A Volunteer's letter to the leaders of this movement.
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a letter that I wrote to
arvindji dated 15/08/2012
a letter that I wrote to
arvindji dated 15/08/2012
Dear arvindji
I am writing you this letter because its not possible for me to come to delhi this time.I am a student and my husband is in turkey.But none the less I have a lot of questions.
I stayed at jantar mantar for around eight days after the announcement for formation of political party was made, after most of the female anshankaris which I was in charge of left, barring those who had joined us on the same day after the announcement for the Anshan left.I had never felt so tired in my life, all the weary of the 10 days I was out of my house and the whole year since 16 aug 2011 all came back at once. I wore you an emotionally charged letter to you after that which, I regret and it was kind of you to reply to that. I thought I will come to terms with the decision as time passed, but I couldn’t .I tried to cool down but sorry this is my coolest, I was emotionally attached to the cause
There is a lot that I want to say, so trying to be as precise as possible I will try to put it into various headings.
Political Decision:
We were upset that without even a hint to us all of a sudden it was announced that anshans don’t make sense now and we should enter political arena. Later I was told that volunteer who had a problem that they were not told had ego issues, as largely people agreed.
1. People who voted on SMS were not the ones who had given their day and night to this movement.
2. Those people are the ones who vote for BIGG BOSS, multiple voting is also possible and the volunteers were busy working we never got to vote…..
3. How on earth numbers started to matter to us? Are we politicians? I feel even if I am right and saying the truth I really should not care how many are in my support.
4. This was a people’s movement which gave me power, if anna being a common man can stand alone and fight with the system so can we..This was the essence of main bhi anna campaign, atlest that was what I and my team used to feel. For the first time in the history we were made to realize that we were the masters and they are the servants’ .which we had forgotten all that long ago.So now why do we want to become the servant all of a sudden?
5. This movement had made a place between the political class and the educated calss.we had a say even if we were a common man. Working class people like us could finally do something for the country without getting into the dirt of politics.
Even if we agree that it was the right decision then:
1. we are all working people ,who work to earn our daily bread people who would give up their bread and butter to contest elections will be the ones who will make a career out of it. Even till the time of the announcement we had a lot of people inside our organization who were just waiting for this announcement. These people have a fan following and you cannot say a single word against them,or else you will have to face the wrath of their chamchas.(you had given us a task of calling old volunteers in Mumbai to join us again, most of them had left because of such people”Naresh thakur” ,it turned out when I called them up)sorry for taking name I didn’t want to sound ambiguous.
2.I come from a family of freedom fighters, my great grandfather lost his arm while fighting at Lucknow residency and my grandfater’s elder brother fought with Chandra Shekhar Azad.My grandfather was a scientist and was pramukh sangh chalak.He was one of the founder members of BJP. Though he himself never entered politics but he was the one who convinced Guruji to form BJP.I was raised by him, I know he was one of the most honest people living on this earth .Thousands of his students still vouch for him. We all know how it ended. People like him were arrested during emergency, lost their health, career and family life and people like Promod Mahajan came to power because of them.BJP also turned up to be a extremely corrupt political party. Why would we have a different fate?
3. People change, we have seen it ourselves, they do not stay the same after they get power. How can we stop them?at the time of JP andolan lalu was one of the honest people in the movement(he got married in his NCC dress as he did not have a spare set of clothes).to tell you the truth many of the BJP leaders were very honest back then.
4.our team visits villages in dhaanu (Maharashtra) we are planning some development programmers’ for that place.its just like Somalia.25% people are suffering with oral cancer ,because they eat tobacco to kill their hunger. I had never in my life seen so much poverty even when I do belong to a village in U.P. most of our country is like that. People vote for a bottle of booze or a saari.its not their fault,they don’t know any better.They are condemned into a life like this, so that they stay as just a vote bank. women ,children men,the whole village is drunk all the time. They work in a bhatta and then get a bottle of booze at the end of the day. That whole place is ruled by NCP, you will not see clothes on the children’s body but will see hundreds of flags there. Many organizations such as rotary club tried to help the villagers but they were threatened. We were not a threat to this political mafia till now but I have a strong feeling that now we will also have problem in visiting their often. Most of the India is like that how will we cope up with that?
