“2015 For India: An Year of Politically Engineered Intolerance”

The best possible answer, I found to the question whether India could ever be intolerant while going through an International bestseller novel ‘The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari’ few days back. Here, John, a leading character of the novel while speculating about the possible sojourn of the another prime character of the novel Mr. Julian Mantle states that, “Perhaps he had settled in India, a place so diverse that even a restless soul like his could have made it his home.” The recent ‘Intolerance debate’ was sparked by few extremely unfortunate incidents. These ill-fated episodes include the lynching of a man belonging to Muslim Community by an alleged Hindu mob on the grapevine of eating beef at Dadri in western Uttar Pradesh, the cold-blooded killing of rationalist MM Kulbargi in Karnataka etc. The ‘Intolerance debate’ arrested the national attention after a certain section of writers, artists, scientists etc. started returning their awards like ‘Sahitya Academy’ and other such awards which they had received in their respective fields to register protests against rise in intolerance. They while returning their awards, incessantly kept targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP regime, for such intolerance and made a centralized attack on him and his Party. According to them, the present regime in the leadership of Narendra Modi is solely responsible for rise in intolerance.

The history reflects the present and mirrors the future. Though, it is not genuine at all to question the integrity of each of these award returners individually but it is also not a hidden secret that most of them have a biased and preconceived historical notions about the present ruling establishment in the Centre. Their leanings towards a particular soci-political ideology is not a hush-hush. The arguments and concerns of these writers, both ring hollow and appear to be tendentious for several reasons. They while maintaining a centralized attack on the PM and BJP, hardly fulminated against the respective State Governments for its failure to maintain law and order as the same is a ‘State Subject’ which falls under list II of the Indian Constitution. These incidents which were the outcome of a colossal failure of ‘Rule of Law’ were intentionally coloured religiously to malign the present ruling establishment which also led to the defaming of India’s reputation on International Podium. They cherry-picked these aberrations to make a federal case out of it to prove that India has become Intolerant. If one swallow does not a summer make, one incident of lynching a man by a fanatic Hindu mob for whatever reason doesn’t make our entire country intolerant. The sudden halt of ‘Award Returning campaign’ after Bihar assembly elections results bears a strong testimony that this was a highly orchestrated campaign conducted by Opposition Party through a proxy of individuals committed to identical or similar ideology.

This is a matter of record that all these individuals who have returned their awards were nowhere to be seen to register their protest during much more calamitous conditions like Anantnag riots 1986, Bhagalpur riots 1989, Meerut riots 1987 and 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots. They didn’t protest and chose to be tight-lipped when Salman Rushdie’s ‘Satanic Verses’ was banned or Taslima Nasrin was hounded and kept under house arrest. They maintained intriguing silence over MF Hussain’s perverse painting of Hindu Goddess. Is it just a mere coincidence that all these incidents didn’t shake their Conscience once but one Dadri did or does it just indicate a clandestine agenda? I strongly believe that there is no intolerance in the country, however I don’t believe that by merely proving these individuals biased or tilted towards a particular ideology, the existence of tolerance can be proved. This is a very vital question which has emerged and which needs to be proved with substantial facts and evidences.

In my opinion this ‘Intolerance debate’ has two facets, one is legal and the other is political. It is an undisputed fact that the ‘Law’ ultimately prevails and thus is dominant over ‘Politics’. A country becomes intolerant only if it’s Constitution and the laws which govern its people are intolerant. But our Constitution and laws are the most tolerant among others. It is tolerant to the effect that the Supreme Court of India opens at wee hours of the night to hear the petition of a convicted terrorist and continues to hear till barely an hour before his scheduled hanging. An entire nation doesn’t become intolerant merely because a fanatic Hindu mob lynches a man to death or a perverted criminal assassinates a rationalist thinker since such a mob and a perverted criminal doesn’t represent the country. It is only the deeply entrenched tolerance and immense respects for the values, cutoms and other socio-religious affairs of the minorities that has hitherto restricted our legislators to enact a ‘Uniform Civil Code’ despite a clear mandate under Article 44 of the Constitution. Had the India been Intolerant, the well-known Singer Adnan Sami would not have requested for Indian Citizenship and a commodious sufferer of Intolerance Taslima Nasrin would not have wished to spend her entire life in India. I still remember that Interview of Balasaheb Thackeray to Arnab Goswami in May 2011 in which he openly said, “I am a political cartoonist. I know the political side of the thing. You are overpowering the other 4 pillars of your democracy. Your democracy, not my democracy. I don't believe in democracy.” It is even hard to imagine for a man living in China or Saudi Arabia to question the way of their governance. It is an unprecedented beauty and the extreme tolerance of our nation and democracy that allows a man like Balasaheb Thackeray to happily live and even rule a part of this nation without believing in its democratic system. Therefore, as long as this nation continues to run on its Constitutional principles and laws, intolerance may exist politically but not practically.

