interview
Fashioning Tools for People's Movement
2020
Summary
Jayaprakash Narayan of the Lok Satta movement argues that effective civic activism requires fashioning concrete tools rather than merely protesting. His first major success, around 1998, targeted the roughly 10% short delivery of petrol at some 95% of India's fuel stations, which he attributes to tampered meters operating in collusion with state weights-and-measures departments. The tool was disarmingly simple: a pre-calibrated container of known volume that a consumer could ask to be filled instead of their vehicle's tank, making the cheating instantly provable. He claims that within fifteen days meters across the then Andhra Pradesh were corrected, and that the effort spurred oil companies to modernise their retail outlets, cutting short delivery from about 10% to around 1.5%.
Narayan describes a parallel campaign against criminals in politics. His team set benchmarks and assembled a nonpartisan panel of eminent experts, including former chief justices and police officials, then solicited information from the media and public, receiving 2,600 responses. This produced a list of 42 criminal candidates, some very powerful and with murder charges, and helped shift the public climate, feeding into Supreme Court litigation, candidate disclosure norms and 'election watch' initiatives. He frames the need to invent such tools for citizen engagement as a blessing.
Key points
- Narayan argues civic movements must fashion practical tools rather than merely protest and shout.
- Around 1998 his group targeted a roughly 10% short delivery of petrol at about 95% of fuel stations.
- He attributes the short delivery to tampered meters colluding with state weights-and-measures departments.
- The solution was a pre-calibrated container consumers could ask to be filled, making cheating provable.
- He claims meters across the then Andhra Pradesh were corrected within fifteen days.
- Short delivery reportedly fell from about 10% to around 1.5% as oil companies modernised outlets.
- A parallel campaign used a nonpartisan expert panel and 2,600 public tip-offs to name 42 criminal candidates.
- That effort fed into Supreme Court litigation, candidate disclosure norms and election-watch initiatives.
Transcript
Fashioning Tools for People’s Movement
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntFrMcMlMCk Duration: 197.1s
Speaker 1 (00:00): we have to fashion tools no correct when there are time around the time we met I don’t recall exactly when it was but 1998 around the time we were fashioning tools for instance one of our first great successes was we fashioned a simple tool to to combat the the short delivery of petrol in all of India and about 95% of the petrol stations there was a 10% short delivery
Speaker 2 (00:29): because they tampered with the meters in collusion with the legal metrology or waste and measures
Speaker 1 (00:34): department in each state across the country that was the pattern we thought that was a that was one thing we could take up easily because most of the middle classes and youth and urbanites would relate to it and we had to find a tool because there’s no point going and protesting and shouting instead of actually acting in a responsible way even for me with a lot of experience in administration it took me a bit of effort to understand the critical tool a simple tool the citizen the consumer has the right to take a container and say fill this container not my vehicle tax that is the heart of the issue because you feel that you are you are cheated you are shortchanged but you don’t have a means of proving it but supposing you have a container which is already pre-calibrated you know this is five liters or two liters or 10 liters and you say please fill this container the game is up now that simple tool it had profound impacts i feel very good that within 15 days all the meters in the then antar pradesh was set right because they had no choice and immediately oil companies in the country woke up and within about a year and a half much of the modernization of the oil retail outlets that happened during that period and in a large measure because of the impetus given by our effort in
Speaker 2 (01:57): antirpadesh even now there is short delivery but in those days it used to be
Speaker 1 (02:01): 10% now it is I’m told 1.5% still bad but a huge improvement similarly the criminals in politics instead of talking and shouting we actually fashioned a powerful tool we established certain benchmarks put together an outstanding
Speaker 2 (02:14): team of very credible and eminent experts including former chief justices and judges and juries and police and other civil service officials totally nonpartisan and then we solicited information from the media and the public we got 2600 responses giving specific and precise information about the criminal conduct of individual politicians powerful politicians in
Speaker 1 (02:35): office or competing for office we came out to the list of 42 criminals contesting many of them extremely powerful people ministers MPs MLS no some of them with several murders under their belt and so on and so forth and
Speaker 2 (02:49): that changed the climate at least in the country that’s how that led to the supreme court litigation
Speaker 1 (02:54): and the and the disclosure norms and so on and so forth similarly election watch common platforms and many other things including water registration so that also compelled us to fashion tools for citizen engagement in a creative way and i think it’s actually a blessing
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