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All the Best, Kejriwal



Politics has been nothing more than an entertainment for me.  When the entertainment crossed the most stretched limits of human sensitivity, I wrote blogs to soothe the ruptures within me.  The more I watched the political dramas in my country, the more I began to find it detestable rather than entertaining.   That’s when I chose to stop writing about politics and look at humanity from literary perspectives. 

I don’t know whether my choice was an escapist act.  Even Narendra Modi’s acquittal by the Ahmedabad Metropolitan Magistrate would not have prompted me to write a political commentary now.  What has prompted this blog is a question raised by someone with a pseudonym.  He seems to have taken the trouble to follow my blog using Google+ only to raise the question, what do I think of AAP’s coming to power in Delhi?  Similar questions have been raised by a few pseudonymous persons in the recent past and I ignored them.  Perhaps it’s time to tell them that I am bored, utterly bored of Indian politics.

Look at Mr Modi’s latest blog with the heading Satyameva Jayate: Truth Alone Triumphs.  “The law of nature is that Truth alone triumphs – Satyameva Jayate. Our judiciary having spoken, I felt it important to share my inner thoughts and feelings with the nation at large.”  Thus begins the blog addressed to “My dear sisters and brothers.” 

Can I take that as a joke anymore?  I can’t.  I think Mr Modi is perpetrating the most violent assault on truth.  He goes on to say, “I was shaken to the core. ‘Grief’, ‘Sadness’, ‘Misery’, ‘Pain’, ‘Anguish’, ‘Agony’ – mere words could not capture the absolute emptiness one felt on witnessing such inhumanity.” [Emphasis in the original]

Mere words.  Their hollowness echoes beyond the Himalayas.  I find myself wishing that the echoes set an avalanche in motion. 

Arvind Kejriwal is setting up government in Delhi.  I voted for his party and am happy to see it taking charge.  But I’m not a naïve optimist.  I know the kind of rivals that AAP has to grapple with, particularly because the Party lacks majority. 

AAP made a mountain of promises in its election manifesto.  Will the party be allowed to deliver them? 

What will be Kejriwal’s strategy (astute as he is) in dealing with stark wickedness that masquerades itself beneath heart-rending sentiments?  Mr Modi’s latest blog is an indicator of the strategic change that he (though not necessarily his party) is experimenting with.  Will Kejriwal rise above such experiments and be able to implement the policies he visualised?


I hope Kejriwal will deal effectively and efficiently with such challenges which are far more formidable than those of poverty and corruption.  
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Comments

  1. Paresh KaleDecember 28, 2013 at 1:09 PM

    Lot of expectations from him now, certainly he needs wishes :-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. ManiparnaDecember 28, 2013 at 5:25 PM

    I'll speak in unison when it comes to Indian politics..Let's see how Kejriwal deals with all these leaders who beg for votes and after winning suffer from amnesia..I wish him luck..:-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalDecember 28, 2013 at 6:27 PM

      He won't suffer from amnesia, I'm sure. But whether his tactics will be better than those of the others - that's the question. Politics is Chanakya tantra. Idealism is out of place.

      Delete
  3. Rajeev MoothedathDecember 28, 2013 at 6:21 PM

    I can understand your disillusionment with our political class.But yes, Kejriwal needs all our best wishes. After all it is after his coming that all other parties have been forced to change their stance.

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    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalDecember 28, 2013 at 6:28 PM

      I agree with you, Rajeev. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. I hope Kejriwal won't be the absolutist...

      Delete
  4. SidDecember 28, 2013 at 10:47 PM

    Kejriwal is a leftist. In a while the vagaries of a street movement will begin to show. He is riding high on popular discontent but in a nation where the fault-lines are as apparent as ours, he'll soon be forced to take a stand on issues ranging from reservation to uniform civil code. The day the people realize his Marxist tendencies he'll be chucked out of his office.

    As far as Mr Modi is concerned, his critics will stop at nothing short of hanging him. It seems though the facts of the case drawn from a magazine run by a serial sexual assaulter has more weight than the whole of Indian judiciary.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalDecember 29, 2013 at 7:25 AM

      Sid, your prejudices are too glaring even in a brief comment like this.

      What if Kejriwal is a leftist? There are many countries in Latin America where Marxist govts have been doing eminently well, at least not any worse than other govts. The problem is not with ideologies, but with those who implement them.

      R B Sreekumar is not a serial sexual assaulter. He was ADGP in the Gujarat capital when Modi played Nero in 2002. Sreekumar has written a series of articles and also an autobiographical work in all of which he has given the details of how Modi presided over the massacres. He also gave evidence to SIT which chose to ignore such evidences. Modi is the typical example of how the large insects escape the fine cobweb of the Law.

      Delete
  5. AmarDecember 29, 2013 at 8:51 AM

    i really hope his vision is implemented into reality. there will be lot of challenges and our wishes r with Mr Kejirwal.

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    1. Tomichan MatheikalDecember 29, 2013 at 6:06 PM

      If he is really going to deliver, it will be a revolutionary change in Indian politics.

      Delete
  6. UnknownDecember 29, 2013 at 4:31 PM

    He sure has brought in freshness and interest and some sort of a trust into politics. Will he be able to sustain and fulfill the expectations I don't know but wish him all the best.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalDecember 29, 2013 at 6:07 PM

      It won't be easy for him, Athena. But I keep my fingers crossed. We needed a change and Kejriwal has no alternative as of now.

      Delete
  7. Prasanna RaghavanDecember 29, 2013 at 10:23 PM

    Politics is a dirty word for me as well; its not because good politicians and statesmen are not needed for a nation but because they are not there. A politician should know peoples' pulse; he should be a leader and hot simply a power man. Any creature can be enthroned into a power position in India. All most all current politicians in India in the ruling or opposition are covered by this definition.

    Under such a circumstance, expecting miracle from Kejariwal is not what is needed. People should be the watchdogs of their ruling system; there should be open free communication between the ruled and the ruling. (Please do not compare this with the Chandy janasamparka in Kerala. He and his entourages are impersonating the old feudal set up of Kerala. If you bent your back and cry before him he will say, 'OK,that is done' which would have been easily done by the bureaucrats in his offices to whom his government is paying profusely).

    In my understanding Kejariwal is coming up with a new approach; his constituency should help him. In the end the people need to be democratized and that was what never happened in India.

    Come on people, participate in the process and make the new leadership a success, there is no point in being judgmental in the end. Neither Modi nor the Congress have never initiated a participatory politics. .

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    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalDecember 30, 2013 at 8:41 AM

      Absolutely, Prasanna, you've put the matter in a better perspective.

      Delete
  8. MadhuDecember 31, 2013 at 5:01 PM

    I agree. I was considering a null vote, but am now solidly behind the AAP. I don't see the harm in giving them a chance, or two, nation wide. Truly, what is the worst that can happen, that hasn't already?

    ReplyDelete
  9. VetirmagalJanuary 3, 2014 at 2:40 PM

    Yes. Give AAP a chance. Everyone had a free run till now. Let the middle class have a say finally. It may not last, but it is worth trying. I am going to vote for AAP, if they contest here.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalJanuary 3, 2014 at 8:17 PM

      AAP may not really belong to the middle class, Pattu. I've always felt in my veins that the party belongs to the lower income groups.

      Delete

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