What does an AAP volunteer do? What will I do?
I have been asked these questions from the moment people learnt that I will be volunteering for Aam Aadmi Party in Mumbai for 100 days. "I don't know" has been my honest answer to both the questions thus far. As I spent 4 days exploring here and there, at least I am beginning to get some answer for the former question. The latter is still to be answered :-)
I met Mayank Gandhi who is driving the efforts from Mumbai with a Maharashtra focus. "Let's take an example of one Mumbai Loksabha constituency (out of 6). It typically has 6 assembly seats, each of them 6 wards and each of them 48 booths. If we have about 900 volunteers for each Loksabha seat dedicated to our door-to-door campaign, each house can be visited thrice in a span of 6 months. This is how we won Delhi elections, this is how we will win in Mumbai. " said Mayank with confidence.
The door-to-door campaign is at the center of AAP's strategies. People have forgotten that they became the rulers of this country in 1947. It is appalling that people are surprised when a political party knocks their door and asks them "What can we do for you Sir?", and more so when they follow-up and update them with solutions to their problems in a localized manifesto. I hope this becomes a norm instead of "Here is a 1000 Rupee note, you bugger, better vote for me tomorrow."
There is a slew of other things happening on the ground like jan sabhas, raising voice against injustice, meeting slum dwellers and other groups of citizens. I am yet to meet people involved in those.
The most interesting thing so far has been attending a "think tank" meeting of about 20 odd citizens, all with exemplary backgrounds - IIT, IIM alumni, business leaders, village evangelists, social entrepreneurs, various specialists etc. We discussed the issues that matter to the aam aadmi in Maharashtra and what solutions AAP can offer to them. We discussed infrastructure, housing, electricity, water, employement, inflation and others. People had ingenious ideas, amazing passion and remarkable sensitivity to the common man. The discussion, like all, wasn't very structured to begin with, but eventually we all arrived at a strong central theme and a novel suggestion. I would like to mull over that idea more and write a separate blog on it.
When I began, I was thinking I have have done something unsual by taking this break. But when I saw such geniuses working for the future of this country with such passion, I was assured that the country is in safe hands now - it is only a matter of time when India of our dreams will be a reality. It is surely an eye opener.