Note: The Picture used on the blog has been taken from the Internet with due credit to its owner.

"मेरे पिताजी की अटल जी से वह मुलाकात !!”

“श्रीमान जी मैं तो सिर्फ आपका दर्शनार्थी बनकर आया हूँ !!”

मुझे स्पष्ट स्मरण नही है क्योंकि उस वक़्त मेरी उम्र मात्र दो से तीन वर्ष की रही होगी. दो-तीन वर्ष के उम्र की कोई बात याद होना या रखना साधारनतया संभव नही है और यदि किसी व्यक्ति-विशेष में यह जन्मजात काबिलियत मौजूद भी हो तो आमजन इतनी आसानी से ऐसे व्यक्ति के बातों पर यकीन नही कर पाते. यधपि, मैं ये दावा तो नही कर सकता कि मैं ऐसी किसी जन्मजात काबिलियत के साथ पैदा हुआ हूँ, परन्तु मैं इतना अनुभव जरुर करता हूँ कि मुझे अपने दो-तीन वर्ष के उम्र की बहुत सारी बातें याद हैं, यदि स्पष्ट नही तो धुंधली ही सही. इसके लिए घर-परिवार में अनगिनत बार मुझे व्यंग्यात्मक लहजों का सामना भी करना पड़ा है. दिसम्बर का महिना ख़त्म होने की दहलीज पर था. वर्ष था 1994. मेरे पिताजी और चाचा दिल्ली  के लिए कुच कर रहे थे. शाम का वक़्त था. मैं उन्हें तैयार देख रो रहा था. वे जाने के लिए तैयार थे. मुझे ठीक से याद तो नही मगर मैं भी शायद जाने कि जिद तो जरुर कर रहा होऊंगा और रोने की भी यही वजह रही होगी. वे घर के सामने ही किसी वाहन का इन्तेजार कर रहे थे, ताकि बिहटा पहुँच सके जहाँ से दिल्ली के लिए सीधी रेलगारियां उपलब्ध थीं. उस समय वाहन की उपलब्धता न के बराबर थी. मेरे गाँव से बिहटा के 7 किलोमीटर की दुरी अमूमन लोग टमटम से तय किया करते थे. कुछ निजी एवं सार्वजनिक वाहन भी उपलब्ध थे. शाम के समय मेरे गाँव से बिहटा शहर जाने के लिए चर्चित साधन के रूप में एक “दूध वाली गाडी” थी. यह एक व्यावसायिक गाड़ी थी जो हमारे ग्रामीण क्षेत्र के विभिन्न डेयरियों से दूध संग्रह कर पटना ले जाया करती थी. यधपि, यह एक सवारी गाड़ी नही थी बावजूद इसके शाम के समय जरुरी हालात में लोग इसकी मदद लिया करते थे. मेरे पिताजी और चाचा को भी अंततः इसी गाड़ी से बिहटा जाना पड़ा जहाँ वे से दिल्ली के लिए रवाना हुए. उस समय मुझे कुछ पता नही था कि वे कहाँ जा रहे हैं एवं किस उद्धेश्य से जा रहे हैं. ये सारी बातें मुझे बाद में मालूम हुईं. आज भारत-रत्न अटल जी के जन्मदिवस पर मुझे वही सारी बातें साझा करने की हार्दिक इच्छा है.

