First of all, my hearty congratulations to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) for its very impressive and historic win in Delhi assembly elections 2015, with 67 of 70 seats. I believe this great success was achieved thru a very intimate and intensive interaction of AAP with the residents of Delhi - a Porto Alegre (Brazilian city) style, ward-wise decentralised and explicit interaction with the residents. Now AAP has the mandate to transform Delhi by empowering the neglected and marginalised aam aadmi - the common man!

As most observant Indians know, Indian gov'ts after independence were very inefficient and facilitated mainly anarchy and exploitation. As a result, now India has world's largest group of poorest people. About 50 percent of Indians or roughly 600 million people just vegetate and die, without achieving anything for them or for their country.

Mahatma Gandhi, many India gov't commissions, several leaders, experts etc recommended decentralisation as the best means for India's fast development. 'Panchayati Raj' (PR) was initiated in 1959 for decentralised governance in India. As PR was found ineffective, PR act was incorporated into the constitution in 1992. But still, it is not effectively implemented throughout India.

Sri. Arvind Kejeriwal too proposed Swaraj for India's development; he also proposed Porto Alegre's innovative Participatory Budgeting (PB) as the right process for India's decentralised governance and fast development.

WORLD'S BEST: World's most systematic, most efficient, most successful, very democratic and decentralised governance process evolved in the Brazilian city of Porto Alegre during 1989 thru 2001. It is world famous as 'Porto Alegre Innovation'. It is world's most researched decentralised governance process of our time and most of the details are on the Internet (search for 'Porto Alegre Innovation'). It is a very ingenious and super-smart Participatory Budgeting process. It was devised with the civil society participation under the Workers Party mayors in Porto Alegre city. In fact, it is world's best 'Panchayati Raj' model. The super-smart PB process transformed the poor and bankrupt* city into Brazil's city with the best quality of life in 12 years (1989-2001). (* Porto Alegre city was bankrupt, spending 96 percent of their revenew for salaries and routine expenses in 1988).

IMPORTANT: Now over 40 countries including Argentina, Canada, Chile, China, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, USA etc are adapting PB in their local communities; UK and Dominican Republic adapted PB in all their local governments by 2013. But it is not clear what type of PB is copied; simple PB will not give the spectacular results achieved in Porto Alegre. For such results, it should be the Innovative PB without losing its important features. It should also be noted that after 4 consecutive legislative periods or a total of 16 years, Workers Party lost the 2004 election in Porto Alegre. After that, PB is not intensively practiced even in Porto Alegre - that is the uncertain nature of people and politics. People are not that smart and frequently thankless too! There come new voters, new leaders, new discussions etc and many things change with time! 

SALIENT FEATURES OF PORTO ALEGRE INNOVATION: 1. It is a ward-wise decentralised process for the selected and prioritised Infrastructure Development of Porto Alegre Municipality. 2. It is simple at the grass roots level; the ward residents vote to select and prioritise the 3 most urgent infrastructure themes/projects for their ward and prioritise them. 3. At the grass-roots level, the residents also elect two Participatory Budgeting Councilors (PBC) from each ward for one year, for the further follow up and implementation of the requirements voted for by the ward residents. The PBC works on honourary basis. 4. The grass roots level process is about 3 months long and participation was only from 0.5 to 3.5 percent. The whole PB process takes one full year. 5. It is ingenious and tough at the budget formulation and implementation levels which are handled jointly by the PBC, the Mayor's executives and the traditional party-based city councilors. 6. All these three authorities - the mayor, city councilors and PBC - are directly elected by the residents. 7. As about 90 percent of the city budget was required for salaries and routine expenses, people could only discuss 3 to 12 percent of the city budget in the PB process. 8. This PB process is mainly a system guided process and thus, less personality dependent. 9. It is very flexible and suitable for any village, town or city administration in any country. 10. Few years after the beginning of PB in Porto Alegre, they realised that a ward-wise consideration of infrastructure alone is not enough and added 5 themes for a city-wide perspective. Accordingly, discussions, voting and prioritisation on the five themes and election of two each PB Councilors were also done on the 5 city-wide themes. 

I urgently appeal the AAP to implement an appropriately adapted version of the Porto Alegre style Innovative PB in Delhi. Sri. Kejeriwal and AAP should concentrate first on their herculian task in Delhi. Simultaniously, AAP can recommend the innovative PB to selected local governments of various panchayats, municipalities and cities which have a favourable political climate for its implementation. But, it should be implemented on the conviction and initiative of the relevant local self-government institutions (LSGIs) for real success.

Many Indians and their leaders are very emotional; their behaviour pattern is very unpredictable and fluctuating. I believe this feature is the main reason for the unruly and irrational behaviour of peoples' representatives in Indian state assemblies and in the Indian parliament. Many are quite selfish and greedy too. It will be very difficult to change this born nature of the people and leaders. This may be changed a little if they are specially educated and trained as Peoples' Action Party (PAP) members are disciplined in Singapore for their very responsible job. I believe PAP members are screened and selected based on their personality traits! PAP's founder and modern Singapore's architect Mr. Lee Kuan Yew have written about the four Helicopter Qualities he set as standard for selection of his executives, in his book 'From Third World to First'. They are: 1. Analytical Thinking, 2. Logical understanding of cause and effect, 3. Imagination, and 4. Concentration to the point. I strongly recommend AAP to study the secrets of PAP's discipline and Singapore's spectacular success as world's most successful city for the last more than 35 years. The tiny 716 sq. km Singapore exported goods worth $410 billion in 2012 while the 5000 times larger India's total export was only for $313 billion! Singapore has very little natural resources; about a third of the water used in Singapore is imported from Malaysia. It has not even a drop of oil; but Singapore is world's largest producer of Oil Riggs and the island nation's second largest export is refined oil!

AAP should study well the features of world's two supermodels of development - Singapore and Porto Alegre city of Brazil. Singapore has a very authoritative rule from top downwards; but Porto Alegre has a grass-roots upwards and fully democratic and decentralised government. The two extremely contrasting supermodels performed very well and brought about fast and all-round development in their cities. These two cities have many elements to be copied by any country.

I wish AAP great success in transforming Delhi. The 497 sq. km poor and bankrupt city of Porto Alegre with a population density of 2,400 in 1989, could become Brazil's city with the best quality of life in 12 years. Delhi with an area of 1434 sq, km and a population density of about 11,297 in 2011, will need more time to develop. However AAP have the advantage of two Super-models to follow and this is the age of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). Smaller Indian towns and panchayats can develop in a shorter time frame. AAP's success in 2015 election has given 'the audacity hope'** to the people of India. AAP and Delhi should succeed. Porto Alegre's historic success led to the evolution of World Social Forum (WSF) with the motto 'Another World is Possible' - a fairer and more equitable world. Similarly, under AAP's rule, Delhi should prove that another India is possible!

(** 'The Audacity of Hope' is a book written by Mr. Barrack Obama, before he became US President)

JAI HIND!