Lets get back to our booths! Dear friends, In the last 3 months, we have initiated some genuine issues such as Nagal, Stanley and Renault Nissan. We have been regularly following up and have been able to bring about some changes through protest, pressure as well as legally. We have also taken up the big issues at the state level such as the Illegal mining of Vaikundarajan and his connections with Jayalalitha, crony capitalism of Jayalalitha through her MIDAS distilleries etc. We have seen how the media in an organized manner declined to report about such issues. Media showed to us in this issue how they stand by the corrupt and how they would not allow the system to be shaken up or changed. We need to build a big movement which will take up such issues directly to the larger public in a big way. On the other side, there is also a deeper realization after the lok sabha elections that until we have active members at the booth level, there is very little point in fighting elections. Summing up, we need a strong organization in place with members at the booth level both to fight elections as well as take up big issues concerning the people. Inorder to build up such a strong active member force and also to bring about greater democracy within the party, Mission Visthar was announced. Mission Visthar mandates that each of us go back to our own booth and start building the organization bottom up. We need to find volunteers in our booth, connect up with local issues, try solving them with local active members and gradually build up active members in all booths. The realistic target that Mission Visthar has set for us (tentatively) is that we must have atleast 2 active members per polling center and elect people from the primary level (ward) all the way till the national level within a year. This is no doubt a herculean task but if we do it then our collective strength will go a long way in bringing a big change in Tamilnadu. Each of us can contribute to this movement in many ways but the first thing that we should now do is to go back to our polling centers. Today 5 of us, karthik, Radhakrishnan, mylapore Antony, Thangamani and myself from nearby polling centers in mylapore got together and started with a street in my polling center. The idea is simple. We took a small card that has information on chennai corporation numbers and government department numbers that they can contact for garbage, power cut, ration card issues, water and drainage problems. It also had the number of the local AAP booth volunteer. We decided to go door to door. We also had a sheet that marked the response of the household as not present, showed no interest, showed some interest, showed a lot of interest and opposed. We also took information on whether they would be interested in attending a training on citizens rights and RTI. We had detailed conversations with them on what they think of AAP, what they think is their local problem etc. It was great to see that the majority we met are sympathetic to our cause and trust AAPs intentions. It was also great to meet a person who was thrilled to see us and shared with us that she and her son voted for us in the loksabha election. Almost everyone pointed to the garbage problem at the end of the road as their main problem. Detailed conversations helped us get some clarity on how their garbage problem can be solved. One person came with good suggestions on how we can get the residents involved in solving the problem. Todays start for us is highly encouraging Once we finish this street, we will start with another persons street in his/her polling center. The target is to complete all 5 polling centers within 2 months and in the process solve local issues, identify volunteers who will take it forward and gradually move to the neighbouring polling center where there is no AAP volunteer. Some of you may have already started this process. Let us all take up Mission Visthar in a truly mission mode and build the organization bottom up. Jayaram
Posted on: Sun, 26 Oct 2014 17:34:54 +0000
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