That is one common ugly truth which is often talked about at dinner tables and then forgotten. Raj Vasava who is an alumnus of United College in London, where he did his Diploma in Finance urges the tribal people to vote for a candidate they think would address their issues and not just particularly him – the water crisis in the villages, rights over the forest lands being snatched away, the unchecked sale of spurious liquor in tribal areas.

Vasava added, “Do you know that like some of you who lost your lands in the name of development, the government now has a good excuse to evict you from your homes because of a Supreme Court order? You cannot fetch wood, flowers or forest produce like before. Now, a forest officer can arrest you, shoot you and throw you out and no one will question him.”

“You all here may be thinking that the displacement of many of our tribal brothers has been done only in areas around the dam (on the Narmada) and statue (Statue of Unity) but soon you could be next.”

Speaking of his families struggle and financial history, Vasava says, his father, while working at a fabrication firm, borrowed money from his friends to fund his son’s studies in London. Vasava who is a native of Bharuch district says, “That money helped me get through the first year in London. Thereafter, I worked at a local store as an assistant manager and paid my fees.”

In Vasava’s affidavit, he has declared an income of about INR 4.5 lakh and bank deposits of INR 1.8 lakh and in the past year. His wife who is a resident doctor in Latur, Maharashtra belongs to a local tribal community there. Vasava says, “She is studying to become an ENT specialist and has been my backbone through it all since our wedding.” Vasava distributed his manifesto through leaflets bearing 19 such points in Gujarati while addressing the people.

Now, with the support of his wellwishers and friends, Vasava has launched a crowdfunding campaign on his Facebook account, sharing, “I am probably the first candidate in Gujarat to start a crowdfunding for my election campaign. Kanhaiya Kumar has done it in Bihar. The idea is to cover the costs of travel as Chhota Udepur is a vast constituency with far-flung villages even in jungle areas. I don’t have the funds but I want to make sure that I don’t leave out any village.”

He referred the tribal peoples as “Desh ka Malik” in his manifesto” urging them to unite instead of dividing the place into territories of Bhil, Tadvi, Rathwa, Baria and Vasava sub-castes. His manifesto promises to stop the displacement of tribal people that is allegedly being done in to set up tourism projects associated with the Statue of Unity. He said it is a conspiracy to grab tribal lands for a proposed tiger safari and setting up a railway line connecting Dabhoi, Chandod, Vadodara and Kevadia. He also put a light on how big an issue water scarcity in Chhota Udepur district is, even when the Narmada basin with a major canal passes along. “Their borewells have gone dry. Even the Hanfeshwar water pipeline project is only going to benefit Dahod. But what about Chhota Udepur? The lack of local leadership has meant that their voice has not reached Parliament,” says Vasava.

Vasava adds, “To me, it doesn’t matter if you vote for me or not because I am always going to be in your midst. But it does matter whether you vote for the right candidate.”

Vasava is standing up against Ranjitsinh Rathwa of the Congress and Geeta Rathwa of the BJP.

There is no doubt that crowdfunding for politics is a great tool but it is your wisdom to judge who is using it to help you and who is using it to manipulate the truth.

Note: This story was first published in The Indian Express.

Sources:

Chhota Udepur: London-educated tribal activist Rajesh Vasava relies on crowdfunding campaign – The Indian Express

Main Image: © Raj Vasava/Facebook

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Aam Aadmi Party’s state president from Punjab unit and lawmaker Bhagwant Mann has turned to crowdfund alike peers Atishi Marlena, AAP’s East Delhi parliamentary seat in-charge and Arvind Kejriwal, chief minister of Delhi. He hopes to raise funds for Lok Sabha election campaign and took to social media to make an appeal to the voters to donate the sum so that he could get posters printed and to meet other campaign expenses. Although, his mode of crowdfunding is not exactly the same as Atishi’s and other recent fundraise as he has shared his Paytm and Google Pay details with people and did not go for a crowdfunding platform to help raise the funds.

In his Facebook live session that went on for 11 minutes, Mann said, “ “I need your financial support to run my election campaign, so please contribute one-tenth of your income so that we can fight these parliamentary elections. Please contribute so that good people can fight the elections,”

He further added, “When the money reaches me, I will tell you that it has been deposited in such and such account… and will give you the full account of where the money has been spent.”

Mann asked the crowd to donate one-tenth of their income to the AAP which could be any amount between  Rs. 1 to Rs. 1000. In his live session, Mann did not take a step back from taking a dig at other politicians saying he does not have “black money” like them and need this financial aid to defeat “rich politicians” contesting against him.

Mann said, “When I receive the required money, I will upload another video telling you to stop sending it. I will be happy to contest the election with your money. I do not have any black money like other politicians and need your immediate financial support.”

Sources:

AAP’s Bhagwant Mann Turns To Crowdfunding For Election Campaign – NDTV

Main Image: ©Hindustan Times

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Kanhaiya Kumar, former JNU students Union Leader has successfully raised Rs 30 Lacs within first few hours of launching the crowdfunding campaign on Tuesday. The campaign’s aim is to raise Rs 70 lakh in total, which is also the permissible expenditure limit for Lok Sabha elections as per the Election Commission of India.   

Kanhaiya Kumar, the 32-year-old Communist Party of India(CPI) candidate will be facing Giriraj Singh, a BJP leader and Union minister, at Begusarai in Bihar.

Kanhaiya came into the public eye when he was arrested on charges of sedition in February 2016. He was accused of speaking against the hanging of Afzal Guru, Parliament attack convict.

Kanhaiya appealed to the crowd to donate for the cause saying, “In a country where a farmer commits suicide every 30 minutes, where unemployment is casting its darkest shadow in 45 years and the unemployed are deluded into a constructed binary of Hindu-Muslim conflict, it is now incumbent upon the common people to rise up and save democracy.”

Crowdfunding for politics may sound like a very new concept but it is not. AAP’s Raghav Chadha and Dilip Pandey, Nana Patole of Congress and many other leaders are on the same boat.

In October 2018, BJP had also launched a micro-funding campaign through the NaMo app. Then pretty recently, Shah Faisel, the Kashmiri IAS officer launched a crowdfunding campaign seeking donation for ‘Clean Politics’.

And crowdfunding for politics is not just happening in India but is in a full swing in many other countries as well. Dmytro Gnap, a former Ukrainian Journalist also crowdfunded his bid to be Ukraine’s next president.

Sources:

Kanhaiya Kumar raises Rs 10 lakh in first few hours of crowdfunding – The Week

Main Image: ©Financial Express

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