Bhubaneswar (Odisha), 8 January 2020: The India Greens Party (IGP) has constituted a 20-member Organising Committee to hold state convention for electing the state executive in next three months.
The decision was taken at the first-ever IGP meeting in Odisha, which was held at the Red Cross Bhavan in Bhubaneswar on 8 January 2020. It was chaired by the party president Suresh Nautiyal and co-chaired by the party’s senior leader Ms. Anita Nautiyal. The meeting was coordinated and supported by Dr. Stanley William and Soumitra Subinaya.
The members of the IGP-Odisha Organising Committee are as follows: Sudarshan Chhotoray, Soumitra Subinaya, Jayakrushna Hota, Subas Chandra Panda, Sachikanta Pradhan, Arun Kumar Samantray, Anil Pradhan, Gouranga Chandra Mohapatra, Prakash Chandra Sahoo, Padma Charan Mohapatra, Sankarshana Hota, Krushna Priya Sahoo, Lingaraj Sahu, Ranju Lata Mohapatra, Ms. Sujata Mohanty, Sweta Snigdha Mohanty, A Sailaja, A Nagamani, Samir Ranjan Dash and SR Pattnaik. Mr. Sudarshan Chhotoray, a senior journalist, has been elected as convener of the Committee and he will coordinate between the central leadership of the party and the Organising Committee. Soumitra Subinaya has been elected as coordinator of the Committee.
The meeting decided to include people in the Committee in individual capacity only. Also, it was decided to include people in the Committee from various districts of the state so as to make it more inclusive and broad-based.
The Committee will hold its next meeting on 11 February 2020. Ms Sujata Mohanty has agreed to translate the IGP Constitution into Oriya language.
Earlier in the day, opening the meeting, the IGP president Suresh Nautiyal gave an overview of the green politics and green political parties in the world. He said that social justice including gender justice was important in the Indian society and needed special attention. It was regrettable that a few business families had most of the resources at their disposal while most of the population was still struggling to have two square meals a day. The economic disparity was eroding the country’s democratic system. By bringing a shift in the approach of the citizens, the IGP can play as a pressure group in the beginning and become a political force to reckon with eventually.
Mr Nautiyal said the six core principles of the Global Greens Charter can be achieved in the country provided people brought the necessary change the Gandhian way. He said the people’s voices were important and they needed to be listened; otherwise, there was no democracy in the country.
He also talked about the participatory and grassroots democracy and pointed out that the first-past-the-post electoral system in the country was no longer relevant. Mr Nautiyal pointed out that the preferential voting system with proportionality was need of the hour. Only then, smaller political parties can have their representation in the elected bodies at various levels – from gram sabha to Parliament. He said the right to recall component of the direct democracy was yet another effective tool in any democratic country.
Ms Anita Nautiyal, senior party leader, said her focus was to have more and more women in the party. He thanked the party president Suresh Nautiyal for taking several measures to have more women in the party. She stated that both men and women were important in any family and in any society but women’s active participation in them always made them saner and wiser. Ms Nautiyal said it was very important for the women to be active in politics. Without women’s active participation, the political parties cannot become democractic from inside, she added.
She briefed about her past and present roles in the Asia pacific Greens Federation (APGF) and its bodies including the APGF Women’s Network. She said the APGFWN has been doing so much for the inclusion of women in the green parties in the Asia pacific Region. The APGFWN has take the IGP as case study because this party was trying to give equal opportunities to the women in the organisation by giving them responsibilities.
Several other participants also expressed their views and most of them said they agreed absolutely with the six principles of the Global Greens Charter.
Mr Sudarshan Choutray welcomed the IGP leaders for visiting Odisha with a purpose to expand the party in the state. He said the climate change was a reality and we needed to accept that fact. He said those were the victims of the climate change who did not contribute to it. In fact, the people have become the climate refugees due to the misdeeds of a smaller section of people throughout the world. He lamented that the Indian political system was become a money game and there was hardly any future for the country. He said those who were concerned about the future were being termed as the anti-nationals. There were conflicts on several levels and the citizens were mere spectators.
– Press Release issued by Mr. Sudarshan Chhotoray, Coordinating Convener of the Odisha Organising Committee and Member of the IGP National Executive
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