1. The number of those who cannot in conscience align themselves either with the Janata Coalition Party or an opposition led by Mrs. Gandhi is on the increase every day. The latter's victory in Chingalur has forced open the issues of a third alternative.
2. Such a third alternative has been proposed by several people in the form of a Third front of progressive people committed to socialist future for India. But neither the platform nor the Practicality of such a Front is very clear. This paper tries to put down a few preliminary thoughts.
3. Of course, we will need to make clear what we mean by a socialist future for India. The slogan of democratic socialism seems common to all existing political parties and groups including perhaps The Jan Sangh and the Rashtriya Svaya Sevak Sangh. The Kerala Congress, for example, has articulated the features of a desirable economy as a people's socialism, which while eliminating the disadvantages of communism (state Capitalism) and capitalism (private capital) ensures the advance of the working class (Margarekha of Kerala Congress). Both the Janata Party and the existing Congress parties are verbally committed to similar ideals. Wherein would the specific commitment of the proposed third front lie?
4. The third front would have a socio-economic programme worked out in some detail along with a plan for its achievement, which will be theoretically sound and practically feasible. But in order to ensure a wider range of agreement and commitment, certain controversial ideological points may have to be left unformulated.
5. The attractiveness of such a front would come not merely from the clarity and progressiveness of the formulated platform and programme. It will need also a quality of discipline and social commitment manifest in its activities.
6. The first of these self-disciplines for the Third Front would be to take a decision that it will not seek to take state power at the Centre or in the States for a period of six years. During this period it will devote its energies to:
a) social vigilance about activities of governments, corporations, mass media and other large concentrations of economic, communicational, social and political Power.
b) the building up of cadres for activating self-reliant, disciplined, informed organizations of the people, directly in the context of the relations on production; and
c) socio-economic measures which advance the fair and just coordination between rural and urban development as well as micro-development and macro-development within states, among States, within the nation and among the nations of the world, measures which promote peace, justice, and self-reliance at all levels.
7. The minimum commitment within the Third Front would be to the following principles:
a. The basic approach in theory would be an integrative one -- political economy must inter-relate the political-economic sociological and scientific technological experience and insights of mankind for devising methods for optimising human development in justice, liberty and peace.
b. The commitment is to a society where the means of production are socially owned and controlled, while guaranteeing the invoilability of limited and legitimate personal freedom and property; a society which provides everyone with all opportunity to do socially useful work and to live a life in dignity and freedom, in security and peace, a society in which inequalities are minimized and the freedom and dignity of each person is promoted.
c) the commitment is to a society where agricultural, industrial, cultural, and biological development would be planned in an integral way; while development has to be labour-extensive in present conditions, technological progress is also to be aimed at simultaneously in order to increase production. The advance in technology is as much a measure of progress as the volume of goods and services produced, but always in order to promote the quality of human life and to improve the human environment.
8. We have kept the areas of common commitment to a minimum. The above is proposed only as a starting point for discussion. A more well thought-out common platform can be worked out with just a day's work, with half a dozen competent people representing various views.
9. One of the first steps is to plan a week-end meeting, preferably in Delhi, but alternatively in Kerala, to explore the possibilities and assess the practicalities. Such a third front can bring together political parties, voluntary organizations and private individuals who are willing to accept the common basis and a commonly agreed discipline.
10. Within much a framework of commitment, there will be room for ideological divergence at many points of detail. The common commitment however, must lead to a common program of social Political and economic action. The orientation of such action will not be to gain control of the state, but to mobilize and channel the power of the people for their own liberation. There will be room in such a coalition for people of the middle-classes and intellectuals of various kinds, provided they are committed to the interests of the people and their emancipation, rather than conserving the interests of the middle classes.
11. The Question is, is it now the opportune time to form a third front of this kind? The answer is yes, because:
a) the two major options in current politics are both unsatisfactory and people are looking for a third alternative.
b) Young people are becoming cynical for want of a ray of hope: something genuinely capable of capturing their interest and sustaining their idealism needs to be provided now, if they are not to sink further into cynicism, nihilism, and anarchism.
The present document is intended only as an indicator of a general basis on which people from different political parties and from no political party can come together to explore possibilities. The exploratory group themselves will have to formulate their understanding of what needs to be done, and decide on the steps to be taken for the launching of a flexible but clear programme.