A Passage to India: Lok Sabha simulation...

Post date: Apr 26, 2016 11:14:31 AM

India is the world's largest democracy - and you get to drive it. By representing the world's largest political parties in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of India's national parliament or Sansad, you can help to address the problems of its one billion citizens. But along with huge problems, India has had significant economic growth for over a decade, furnishing their national government with the resources to lay the foundations of what India will become in the next century. The challenges will be many, to figure out what Indians want, to craft a bill that can deliver it, and to work collaboratively with other MPs to turn your ideas into law. The party that wins is the one that gets what it wants, pleases its constituency, expands its appeal - and as a consequence gets re-elected. The deeper you immerse yourself in India's politics, the more you get out of it.

Night 1: Get to know India today, The Numbers

Familiarize yourself with the statistics that describe economic and political conditions for India today. What are their areas of strength and need relative to the United States and other nations... like regional rival China?

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/in.html

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/us.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_India

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-26869578

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world/asia/india/

Night 2: Earn your seat by studying your party

For your assigned political party, get their platform. What does your party want? Find the platform or manifesto and discern its top three goals. Attend also to what coalition if any your party is in.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Results_of_the_Indian_general_election,_2014

http://www.parliamentofindia.nic.in/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_political_parties_in_India

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_India

http://www.electionworld.org/india.htm

http://www.indian-elections.com/

http://www.politicalresources.net/india.htm

    • Bahratiya Janataa Party (BJP)
  • Indian National Congress (INC)
    • Majority Society Party or
    • Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP)
    • Communist Party of India Marxist (CPI-M)
    • Socialist Party or Samajwadi Party (SP)
    • Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD)
    • Dravida Progressive Federation or
    • Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK)
    • Shiva Sena (SHS)
    • Communist Party of India Marxist-Leninist (CPI-ML)

Is it not in English? Open a new tab, paste the link in here and google will translate the Hindi, Urdu, etc for you:

http://translate.google.com/translate_t#

In order to earn your seat, you must pass this quiz from memory:

1. What your party's name means in English

2. Where does your party belong on the 'political spectrum'?

3. Number of seats in the 16th Lok Sabha

4. Names and basic facts about important party leaders...

5. Who are your constituents? What are the demographics typical of your supporters in terms of location, religion, occupation, wealth, education etc.

6. Who opposed them & why? What parties are their rivals?

7. Three or more basic policy goals.

Until you pass, your seats will remain vacant during votes. Needless to say, constituents will be angry if you don't show up to represent them.

Night 3: Develop a bill

Tomorrow the parliament will meet. Your job is to deliver on your promises to you constituents. But you can't do that without solid plans for a domestic OR foreign policy to vote on. Your billsneed:

Please prepare an outline for a 3-5m speech that includes the following elements:

    • 1. Hook: Statement of intent. A face and a stat, showing the problem on the micro & macro level. Use a real story with a citation. No hypotheticals, please.
  • 2. Justification: Explain how the problem works with some stats explaining both the causes & impacts.
    • 3. Plan - Specific provisions or planks of a plan to fix the need you cite (who does what, where, when & with what $ which comes from where?) Think 5Ws & SMART.
    • 4. Solvency - 1-3 supporting arguments (claims, warrants & impacts) to support your plan. Prove that your plan works! Be able to talk about something analogous to what your proposing has worked somewhere. Explain the mechanics of your solvency model, linking your plan to the peoples' lives you are attempting to improve. Key search strategy: "name of your problem, success, study"
    • 5. Blocks - Prepared answers to critics (be ready for tough questions from MPs and the media).

Find a problem worth solving here...

What do your citizens want? Look at English-language Indian newspapers that publish online to get a sense of what they care about. Understanding the status quo with every issue is a good place to start. It's embarassing to propose something that's already happening:

India's CNN-type online station with searchable video archive! They even stream 24/7 news programming. VERY interesting!

http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/video/videolistings.aspx

The Asian Age

The Assam Tribune

The Hindu

The Indian Express

The Kashmir Monitor

The Milli Gazette

The Pioneer

The Statesman

The Telegraph

The Times of India

The Tribune

This is Britain's take on South Asian affairs (the state of their former colonies):

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/default.stm

Night 4: Legislate! Advance your agenda!

During class, this is how your parliament will function:

1. First, your parliament elected a government, a Prime Minister to oversee "the floor," you can begin proposing, debating, tabling, amending, or adopting your bills. History suggests that MPs should support candidates who are reliable, organized, and fair.

2. The number of votes each of you gets depends upon the number of seats your party controls, divided evenly among the number of students representing that party. If students are absent, the seats they represent do not participate in that day's legislation.

3. During legislative sessions, the PM controls "the floor," inviting MPs to the lectern, keeping order, seeing that a simplified variation of Robert's Rules of Order are adhered to, keeping time, and records the legislative record.

- MPs proposing a bill can opt to take questions as they come up, at the end of speeches, or refuse them altogether.

- When the MP has concluded his or her proposal, other MPs can ask the PM for the floor to speak for or against the bill or to propose amendments to it.

- To conclude discussion of a bill, MPs can move to end debate, table legislation, or call to question, skipping over an end of debate to vote for or against the legislation.

- Mr. Smith (along with selected guest artists) will represent everyone else, more specifically the Indian public, particularly the media, as well as lower-level government officials, and various influential constituencies that will make their will known to you in response to your choices. He will also represent any businesses, foreign governments, individuals or organization that might be relevant to your legislation.

For homework each night that your Lok Sabha is in session, ask yourself the following question: have you done the peoples' work? As a public servant, have you delivered the legislation that they're expecting from you to help solve their problems? So have you gotten what you want? If not, what do you have to do to get it? Lobby the PM to get the floor. Re-work your bill in light of criticism from your fellow MPs, your constituents, the media, business leaders, academics, the international community, and the government bureaucracy. Lobby and barter with colleagues to support your proposal! Do whatever it takes to advance the agenda of your constituency.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-27439146

Night 5: Get re-elected?

The moment of truth draws near. At the end of your term in the Lok Sabha, write a 1 page letter to your constituency that makes the case for why you ought to be re-elected. You will deliver a 2-3 min. version of this as a speech to be delivered in class. Be sure address the following questions:

    1. What concrete actions did you take to advance the agenda of your constituency? (bills proposed and passed, speeches given, negotiations, coalitions joined, parliamentary maneuvering, offices held, votes cast, challenges met, obstacles overcome etc.)
    2. What parts of your party platform have been implemented by the Lok Sabha?
    3. How do these new policies reflect the values of your party?
    4. What concrete benefits will voters get from your actions?
    5. What can you offer voters in your next term? What remains to be accomplished? How do you propose to achieve it?

Night 6: Reflection

In class we will have discussion that reflects on the work of our unit.

What did you learn about India?

What did you learn about governing?

What would you have done differently?