model, India seems headed for chaos anyway, as naxalism gains ground as the poor become more and more desperate.The book refuses to descend into communal, casteist or religious propaganda, or even class warfare, so maybe its does of common sense is not such a bad idea.Sadly by now, we've seen a return to shoddy power politics by the status quo with the dismissal of the AAP party and the Governor's refusal to hold elections. You can watch a lot of interviews on Youtube and elsewhere, where Kejriwal handles himself very well, for a novice politician, or maybe he isn't one at all?A quick read, and a telling commentary on present day India. Surely we need a third choice?
What do You think about Swaraj (2000)?
An utopian solution to our political ills which lays too much faith on Gram Sabhas.
—plum12341
Problems are good.. but the solution is not convening.
—Michelle
