Friday, May 3, 2013

Internal Lokpal - the truth


I joined India against corruption, a movement to fight against corruption and quit my well paying job for the same on 12th August 2011. If I was corrupt, would I be stupid enough to do that?

In March 2012, there was an article in Mumbai alleging that I had used my NGO to benefit a construction company. It disturbed me, because there was no merit in it. Other newspapers and TV channels tried to go deep into it, but could not find much merit in it, though some media did pick up and wrote some things about it. I have led a life of great personal integrity, even going to extreme actions where honesty is concerned. So, the clouds of allegations against me was disturbing.

In August, when Anjali exposed the irrigation scandal, like me, newspaper articles surfaced against her, again full of lies. She was equally disturbed and we had a talk with Arvind that these are just scandalous articles and if no one complains, then we will be living a life with allegations against us. Luckily, Arvind decided to form an internal lokpal against us and we welcomed it. I was specially delighted because the complaint against me had gone cold and if there was no lokpal, I would have to live with that allegations without any chance to disprove it.

The Lokpal was made up of Justice AP Shah, Justice (Retd)BH Marlapalli and Justice (Retd) Jaspal Singh and Arvind announced that in 3 months time, the findings will be published. Unfortunately, due to the tremendous media attention or paucity of time, the 3 judges recused themselves. It took AAP another many months to create a new Lokpal consisting of Justice Bhagwati Sharma, Admiral Ramdas and Ileana Sen.

The Lokpal was presented the complaints against us in terms of newspaper articles. They refused to consider that as proper complaints, arguing (justifiably) that there are thousands of articles and if they take cognisance of each article, they will never end. They insisted that a formal complaint with affidavit be made for them to process. They also mandated that they will only take complaints against National Executive members.

Fortunately, someone complained against me on 25.01.2013 and point of allegations against me on 28th Feb 2013. I was asked to explain my stand by 11th March 2013 which I did on 10th March 2013. My answer was sent to the complainant for his rebuttal. I am now awaiting the judgement by the honorable Lokpal.
I have the highest respect for the Lokpal, as they have an unsullied reputation of having served the nation and I will respect the judgement. I have taken a stand that if the hon'ble Lokpal finds any fault of mine, even moral or technical, i will leave the national executive, AAP and public life. No excuse, no questioning. I have submitted myself completely to the honesty and eminence of the excellent Lokpal that the party has selected.

As far as Anjali Damania is concerned, she too is paying the price for fighting for the nation against the corrupt. There has been no complaint against her. I beseech all readers to kindly make a proper complaint against her so that it can be taken up. She has not been a part of the National Executive and therefore her case cannot be taken up the Lokpal.

On 9th March, Kejriwal in a TV show said that Anjali Damania is not the executive member of the party. Parallely, unknown to him, we had a 4 day Maharashtra Session in Mumbai where people from all 35 districts came. We elected Anjali Damania as the Convenor of Maharashtra. We informed the decision to the National Executive on the 12th. All documents / emails can be shown on the dates. So, neither did Arvind lie nor me.

I am personally uncomfortable with the delay in the Lokpal issue and hope that it will get resolved. I cannot intervene nor ask. I can only wait. Once I sent my reply, I felt that the results will come out soon and hence hoped that in 15 days' time, it would come out. I am sure there is a good reason for the delay and our report would come out soon.

This is the truth as I know. Some of my friends will attack even this, but it is their way of functioning and I respect that.

By the way, anyone can please file complain against me in the police, CID, CBI or whichever forum they have confidence in. We are thorns in the side of the Maharashtra Govt and specially Ministers like Ajit Pawar, Chaggan Bhujbal and Sunil Tatkare. If we had any weaknesses or corruption cases, do you think they would have let us go?


15 comments:

Utkarsh said...

I have always had confidence in you and your honesty. There will always be few who would find fault even in the most honest.
Even if Internal Lokpal judges you as innocent, there will still be people to question the integrity on the same.
My advice,not let this effect all the good work you have been doing. Country needs your services. Carry on the good work.

Anonymous said...

all AAP members are honest people.

Unknown said...

Yes, the entire truth. Now only the ones who don't want to believe will Cry and shout. So let's not bother about them and proceed with our passion to save the nation.

I've one more view to this entire episode.

This allegations were just exactly meant to sow the seed of doubt in People's Mind because if there was an even iota of an evidence, the ruling party wud've filed a case or put u in bars.

So this way right from the beginning i had the faith in you.

Kudos to your selfless work.

jagdish Fadnavis said...

We at AAP believe and practice five cardinal principles of Annaji.VIZ: suvichar..su aachar.nishkalank jeevan,aapman sahneki shakti and selfless service ..which I feel U and anjali possess..hence these allegations are baseless and vndictive..we all have faith in u and Anjali..who are face of AAP..ultimately truth will only prevails

Tarun Surana said...

Isn't Internal Lokpal of AAP sounds too much like Indian Judiciary where cases go on for years. Too much of Red tapism will only give people a chance to say that AAP is not serious about fighting devil inside. Simplify, have provisions for taking suo-moto (is that correct spelling?) cognisance of allegations. Isn't that we believe in when we seek resignations from leaders on any issues.

Anonymous said...

every one is honest but system which is controling everyone will make them corrupt why public buy lottery,,go to casino,,get rich,,idealism no where stand,,either hitler wins or m n c supported system wins,

P.s Bhandari said...

Dear sir i am always confident on you n hope so you will carry on your job, God bless you

Unknown said...

