Meet AAP Research Cell Head and Women's Rights Activist, Arjun Joshi
In 2011, Arjun Joshi was merely 16 years old pursuing his high school education when India Against Corruption (IAC) movement began. This movement immediately caught the nerve of the nation. He joined it without delay and participated in IAC rallies which brought the entire country together. After many ups and downs, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was formed. At this point, Arjun was determined to change the system by being a part of the system. On graduating from high school, he enrolled for a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and continued supporting AAP. While living and studying in the Greater Kailash area and volunteering for AAP, Arjun was in contact with Saurabh Bhardwaj (present AAP MLA from Greater Kailash) and started volunteering in his office administration activities. He helped people to get ration cards who were previously unable to get one for 30 years and printed e-ration cards launched by the AAP Delhi government. The satisfaction of helping people in need kept Arjun attached to the work involved in Saurabh’s office.
As an AAP volunteer, Arjun worked for election campaigns in 2014, 2015 assembly and 2017 Delhi MCD elections. He was also the campaign manager for MCD elections from Chirag Delhi ward. AAP candidate from this ward won the MCD elections when the whole election campaign was managed using a small amount of Rs 3-4 Lakhs. Other parties selected rich candidates who spent crores in the campaign while AAP volunteers crowdfunded the money and won elections in a close fight. Campaigning and social media engagements required research which lead to the formation of a think tank group (research team). Today Arjun leads AAP Research team and Internship programs.
Research Team and Internship Programs: At present, the research team has more than 1500 people with participants from different parts of India. AAP is also offering internship programs lead by Arjun where people from India and abroad are joining and helping AAP. The internship programs focus mainly on public policy, data analytics, human resource management, social media marketing, content writing, data entry and legal advisory activities. These programs are an ongoing process where members can join for a certain amount of time, learn skills, help the AAP team and go back to their regular jobs. Sometimes, members change their mind and decide to dedicate their time entirely to working for AAP. Research work done by the research team and interns is used by: 1) AAP committees in drafting, 2) policies, party spokespersons addressing media, press conferences and TV debates, 3) MLAs for debates during assembly proceedings, and 4) social media teams. With the help of research work done by different teams, every MLA is equipped with proper knowledge even when the subject is out of their domain.
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| AAP Research Team with MLA Saurabh Bhardwaj and Arjun Joshi |
Women Right Activist and the Book: Other than leading the research team and internship programs for AAP, Arjun Joshi is also a Women Rights Activist and works closely with Swati Maliwal (current Chairperson of Delhi Commission for Women). Due to various political and social reasons, rapes and harassments in the nation are getting out of control. In a recent report, India ranked World’s most dangerous place for women. After a 3 year old baby-girl was raped in Delhi, Swati Maliwal did not go home for more than a month and worked 24x7 from streets and hospitals fighting for women safety in Delhi. With the help of Swati Maliwal and NRI volunteer Prabhat Sharma, Arjun built a team and initiated the Rape Roke movement. This movement led the government to pass a law sentencing death penalty to child rapists. Currently Arjun is writing a book on the life of Swati Maliwal and Rape Roko movement which ended on International Women’s Day, 2018.
While talking to NRI volunteers during a AAP ka Radio conference call, Arjun explained the current political scenario in Delhi by giving examples from Greater Kailash Area. Following paragraphs describe the ground realities behind the protest by Delhi Cabinet Minister in LG house, delay of projects approved by Delhi government, multiple authorities controlling Delhi, and an episode from the former PWD secretary Ashwani Kumar.
The Protest over Power Tussle: After Delhi LG refused to meet Delhi CM and other cabinet ministers, who later sat on protest in LG residence, AAP organized a protest rally on June 16th, 2018 which was joined by +50,000 people. Whenever basic rights of people are denied, they have expressed their anger via protests. It wasn’t for the first time when AAP team protested while being in power in Delhi. This protest was huge and reminded of the IAC days when Arjun was just a 16 year old young Indian citizen. In the protest, people voiced their anger against central government which was (and still is) trying to rule-out elected government through LG office and MHA notifications.The protest and hunger strike from Delhi cabinet ministers was supported by leaders and ministers from other states as well. (Note: SC judgement on administrative powers in Delhi came later in early July, read here).
