Good governance is a generic term. It goes across the board. And it is a unique promise we have made because we have said that we will address the individual complaints of Pune citizens against any department in Pune -- like say the revenue department, say you are not getting copies of the saat bara, the talati is not listening to you, he's played mischief and put someone else's name there.

You go to public hospitals, the equipment is bad, the doctor cannot be found, you are scared to go to the police station, they won't register your complaint, the police registers a false case... you know stuff like that -- the individual complaints of bad treatment, harassment, work not being done, mischief being done, work delayed.. There are thousands of those. People have just given up.

We will handle it.

But you will be inundated!

Eight months we are asking for. We have a strategy. We are not asking for four years or three years. We do this in eight months. We know we will be able to do it. We are doing this through generating citizen power. It will be done through citizen committees.

You take one erring official to the court and you are serious about it, four citizens can set it right. You take one success story like that we will create a change in governance overnight. We promise that to the people.

And, of course, the normal issues. We get a citizens' budget in place and we will enforce it through partnership with the judiciary. We get the right priorities in place.

People don't have toilets.

Three hundred and fifty million litres, a day, of raw sewage is being pushed into this river. 350 million litres every day! This river could become a tourist centre for the world. It is a beautiful place. That Khadakvasala dam (south of Pune) -- the water just sparkles on the dam and we have made it into a sewage dump, a shit hole. It stinks.

There is no life there. You have malaria, mosquitoes, dysentery, cholera, diseases visit us every year. There are places in this city you don't feel like staying more than two minutes because it stinks so much, and you are arranging Commonwealth Youth Games over here and the Congress is talking about having the Olympic games over here. This is a scandal in itself. Wrong priorities. No toilets. No sewage treatment plants.

If you couldn't do these things as a bureaucrat, why do you feel you can do it as a politician?

You can't do it as a bureaucrat, I tried to do it. Divert funds. You can't do it. You can take the government to court. I tried doing that as a bureaucrat they just transfer you. Twenty-six transfers in 26 years. I used to feel self conscious about this. Because in those days they used to think this guy is mad. There is something stupid -- doesn't get on with people. Because they like to give you that sort of reputation.

Today things have changed. They say this guy must be good. There are other officers who have been transferred very often. The whole ambience has changed. Now they say Nahin achcha admi hoga. He must have done something,

There are thousands of citizens who are not getting piped water supply. Metro. Transport problems. You need underground transport systems. We will get more money into this city. I don't know why this corporation has never borrowed from international agencies, from the World Bank.

We will get that money over here and we will start those mega projects. Waste disposal. They are still dumping the waste and burning it and there are villagers who are suffering the consequences of this pollution. So these will be priority areas.

But I will say that the biggest challenge would be giving Pune citizens good governance within eight months. It is the biggest challenge and we know we can do it. If we do it a lot of other people can do it. It will just open the doors as a demonstration model. We will form 300 to 500 citizen committees that will monitor for example police stations

Why will they not take you on? Will they not attack you?

When you have the people's mandate behind you, when you have won an election, who is going to attack whom!? We will be attacking them.

The public servants will do their duty as public servants.

A lot of this has to do with political pressure. I have seen a politician pick up the phone -- Ye aamche manoos hai, eke dheela loose kara (He is our man, release him) And the sub-inspector produces 1,000 sheets of paper -- an enquiry into whatever rape case or murder case -- and people feel arre, wah, wah, kya enquiry kiya, he has done such detailed enquiry. All those papers are not that relevant and the real point woh loose he kar deta hai usko.

I am just giving an example. When you have corrupted the system to such an extent how can this system deliver. What you see in the movies that riots take place killings take place and the police sits back and watches… It is true. It has happened. It is happening.

One of our main demands in the party is punish those officers, the managers of the country, the professionals who are paid and who are empowered in the Constitution and by a statute to pull a gun use force when they see rape, murder, arson being committed didn't do their job. Punish those guys. And it is so simple to prove it.

