A-119, Kaushambi, UP - the most sought after address by aam aadmi

18 October, 2012

A-119, Kaushambi, Ghaziabad Uttar Pradesh - this is not the dateline of this story, but the address of India Against Corruption (IAC), the organization of anti-corruption crusader-turned politician Arvind Kejriwal.

SO FAR, the addresses people mostly read in newspapers or hear on TV channels were Raisina Hills, the President's residence-cum-office; 7RCR, the official residence of Prime Minister and 10, Janpath - the power room of the Congress, where Sonia Gandhi resides. However, the way Arvind Kejriwal is taking along the common man with him in his movement against corruption, A-119 Kaushambi is becoming the target destination of hundreds of people who have faced the brunt of the corruption in their lives.

I remember sometime during the first half of the last year, I visited Arvind Kejriwal's Kaushambi office to get his view on Yoga guru Baba Ramdev's demand to recall high denomination currencies of 500 and 1000 in a bid to force people to declare their unaccounted money. That time Kejriwal was mostly known for being an RTI activist who had been honored with Magsaysay award for his RTI achievements. Getting time from him was an easy task. I had got the appointment just after the single call made on Arvind's personal number.

However, today it is almost impossible to get time from Arvind Kejriwal for a personal interview. Based on my personal experience, I can say that now he neither entertains each call made on his mobile nor he replies to the messages.

Has Kejriwal changed? Has he become choosy after getting his share of fame in media? Has he become egotistic? Such questions are obvious to come up for any person who takes a journey from nothing to everything, from being nowhere to everywhere.

However, the answer to all the above questions in the case of Kejriwal seems to be a big 'NO'. The way he is taking his fight against corruption at the national level and that too against bigwigs, requires a lot of time to research and analyze thousands of documents. He may not be getting enough time for one to one dialogue with every person approaching him.

But irrespective of this, hundreds of people are approaching Kejriwal everyday with their grievances. As reported by Times of India the anti-corruption activist is getting support of various new organizations in his fight. Latest to show solidarity with him is Bhartiya Kisan Union's (BKU) Haryana unit president Sardar Gurnam Singh, who is planning to organize a rally in February next year to mobilize farmers against corruption.

Kejriwal's attack on Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra with respect to several alleged land scams in Haryana has given him support of agriculturists from Gurgaon and Manesar.

Employees of NCERT, the National Council of Educational Research and Training, have also approached Kejriwal seeking his intervention to get their 19 colleagues re-instated, who had reportedly been suspended for complaining against the chief of the NCERT to the CVC.

Kejriwal reminds about a film called Nayak, in which Anil Kapoor accepts the challenge of villain Amrish Puri to become the chief minister of a state for one day. He focused his eyes on various cases of corruption, which were directly impacting the common man and in the last emerged as a hero of the commoners.

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anil kumar reja

Mr. Anil Kumar Reja is serving as a Superintending Engineer (Production) at Assam asset. What sets him apart from others is his passion for performing street plays and stage shows. For his theater group Hum Log all the world’s a stage and so are the streets. The group has enacted more than 100 street plays and stage shows till now spreading awareness among masses about social problems like AIDS, dowry system, untouchability, terrorism, et al in urban as well as rural Gujarat and other parts of the country. Mr. Reja took to theater after the sudden demise of his beloved mother in 1994, which shook him to the roots, and is channelizing all his creative energy towards promoting the cause of theater, a fast diminishing popular form of entertainment.