Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Dear Mr Kejriwal



Dear Mr Kejriwal

Sir,
Since you were writing so many letters to so many people with so many concerns.I as a not so "aam aadmi" ask you few simple questions.

What should I do to convince my dad who is a communist by ideologue and a judge by profession to clear doubts about you and your party? He raises the following questions.

Sardaar sab corrupt they

1)He says that all the political movements which started with an ideologue like yours eventually ended into something which is nowhere close to its earliest starting point.For instance the JP movement culminated into multiple parties who have no clear ideologue and contest people with all types of shortfalls in elections viz corrupts, criminals, dynastic,castists et al. Even the communists are very divided and unclear.With your party not having a clear ideologue on many issues why should someone vote for you?

2)He says that you might be the most honest person in your party and many others in your party are deemed to be honest.But what about everybody in your party,the members,the people who are giving you donations,the people who would vote for you??.You say that a Lokpal will change everything.He says that corruption is so deeply rooted in our mindsets that its not merely systemic but its in the Indian psyche inherited from our ancestors.How would you improve the morals of Indians?How would mere bringing a Lok pal change the whole scene of corruption ?Keeping in mind that Lokpal is mainly to deal with corrupt govt servants, how would you punish the corrupt businessmen who don't pay taxes,the traveller who boards a train without a ticket,the street vendor who is ready to pay a bribe in order to stand on a crowded chowk,the common man who litters on the streets,the person who is ready to pay more so that he can book his ticket quickly? Don't you think according to you standards even a Tatkal is a hitch for common man.??He says its not always about punishment and fear ..many a times its about mentality and culture.

3)He is too apprehensive about the complaining nature of you and your party members.While he is used to complaint cases in his profession,he thinks mere complaining and not having a proper backup of evidence proves useful only for buying time and not on the ground and in the courts.What would you do to really tab up the corrupts?How would you change the criminal justice system which lacks everything??There is scarcity of resources,there is scarcity of policemen,there is scarcity of judges,there are complexities and bottlenecks in the system.How would mere complaining bring the change or even a Lokpal as an institution single handedly change everything?

4)You talk about Mohalla Sabhas and people participation in day to day decision making of their areas.Don't you think it might prove a havoc.?Suppose if a ward/mohalla decides to build a drain which is ought to affect an adjacent mohalla as well,who would be the final decision making authority?Sometimes giving everything in the hand of Janta might lead to delays and litigation in courts? There are specialists and people who have been elected by the Junta who can very well work with the people. But to give the whole decision making thing into the hands of the Janta might not be useful.As it might lead to the neglect of the minority interest in that area and might lead to further systemic complexity and wastage of time.He thinks there are enough institutions in our country and we should work to improve them rather than putting in more institutions and more complexity.Don't you think our constitution makers would have included every aspect of Gandhian Swaraj at the word go if it had been feasible??Whats your take on this ??

5)He is apprehensive about govt servants,social activists,journalists joining your party.While he says there is a need to have people with diverse backgrounds in politics.He also says that its sending a wrong signal to the dedicated govt servants,activists,journalists.How is your party different from others when soon to retire govt servants are joining politics through your platform, isn't it opportunist?Aren't social activists joining your cause in a way divulging from the interest of the people they are involved with?

6)He says that while you are raising the issue of gas prices and corruption why are you not raising environmental issues,issues pertaining to pollution,science and technology,space? Is it because they don't garner media attention?.While the letters written by you to the stalwarts of big political parties contains very important issues, there are other important issues than corruption as well which these stalwarts do not raise in their speeches.Are you not acting in the same way as these and others media mongers do?

7)He says that you talk about democratization in politics and political parties.How is your party different from others when you are choosing people for standing in the national elections merely on the basis of the decision of your political committee?? Don't you have a way to involve people in that decision making?This is not much different from other political parties.What are you going to do to bring transparency and democracy within political parties.??

While I used to be a staunch AAP supporter from the word go and to an extent I will still vote for them in the national elections.I have had enough doubts raised and I echo many thoughts of my father.Even my maid says now"Mera zindagi toh jhaadoo lagaate hi beeta hai is baar jhaado lagaane se kucch hoga kya??"