While talking to NRI volunteers during a AAP ka Radio conference call, Arjun explained the current political scenario in Delhi by giving examples from Greater Kailash Area. Following paragraphs describe the ground realities behind the protest by Delhi Cabinet Minister in LG house, delay of projects approved by Delhi government, multiple authorities controlling Delhi, and an episode from the former PWD secretary Ashwani Kumar.
The Protest over Power Tussle: After Delhi LG refused to meet Delhi CM and other cabinet ministers, who later sat on protest in LG residence, AAP organized a protest rally on June 16th, 2018 which was joined by +50,000 people. Whenever basic rights of people are denied, they have expressed their anger via protests. It wasn’t for the first time when AAP team protested while being in power in Delhi. This protest was huge and reminded of the IAC days when Arjun was just a 16 year old young Indian citizen. In the protest, people voiced their anger against central government which was (and still is) trying to rule-out elected government through LG office and MHA notifications.The protest and hunger strike from Delhi cabinet ministers was supported by leaders and ministers from other states as well. (Note: SC judgement on administrative powers in Delhi came later in early July, read here).
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| Arjun Joshi at the protest on Jun 16 |
The Power Tussle Example worth Rs 600 Crore: As explained by Arjun using the example of water pipeline project in Greater Kailash constituency, water and sewage pipelines are 50-60 years old which are not only damaged at multiple places but are also not working properly. Previous governments neither maintained them nor put any effort to replace them. Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, also Water Minster allocated 600 crore rupees for water pipeline and sewage replacement/maintenance in Greater Kailash and other parts of Delhi. The 600 crore rupees required a sanction from LG office but the money did not reach the constituency level for project execution. This was because either it was blocked by the LG office or some other higher authorities (if approved by LG office) which are not accountable to Delhi Govt. At the end, people continue suffering with deteriorating conditions of water and sewage lines and developmental efforts from Delhi govt are wasted.
Multiple Authorities in Delhi: There are three stakeholders in Delhi as a Union Territory: 1) Central Government, 2) State Government, and 3) MCD. Central govt rules NDMC (New Delhi Municipal Council), Anti-Corruption Bureau, LG Office and DDA via LG office. Delhi Govt also controls various ministries such as health, education, power, water etc. MCD is responsible for duties related to sewage, solid waste management, construction/maintenance of certain roads (which sums to 87% roads in Delhi), certain primary schools etc. When Delhi was being established as a Union Territory, services such as sewage system were distributed among MCD, DDA, PWD, DUSIB, DMRC etc. This process created multiple authorities responsible for the maintenance of these services. Sometimes a department e.g. PWD needs NOC from MCD to clean sewage system in a certain area but NOC is either delayed or not given. At other times, responsibility for sewage system maintenance is divided between two or multiple bodies, but cleaning duties lies with the MCD. This gives an excuse to accountable authorities who simply don’t work and get away with the statement that “not our duty because it is the responsibility of the other department”. This is a problem of governance and requires a better plan to resolve multiplicity in authorities. Another reason for the mess is respective political alignments. Various authorities don’t work together because they are ruled by different political parties.
Petition and HC Judgement: : In 2005, petitioner BB Sharan from South Delhi filed a petition in Delhi HC seeking judgement over multiplicity authority in Delhi. It took 12 years for HC to recognize the issue and gave its judgement in 2017. For 12 years, HC kept calling various organizations, seeking their accountability and supporting evidences. The organizations kept avoiding or sought extension for next hearing which happened once in every 6 months. The 2017 order passed by HC recommended to form a coordination committee with members from all the governmental bodies with multiple authorities. Being the administrative head, the coordination committee will be setup by LG and the committee will be headed by PWD secretary (Ashwani Kumar).