Now i m satisfied and will able to satisfy others too, it was not only your problems but my too, that is why i was insisting to clear the issue and let make us know abt the truth. thank you v much sir, for your kind efforts with genuine as you r.
santoshsingh- ahmedabad.

Girish Mailar said...

dear mayank, if you are proved wrong morally or technically, you said you will leave AAP. i can agree with the word "morally" but i didnt get the word "technically". i think you have taken the allegations very personally. please dont do that, you will have to face many more allegations in future. if our leaders like u are so sensitive to these baseless allegations and leave AAP, we cant move forward. please dont leave AAP any technical faults of urs. we need people like you to stand beside Arvind kejriwal. Even in ur dreams never utter the word "leaving AAP". AAP is ur mother and you have to be there always.

Anonymous said...

यही तो हमारी सुंदरता है कि यंहा व्यक्ति पर नहीं बल्कि विधि पर सिस्टम चलता है! आम आदमी पार्टी मे कोई भ्रष्टाचार कर तो सकता है लेकिन चल नहीं सकता - यही सिस्टम तो हम पूरे देश मे लोकपाल के रूप मे चाहते है! बधाई हो आपको कि आप इस देश और पार्टी के लिए उदाहरण बनने जा रहे हो - हमारी पार्टी मे यही तो बस हमारा इनाम है!

Rugved M said...

There was a famous dialogue in the film Sarkar, starring Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, Katrina Kaif and others. "Jab koi aadmi ek taraf se ladhne lagta hai, tab doosra pane aap dushman ban jaata hai." In other words, when people start fighting the corrupt system, the defenders of the same system naturally start fighting you back.

This dialogue perfectly fits in your and Damania's case. Hence, it was obvious that false rumours started surfacing against you and Damania as soon as you blew off the lid of corrupt ministers like Ajit Pawar, Chhagan Bhujbal and Sunil Tatkare. I would request you and Damania to not get distracted or be discouraged by these false allegations as we have full faith in AAP's honesty and sincerity. Please continue exposing scandals of our corrupt, greedy and dishonest netas.

I would also like to add a post uploaded by the official page of Aam Aadmi Party - Maharashtra regarding an update on the allegations against Anjali Damania. https://www.facebook.com/AAPMaharashtra/posts/626085144071927

pushpin said...

sir caary on with your services to antion we all are wtih you n aap team .atleat we are feel really proud that are some of the persons like you who are thinking of for nation and cooruption and trying your best and because of you people only we get a chance root out this chor n corrupt politcal class n system...our best widhes and support is with aap alwaysss...hatzz off all of u ...!!

Arun Ostwal said...

"खिसियानी बिल्ली खम्भा नोचे" The critics of AAP has nothing else to do. This is all they can do to talk bad and create doubts among people of India, and the sad part is people believe their crap.

Anonymous said...

Mayank bhaiyaji, if you are so honest shouldn't you have quit all your AAP posts pending the lokpal investigation? being a AAP functionary, how can one not blame you for interferriong in an internal probe holding onto your post? Where is the transparency AAP talks about related to this lokpal enquiry?

BTW you say allegations against you were made in 2011, against Ms Damania in Aug 2012 yet it took Arvind 6 months to order an internal probe? That too only after consistent media pressure?

Be ready to listen to the facts-
1. Tum log itne bhi doosh ke dhule hue nahi ho jitna apne aapko batate ho
2. BJP/Congress have indulged because they had power. Bagair power mile tum logon ne public ko bewakoof banaya hai, Annaji ko dokha diya hai, galti se jis din power hath mein aa gayi tum bhi utna hi lootoge jitna Congress ya BJP.
3. Your AAP party is communal to the core. They removed Bharat Mata's poster, but have no shame in putting on urdu wali topi to appease muslims. Nor do they have shame in meeting Shahi Imam, a proclaimed offender.
4. Why has AAP party formed a separate wing to look into Muslim issues? Why not Hindu issues, Sikh issues, Vhristian issues, Jain issues, Budhism issues?
5. Why has your national executive not yet disclosed their incomes. You expect others to be transparent, khud pe aati hai baatein taalne lag jaate ho?
6. Why hasn't Prashant Bhushan returned the land given to him in HP knowing fully well it was against rules? Charity ka bahana hai, not different from what politicians do when caught pants down.
7. Janta ki sewa karne wale Dr Kumar Vishwas pehle 10-15000 rs mein ek show mein aate the, ab unki fees lakhon mein hai. Is this the AAP style of public service? Why hasn't he disclosed his income yet?
8. Duniya ko bijli bill dene se mana karte ho, khud AAP ke leaders bijli dete hain. Ye kaisi hypocrisy hai? or is it again AAP style of transparency?

Sawal bahut hain, lekin agar aap dunia ko honesty sikhate ho to pehle apna ghar saaf karo.

Tumhara ek hi naara hai, Vote ke liye kuch bhi karega.

Anonymous said...

I am also in your league, I exposed a lot of top level bosses in a government organisation for corruption. I thought this orgn has been built on ethics. Whenever I pointed out deviation in processes, nepotism and outright removal of noting sheets in purchase files worth tens of crores, paying twice the price of market value to consumable but large quantity of items going up to 3 lakh litres per annum, I was forced to resign by threat of arrest, intimaidation etc based on a clumsy letter from a builder ( obtained by this corrupt set ) without any sustainable evidence. Later on a lot of top level officers, including an additional secretary, an couple of IAS guys, were caught in a huge scandal, but none of them were forced to resign, they get all pensionary benefits.