Friends in Aam Aadmi Party, Beware of the Pitfalls Ahead!

For the last few weeks since Delhi election there is a torrential flow of people to the Aam Aadmi Party, some are ordinary people (aam  aadmi) and others, well-known social activists and leaders from main stream political parties. To tell you the truth, I am a bit worried about the phenomenal growth of the Party.  Before Delhi election we, the members of Aam Aadmi Party in Thrissur District, used to meet in a class room of Maharaja’s Technological Institute, Thrissur.  There would be some forty or fifty people in the meeting and one or two cars besides mine in the MTI compound. After the Delhi election result, as usual I went for our routine meeting. I was a bit late. When I reached the venue, the compound was full of cars. My car could not enter the compound of MTI and so I had to park it outside, in front of the nearby zoo. Going inside I could see a large crowd assembled there. I thought another function was going on there and never expected even in my wildest of dreams such a huge crowd for our meeting. But much to my surprise and shock I found out that the crowd, which was unmanageable, came for our meeting. Since then it has been an unending flow of people to our party. Last Sunday the Thrissur Thaluk Convention of Aam Aadmi Party was a grand success with such an overflowing crowd that could not be contained in the Sree Sankara Hall, we booked for the meeting. That day itself more than four hundred people took the party membership.

                        I am not a pessimist. My optimism and positive thinking are the only factors which sustained me in my various other fights in the social life of Thrissur. In nurturing the growth of another social organization, I alone personally used to distribute notices and leaflets of that organization to more than 3000 houses in my locality. Some people used to wonder why this man, a retired Class I Officer of the Government of Kerala, is doing this menial job of distributing notices. Some might have thought I have gone out of my mind. But those friends in my organization, who knew me intimately, were aware of my commitment to the cause and mission I pursue. Even I used to distribute the leaflets in hostile territories discarding friendly advice and anxiety of my fellow members of the organization for my personal safety. But the lesson I wanted to teach them was, as President of the organization, if I am not prepared to do such menial jobs like distributing leaflets for the sake of the cause, I have no right to ask other ordinary members to do this.  I tell you this now from my personal experience to prove the fact that building an organization from grassroots level is not an easy task. So the easy way the Aam Aadmi Party is growing and developing creates in my mind some forebodings.

                        During the India Against Corruption (IAC) Movement I could not witness such enthusiastic crowds. From August 16^th, 2011 when Anna Hazare started his indefinite fast in Delhi for Jan Lokpal, we organized a day and night relay fast in front of Thrissur Corporation Office and continued it till Annaji stopped his fast. In those days there would be some 20 people during day time at the site of the fast and in the evenings only a small crowd of around a hundred people were there for the candle light procession and the public meeting. At that time there were four or five people in whole of Kerala who were in the forefront of that movement. Still I have with me the list of those five persons which was sent to me by the Team IAC, Delhi.  I wonder how many of the present AAP leaders in Kerala participated in the India Against Corruption Movement. One thing I can say is that I don’t remember seeing any of them in front of Thrissur Corporation Office for the fast, candle light processions and the meetings. Nobody can deny the fact that Aam Aadmi Party is a morph of India Against Corruption Movement. And those who were in the forefront of the IAC movement know well the difficulties in organizing a people’s movement and finding out the resources to sustain it. Money was not flowing into the movement then as now it is flowing into the coffers of AAP. I hope the present young leaders of AAP won’t be a prey to the belief, seeing the present rush for membership, that it is an easy task to build a party politically and ideologically out of nothing.

                        As a senior member (not in position but in age) of Aam Aadmi Party I have to warn my young comrades in the party about the pitfalls ahead when the party moves forward. Every day thousands come into the party fold and now a days there is no TV news without mentioning the name of Aam Aadmi Party and announcing the names of VIPs and VVIPs joining the Party. Last Sunday it was announced that National Secular Conference and its sole MLA  P. T. A. Rahim are joining AAP. I personally know that this party was formed with the blessings of Sri Pinarayi Vijayan, CPM Kerala State Secretary, to have a foothold for CPM in the Muslim and Christian minority communities. P. T. A. Rahim was the Party Chairman and one of my friends,  a colleague in a social reformation movement, was its General Secretary (after some time he resigned and left the party). At the time of the formation of that party I was discreetly offered a leading post in the Thrissur District Committee of the party, but I politely refused since I was not interested in joining hands with a breakaway group of the communal Muslim League. I don’t know who conducted negotiations with P. T. A. Rahim and who authorized these people for it. According to TV channels Adivasi  Gothra  Mahasabha leaders C.K.Janu and Geethanandan, Revolutionary Marxist Party  leaders like K.K. Rema and Venu, former Personal Assistant and now a critic of Ex-Chief Minister of Kerala, Sri. V. S. Achuthanandan etc. are joining  AAP. Various individuals, social activists and political leaders have openly declared that they have already joined or are going to join AAP. There is nothing that succeeds like success and they know AAP is a success story now. If AAP had got only five seats in Delhi, as predicted by mainstream political parties, some of these people who rush to enter the party membership now before the doors are closed, wouldn’t have touched it with a pair of tongs. There is no proper mechanism in the party to screen, filter and separate good corn from the chaff. It will be suicidal if all disgruntled and corrupt political leaders and individuals and disruptive and anti-social elements find their way to, and infiltrate into, the ranks of the party. So I must warn the young leaders of the AAP as a senior person and a volunteer of the party to beware of the pitfalls ahead.