सन 1992 में लोकसभा के तत्कालीन अध्यक्ष श्री शिवराज पाटिल के द्वारा “सर्वश्रेष्ठ सांसद पुरष्कार” की व्यवस्था प्रारंभ की गयी थी जिसके अंतर्गत समग्र रूप में संसद में सर्वश्रेष्ठ योगदान करने के लिए किसी एक सांसद को “सर्वश्रेष्ठ सांसद पुरष्कार” से नवाजे जाने कि प्रक्रिया का आरम्भ हुआ था. सर्वप्रथम यह पुरष्कार सीपीआइ सांसद इन्द्रजीत गुप्ता के नाम जाने का श्रेय है जिन्हें यह पुरष्कार इसके स्थापना के वर्ष ही अर्थात 1992 में मिला था. सन 1994 में संसद ने एक सर्वकालीन ओजस्वी एवं प्रखर वक्ता सर्वश्री अटल बिहारी वाजपेयी को जिनकी तेजस्विता, कर्मशीलता और मानवतावादी विचारधारा ने उनके सक्रिय राजनीती में रहने के दौरान भी उन्हें सदैव राजनीती से ऊपर रखा, को इस पुरष्कार से विभूषित करने का फैसला किया था. मेरे पिताजी और चाचा उन्हें इसी उपलक्ष्य पर बधाई देने उनके उस समय के निवास स्थान 6, रायसीना रोड, नयी दिल्ली पहुंचे थे. उस समय वह लोकसभा में विपक्ष के नेता थे. एक आम आदमी का देश के इतने बड़े राजनितिक शख्सियत से मिलना कभी भी इतना आसान नही रहा है. आज के दौर में तो यह प्रक्रिया और दुरूह है. मेरे पिताजी और चाचा भी मन में मात्र स्नेह, समर्पण और विश्वास की पूंजी लिए गए थे. यदि प्रेम और विश्वास के कारन जन्मांध सुर को कृष्ण मिल सकते थे तो निसंदेह अटल बिहारी वाजपेयी इससे बड़े नही थे. हालाँकि, दिसम्बर का पूरा अंतिम सप्ताह उनलोगों ने दिल्ली के हाड़-कंपकपाती ठण्ड में अटल जी से मिलने की आशा, प्रयास और प्रतीक्षा में बितायी. दिसम्बर बीत गया और उसके साथ सन 1994 भी परन्तु अटल जी से मुलाकात नही हुई. वर्ष का पहला दिन भी प्रतीक्षा में ही बिता परन्तु दुसरा दिन उस प्रतीक्षा के परिणाम के रूप में फलीभूत हुआ जब 2 जनवरी 1995 के दिन सुबह-सुबह मेरे पिताजी और चाचा का सहज रूप से अपने प्रिय राजनेता शारदापुत्र अटल जी से मिलना हो गया. उस समय वह कहीं जाने की तैयारी में थे और अपने स्टडी टेबल पर खड़े होकर नजरे झुकाएं किसी अखबार को सरसरी निगाहों से देख रहे थे. उनसे रुबरु होते ही मेरे पिताजी का अपने प्रिय राजनेता शारदापुत्र अटल जी के लिए बधाई के शब्द, शैली और अंदाज़ क्या थे आइये आपको उससे रुबरु कराते हैं:

शारदापुत्र अटल

                

                 सूर्य अटल है, चाँद अटल और अटल हिमालय !

                 देश-दुनिया का चौथा अटल दिल्ली संसद में है विराजे !!

                 अटल शक्ति है, अटल राष्ट्रभक्ति है और अटल स्वाभिमान !

                 संसद ने भी हारकर माना यही अटल है संसद का शान !!

                 किया अटल समर्पण जीवन में, भारत-माता सिर्फ तू ही महान !

                 जिसकी जगह बनी तेरी चरणों में, बाकी सब धन धुल समान !!

                 भारत-मां की सहेली है जिसे दिया उच्च सम्मान !

                 तार-तार कर दिया जेनेवा में, मुंह लौटाए लौटा पाकिस्तान !!

                          निस्वार्थता का प्रतीक अटल,

                          उनकी कैसे गुणगान करूँ मैं,

                          छल, छदम से भरे राजनेता,

                          उस बीच इस अटल सूर्य की,

                          किन शब्दों से नमन करूँ मैं ?

