Lok Sabha election: India Greens Party set for poll debut.

No political party is willing to put environment and ecology as election campaign issues, says party founder Suresh Nautiyal. For the uninitiated, and there are multitudes of them, a Green Party that campaigns for environmental causes in the political arena, is typically a Western, developed nation concept. Well, times are changing. India too has a newbie in its midst, the India Greens Party. And in the forthcoming general elections, they are putting up at least half-a-dozen ‘serious’ candidates in Delhi, Mumbai, Punjab and Chhattisgarh. “We are under no illusions about the poll outcome, given our meagre resources and reach, as compared to what the mainstream parties can conjure, but a start has been made,” Suresh Nautiyal, the party’s founder and mentor told this reporter, adding ”we are the party of the future.” Nautiyal has shared the vision of the fledgling party to make India clean and green – ecologically and politically. As a matter of fact, the India Green Party must contest this time, or risk disqualification. In July 2019, it was registered with the Election Commission of India under Section 29A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951. Now the time has come to show its hand in the heat and dust of Indian elections, dominated by money power and identity politics. “We are reaching a point of no return. If we overlook climate change, global warming and food security, we are doing so at our own peril. Once things go beyond the pale, it will be difficult to turn back the clock,’’ this former journalist and campaigner points out. Nautiyal goes on: “When we decided to make environment and ecology as our calling cards, there was a good reason for doing so. No political party is willing to even put these issues on the table, let alone make them part of their poll campaign.” It should, indeed, be considered a sign of under-development in an emerging economy, if you please, that ecology is not a frontline political issue, as it is in the world’s most advanced democratic nations – Britain, Germany, New Zealand, Australia and the Scandinavian countries to name just a few.