NRIs not for Modi: Aam Aadmi Party draws global support

Earlier this week, a group of young men in the walled city of Delhi, skipped their breakfast and gathered in a house in one of the bylanes in Matia Mahal — the market near Jama Masjid gate No 1 — famous for the Karim’s restaurant. They sat before a laptop, and logged on to Skype. “Let’s start”, said one of them, breathlessly adjusting his Gandhi cap with ‘Aam Aadmi Party’ printed in Urdu on it. On the other side of the screen and the planet were members of Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) California team. For the next two hours, the Matia Mahal team including the party’s candidate from the constituency, Shakeel Anjum, discussed ways in which the California members could contribute to campaigning in the run up to Delhi assembly polls. Among other options, they decided that within a fortnight, the party would conduct a medical camp in the area and team California would use its Delhi contacts to ensure that doctors they know attend the same. The US team would also arrange for a projector and inverter in Delhi. Since AAP’s launch in November, NRI volunteers have adopted 19 assembly constituencies in the national capital, says Somu Kumar, Washington DC Metro based project lead (IT) and one of the coordinators for the adopt-a-constituency programme of the AAP. While aid for Seema Puri seat in North East Delhi comes from the UK, volunteers in France have adopted Hari Nagar seat in West Delhi. The AAP’s New Zealand team looks after Seelampur and Singapore volunteers takes care of Trilokpuri seat. [caption id=“attachment_1122281” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  unlike Modi’s NRI base, AAP’s supporters are not drawn from any specific region, profession, or community. AFP[/caption] “One of our goals is to help and raise funds (within the legal limit of 14 Lakhs per constituency) and also provide remote support including online reach out,” said Kumar. Adopt-a-constituency is among the many ways through which the global community channeling their desire to do something for their home country through efforts for AAP. AAP has more than 1000 active volunteers in 30 countries, according to Shalini B Gupta, coordinator for global AAP. They have raised Rs 2.5 crore for the party, said Gupta, in addition to promoting its message through various means. The number of NRIs backing the AAP may be small as compared to the NRI supporters of the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi who can command an audience of thousands, as he did in his speech on Gujarat Day. However, unlike Modi’s NRI base, AAP’s supporters are not drawn from any specific region, profession, or community. They all play a more active role in the grassroots campaign. Thirty seven year old Sreekanth Kocharlakota, a software engineering analyst with Nasdaq has never met AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal. He started out as an active volunteer with India Against Corruption (IAC) — the movement for anti- corruption legislation — and then followed Kejriwal into AAP. “People who liked the idea of political activism to get Jan Lokpal bill passed remained firm and continued to support AAP. It was quite similar to what happened in India”, Sreekanth told _Firstpos_t over the phone. “We need good politics to be propagated aggressively which the AAP is doing." In April, Kocharlakota, a native of Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh, developed a software application called ‘volunteer engagement programme’ (VEP). A database of people in Delhi who have pledged support to the AAP has been fed into the VEP. After getting registered through the VEP, the people who pledged support to the party can be linked up with the local point person in their respective constituencies. More than 500 people have registered on VEP so far, according to Kocharlakota. Manjari Dutt Rana, an artist and one of the 25 active AAP volunteers in California, says she’s never been politically active before in her life. Around three months ago, when one of her friends introduced her to AAP efforts in the US, she decided to do her bit for the party. “Due to various scams happening in India, it had become very difficult to represent the country here in the US. With the AAP, we got a chance to cleanse the system,” she said. Her latest effort is dedicated to arranging a panel discussion titled ‘Can the Aam Aadmi Party be a game changer?’ scheduled to be held on Saturday at University of California, Berkeley. Others do their bit through donations, such as Amit Agarwal, an NRI who has made Hong Kong his home for ten years now. He recently donated Rs 50 lakh to the AAP, making it the second highest donation amount given to the party after Rs 1 crore given by former law minister Shanti Bhushan at the party’s launch. A former BJP loyalist, he said that his trust for the Congress and the BJP has eroded. “If majority of the funding is driven by non-transparent and profit motivation, then it is difficult to expect significant difference between parties when it comes to actual conduct, despite stated agenda and values,” said Agarwal.