Friday, November 27, 2009

JP is not a dictator

Lok Satta party president Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan took total responsibility for GHMC election results and failed campaign plans. He called all executive members and contestants and told that he would be outside so that they could speak freely for what went wrong. However all party members voiced that they would talk freely about what went wrong in campaign before him.

I campaigned for Lok Satta party during general elections 2009. Those days reminded me my college days in several ways. First, it was full of friend ship, selflessness and energy from all volunteers around me. Each and every volunteer used to give the best what they could give. Second, we had lot of hopes and also uncertainty about the future just like we had in final year of college. However there was one difference between me and most of the volunteers.

Most people adore JP. Some treat him like Indian Obama. Some treat him like Modern Gandhi. Some simply treat him as their last hope. I was new to party. Some people want to shake hands with him at least once and some people want to take a picture with him. I remember some youth come to him and donate some money. I used to engage them while they were waiting for him. To my surprise, few of them confided in me that they were not voting for Lok satta because of their caste (Young kids rarely hide something) and their anti vote policy this time but would donate some money and also really wished Lok Satta succeed (kind of irony)!

When a journalist asked a bunch of us about what made us volunteer for Lok Satta, all but me told JP motivated them. I told that I liked principles of the party. For me, JP could stay or go or manifesto can change in future, but two fundamentals of the party (no dynasty based politics and decentralization) are what brought me to Lok Satta which keep party alive and what nation needs. I co-ordinated several Lok Satta events. I campaigned not only in Hyderabad but also in many places in the state. Total amount of time I talked to him was less than 15 minutes and that was spread over four or five incidents. My respect towards him grew many folds throughout the campaign. I was watching him all along and he also noticed me and appreciated the help I was doing. I was even worried about his health and safety but I never worshiped him. My respect increased little bit more today. He was never hungry after power. He is hungry for a better nation.

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Can not change - Can not Criticise

If you have no will to change, you can not criticize as well.

a. People of Hyderabad did not have will to change their life and did not vote today and so they also lost right to criticize the government for not solving their problems. We have enough problems like water contamination, occupying lakes and public lands, traffic and pollution, no plans for disease control or crisis control, urban poverty, bastis and goons to vote.

b. Some leaders are not only leaving but blaming JP for taking unilateral decisions. With my little volunteer experience during elections, I saw the two sides of this story a little bit six moths ago.

Many of these leaders were elected when party has fewer members. They failed to expand party and reach out to more people and add new members to party. They were not able to gather few tens of volunteers and so could not even organize events. They had good intentions but no leadership skills. They had to use JP's image and involvement for every thing. When youth come forward like organizing public meets or membership campaigns and even after JP agrees, few of them reject the ideas by reminding their experiences from failed events. They were also afraid of failure. When JP started, he talked to even ten or twenty people in libraries and street corners. JP has lot of patience and confidence and they lack it. Just because they were not able to gather 100 people ten months ago, it does not mean things are same all the time with every one at every place. Despite Lok Satta enjoys majority in Hyderabad, party had to look for volunteers and candidates. This itself is failure and they should step down as moral responsibility and give room to fresh water. This is what some seniors did, but few leaders do not realize it and look for their failures elsewhere.

Since they were not performing, JP started relying on some volunteer co-ordinators and business people who were sacrificing their time. Train journeys, public meetings, call center, executive membership plans, tv advertisements, candidate selection and many such things are all done by volunteers. Volunteers actually feel that they are doing favour to those leaders by giving them time to work in their constituencies and mostly do not realize that they are hurting some feelings.

When party selected some young candidates, few old leaders did not cooperate. On the other hand when some senior leaders were given chance when a young volunteer is expecting seat, youth campaigned hard. During this process, JP nominated some members based on their performance. It is true that JP could have motivated these dispassionate leaders and those leaders have few valid reasons to be unhappy. However they went so far in criticizing JP in media. It is not because of lack of democracy, but they are using that for their need to be critical. JP is always approachable and they had ego all along to talk to JP or people working. When a person reaches his anger level, he looses his mind and finds fault with every thing with others and not a single fault with them. Expelled leaders lost their consciousness and are comparing Lok Satta with poision and spreading venom among members and giving feast to traditional parties. Take what they say with a pinch of salt!

Think one second. If there is no chance for second leaders, how did Katari grow? since he has leadership skills and volunteer support. If they can not lead dedicated youth coming to volunteer on their own, how can they lead others. They have no will to change themselves and realize ground realities and they have no right to criticize. Every one is special and has his own talent. Every one can not be leader and should realize what their best skills are. That is what volunteers do. What are they saying? If they were given seats or given importance, then party is good or otherwise it is not.

Best way to avoid criticism is doing nothing. However Lok Satta has a lot to do and so has to face lot of criticism along the way. Creating something takes lot of effort and demonizing takes only few people and few hours. Let us learn from experiences and go ahead towards our goal!

