CHICAGO: The Supporters of Swaraj Abhiyan, an organization with a mission to educate and mobilize Indian citizens to ensure accountability of political leaders, uphold public interest and reduce corruption in public life, is hosting an interactive talk with eminent lawyers and activists Shanti Bhushan and Prashant Bhushan on June 1at The Meadows Club in Rolling Meadows, a northwest suburb of Chicago.
Shanti Bhushan and Prashant Bhushan were founders of Aam Aadmi Party that was born out of the India Against Corruption social movement in 2012, but parted ways with it in 2015 when they accused the Party leadership of moving away from the founding principles of zero tolerance for Corruption, Transparency, Swaraj or political decentralization and compromising on its ethics.
Soon after, Prashant Bhushan along with Yogendra Yadav launched Swaraj Abhiyan to further the cause of anti-corruption that had been dropped by AAP.
Today, Swaraj Abhiyan has four committees: Jai Kisan Andolan – to fight for the rights of farmers, Shiksha Swaraj, to bring reform in Education sector, Aman Committee, to spread harmony in various communities of India and Anti Corruption Team, to fight against corruption.
Swaraj Abhiyan’s Jai Kisan program has been fighting for the rights of farmers and the relief for people in drought hit areas in India in over 12 States. Swaraj Abhiyan Anti Corruption Team has launched a nationwide citizens’ whistleblowers forum and recently exposed the scam in the Augusta Westland helicopter deal involving crores of public money.
Bhushans are no strangers to being in news for their war on corruption and have rightfully been termed as anti-corruption crusaders. Shanti Bhushan came to fame when the case he fought unseated the Prime Minister of the country, Indira Gandhi, in 1975 for election malpractices. As the Union Law Minister, he brought in legislation restoring fundamental rights of citizens that had been taken away during the years of Emergency.
The father-son duo has been involved in pressing for accountability in the Indian judiciary by setting up Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Judicial Reform (CJAR). Prashant Bhushan has hundreds of PILs under his belt like 2G Scam, Coalgate Scam etc that he does without charging any fees. Through his successful PILs has exposed corruption and upheld public interest in India.
In the Coalgate scam he was successful in getting coal licenses that had been awarded fraudulently cancelled and restored thousands of crores of public money back to the country.
Ramesh Soparawala
India Post News Service
