As a third year student at the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, he saw that a dalit basti near the college campus had kids who were loitering throughout the day and apparently did not go to school. It disturbed him and pricked his conscience enough that he went to the basti to find out why and then offered to teach the kids himself in the evenings. Over time he enlisted many of his friends to join his classes. As the students increased in number, he began wondering why there was no school for these kids. A little bit of digging showed that on paper a school was present and even 2 teachers allocated but in circa 1986 (and even today) there is hardly any accountability for govt teachers/infrastructure and indeed the entire political leadership — we keep electing these leaders even though they have failed generations of our children. He decided to meet the DIOS (District inspector of schools) and push for funds to improve the school. The DIOS was not used to kids from IIT pushing for schools (these were the brightest engineering students in India mind you) and after a few meetings, a princely sum of Rs. 25,000 /- was sanctioned to fix the school building, classroom and make sure the teachers start doing their job. For over 150 kids, Alok bhaiya was a god-send.
As he ruminated on his learning from this social engineering, he noticed that the campus was having a large contingent of labourers from Bihar, engaged in the construction of new buildings and facilities within the campus. Their kids too did not seem to be getting any education /school to go to. When he started to talk to the labourers he found that they were also being denied their fair daily wage — they were signing on one amount and getting nearly half of it from the contractors. The only way to fix this, he decided, was the gandhian model (he had been reading up Gandhi, Aurobindo, Baba Amte, Osho as part of his interest in philosophy and spirituality). He asked a few friends to stage an “Dharna” at the campus to demand fair wages for the laborers. An agitation at the most premier engineering college of the country, which trains leaders of both global industry and Indian corporate sector was unheard of in 1987–88. But Alok was determined and convinced that this was the “right” thing to do. A few of his “wing-mates” (group of 12–15 boys who shared a hostel corridor/section) joined in and the college administration had to step in, audit the contractor and ensure full wages were paid to the construction workers. Alok had realized that social change needs struggle and that victory is sweet.
As he graduated in Chemical engineering from IIT, Kanpur, the doors of corporate India, scholarships in US were open. Nearly all his bacthmates decided to take up jobs, higher studies, MBA and other career pursuits. Alok, was restless. There were questions he was dealing with — he felt he didn’t understand himself, didn’t understand his country and its people and wanted to explore a bit. He joined a social movement for fishermen in orissa; spent some time with tribals to understand their lifestyles; lived with slum dwellers to understand their poverty; went to Gandhi ashram at Wardha to see what he could learn / do there; travelled all across India for one year to understand himself and India better and finally decided to work at the Narmada Bachao Andolan cause he felt that the large dam based development model was over promising on economic returns and under estimating on cost of flooding, displacement and human suffering. He was also angry that the administration was bull-dozing thru without recourse to fair compensation, resettlement of those displaced in violation of the law of the land.
What corporate India lost, Narmada Andolan gained — a volunteer who was smart, articulate, sensitive to people and their issues, sharp and logical in his approach, a master of organization and a natural leader of men and women. For the next 24 years, Alok Agarwal helped shape the Narmada Andolan through his leadership, scholarship, organizing skills, tactics & strategy to outwit the administration and thru grit, struggle and andolan for the benefit of the poorest people being affected by the large dams / flooding and displacement. He would use all forms of social protest, discussions, debate, andolan to struggle for fair and just compensation; adherence and compliance to the laws of the land wrt displacement of poor people; instill in the people awareness about their legal and human rights and above all constantly be on the lookout for policy that could help him argue his case better.
His efforts and the efforts of the NBA led to significant outcomes — over 4000 cr in compensation paid to 5 lac plus people (though he feels this is less than 50% of what was due to them); a new land acquisition policy in India (the earlier law from British period was draconian and anti-people); a review of large dam based development model (many large dams were cancelled recently in agreement with the suggestions by the NBA) and above all a sense of respect and rights instilled in the tribals of Madhya Pradesh. No wonder they call him the “Narmada Putra” in those parts.
One would imagine that such significant outcomes delivered to such large number of people would satisfy most folks. Not Alok. He was disturbed by the state apathy towards fair and legal rights of people; appalled by the state of the policing and attitude of officers towards the people who should be the most powerful in a democracy. He understood that while activism can raise an issue and solve it to certain extent but only being in power yourself can give you the power to effect ‘real change”. He also began to notice that MP lagged in human development index on all fronts featuring in bottom three of all states and a perennial BIMARU state. The metrics on education, malnutrition, child deaths, houses without electricity, without water supply, jobs, farmer deaths were so bad and the state of corruption so high that he made up his mind that he would dedicate the next phase of his life to fixing this. He decided to accept an offer from his old time friend and recently elected CM of Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal.
Alok Agarwal joined Aam Aadmi Party in 2014 and contested the Lok Sabha election from Khandwa. He lost but learnt valuable lessons about organization for a political party, choosing people well, understanding issues that impact voters and managing a campaign. He also learnt about the utility of an election machinery, door to door cmapaigns, strong booth level organization in addition to value of public rallies, communication thru social and digital media and even press.
Over the last 4 years, Alok has built Aam Aadmi Party into a fighting force and recognized 3rd alternative in MP. He is gunning for an organization that has 40000+ booth level supervisors and Aap-Ka-Saathi, a Mohalla level booth volunteer who manages relationships with 250–30 families at best. “The vote is delivered thru “election machinery” and I have learnt that only a robust booth level field organization, together with dedicated / passionate assembly, lok sabha and zone level managers can deliver the vote in an election” — he says.
Along with the massive booth level election machinery, Alok is building the brains trust — a group of top notch professionals, many of them from his IIT/IIM networks, including many development sector professionals to help design development blueprints to fix MP’s chronic development and human index gaps. Teams are looking to create implementable, innovative and executable ideas / solutions that can be deployed at scale (MP is after all one of the largest states in the union) and that can achieve outcomes within 2–3 years. Teams of experts from all across the world are working on Education, Health, Electricity, Water, Job creation, Economic development and specially Farmer support. These ideas will find their way into the political manifesto and become the top promises / commitments made by AAP in MP, just like AAP’s 70-point manifesto in Delhi.
AAP is also working on taking its significant successes in Delhi on Education transformation, innovations in healthcare and growth of state budget (from 32k cr to 53k cr) to people in MP to show them whats possible with an honest government that works with an honest intent. “To my mind, no other government has achieved so much in so little time as Delhi govt has demonstrated”, says Alok. “If we can successfully take stories of what people in Delhi are experiencing to the remotest corner of MP, we will be able to secure their support & vote. The people in MP have lost faith and hope in the politicians in these last 70 years — its our duty to step in and fix the badly damaged heart of India; to operate on the bad elements and create the mechanism to revive the state and the people. This is now my life’s next mission for whatever it takes” says the man who regularly tours across the state, with little/no sleep yet goes about his daily activities with a song on his lips and a prayer in his heart.
I believe that Alok Agarwal represents the ideal politician for MP and even India today — capable, inclusive in his ideology, highly sensitive to people and their issues and with an educated and learning mind. Its time the people of MP chose a Karm-Yogi as their next leader, a leader who will use his skills, resources and ability to help change their conditions. Give honest development a chance. Give honest commitment a chance. Give your kids a chance. Hey MP, choose Alok Agarwal.
Read More: Inside details of AAP Madhya Pradesh Campaign by Arvind Jha
