VIJAYAWADA: “Once a good man, Pawan has now become a dangerously divisive force driven by vindictiveness, caste and religious hatred. He should not be allowed to occupy the office of political or social power,” remarked Raju Ravitej, one of the founders of Jana Sena, while quitting the party.
Disclosing the reasons for his resignation from Jana Sena to mediapersons on Saturday, Ravitej described Pawan Kalyan as a changed man now.
“The Jana Sena chief is not what he was when we started the party a few years ago,” he observed.
Ravitej who moved closely with Pawan Kalyan and treated the actor-turned-politician as a brother, said, “The two main reasons to quit the party are the way Pawan is managing Jana Sena and the way he is behaving with the public.”
“A political party means a structure, cadre building and planning. Where there was a possibility to implement these plans, Pawan ruined them. Initially, I did not understand, but now I came to know that the plans were only for show,” Ravitej said.
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He alleged that there was no internal transparency in Jana Sena and everything was fluid, recklessness and lack of organisation.
“Conspiracies were hatched against his own party men, not giving importance to their opinions, using the party as a personal stage, forgetting the fact that political party is for public and not personal. His election speeches were in vulgar language, laced with personal attacks. It had an impact, as we all feared, on the outcome of elections. Some top leaders of the party were rather happy with the dismal show of Jana Sena,” he said, and added that Pawan’s style of functioning created aversion towards him in many party activists.
Ravitej explained that in the last months, Pawan went into a fighting mode using extreme language.
“I felt if it goes on, it will be a problem for society. He is creating problems just for the sake of becoming a leader. Hence, I decided to part ways with him,” he said.
Recalling that Jana Sena was launched with an ideology to bring all castes together and never bring religion into politics, he said Pawan was now behaving contrary to the ideology.
Pointing out the silence of Pawan on the outburst of a PA activist in public that ‘he is ready to kill someone if the leader orders’, Ravitej said it was sending wrong signals to society.
On the occasion, he released a letter written to Jana Sena chief on December 4, in which he stated that Pawan had become the very disease instead of cure for which they entered public life, defeating the very purpose.
He accused Pawan of abandoning wisdom of life, erudition, goodness of heart, kindness, and compassion which he once showed and becoming a scheming, manipulating, lying, hate-mongering and bungler.
“Pawan’s politics has become a poisonous pursuit of power, a shameless bunch of lies, pursued for personal vanity. He is now a gloating narcissist blinded by arrogance and false pride,” Ravitej added.