                          दिनकर ने था दिया कर्ण को,

                          उपनाम “रश्मिरथी” का,

                          बरबस बिहारी को है सताती,

                          क्या कम करिश्मा है उससे,

                          मेरे इस ‘शारदापुत्र’ अटल का ?

                  

                   और अंत में राष्ट्रकवि दिनकर के शब्दों में कि:

                   

                  “जय हो जग में जले जहाँ भी नमन पुनीत अनल को !

                   जिस नर में भी बसे हमारा नमन तेज को बल को !!”

बधाई के उपरोक्त शब्दों और शैली से भावविभोर हो अटल जी ने मेरे मेरे पिताजी और चाचा से अपनी जिज्ञासा प्रकट करते हुए पूछा कि “भई, आप किस सीट के टीकटार्थी हैं ?” चूँकि यह एक महज संयोग ही था कि इस मुलाकात के वक़्त चुनावी माहौल था, अतः इसी भावना से ओत-प्रोत हो उन्होंने यह प्रश्न कर डाले. परन्तु इस उत्तर के पश्चात कि “श्रीमान जी मैं किसी सीट का टीकटार्थी बनकर नहीं बल्कि सिर्फ आपका दर्शनार्थी बनकर आया हूँ” उन्होंने अपनी चिरपरिचित शैली के जोरदार ठहाके के बीच मेरे पिताजी का नामकरण करते हुए कहा कि, ”भई, तब तो आज से मैं आपको दर्शनार्थी जी ही कहकर पुकारूँगा.” इस परिदृश्य के उपरान्त यहाँ यह ‘काबिल-ए-गौर’ हो जाता है कि जाने-अनजाने में उन्होंने इतनी बड़ी दौलत, इतना बड़ा उपहार, इतना बड़ा सम्मान दे डाला जो अपने आप में एकलौता है. चूँकि, सम्पूर्ण भाजपा परिवार में माननीय विधायकों और सांसदों की संख्या हजारों में हो सकती है, माननीय मंत्रीगणों की संख्या सैंकड़ो में हो सकती है, माननीय मुख्यमंत्रीगणों की संख्या दहाई के अंक में हो सकती है मगर ‘दर्शनार्थी’ तो अकेला एवं इकलौता है. ठहाके-दर-ठहाके तो तब तक चलते रहे जब तक वे तीनो साथ में रहे.

‘दर्शनार्थी’ के रूप में नामकरण का महत्व:

सनद रहे कि बिहारी का संबोधन आम हिन्दुस्तानियों के द्वारा आम बिहारियों के लिए ‘हे दृष्टि’ से दृष्टिगोचर होकर प्रयुक्त किया जाने वाला शब्द “ऐ बिहारी” का संबोधन है, तो वहीँ दर्शनार्थी का संबोधन भारत-भूमि के रत्नों के हार से जुड़े हुए एक रत्न भारत-देश के दिल ‘दिल्ली’ कि  दिल की नब्ज पर हरक्षण हथेली टिकाए रखने वाले कवि-दिल राजनेता एवं भारत के भूतपूर्व प्रधानमंत्री तथा भाजपा के महामहिम भारत-रत्न सर्वश्री अटल बिहारी वाजपेयी जी के द्वारा दी  गयी है.

मिथिलेश कुमार सिंह 

                         

           

Petition To Save The RTI From Amendment.

To,

Shree Ashok Kumar Sahoo,

Joint Director, Rajya Sabha Secretariat,

222, Second Floor, Parliament Hose Annexe,

New Delhi, (India )- 110001.

Subject: - A humble request to save the RTI ACT from unwarranted Amendments.

Dear Sir/Madam,

15-June-2005 has remained a memorable day in the history of Independent India, because it was the day when the country’s highest institution fulfilled the dreams of the people by enacting the 'Right to information Act'. From the day of its inception to till date the RTI legislation has been instilling great confidence on those who were sceptic about the functioning of the government and new life has been given to the aspirations of the freedom fighters who always fought to dethrone the colonial rule in order to establish a democratic setup where transparency and accountability will be given a paramount importance.

But today it is highly unfortunate to see same parliament which has sown the seeds of accountability and transparency through the RTI Act is now trying to uproot the core principles of democracy by bringing unwarranted and undemocratic changes to the RTI Act through THE RIGHT TO INFORMATION (AMENDMENT) BILL, 2013.