Ashwani Kumar Episode: Ironically, Ashwani Kumar who had previously created many hurdles in the functioning of Delhi govt was now heading a coordination committee to solve the issue of multiplicity of authorities. E.g. Barah Pula Phase 3 project was proposed by Delhi Govt, passed by LG but stalled for 1.5 years because PWD Sec created obstructions in the construction and gave skeptical reviews about the project. Because of staggered projects, Delhi Govt constituted legislative committees (or petition committees) to monitor progress of a project in a particular constituency. The petition committees headed by MLAs started calling responsible officers to get an update and monitor the progress. One of the petition committee headed by Saurabh Bhardwaj called Ashwani Kumar in a court hearing when some discrepancies were found in the work completed by his department. Court ordered Ashwani Kumar to publish the drainage cleaning work on PWD and MCD websites. Next rainfall (after the data was made available online) lead to the suspicion that data was manipulated because drainage system cleaned by the department were found flooded and uncleaned. The petition committee was ready to send him to jail in a court hearing, but Ashwani Kumar went to media and stated that Arvind Kejriwal was not giving them any orders to solve these issues. He proposed that it was all Delhi govt’s fault which led to a breaking news criticizing Arvind Kejriwal among media houses and social media. Later PMO promoted Ashwani Kumar as the Chief Sec of Pondicherry.
Multiple Authorities in Delhi: There are three stakeholders in Delhi as a Union Territory: 1) Central Government, 2) State Government, and 3) MCD. Central govt rules NDMC (New Delhi Municipal Council), Anti-Corruption Bureau, LG Office and DDA via LG office. Delhi Govt also controls various ministries such as health, education, power, water etc. MCD is responsible for duties related to sewage, solid waste management, construction/maintenance of certain roads (which sums to 87% roads in Delhi), certain primary schools etc. When Delhi was being established as a Union Territory, services such as sewage system were distributed among MCD, DDA, PWD, DUSIB, DMRC etc. This process created multiple authorities responsible for the maintenance of these services. Sometimes a department e.g. PWD needs NOC from MCD to clean sewage system in a certain area but NOC is either delayed or not given. At other times, responsibility for sewage system maintenance is divided between two or multiple bodies, but cleaning duties lies with the MCD. This gives an excuse to accountable authorities who simply don’t work and get away with the statement that “not our duty because it is the responsibility of the other department”. This is a problem of governance and requires a better plan to resolve multiplicity in authorities. Another reason for the mess is respective political alignments. Various authorities don’t work together because they are ruled by different political parties.
Petition and HC Judgement: : In 2005, petitioner BB Sharan from South Delhi filed a petition in Delhi HC seeking judgement over multiplicity authority in Delhi. It took 12 years for HC to recognize the issue and gave its judgement in 2017. For 12 years, HC kept calling various organizations, seeking their accountability and supporting evidences. The organizations kept avoiding or sought extension for next hearing which happened once in every 6 months. The 2017 order passed by HC recommended to form a coordination committee with members from all the governmental bodies with multiple authorities. Being the administrative head, the coordination committee will be setup by LG and the committee will be headed by PWD secretary (Ashwani Kumar).
Ashwani Kumar Episode: Ironically, Ashwani Kumar who had previously created many hurdles in the functioning of Delhi govt was now heading a coordination committee to solve the issue of multiplicity of authorities. E.g. Barah Pula Phase 3 project was proposed by Delhi Govt, passed by LG but stalled for 1.5 years because PWD Sec created obstructions in the construction and gave skeptical reviews about the project. Because of staggered projects, Delhi Govt constituted legislative committees (or petition committees) to monitor progress of a project in a particular constituency. The petition committees headed by MLAs started calling responsible officers to get an update and monitor the progress. One of the petition committee headed by Saurabh Bhardwaj called Ashwani Kumar in a court hearing when some discrepancies were found in the work completed by his department. Court ordered Ashwani Kumar to publish the drainage cleaning work on PWD and MCD websites. Next rainfall (after the data was made available online) lead to the suspicion that data was manipulated because drainage system cleaned by the department were found flooded and uncleaned. The petition committee was ready to send him to jail in a court hearing, but Ashwani Kumar went to media and stated that Arvind Kejriwal was not giving them any orders to solve these issues. He proposed that it was all Delhi govt’s fault which led to a breaking news criticizing Arvind Kejriwal among media houses and social media. Later PMO promoted Ashwani Kumar as the Chief Sec of Pondicherry.
Watch full AAP Ka Radio video of Arjun Joshi
You can connect with Arjun Joshi on Twitter @Arjun94Joshi and Facebook @arjun.joshi.568.
AAP USA chapter organizes a weekly conference call (AAP Ka Radio) every Sunday at noon 12:00PM EST. More details about the call and the guest can be found at @aapchat (https://twitter.com/aapchat).
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