Scientists follow IITians to 145;cleanse146; state

After IITians, scientists have taken a plunge into the Uttar Pradesh political arena. Hoping to cleanse the state8217;s politics of 8220;growing criminalisation8221;...

After IITians, scientists have taken a plunge into the Uttar Pradesh political arena. Hoping to cleanse the state8217;s politics of 8220;growing criminalisation8221;, Dr Raja Vashisht Tripathi from the University of California in Los Angeles is here with his Rashtriyata aur Vigyan Jan Jagran Abhiyan, and he is making a start from his village Chillupaar in Gorakhpur.

Dr Tripathi says he is not alone. One hundred and forty-nine of his friends also belonging to the Purvanchal region and working in America together hope to convince people to cast their votes right and throw out criminals from politics. Dr Tripathi has been at this mission since 2004.

8220;It has been 25 years since the mafia took over the political reigns in Purvanchal region. My own place, Chillupaar, too is suffering,8221; says Dr Tripathi.

He adds that he is hurt when people identify Gorakhpur with criminals. 8220;Gorakhpur is mine too and I want to feel proud of it,8221; he says.

Dr Vashisht adds that their plan is simple: 8220;We are trying to make the common man understand the terminology of science, which is the 8216;Who, why, when, what and where8217;. A simple farmer should be able to ask this question to every candidate who is promising the moon to him and then decide whether he wants to vote for the candidate or not.8221;

Elaborating further, he says: 8220;Look at it this way. If you send a criminal to the Assembly, you will only start feeling ashamed of your area. They represent your area and you. So we want to urge the voters that please send clean people to the Assembly.8221;

An expert in vascular genetics, Dr Tripathi is in this mission with Dr Bansh Bahadur Tiwari, Dr Dharamdev Shukla, Dr Mike H Pandey, Dr Lalji Mishra, Dr RD Tripathi, Dr Gopal Krishna Shukla and many others from India and abroad, who are originally from the Purvanchal region.

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Having started with Chillupaar, Dr Tripathi wants to spread this 8220;scientific approach8221; all over the country. 8220;We don8217;t intend to fight ourselves, but then we want each and every voter to become an aware voter,8221; he says.