And what about the controversy about your assets (Arun Bhatia declares assets worth Rs 20 crores which was higher than any other candidate in Pune except Bahujan Samaj Party candidate and builder D S Kulkarni)? You have papers to prove it, but that does not stop the seed of doubt from forming that you may not be honest. How will you fight that?

That seed of doubt I will fight by telling journalists to take the trouble to put one line in their stories about the proof I am giving about how my mother got this land from the government in 1964, before I even joined service. What more do you want?

But what if people say it is a fake certificate? People are very cynical.

The people who say it are in the other camp! But journalists and the media must find out what the truth is and tell the truth is. When I am saying this is the document -- and if it was black or benami -- who would declare it. The very fact that I have declared it should show that it is legally acquired.

But electoral candidates are declaring all kinds of huge assets. How can a voter differentiate?

They are mixing up ownership of wealth with ownership or acquisition of illegal wealth.

Just because the person has 20 crores does not make him or her bad. This house which was worth 4 lakhs in 1964 is worth 20 crores today. Punish me for that. Put me in jail for that. It's absurd. You cannot just say: Okay this politician has 20 crores. Ha, that's not good!

The question is: Is is it black money? Is it illegal? Those are the issues. All I am saying is that yes I got this house in a partition. It is ancestral. It is not even my house. But I got it after my mother died in 2007. I don't feel I have committed any offence.

People are biased and stupid that this whole country is full of benami (ill-gotten wealth) wealth and here is a guy who is declaring his wealth and he is telling you where he got it from. Incidentally, the land was also given by the government.

So there is no question of some underhand dealing. Why does the media ignore this? The media in Pune ignores this because -- I'll tell you why -- because it is owned by political families so they want to let this doubt persist. When I go to them and say 'Please sir this is my document. You see here my mother got this land from the government. Please don't bash me up for that.' So they say 'Alright okay Bhatia' and they will push it under the table because it doesn't suit them to give my version out!

So when you say the seed of doubt exists, it is stupid people who have the doubt and it is a biased unethical media that will not print (the truth).

But you are fighting an election from the plank of honesty, so scrutiny on this count is bound to be high.

Of course, I have to fight that. I have to fight corruption. I have to defeat the big guys. I have to defeat Sakal. I have to tell them I am better than Sharad Pawar. I am better than Sonia Gandhi. Who the hell is she? She comes from Italy, interviews five farmers and says I will make my son prime minister. I am better than all of them.

So it is a tough job. But I am better and I will succeed in showing people that.

What have you been doing since you lost the election in 2004?

I was not in power. I was not empowered in any way. I don't believe in writing letters to the editor and leading delegations to the collector's office. That is ineffective. That is a gimmick. It is just a way of getting your name in the papers. It does not bring reform.

But I did other things. I helped people who were being harassed by the government, by the police I put PILs in court against wasteful expenditure by the Pune Municipal Corporation on statues. I wrote to the government to prosecute corrupt officers in the revenue department and the PMC. I spread awareness about what these NGOs do. But it is not the real thing.

You have to confront the system and you have to change things. For that you need empowerment, you need to be in politics.

When I was in the service I used to confront the system and there was a lot of disappointment and failure. That time there was a substantial degree of success also. And the educated people will vote for me on the basis of track record.

I keep telling them every candidate says he will be good and do good things and has clean record. How do you know? The only objective test is to see their track record. And my track record is the strongest. Nobody else can match it.

No major party even talks of corruption. People tell me: Arun, the pamphlets you send out are unique. Because no person of a political party can write that stuff. They cannot write about corruption. It would be a joke if anyone from the BJP or the Congress of Sena or the MNS said: We are an honest party, we don't have any criminals and we believe in fighting corruption! It would be farcical.

And if you lose? What will you do after that. Will you try the next election?

It was a tough fight. It has become easy now. I am not looking at that. But the next five years are not going to be, as I said writing letters to the editor and meeting delegations and banging my head against the wall.

If I am still alive and healthy, yes, I will fight the next elections.

Also see: How to win elections | India Votes

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