Aam Aadmi party held its first state convention for Victoria on 4 August at North Melbourne. The event was well attended by patriotic Indians from Melbourne and discussion were held on issues that range from the effects of the recent changes in the Right To Information Act to organising Victorian State Aam Aadmi Party unit to the Delhi elections in November this year and the General election in 2014.
The Victoria chapter of AAP also held its first elections during the convention and Brad Mishra was chosen as the single point of contact for Australia. Dr Namita Pandey was given responsibility of State Convenor for Victoria. Other key responsibilities were given to Rakesh Prajapati, Manoj Nayak, Sandeep Patel and Mrs VijayLaxmi.
Joining the convention live on Skype from Delhi was eminent lawyer and member of AAP national executive Prashant Bhushan. He congratulated the newly appointed state team and encouraged them to take the movement forward. He also answered questions of members present on recent changes in RTI, prospects of AAP in Delhi and national elections. He shared promising news of all the exit polls predicting sensational debut of AAP in Delhi elections, with the likelihood of forming a government in Delhi.
AAP members also used this occasion to launch the party’s election symbol ‘Jhadu’ (broom) in Australia. Speaking on the occasion, Mishra said, “Jhadu is most appropriate symbol for AAP. It goes very well with the ethos of the political revolution, which aims at cleaning the dirty politics of India. Jhadu uthao, gandagi bhagao” (Pick up the broom for cleaning up [read: dirty politics])”.
Dr Pandey spoke about the recent changes in RTI, which are being vehemently opposed by Indians all over the world. She urged everyone to oppose any changes in RTI which would exclude political parties from coming under the purview of Right to Information Act 2005. She said, “It is more than 42 years but still there is no unanimity to bring about Janlokpal or to make the CBI independent. It took just one month for political parties to come to a unanimous decision to change RTI only to exclude political parties from its purview.”
She also reiterated that the AAP is the only political party that supports the imposition of RTI on political parties. “Even today, all the financial transactions of AAP are available on their website for general public to see and question,” she said.
To know more about Aam Aadmi Party, contact Brad Mishra at 0411449519 or Namita Pandey at 0426250072 or write to aam.admi.australia@gmail.com or aap.aussie@gmail.com.
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