In a letter written to Kejriwal on 23rd December 2016, his mentor, guru Anna Hazare talked about Kejriwal’s lack of transparency in the donations received by the AAP, Kejriwal not fulfilling his promise and about the now shattered dream he once had with Kejriwal.
Here’s translation of the important bits that you shouldn’t miss:
Dear,
Shri. Arvind Kejriwal,
Chief Minister, New Delhi
After you became CM, this is the first time I am helplessly writing a letter to you. Reason being, the holy Rajghat Delhi where we together agitated against corruption, brought awareness in the country, in that same pious Rajghat, some people are agitating for a ban on all donations to the AAP. Its a very unfortunate incident. This is my impression.
In the letter which agitators have written to me, they write, you promised for an AAM AADMI PARTY AAP which will change the wrong politics played in this country, you also talked about bringing change in the system instead of bringing change in the ruling party, and also promised your countrymen that they will be shown honest politics in action. You had made promises that AAP would fully disclose every cent it received as donations on its website; there were many other promised too. But you didn’t fulfill those promises. In the letter, it is mentioned, for some time you disclosed all the donations received by the party from India and abroad, but since June 2016 you have removed the list of donors from the website. This shows differences in your sayings and your doings. This isn’t right for a social leader like you.
If change in system has to be brought in this country then one needs a leadership which can connect words and actions. You had promised to me and the society that you would usher in a change. Today I feel saddened that you didn’t fulfill that promise. I don’t wish to describe all the promises you made to me and the society. I just wish to say that both of us were together for many years. During that time we used to talk for hours about the welfare of society and the nation. Pure ethics, pure actions, spotless life, sacrifice, and strength to take humiliations, these five values are necessary to be managed for leadership. Additionally, truth should never be abandoned. We always used to talk about how and why an activist should exist.
All the talks we had about societal change are now going away. Now power, money has become important, so the feeling of gratefulness is fleeting. Otherwise the names of those who donated during our tough times would not have been removed from the website. Some people are going to Rajghat to agitate against ‘donation ban’. This shows that I don’t need anybody’s donation now. God has given me everything. Due to such attitude we have forgotten being grateful.
If your party continues to work this way then what is the difference between your party and other parties? People donate to many parties for selfish reasons. People donated to your party. But it was not for selfish reasons, but for change. You have written a book on Village self-governance(Swaraj). The road which you are taking now, would this road lead to village self-governance(Swaraj)? These are the questions I wish to raise.
I left all my social initiatives in Maharashtra and gave you a lot of time in the hope of going good to the society and the nation. I had a dream about how the society and nation should be. But its shattered now. It won’t cause me any harm as I am but a poor man, but it has caused irreplaceable damage to the people of our country. This is what I think.
Thank you,
Yours,
Signature
