India has a peculiar political problem – that even though it is a liberal democracy it does not have a major liberal party.

Our 1950 Constitution was based on liberal ideas but most of our independence movement leaders were socialists. Virtually immediately after the adoption of the Constitution, Nehru began the task of whittling down our liberties – while America’s First Amendment increased its people’s freedoms, India’s First Amendment dramatically curtailed ours.

The liberals of India were very weak at that time and could not fight this full-blooded socialist attack. But the old man Rajaji was not one to give in to socialist bullying. Despite his late age of 80, he came out of retirement to fight Nehru politically and formed the Swatantra Party in 1959. His party did very well and got 44 seats in the 1967 Lok Sabha but it fizzled out after his death and liberal representation in Indian politics came to an end. India had to wait till 2004 to get its next liberal in the Parliament, when Sharad Joshi of Swatantra Bharat Party became a Rajya Sabha member. Sharad Joshi’s party had also won a few seats in the Maharashtra assembly in the late 1990s.

As I have mentioned elsewhere, by 1998 I became convinced that India needed a modern liberal party, so I resigned from the IAS in January 2001 to work on the political project. I came in touch with Sharad Joshi and joined his party in 2004 but despite almost complete ideological agreement with him, I found insurmountable organisational issues with his party. I could not see Swatantra Bharat Party becoming the kind of modern liberal party I wanted for India.

So, after ten years of further work, I helped form Swarna Bharat Party which I believe has the right approach and manifesto – and can therefore rightfully claim to be the first comprehensively liberal party of India. Our party will contest five seats in the forthcoming elections – four in cities (Pune, Hyderabad, Jaipur and Guwahati) and one a rural constituency (Bhadohi).

In the meantime, Sharad Joshi’s party become defunct for more than a decade but has been revived in 2018. Anil Ghanwat, the President of Shetkari Sanghatana has played a pivotal role in this revival. Considerably strengthened now, Swatantra Bharat Party has announced its intention to contest 40 Lok Sabha seats from Maharashtra.

Although Swarna Bharat Party’s manifesto is much more detailed and focused on governance reforms, the ideology and policies of these two parties are very similar. This means that Indians will get the opportunity after nearly five decades to vote in Lok Sabha elections for the liberals – in 45 constituencies.

Some work was started last year for these two parties to merge in the future. It was agreed that the parties will need to agree to a common manifesto and a party Constitution. I believe we will also need agreement on the process of identifying and nominating candidates. After such crucial matters are agreed, one of these two parties can be retired.

In this regard, Shetkari Sanghatana has been playing a very important role in bringing the two parties together. Anil Ghanwat has issued a public statement in support of both these parties. A related farmers’ group, Kisan Putra, led by Amar Habib – author of the must-read book Anti-Farmer Laws and a close associate of Sharad Joshi – has also issued a public statement in support of Swarna Bharat Party. Sharad Joshi was passionate for the liberation of farmers, a passion I share entirely with him. The liberals are committed to liberating the farm sector, the labour market, the business sector, the water, electricity and gas sectors, and the education and health sectors, among others.

Some liberals like Gurcharan Das had thrown their support behind Modi in the 2014 elections thinking that he will actually implement his slogan of “minimum government, maximum governance”. Das should have read BJP’s manifesto – it was an extremely interventionist document. Modi has simply implemented his own socialist manifesto. Gurcharan Das now seems perplexed about whom to support in 2019. I don’t see what’s there to think about. He should obviously support the liberals. After all, did he not call out repeatedly for a liberal party for India? When we now have a full-fledged liberal party, why should he even think about any other option?