By Gyan Prakash
First half of January brought with it a busy schedule for the members of a Gujarat based NGO that goes with the name, Citizens for Accountable Governance, popularly known as CAG. The acronym may indeed be misleading for some! So, it?s important not to confuse it with Comptroller & Audit General of India has been in news for quite some time now. Before we delve deeper, let?s know something about CAG.
?June 2013 it was when a group of few individuals consisting of a fresh Graduate, a Lawyer, an Entrepreneur, a Software Engineer and two Investment bankers began to discuss the nation’s current state at a restaurant’s coffee table.? According to CAG?s website, that?s how it was founded in June 2013. Mining for more information reveals that it was Modi who had delivered the keynote address at Young Indian Leaders Conclave 2013 on June 29, 2013 organized under the aegis of CAG. Modi was eventually declared BJP?s prime ministerial candidate on September 13, 2013. Interesting information, isn?t it?
But what made the CAG members suddenly become so workaholic? Well, CAG was poised to become yet another PR arm of BJP and people at CAG were keen on getting more and more members on board. They had to conform to their targets before their deadline. Finally, on January 15, they announced that CAG had chosen to function as a ?Professional Support Group? in Narendra Modi’s run-up for the PM’s post. It was a paradoxical situation for many CAG enthusiasts. Supporting Modi and striving for an accountable governance were entirely different arenas. This was absolutely in no semblance with its motto. In fact, many consider Modi?s Lokayukta an exact antithesis of an accountable governance. Doubtlessly, the NGO was by Modi and for Modi; it had never been clearer.
CAG seems to be no different that India272+, a PR arm of BJP which aims at mustering support for the saffron party so as to get a clear majority in the coming parliamentary elections to form government at the center. It is the same organization, which had organized the highly publicized nationwide competition, Manthan which carried the tagline, ‘India?s largest youth movement to set the agenda for Election 2014.’
It was a cunning plan to indulge the brightest of minds of the country that would later help BJP prepare its election manifesto. It was a market research aimed at forming political consensus over matters relating to social, economic & political issues of the country. The participants of Manthan were never aware of it. All the way, they had thought that their effort would make a difference. In fact, it would indeed make a difference; not to the country but to BJP?s future course. It is a severe breach of trust with those intellectual minds, if not criminality.
Today, we stand at point in time where thousands of NGOs are running under the disguise of NGOs not only in Gujarat but in various other parts of the country as well. Involving today?s youth in politics is a noble idea which most of us support. But doesn?t helping someone achieve political mileage as a quid pro quo to earn patronage sound derisive, especially when you are for-a-cause-organization? Shouldn?t NGOs be critical of the government instead to get better results? These are the answer we need to answer ourselves before it?s too late.
An entrepreneur at heart, a visionary of an ideal society and passionate about his ideas, Gyan Prakash believes that a radical transformation in the society can be brought about by only those who have the courage to come out of their comfort zone and voice the concern of the indigent, i.e., today?s youth. He ascertains that education, as a tool will play a pivotal role in such a paradigm shift. He has special interest in marketing and has been actively involved in such stints ever since he joined IIT Kharagpur as a student in 2010. Apart from mainstream activities, he is a social activist & loves reading. Drop a mail to start a conversation with him at [email protected].
