Though a qualified midwife is presiding over the birth of the Tamil Nadu unit of the Aam Aadmi Party, birth pangs in the form of dissidence came out in the open even before the baby was born.
Party leaders in Chennai alleged Christina Samy, a midwife, is playing the lead role in usurping the control of the party by some shrewd moves. A Press meet called by the office-bearers at Chennai on Tuesday turned out to be a session of washing dirty linen in public.
K Balakrishnan (69), a retired school headmaster who has been appointed general secretary of the Tamil Nadu wing of the AAP and M Krishnamurthi (52), a management expert, declared that Samy, an evangelist who masquerades as social activist has hijacked the party. "Though we were all associated with the movement launched by Arvind Kejriwal from the beginning, we are always kept in the dark about party funds and other details by Samy, the self-styled national executive member of the party," said an anguished Balakrishnan.
He alleged that Samy, who runs an NGO by name AREDS (Association of Rural Education and Development Service), an organisation funded by various international evangelical bodies, has not come out to hold any public meeting or revealing the sources of fund collected by the State unit of the AAP. "How she got herself appointed as the State convener is shrouded in mystery. Though the Central leadership of the AAP stands for transparency, Samy is totally against any kind of transparency,” said Balakrishnan.
Samy, who claims in her website that she has advanced training in social welfare and midwifery and has associations with World Socialist Organis-ation (which got the nickname World Sex Forum following charges of rape during its Mumbai session in 2004) and the evangelists dominated National Alliance of Women did not respond to phone calls or SMS.
M Krishnamurthy, who has been associated with the AAP since its formation said Samy did not inform anybody about the visit of Yogendra Yadav to Chennai. “Since I demanded that the functioning of the party should be made transparent, she got me expelled from the party,” said Krishnamurthy.
Both Krishnamurthy and Balakrishnan said there is an attempt by some of the Church functionaries to usurp the control of the party. “Though Samy claims she does not have any political objective, the truth is that she has been campaigning against Narendra Modi since 2002. The website of her NGO is proof of her intentions,” said another senior AAP member.
Krishnamurthy said AAP’s name should be changed to CRF (Christina’s Relations and Friends). “She has inducted one lenin, her close friend, into the party leadership. If she feels she could run the party in Tamil Nadu against the AIADMK and the DMK, let’s wish her good luck in her fight against Chief Minister Jayalalithaa,” he said.