The reason why I resigned from the post of District Coordinator Aam Aadmi Party Trivandrum

Truthfully prior to the India Against Corruption movement, I was unaware of Shri Anna Hazare. During the initial phase of Sri Annaji’s campaign against corruption, he had very few followers. However the ideals projected by Annaji and his campaign against corruption (which I learnt through the media and public networking system) attracted me along with many others to him. I was one amongst the pioneers from Trivandrum that joined the movement against corruption spear headed by Annaji.

Succumbing to severe pressure from the civil society the Govt had promised the nation an Anti-corruption Bill in the form of Jan Lokpal Bill to fight corruption.  I then witnessed how systematically the movement was nullified by the synergized effort of various political parties. The dream of the honest citizen to have a corruption free India by legislating and invoking the JanLokpal Bill was shattered and sent up in smoke.

This prompted me to join the Aam Aadmi Party launched by Sri. Arvind Kejriwal. The ideals of the party appealed to me and most of all the statement by Sri Arvind Kejriwal that, “Aam Aadmi Party wants the common man to participate directly in the legislative process at state or national level. It should have the power to change or abolish laws. This is called Referendum. Similarly it can force the Legislature or Parliament to pass a new law. This is Direct initiative. We want these two to start functioning in India.”

Aam Aadmi Party at Trivandrum during its formation had very few members. The procedure for obtaining membership in AAP those days was to submit an application on line to the AAP Office at the Centre followed by a Postal Order drawn for payment in their name at the Party office at Ghaziabad. Sri Suresh BR was the then nominated District Coordinator.  Subsequently Sri Suresh Kumar handed over charge to me since he took over the duties and responsibilities as the representative member from the Trivandrum District to the Adhoc State Committee of Kerala. We at AAP Trivandrum were maintaining records of membership in a register. On receipt of signed PDF copies of applications from individuals their names were entered in the register. The AAP at the Centre then came out with membership of AAP with payment facility online. Here it was seen that the main aim of the Adhoc State committee Kerala was not intended to bring about any transparency in the identity of the paid members. The identities of the State Committee members were also not known. Almost Nil information was available about many of its members on Face Book. Instead of implementing the Constitution of AAP at ward level, the concentration of energy levels were focused elsewhere on issues of Waste Management, raising objections on the new Airport at Aramula and finding ways and means to discourage the setting up of a seaport at Vizhingam.

On the issue of verification of applicants the difference I had with the State Adhoc committee became bitter when I published a blog highlighting the procedure for obtaining Ordinary Membership for AAP on line. 
 http://soldieraaptvm.blogspot.in/2013/11/voter-id-address-is-important-to-join.html

This was objected to by the State committee.  All the members of The Aam Aadmi Party (including the Convener and other office bearers of Adhoc Committee of the Kerala State Team) got together and put up a great fight with me on the issue of verification of individuals on the basis of Voter’s Identity Card for membership. They were vehemently opposed to this idea (for reasons best known to them). Apparently to my mind, they were opposed to transparency and till date the identity of the State Committee members  vis a vis their Voters Card ID continues to be a mystery. As I mentioned earlier most of the information about them contained in Facebook is scanty or almost nil. I continued with my effort to bring about transparency and clarity in the system and volunteered to even make payment from my meager service pension for those who genuinely sought membership as an ordinary member in AAP. I spent money from my personal bank account and have been instrumental in motivating a few people as paid members with proper verification. The format of the undertaking submitted by individual applicants while taking such membership is given below: 

 https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1msnLdQuBdmP-S7p1XYM7SFoMEtkRGTEP8bSuJhYdtSs/viewform 
http://soldieraaptvm.blogspot.in/2013/11/how-can-you-join-aap-tvm.html  

This again was objected to by the Adhoc State committee.  Their contention is that verification of identity is not mentioned in the Constitution of AAP and would serve no useful purpose.  

All the members of The Aam Aadmi Party (including the Convener and other office bearers of Adhoc Committee of the Kerala State Team) got together and put tremendous mental pressure on me to abort the task I had undertaken to verify the identity of individuals who join as paid members on the basis of their Voter’s Identity Card. They were and continued to be vehemently opposed to this idea (for reasons best known to them). Apparently to my mind, they were opposed to transparency. These non-verified caretaker Office Bearers (Supposedly Active Members) of the State/District teams, in order to bring about more clarity on their identity and transparency in the AAm Aadmi Party should subject themselves to Verification without any further delay and their bonafide needs to be established. At present the true identities of these Adhoc State Committee Members is not clearly known and well established. The details of many individuals given in their respective Facebook page are also incomplete and scanty. There was a huge campaign launched by these unverified members against me (Mr C.S.Nair ) which culminated in my resignation as Coordinator AAP Trivandrum. 

Here we need to bear in mind that huge embarrassment which the Aam Aadmi Party had to face recently amidst election campaign at Delhi was caused by miscreants who wanted to shake the faith of the people in the Aam Aadmi Party. The intent was to thereby dent the trust of the people in the honesty, integrity, image and good intentions of the Aam Aadmi Party. This is a wakeup call for each one of us and especially for all those who are advocating against verification of the antecedents of individuals prior to granting paid membership in the Party. One of the basic lessons we need to learn here is to “Beware of our own Co-workers”. The phenomenal growth and popularity of the Aam Aadmi Party which has just completed one year (12 months), has become a great cause of worry and concern to both BJP and the Congress Party. We are all aware of the fact that the media is also inclined to favour these major political parties and experience has taught us that they do not leave any stone unturned to take a dig at the AAP or let no opportunity pass by wherein they can blow a hole in our character and reputation whenever possible.
Based on this unfortunate incident each one of us must strengthen our resolve to make the AAP more strong and transparent and to bring about a reputation of our character and conduct. Our character and reputation should be such that even if someone were to speak ill or indulge in character assignation of our Party members and office bearers nobody would believe it. Such should be our personal example and public conduct. The office bearers should be handpicked and need to possess impeccable past record and unimpeachable integrity.
Here it needs to be stressed upon that the process of verification must be seen as an integral part of the system than as an encumbrance to privacy. This will help filter out potential miscreants and people who operate under false identities/ possess undesirable intent. One of the most effective methods to verify the past and present reputation and character of an individual is by enquiring about that individual from the immediate neighbourhood of the individual’s place of residence (both temporary residence and permanent residential address). The details of permanent address can be easily got from the individuals Voter’s ID and such enquiry needs to be done at the ward level of every such individual.

There may even be cases where individuals join the Aam Aadmi Party but they may be owing allegiance to their employers secretly, and promoting the interests of their employers while posing as dedicated and active members/office bearers of the AAP. To obviate such a possibility it would be in the best interests of the Party that every individual, both ordinary/active (especially office bearers), disclose all details of their employment (past till present date). It could also include details of posts held during such employment and details of employers. Suggestions for improving transparency and methods for discouraging mischief makers may further be thought of and incorporated.

Implementing the Constitution of AAP and setting up ward level functioning is the need of the hour. Representatives need to be chosen from there. However I have my sincere doubts whether the present State and District level Adhoc Committees have this aim in focus or the desired mind-set for this. I am intrigued WHY they are opposed to transparency? Could they be representatives of an organisation with vested interests? It would be worthwhile to go through their employment details with a fine tooth comb ─ both the present and past.

I have resigned from the post of Coordinator since I cannot be a party to the wrong doings of these Caretaker Committees. JAI HIND !!