Furthermore, it is very hard to imagine the Indian parliament which is duty bound to reflect the will of the people through its law making power is trying to shatter all the noble dreams of Indian people by negating the landmark decision of Central information commission which has brought the political parties under the ambit of RTI Act by declaring the political parties as public authorities under section 2(h) of the RTI Act.At this juncture I wish to remind you that many scams which have grossly affected our economy would have never come to limelight without the help of the RTI Act 2005.

Therefore, we the students of KIIT LAW School, KIIT University, Bhubaneswar (Odisha ) would humbly request you to save the RTI Act from unwarranted amendments on basis of the reasons detailed below.

Excluding political parties will affect the democratic rights of citizens

Ascertaining Election spending and finding out the source of funding of the political parties has become a great challenge to the functioning of the democratic system. Historically it has been witnessed how the elected representatives of different political parties took the decisions in favour of few corporates giants at the cost of public interest just to repay the debt of gratitude which they received in the form of election funding. This kind of nexus shall be made public in order to gauge the credibility of the government and this can only be possible when political parties made answerable to the public by bringing them under the ambit of public authority of RTI Act.

To ensure internal democracy within the political parties

Due to the existing dynastic politics prevailed in our country it has become highly impossible to ensure democracy within the political parties where many decisions are taken unilaterally by the party heads such kind of undemocratic functioning of the political parties can only be known to the people when the political parties come under the ambit of public authorities.

Ending the practice of betrayal after the elections

Our political parties have become known for competing with each other by flooding tall promises during the time of elections and hardly implements what they promise after gaining power. So in order to stop such practices the political parties should be made answerable to the people who trusted them the most. So, the  RTI Act will aid the citizens to know the true implementation of election manifesto only if political parties are not excluded from the purview of RTI through unwarranted amendments.

On the basis of the reasons mentioned above ;

We the students of KIIT SCHOOL OF LAW, would bow before your infinite wisdom and humbly request you to take appropriate measures to save the RTI Act from unwarranted amendments which will ruin the whole essence of RTI Act that is transparency and accountability.

Thanking you Sir/Madam,

Rohit Kumar 

2nd year B.A.LL.B Student,

KIIT School of Law, KIIT University, Bhubaneswar - (751024).

Email I-d :-  rohitsingh3280@gmail.com

Same Copy sent to:- ( 1.) The President of the Republic of India.

                                ( 2.) Hon'ble Prime Minister of India.

                                ( 3.) Speaker of the Loksabha and Rajyasabha.

                                ( 4.) Law Ministry , ( Govt.of India ) 

Enclosures: Signature of 231 students.

Note: Petition Drafted by Rohit Kumar and

Raza Sameer Ahmed

How 'Right to Information' Changed My Life.

 The Right to Information has not been simply a tool to combat corruption. For me, it proved to be life changing. It helped me face and solve a huge personal problem and helped me reach one step closer to my academic goals. After clearing my higher secondary examination I had started preparing for CLAT (Common Law Admission Test). As the date of form-submission came closer, some of my friends who were already pursuing legal studies conveyed to me, during a course of conversation, that I was ineligible to appear for any law entrance examination of the Country since I had passed my higher secondary examination from ‘National Institute of Open Schooling’ commonly known as N.I.O.S. This information was a complete shock to me. I felt as though all my dreams had been shattered. I had wanted to pursue legal studies from my early days of schooling. I had absolutely no idea how to acquire information that would help confirm the truth of what I had heard. I lived in a small village and didn't have access to modes of seeking information. I had very limited knowledge of the internet. 

I telephoned the Bar Council of India office, New Delhi, hoping that I would get the true and correct information that I needed so desperately, but the response I received was no relief to me at all. It confirmed the Information passed on to me by my friends. In anxiety, I kept telephoning the BCI office and in this way telephoned them more than 20 times with a hope that some other official may pick up the phone and say that I am eligible but it didn’t happen and I failed in my every attempt. Thereafter I contacted NUJS, Kolkata which was conducting CLAT that year and it too confirmed the Information that I am not eligible to sit in this examination. As a last effort, I started contacting Private Universities over phone but all of them disappointed me by confirming that the legal profession had closed its doors to me. 