Misbehavior with the volunteers
This question is raised in all the letters, be it shivendra’s ,aseem’s or any other. All of us working here without getting paid and are putting more than our money and time in this cause, we are connected emotionally with the movement. When we raise any question we are told that “EK JAATA HAI DUS ATE HAIN”.Its really very hurting, we are here for a cause and for our own country agreed, its not like we are doing some favor to anyone. I completely agree. But still if we are working in a team we should not try to muzzle others who have questions, or call them congress agents if they manage to ask any questions.
I have interacted with a lot of top leaders of this movement including anna and feel everyone is open to criticism .it’s the over enthusiastic supporters who misbehave, but none the less nobody has the right to physically or emotionally hurt any volunteer. There should be a check on this. This attitude is ultimately harming the movement. It may be true that “ek jata hai toh dus ate hain “but I don’t feel its ethically right to feel or say that.If we do this to our people who have worked here day and night we are no better than the people we are up against.
I myself have been told this on several occasions. But I have the support of a very strong team of around fifty people who are now my family. We also have disconnects, disagreement, fights in our team. Sometimes we even throw things at each other but we never let anyone leave us. We are still together, the same people who were their when we started more have joined us and only those have left who were with us with some personal agenda.
Anyways, nobody has the right to hurt others or tell them to leave. It was supposed to be a people’s movement.
I am writing this letter because I had a lot of questions and need answers. We are all tired of the existing system and want change. I have met very nice people because of this movement, genuine people who want to do good for the society. I do not wish that these people are hurt or mislead just because they have taken the risk to trust their fellow citizens and contribute towards a cause. I feel bad for every single volunteer who was contributing towards the cause and has left because he/she has been hurt. It was a people’s movement and we should treat people respectfully and value the time, energy, effort and sacrifices done by each one of us.
I hope these queries will be resolved. I will stay in this movement no matter how many times I am told to leave, but not everyone is as thick skinned as I am.
Regards,
Saumya Ritesh
Dear arvindji
I am writing you this letter because its not possible for me to come to delhi this time.I am a student and my husband is in turkey.But none the less I have a lot of questions.
I stayed at jantar mantar for around eight days after the announcement for formation of political party was made, after most of the female anshankaris which I was in charge of left, barring those who had joined us on the same day after the announcement for the Anshan left.I had never felt so tired in my life, all the weary of the 10 days I was out of my house and the whole year since 16 aug 2011 all came back at once. I wore you an emotionally charged letter to you after that which, I regret and it was kind of you to reply to that. I thought I will come to terms with the decision as time passed, but I couldn’t .I tried to cool down but sorry this is my coolest, I was emotionally attached to the cause
There is a lot that I want to say, so trying to be as precise as possible I will try to put it into various headings.
Political Decision:
We were upset that without even a hint to us all of a sudden it was announced that anshans don’t make sense now and we should enter political arena. Later I was told that volunteer who had a problem that they were not told had ego issues, as largely people agreed.
1. People who voted on SMS were not the ones who had given their day and night to this movement.
2. Those people are the ones who vote for BIGG BOSS, multiple voting is also possible and the volunteers were busy working we never got to vote…..
3. How on earth numbers started to matter to us? Are we politicians? I feel even if I am right and saying the truth I really should not care how many are in my support.
4. This was a people’s movement which gave me power, if anna being a common man can stand alone and fight with the system so can we..This was the essence of main bhi anna campaign, atlest that was what I and my team used to feel. For the first time in the history we were made to realize that we were the masters and they are the servants’ .which we had forgotten all that long ago.So now why do we want to become the servant all of a sudden?
5. This movement had made a place between the political class and the educated calss.we had a say even if we were a common man. Working class people like us could finally do something for the country without getting into the dirt of politics.
