Dear Arvind Kejiwal,
Couple of weeks back, I attended the AAP meeting in my area. We met at the local park on a Sunday evening, and I had come with my wife and a friend and my two year old, who was busy picking leaves, as she is not allowed to pick flowers. Mishra was introducing us to the party and the activities they were doing in Mumbai. He was telling us about how they were able to show black flags when a regional politician came to speak in the area. Proudly he showed me images of his colleagues being dragged by the police. "I warn tell you people, when you join the party, you must be prepared for all consequences", he said ominously.
Tikku, an active party member, had brought a friend, who had a matter to solve. The friend had already approached other parties with the matter, and they had refused to take it forward. He had already paid the regional party some money, to forward the matter in the local police station.
"If you solve matters like these, how then are you different from the other party?", I asked Mohan, a serious looking young MBA student who was taking minutes on the laptop. "We don't take money to solve matters", he replied, "Our objective is only to help people". He then went on to explain how some people came to him few days back when their slum toilet was not working. "Just go to any government office with the Anna Cap and see the effect. They don't dare ignore us. This is the power of our party."
When you came to politics, I am sure you touched a raw nerve in a lot of people like me. An entire class of people was cornering our countries resources and abusing them for their and their communities' narrow gains. As Francis Fukuyama succinctly put it, "Indian politics is a system where favours are exchanged for political power". And I truly believed you were out to change this truism. I believed that your politics was about changing the entire order to a more ideology and merit driven process. Maybe I was hoping for too much.
I don't envy your position either. With the press behind you when you started your activism, I am sure you would have become a magnet for opportunists who were experts in playing the favours and "fixing" game. Your inner team also probably believes that this is the way politics is to be run. Lowering of electricity bills is still a "favour" you are doing in exchange of votes. In another meeting I attended at the city level, members were planning a clothes collection drive for drought victims in Maharashtra. Clothes for drought victims? Do they really need our old clothes, happy gotten rid by us?
As a citizen I root for you. I want you to change the entire system. Our country is facing a wave of cynicism. In broad daylight, our commons are being looted for personal and parochial gains. Large parts of the political establishment are fully compromised. You have repeatedly said all of this yourself. In this scenario, I will vote for anyone you put up as candidate and I don't really care what your policies are. I am not a big fan of Lokpal and nor am I a socialist and I would rather use less electricity than stop paying my bill. But I am someone who wants a change and you are my best hope. My only worry is that you are being eaten up by opportunists and short term issues.
My humble request to you is this. Please think-up of a good strategy for the upcoming national elections. For that you must have a list of 540 good candidates for the election and present a real alternative. I have read your nomination process, and while its great on paper, the party lacks a grassroots base to make is possible. Maybe a top-down approach might be the way to go. Good people have tried in failed in Indian politics, either as small parties or as independents. Why not group all of them and present a credible alternative to the people? Big challenges require big risks.
Every morning, I take my daughter to the neighbourhood park. There is an old lady who often comes with her grandson. One day, while my daughter was on the swing, I saw the lady walk around the park and pick up the garbage to put it in the bin. That moment was really inspiring for me because it gave me hope. It told me that in spite of the cynicism, there are people who are willing to care for what is not only theirs, but also ours. She felt ownership and it made me feel ownership.
You have given hope to a lot of people and I really wish you success, not for your sake but mine. My objective of writing this letter is that I wish you re-think your strategy. Small favours will probably not take you places. The press loves you so far, but the honeymoon already seems to be ending. If you start at the bottom, you will have no control over who joins you and what they would end up doing in your name.
An alterative strategy might be to have a strong ideological team at the top and a list of 540 electable candidates that are honest and capable. That might just be the recipe to shake up Indian politics.
yours sincerely,
Rushabh Mehta
(names of people changed)
Couple of weeks back, I attended the AAP meeting in my area. We met at the local park on a Sunday evening, and I had come with my wife and a friend and my two year old, who was busy picking leaves, as she is not allowed to pick flowers. Mishra was introducing us to the party and the activities they were doing in Mumbai. He was telling us about how they were able to show black flags when a regional politician came to speak in the area. Proudly he showed me images of his colleagues being dragged by the police. "I warn tell you people, when you join the party, you must be prepared for all consequences", he said ominously.
Tikku, an active party member, had brought a friend, who had a matter to solve. The friend had already approached other parties with the matter, and they had refused to take it forward. He had already paid the regional party some money, to forward the matter in the local police station.
"If you solve matters like these, how then are you different from the other party?", I asked Mohan, a serious looking young MBA student who was taking minutes on the laptop. "We don't take money to solve matters", he replied, "Our objective is only to help people". He then went on to explain how some people came to him few days back when their slum toilet was not working. "Just go to any government office with the Anna Cap and see the effect. They don't dare ignore us. This is the power of our party."
When you came to politics, I am sure you touched a raw nerve in a lot of people like me. An entire class of people was cornering our countries resources and abusing them for their and their communities' narrow gains. As Francis Fukuyama succinctly put it, "Indian politics is a system where favours are exchanged for political power". And I truly believed you were out to change this truism. I believed that your politics was about changing the entire order to a more ideology and merit driven process. Maybe I was hoping for too much.
I don't envy your position either. With the press behind you when you started your activism, I am sure you would have become a magnet for opportunists who were experts in playing the favours and "fixing" game. Your inner team also probably believes that this is the way politics is to be run. Lowering of electricity bills is still a "favour" you are doing in exchange of votes. In another meeting I attended at the city level, members were planning a clothes collection drive for drought victims in Maharashtra. Clothes for drought victims? Do they really need our old clothes, happy gotten rid by us?
As a citizen I root for you. I want you to change the entire system. Our country is facing a wave of cynicism. In broad daylight, our commons are being looted for personal and parochial gains. Large parts of the political establishment are fully compromised. You have repeatedly said all of this yourself. In this scenario, I will vote for anyone you put up as candidate and I don't really care what your policies are. I am not a big fan of Lokpal and nor am I a socialist and I would rather use less electricity than stop paying my bill. But I am someone who wants a change and you are my best hope. My only worry is that you are being eaten up by opportunists and short term issues.
My humble request to you is this. Please think-up of a good strategy for the upcoming national elections. For that you must have a list of 540 good candidates for the election and present a real alternative. I have read your nomination process, and while its great on paper, the party lacks a grassroots base to make is possible. Maybe a top-down approach might be the way to go. Good people have tried in failed in Indian politics, either as small parties or as independents. Why not group all of them and present a credible alternative to the people? Big challenges require big risks.
Every morning, I take my daughter to the neighbourhood park. There is an old lady who often comes with her grandson. One day, while my daughter was on the swing, I saw the lady walk around the park and pick up the garbage to put it in the bin. That moment was really inspiring for me because it gave me hope. It told me that in spite of the cynicism, there are people who are willing to care for what is not only theirs, but also ours. She felt ownership and it made me feel ownership.
You have given hope to a lot of people and I really wish you success, not for your sake but mine. My objective of writing this letter is that I wish you re-think your strategy. Small favours will probably not take you places. The press loves you so far, but the honeymoon already seems to be ending. If you start at the bottom, you will have no control over who joins you and what they would end up doing in your name.
An alterative strategy might be to have a strong ideological team at the top and a list of 540 electable candidates that are honest and capable. That might just be the recipe to shake up Indian politics.
yours sincerely,
Rushabh Mehta
(names of people changed)