At this time when I had become entirely depressed and hopeless, I read a piece of Information in a Hindi daily about the immense power of this beautiful legislation called the Right To Information. I didn’t know how to write an RTI application and whom to send it to. But I knew I had to try. So, I picked up a plain white paper and drafted an application not in its prescribed format but in the ordinary form of a letter of grievance and sent it to the HRD Ministry, Government of India. A few days later, I received a reply that the subject matter of my Information pertains to the NIOS and the same has been transferred to it. Within a month, I received a detailed reply from NIOS with all relevant documents which opened the blocked door to my legal studies. The barriers I faced were created due to the false, inauthentic and misleading Information passed on to me by several entities. The Information I received through the RTI revealed that I was absolutely competent to sit any law entrance test. Unfortunately, I couldn’t appear for CLAT that year because it had become too late to submit the application. Today, I am successfully pursuing my fourth year of Law from a reputed private university situated in the capital city of Odisha. This happened because of the power of ‘Right to Information’. I sometimes think, that if I had been born in a Pre-RTI era, I wouldn’t have been able to fulfil my dream of pursuing legal studies.

Ordinary Peoples’ Power

After this first taste of the power of Information, I have filed more than 200 RTI applications till date encompassing multiple public issues and including a few personal as well. When I used to live in Varanasi, inflated electricity bills were a huge problem for the entire locality. Common people used to receive electricity bills amounting to Rs.10 lakhs, 20 lakhs, and in one shocking case, 200 crores as well. This happened because the departmental staff did not come to check electricity meters as per their duty. I met several higher officials of the department numerous times with a request to send their staff to our locality but they paid no heed to my pleas. I ultimately filed an RTI application seeking detailed records of meter checking by the concerned electricity department and things changed overnight. The next day concerned S.D.O came and promised to send the staff regularly for meter-checking and solve all the other related grievances of the public then and there. 

Recent Past: The Sorry State of Governance

At a time when our strongest anti-corruption and transparency legislation has entered a decade, the attitudes of the States towards the Right to Information Act reflect a sorry state of Governance. My personal experiences in using the RTI in the recent past have become unfortunately bitter experiences. To state a few of these experiences, 5 RTI applications have been stonewalled by PMO, three by Ministry of Home Affairs, two by Ministry of External affairs, one by President Secretariat, one by NHRC and one by UGC. 

The Govt. of NCT of Delhi which came to power advocating transparency in the Governance has also refused similar, genuine Information which the PMO and the President Secretariat had refused, citing different unjustified grounds. To me, this showed that almost all the prime democratic Institutions entrusted with the task of strengthening the democratic structure of our nation are defeating the very spirit of democracy by refusing to share Information with the people. I feel that every attempt to conceal Information from the stakeholders of democracy threatens the foundations of that democracy.

The RTI has been a personal journey for me but it has also helped me question issues larger than my own life. It helped me fulfill my dreams and connected me to the fabric of democracy in India. Information and access to information changed my life. I celebrate and salute a decade of the vital, fundamental, life-changing, people's Right to Information law in India, and hope that it will be used by many others like me in the next ten years. I am convinced it will make transparency and accountability more real for the ordinary citizen, and help build a healthier and more robust democracy.

http://thelogicalindian.com/my-story/my-story-how-rti-changed-my-life/

From Transparency Lover To Sycophancy Lover: An Open Letter to Arvind Kejriwal.

Dear Mr. Arvind Kejriwal,

I have decided to write this open letter to you after an extensive battle with my own Conscience. Truly speaking, I had to struggle excessively to muster up my courage to decide to declare my disengagement with you and your Party, both of which are hardly distinguishable, through an open letter. But, since I had announced my affiliation with your Party publically with a proud feeling by sharing the Party’s Membership Certificate and the donation certificate of Rs.100/-on my Facebook timeline, I must declare my break up with you in the similar fashion. Before, putting my heart on the paper or the detailed line of reasoning behind my decision to untwine knot with you, I feel it necessary to introduce myself to you, first. This young soul who is sick to the core by yours and your Party’s multifarious aberrations from the real objectives of the corruption-free movement, has been one of your ardent supporters erstwhile, currently pursuing his 4^th year of B.A.LL.B from School of Law, KIIT University, Bhubaneswar.