Even if we agree that it was the right decision then:
1. we are all working people ,who work to earn our daily bread people who would give up their bread and butter to contest elections will be the ones who will make a career out of it. Even till the time of the announcement we had a lot of people inside our organization who were just waiting for this announcement. These people have a fan following and you cannot say a single word against them,or else you will have to face the wrath of their chamchas.(you had given us a task of calling old volunteers in Mumbai to join us again, most of them had left because of such people”Naresh thakur” ,it turned out when I called them up)sorry for taking name I didn’t want to sound ambiguous.
2.I come from a family of freedom fighters, my great grandfather lost his arm while fighting at Lucknow residency and my grandfater’s elder brother fought with Chandra Shekhar Azad.My grandfather was a scientist and was pramukh sangh chalak.He was one of the founder members of BJP. Though he himself never entered politics but he was the one who convinced Guruji to form BJP.I was raised by him, I know he was one of the most honest people living on this earth .Thousands of his students still vouch for him. We all know how it ended. People like him were arrested during emergency, lost their health, career and family life and people like Promod Mahajan came to power because of them.BJP also turned up to be a extremely corrupt political party. Why would we have a different fate?
3. People change, we have seen it ourselves, they do not stay the same after they get power. How can we stop them?at the time of JP andolan lalu was one of the honest people in the movement(he got married in his NCC dress as he did not have a spare set of clothes).to tell you the truth many of the BJP leaders were very honest back then.
4.our team visits villages in dhaanu (Maharashtra) we are planning some development programmers’ for that place.its just like Somalia.25% people are suffering with oral cancer ,because they eat tobacco to kill their hunger. I had never in my life seen so much poverty even when I do belong to a village in U.P. most of our country is like that. People vote for a bottle of booze or a saari.its not their fault,they don’t know any better.They are condemned into a life like this, so that they stay as just a vote bank. women ,children men,the whole village is drunk all the time. They work in a bhatta and then get a bottle of booze at the end of the day. That whole place is ruled by NCP, you will not see clothes on the children’s body but will see hundreds of flags there. Many organizations such as rotary club tried to help the villagers but they were threatened. We were not a threat to this political mafia till now but I have a strong feeling that now we will also have problem in visiting their often. Most of the India is like that how will we cope up with that?
Misbehavior with the volunteers
This question is raised in all the letters, be it shivendra’s ,aseem’s or any other. All of us working here without getting paid and are putting more than our money and time in this cause, we are connected emotionally with the movement. When we raise any question we are told that “EK JAATA HAI DUS ATE HAIN”.Its really very hurting, we are here for a cause and for our own country agreed, its not like we are doing some favor to anyone. I completely agree. But still if we are working in a team we should not try to muzzle others who have questions, or call them congress agents if they manage to ask any questions.
I have interacted with a lot of top leaders of this movement including anna and feel everyone is open to criticism .it’s the over enthusiastic supporters who misbehave, but none the less nobody has the right to physically or emotionally hurt any volunteer. There should be a check on this. This attitude is ultimately harming the movement. It may be true that “ek jata hai toh dus ate hain “but I don’t feel its ethically right to feel or say that.If we do this to our people who have worked here day and night we are no better than the people we are up against.
I myself have been told this on several occasions. But I have the support of a very strong team of around fifty people who are now my family. We also have disconnects, disagreement, fights in our team. Sometimes we even throw things at each other but we never let anyone leave us. We are still together, the same people who were their when we started more have joined us and only those have left who were with us with some personal agenda.
Anyways, nobody has the right to hurt others or tell them to leave. It was supposed to be a people’s movement.
I am writing this letter because I had a lot of questions and need answers. We are all tired of the existing system and want change. I have met very nice people because of this movement, genuine people who want to do good for the society. I do not wish that these people are hurt or mislead just because they have taken the risk to trust their fellow citizens and contribute towards a cause. I feel bad for every single volunteer who was contributing towards the cause and has left because he/she has been hurt. It was a people’s movement and we should treat people respectfully and value the time, energy, effort and sacrifices done by each one of us.
I hope these queries will be resolved. I will stay in this movement no matter how many times I am told to leave, but not everyone is as thick skinned as I am.
Regards,
Saumya Ritesh
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