Krishna Express - Mob control inside train

It was 5:55AM and there are only five minutes left for departure. Lok Satta party strictly gave guidelines to every leader and volunteer to buy platform ticket to avoid negative publicity. Media and other dignitaries who are accompanying JP came inside with their luggage. When the train started departure, we did not have time to selectively allow people and let the doors open. There are people everywhere inside the train. Mr. Ravi Muruth, one of the Lok Satta leaders was furious and asked who is leading this tour and control the mob. That was my first challenge.

I took mike and announced all leaders and media to sit in their designated seats and the rest of the volunteers and supporters to move backside of the train. With the help of Govind and Balaji, we called all the volunteers opted yesterday to come in and sit in designated seats for volunteers. Ratnam garu was vouching for several volunteers he knew, but I did not allow to avoid any problems. Around five people who are supposed to come did not come. We decided to allow five more people. Still there are twenty additional people in train. I listed out activities and responsibilities and people are welcome only if they are willing to do. We started requesting other people to go to next bogey and come to Nellore, if they really like Lok Satta. We selected only ten people including few friends of Ratnam garu. Among the people allowed, some turned out to be lazy and did not help at all in further journey. However some people really helped. I had to write about Bhaskar, one of one of the people allowed in last minute. I liked his work in the train journey. I had worked with him later on several occasions.

It did not end there. Throughout the train journey people wanted to come and travel with JP. This became nightmare. We decided to not allow any new people and assigned Balaji to be at entrance all the time. First problem is to identify the people who are in train. Most leaders and media get out at every station and rush back. It took one bashing from a leader and a journalist before we started recognizing everyone. I realized that we should have prepared some badges for media people. The issue with leader is different. When I asked the name of the leader, he shouted back saying to know ourselves. I felt he is not worthy to be part of Lok Satta. I expected him to be helpful instead of showing off.

JP was busy talking to media people for couple of stations. Once he became free, he asked to meet the people in train. Then we got another bash from leaders. If we do not allow any new people, what is the purpose of the trip? Hmmm, then we decided to allow ten to twenty people and tell them ahead that they have to get off the train in next station. It worked out, but I got chance to observe many personalities. Some people say they have worked hard for so many years for party and so wanted to be inside. Some people say they will do anything for JP. It is funny that however they would not do one thing of helping us. All experiences are mostly pleasant except one. One middle aged person came in along with his suitcase. He did not want to meet JP. He does not want to get down as well. He said he never bought ticket and always sought for free rides like this. He blurted several curses and disgusting comments on us. Some of them were like, "What can few of us do to better our country?", "It is doomed and corrupted everywhere. You are not practical." and "If you can not tolerate single person like me, how can you manage thousands of people over there?". We decided to ignore him since it is just wastage of time and there is no civil way to act. Without any shame, he stayed all the way till he reaches his destination.

Next problem is that people allowed inside train did not follow any queue and all gathered around JP. We did not use tokens, but we followed similar way, seating new people in volunteers seats, calling people one by one to meet JP. When there are more people and less time between stations, Dr. JP was asked to come and meet with every one at once.