I believe there is now widespread dissatisfaction around the performance of our elected leaders and people are increasingly questioning their ability to perform. There is also growing skepticism about the established, mainstream political parties. Everyone down from Aamir Khan is talking about how politics needs to change and why the “youth” need to come forward to lead this movement.

For those of a certain age (i.e on the wrong side of 30 - and more - including me), this might sound too idealistic, too simplistic and too easy. It probably is…and yet there is no doubt that there is a real groundswell of discontent - which if channeled correctly can bring about significant and sustained changes in the political landscape.

To everyone who has asked me in the past few days about what can they do, I would repeat what I wrote a few weeks before (here and here): 1] Read about issues 2] Discuss them and 3] Get involved in some group or the other.

Fortunately there may not be any need to re-invent the wheel. I believe there are at least half-a-dozen serious and organised groups who are striving to shake people out of their lethargy and get them involved in the political process.

I have written about some of these groups before…but here is a short (and almost certainly incomplete) list of some of the more prominent ones.

Loksatta

Jago Party

Bharat Punarnirman Dal

Professionals Party of India

And then there are initiatives such as Jaago Re! and ADR (Election Watch).

I understand that you may find it hard to agree with some of their agenda and/or tactics but I think the intentions are genuine - and don’t forget that some of them are doing real and serious work on the ground.

I am informally associated with several of these groups and am currently spending most of my time on coming up with an ideological framework that could guide a new political movement. Stay tuned for this.

Also I am planning to have a follow-up conference call this week on 12th Dec (Fri) at 8pm IST. I am trying to arrange a bridge number in India so that everyone (from India) can easily dial in via their cell-phones or landlines rather than having to be on Skype. More details on this soon. Pl. note the date and time in your diaries. Thanks.