Need more information or want to know some expriences, contact me!

Monday, November 23, 2009

పద ముందు నువ్వు పద!

పద ముందు నువ్వు పద!
నీ వెంటే ఈ దేశం నడవదా!
పద ఆగకుండా పద!
నీతోనే అభివృద్ధి కదలదా!
నీ సమస్య నీకన్నా ఎవరికీ తెలుసంట!
ప్రభుత్వాలైనా అధికారలైనా
నిర్ణయాలు నిన్నడిగి తీసుకోవాలి!
నీ సంపద నీ ఎదురుగ ఖర్చు చెయ్యాలి!
కావాలంటే అలాంటి ఆ వ్యవస్థ
పద ముందు నువ్వు పద!

Thursday, November 19, 2009

What did Dr. Jayaprkash Narayn do in last six months

It is easy to criticize and compare Lok satta party with traditional parties. It won only one seat in assembly and the demand is immense. It does not have approval or budget allocation power. It has been just six months. The problems were ages old and solving any of them need power, money and time. However work accomplished by Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan in the last six months is commendable.

Inside Andrha Pradesh assembly:
  1. Proposed the bill to amend anti corruption bill to include elected members under civil servants.
  2. Advanced all party resolution to elect deputy speaker from opposition.
  3. Opposed amendment to Andhra Pradesh societies act claiming it is against right to form the unions in the constitution.
  4. Opposed the bill allocating special quota for Christians in Dalit reservations and proposed to increase Christian reservations.
  5. Opposed populist schemes in 2009 Budget.
See some of the loksatta publications for more details

Bills in early planning:
  1. Alternative proposal to women reservations bill to give better and fair representation to women.
  2. Voting rights to non resident Indians.

Accomplished in Kukatpally:
  1. Completed the under-rail bridge in Safdarnagar, which was on hold for long time.
  2. Organized free medical clinics in the constituency to diagnose eye and thyroid problems among people to provide better medical facilities. Organized a free medical camp in Balanagar colony with the help of expert doctors and distributed free medicines.
  3. 20 bore wells in the water deprived areas of the Constituency.
  4. Complete the Flood pipeline between Vacant Nagar and Braga Singh Nagar.
  5. Booster pump installed in Satyanarayana Colony to improve the Potable water supply.
  6. Street lighting between Vacant Nagar/Satyanarayana Colony and highway.
  7. Booster pumps installed in Parvat Nagar and Moti Nagar areas to eliminate water scarcity.
  8. Tour the Constituency every Saturday to get a first hand look at people’s problems in constituency. Meet the people face-to-face at IMAX Gardens, Road No. 4 to listen to people problems
  9. Took around 100 samples of drinking water and showed to water board authorties.
Projects under progress related to kukatpally:
  1. Underground drainage in 11 colonies with an expense of Rs.4.40 Crores, which will benefit 2 Lakh people. This will eliminate polluting drinking water with sewage.
  2. 300 mm Manjeera pipeline in Moosapet division.
  3. New roads in phase 9 of Kukatpally Housing Board.
  4. Resume the swimming pool and indoor stadium works on Kukatpally phase 6.
  5. Road expansion works in Kukatpally phase 1.
  6. Establishment of Citizen Help Centers to help Citizens in Government and Municipality works.
  7. 56,000 water connections (10%) in Kukatpally circle are given 9MGD(5%) of water. Efforts are underway to increase the water supply to 16 MGD.

Proposed projects and pending approval:
  1. Foot over Bridge at JNTU Kukatpally.
  2. Cultural auditorium and commercial complex in place of Kukatpally truck park and move the Truck Park to Miyapur.
  3. Sulabh complexes in densely populated places.
  4. Full-fledged water supply scheme to replace the existing chaotic system.
  5. sewerage plants near the existing tanks and wells.
  6. Fence the existing tanks and wells to avoid land grabbing.
  7. Service roads from Moosapet Yjunction to Miyapur to reduce traffic on NH 9
Party administration:
  1. Administer, guide and monitor party units as the head of the Lok Sattta party.
  2. Leading executive board in planning new campaigns and membership plans.
  3. Member of party research wing on state and city schemes and budgets and developing solutions and manifestos.
  4. Organizes weekly press conferences on current affairs like Natural gas issues, flood relief and other political bills.
Misc activities:
  1. Spends three to four hours per week on TV shows to spread political awareness.
  2. Visits universities, private companies as guest speaker activating youth on a monthly basis.
  3. Visits Karnataka, Tamil nadu, Maharastra lok satta head quarters at least once in three months.
  4. Honorary guest at many national and international conferences about democracy and government.
  5. Campaigning on behalf of Lok Satta candidates during various elections like GHMC and state assembly elections.