Hope you people have answers to these questions and you bring in real change in this country.
Regards
A not so "aam admi"

PS:Its my fathers questions in my own words and few questions of my own and this has nothing to with BJP or Congress in any way :)



7 comments:

  1. hi amrit bhai
    though I am an AAP supporter, but not a bilnd one.
    the questions raised are genuine and are raised by many. I am writing what I think. It may be incorrect
    1. other ideologies were mostly for getting power, so they tried by all means. AAP's concern is corruption and not just getting power. I hope they will not end up like left or parties of JP movement.
    2. government control natural resources. making governance transparent will bring transparency at almost every level. we obviously cannt change the morality of people. but we can create conditions which are favorable to honest. same indian junta becomes honest and law abiding in countries like US.
    3. I agree only complaining will not change anything. i think thats why he is fighting election.
    4. giving power to mohalla sabha will means dealing local problems at local level. obviously problems related to higher level will be dealt at higher level. i dont think its like giving everything in local's hand. the officials are also present at mohalla sabha meetings.
    I thinks similar concept is also present at some extent in USA and at a very large extent in Switzerland
    5. I agree with this point. It will do more harm in long term
    6.other issues will not give publicity :P and also it will harm AAP if they took some stance on issues like environment.
    7. I dont know exactly about their candidate selection. but it should involve active party members

    Also
    they should clarify their stance on economic, foreign, security policy etc, since they are going to fight LS elections. Hopefully it will be in their menifesto
    bhai shayad bada ho gaya
    incorrect english ke liye maafi :)

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    1. Haan...I get everything...But they are stretching too much these days...May be its because they have to counter the big political parties in the national elections...But a slow,planned and gradual movement into the national arena would be more sustainable if we want real change...And angreji kaun si meri bahut acchi hai..uske liye koi dikkat nahi hai baat samjh mein aani chahiye..
      Recent speech of Arvind KEjriwal at CII was a good balanced speech...Hope what he has said turns out to be true...What I have realized is that our parents who have seen all this for a long tym are very pessimistic about these things as not much has changed..But I still cling to my hopes :)

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  2. Ok to be frank i am an AAP supporter.. maybe because of that my comment will be biased. But anyways i would still like to give my view.
    1. since JP movement failed in long term, should we stop revolting if some wrong is happening in the system.
    Hope is the only thing which i would say making me stick to this party. ya being pessimistic is obvious seeing our past track record, but trying is the only thing which a person can do. His efforts may fail or pass, but that would certainly be a question if he tries.

    2. Corruption is deep rooted in our mindset. I dont beleive in this, The same indians when go to US, UK, Dubai etc, behaves properly. but when he is here, he gets corrupted. Now, if it was in our mindset, it would be same everywhere. I think its the system which changes the person. If strong check is provided at every checkpoint and swift law and order is available to punish the guilty, we could get rid of corruption to some extent.

    3. we have scarcity of courts,judges, police everything.. yaa very rightly said. but i think we have enough resources to improve all this.. in last five years we have seen the amount of money involved in sacams. I would not say that this would reduce to zero overnight. but if this reduces to even half of what it was, dont you think we would have enough money to improve our infrastructure.
    and in India we should rather not talk about manpower. i agree these changes might not be possible in a year, But certainly in 3-4 years, some of these things might start getting visible. so, if government wants to make these things visible, these are not too tough a job.

    4. yaa i agree here mohalla sabha might prove harmful. (i dont know much about its implementation in other countries, but if it is so, and if it has proven fruitful, we may give a try.) And arvind kejriwal has stated in many a interviews that whenever there will be a mohalla sabha meeting their will be specialist from several departments attending those meeting( although i dont know how much feasible that it). we will get to know these things can work or not, if a govenment which wants to work in favour of citizens is there to rule.

    5. i personally believe that this thing could never be solved fully. Each and every party will be biased somewhat or more. In the long run AAP may also turn out like other parties in distributing tickets. But as for now, the candidates whom AAP is giveng ticket, atleast seems to me far more concerned for the people than other parties.

    6. yes indeed for publicity sake. You cannot win election if you don't know how to publicize.. for most of the citizens of india enviroment is not as concerning matter as is the road next to their house.

    7. i think i already answered this part. their may not be any ideal solution to this. every party will be biased by some or the other things in distributing tickets. but as of now, i feel the candidates whom they are giving tickets, are surely far more more acceptable than the well established parties candidates.

    For a moment lets consider that i want development in our area, and bjp and congress both have given tickets to a some famous goon of my area. and AAP being a new party cannot afford to give ticket to a goon, so he gives to some honest person. Should i still think of above points to vote for AAP.

    We, as a human being are always keen to find flaws, which is good in a way, but shouldnt we also try appreciating a person who gave a try to jump into indian politics ratehr than criticizing him at each and every point.

    Lastly, i would like to say that.. we wont give our vote to some new party because they might turn corrupt, but we would rather give our vote to some old party which is already corrupt.


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    Replies
    1. Too much of spelling mistakes and grammatical mistakes too.. please ignore those.. :)

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    2. Well I am not saying I will not vote for it...But the real change should have been a bit gradual in order to sustain it for a longtime.. And while I agree with whatever you have said and I appreciate him with all my heart...But I feel sometimes he stretches things too far to be understood...emotions and criticism are not the only ways but some real solid thinking and planning is required :)

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