The ‘Aam Admi Party’ was formally launched on 26^th of November 2012 and I decided to join the Party on 25^th of January 2013 i.e. within two months of its formal launching. I had also donated Rs.100/- to the Party for its cause dated 15^th of December 2013 at 4:51 PM vide transaction No NE142154. I am producing herewith my membership and donation certificates in order to prove the veracity of what I state here. Though, my entire family has been dedicated BJP supporter, more particularly, my father and uncle who have devoted their entire life, serving to the cause of BJP and its ideology, I dared to depart from their conventional line of thought to support you. This, led to the occurrence of heated arguments among me and my family members intermittently. They tried their every possible way to convince me using their protracted political experience that your movement is just a political gimmick to acquire power but my political infatuation for you and your party simply failed their every such attempt. Not only this, I have always been subjected to ridiculous treatments by many of my friends who are staunch BJP proponents in the Law Boys’ Hostel where I presently stay. The day, your Party secured 67 out of 70 seats in Delhi Election, I had celebrated those mesmerizing moments by slicing a cake in your name for which I had to face a strong abusive response from many Modi monomaniacal  in my hostel. But, none of these incidents possessed the potential to defeat my zeal to support a cause dedicated to the eradication of corruption.

 You may or may not believe, but I had made a resolve to myself that if ‘Aam Admi Party’ won election in Delhi, I would undertake a pilgrimage to “Maan Vaishno Devi” and seek blessings from Goddess Durga for such success and its continued service to Indian Public. I successfully undertook that pilgrimage along with one of my close friend Kundan Kumar Ojha who was identically infatuated to the cause after ‘Aam Admi Part’ made a clean sweep in Delhi election. After undertaking our pilgrimage to Maan Vaishno Devi’s Sanctum Sanctorum we decided to come to Delhi directly instead of our respective abodes so that we may meet you and offer you the “Prasad” which we had brought and kept for you with an extreme devotedness. We went to your Party offices in Kaushambi and Patel Nagar both and offered ‘Prasad’ to everyone present there. Next day, at 8 am we got lined up near your house in Kaushambi where you used to organize ‘Janta Darbar’ but at around 11 am, it was announced that you had gone to meet the family of the martyred CRPF officer Narrottam Das. We also tried next day but couldn’t succeed. Ultimately, we handed over a bag of ‘Prasad’ to your Car driver with a slip inside it pouring our affection in words. This all I have stated to spectacle my dedication to the cause you had espoused.

But today I have no more faith in you. I atone my every action of dedication. I also regret that I should have decided this earlier to break tie with you when you and your syndicate of sycophants humiliated and thrown out the cerebrum of the movement Shri Shanti Bhushan, Prashant Bhushan, Yogendra Yadav and Anand Kumar by creating a sordid episode in the National Council Meeting dated 28^th of March 2015, only because they were not ready to be your sycophants. Your short political journey from a transparency lover to a sycophancy lover has taught me long-lasting political lessons. I felt outrightly deceived and my head hanged in shame when I saw you hugging the epitome of corruption Mr. Lalu Prasad Yadav. Your peculiar journey from Anna’s Janlokpal to your own Man’s Lokpal is never pardonable Mr. Kejriwal. I feel double-crossed when Delhi CM Secretariat stonewalls my R.T.I application on similar unjustified grounds which the P.M.O does. I felt utterly betrayed and I am sure many more like me feel the same way. I also feel that ‘Betrayal’ is not an appropriate word to define your hoity-toity character and out of the blue deeds. It is much more than that. It is a cardinal sin committed on your part. You have tried to butcher the hope of this nation. You have tried to dismantle the dream of a corruption-free society. You have attempted to ruin the credibility of the civil society where you initially belonged to. You have sold the people down the water who had counted on you.  However, you can just try to do so but can’t succeed because the glittering history of this Nation bears testimony that no cunning like you possesses the potential to murder the hope of this Nation or to dismantle the dream of a good cause. In an attempt to murder the Nation’s hope, you have inadvertently proceeded to dig your own political tomb where you and your unforgivable political history shall be buried as another renegade.

No More Yours

ROHIT KUMAR