Swaraj Abhiyan

Swaraj Abhiyan is a political organization in India that began on 14 April 2015. It arose from a meeting of supporters of Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan in Gurgaon following the expulsion from the Aam Aadmi Party. The organization claims to want to transform ideology into reality and to achieve swaraj in all aspects of life - political, economical, social and cultural. On July 31, Swaraj Abhiyan announced the decision to form a political party.^[1] Subsequently on October 2 2016, a political party - Swaraj India was announced, with intention to participate in local body elections to start with.^[2]

Background

In late 2014, Prashant Bhushan alleged that the selection process for Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidates in the forthcoming Delhi legislative assembly elections was flawed.^[3] This started a series of allegations and counter-allegations which resulted in the removal of Yogendra Yadav & Prashant Bhushan from the party's Political Affairs Committee.^[4][5]

These developments led to an open dialogue - Swaraj Samwad - conducted by disheartened supporters of Yogendra Yadav & Prashant Bhushan on 14 April 2015 to discuss the situation and the future direction.^{[6][7][8][9][10]} The outcome was the formation of Swaraj Abhiyan.

Prashant Bhushan is current National President of Swaraj Abhiyan.

Jai Kisan Andolan

Swaraj Abhiyan launched a nationwide public movement, Jai Kisan Andolan, for farmers rights in India.^[11] This aims to highlight the plight of farmers due to alleged lapses in public policies related to agriculture. Currently it is coordinating between small farmer groups spread all over India, to raise voices against amendments in Land Acquisition Act, farmer compensations, rationalisation of minimum support price for crops and demand for pay commission for farmers.^{[12][13][14][15]}

Yogendra Yadav is National Convener of Jai Kisan Andolan which is a farmers wing of Swaraj Abhiyan.

In Dec 2015, Prashant Bhushan filed a PIL in Supreme Court of India on behalf of Swaraj Abhiyan, requesting court’s intervention for ensuring proper supply of grains, pulses and sugar through the public distribution system as per national food security law of 2013, in the drought affected states.^[16]

Citizen's Whistle Blower Forum

In late Feb 2016, Prashant Bhushan along with prominent Civil Society members and activists, announced the formation of Citizen's Whistle Blower Forum with an endeavour to expose corruption file PIL and get such matters probed if there was inaction and make efforts to ensure the whistleblowers are protected.^[17]

References