Skip to main content

AAP and I



Who defeated Arvind Kejriwal?  Himself or us?

His party ruled for just 49 days.  They were momentous days.  He implemented his promise on setting up a number for reporting corruption; in two weeks instead of the promised two days.  He met people to discuss corruption issues, though the crowd was beyond his control.  He did what he could.  He would have done more if he could. 

He put an end to the VVIP culture in politics.  The politician became aam aadmi.  Ministers started travelling in vehicles without the screaming red lights and horrifying screeches.  But the police had to go out of their way to provide protection to the chief minister.  Who defeated the chief minister’s vision that political leaders need no such protection from their own people?

He revolutionised the admission procedures in schools.  Schools which charged hefty amounts from parents illegally stood to lose.  The aam aadmi would have gained.  Then who defeated AAP?

AAP appointed people who visited the government schools in Delhi to ensure that they are functioning properly.  Procedures were undertaken to end contract labour and thus ensure the welfare of workers.  Steps were taken to train a special commando force for the protection of women in Delhi.  Enquiries were initiated about the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.  Power supply and water supply were being made more effective and efficient – no doubt there were many teething problems.  Harassment of auto rickshaw drivers by the police was stopped.  Government hospitals were made more effective. 

49 days.  What more could be achieved in 49 days by a government with no prior experience?  Kejriwal dared to take up the cudgels against people like Mukesh Ambani who have hijacked the economic system in the country and people like Veerappa Moily who have sold democracy to the corporate sector. 

We keep on accusing our politicians of being corrupt.  When one man took the initiative to clean up that corruption and bring good governance, he failed.  Did he defeat himself by resigning?  Maybe he did.  Was he helpless?  His helplessness is our own.  Is he simply a shrewd politician who is aiming higher – for the PM’s chair?  Well, I will vote for him in the Lok Sabha elections too. 

My likes and dislikes are instinctive initially.  I began to like Kejriwal instinctively just as I disliked Anna Hazare instinctively and hated Modi instinctively.   But I don’t let my instincts dictate terms to me.  I evaluate my instincts with my reason.  So far my reason has told me that my instincts were generally right. 


My instincts tell me that Modi will only work for the corporate sector and use one particular religious community for furthering his ends.  Modi will engender a civil war in the country if he becomes its Prime Minister, my instincts predict.  My instincts tell me that the Congress has become impotent.  My instincts tell me that we need a leader who is a bit cranky.  

Comments

  1. The balanced view on AAP episode, without bias, I ever read. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Balanced, you say, Remi? I thought I was a passionate supporter of AAP :)

      Delete
  2. Sorry but for me Kejriwal is not what your instincts say. He fooled us, if he was serious he can discuss the bill, he should be in power it was we the Janta who given him opportunity and what was that drama that before taking oath he asked public but after becoming CM he has not asked anyone. BJP or congress who were not supporting Lokpal in Delhi, They have passed the bill in national parliament i believe..?

    Chhod do kahna ab AAP AAP shuru karo kahna AapNahiHum.. Aur Haan those who blames modi for genocide should know the fact that from last 12 years there nothing like muzaffarnagar, assam, patna, pune, dilsukhnagar, bangalore.
    Broom supporters start supporting nation not the glamour, sensation and castle is air.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You are welcome to disagree, Sunny. We live in a democracy, thankfully, which I hope won't turn fascist...

      Delete
  3. I agree completly with your observations on AAP.

    ReplyDelete
  4. "My instincts tell me that Modi will only work for the corporate sector and use one particular religious community for furthering his ends. Modi will engender a civil war in the country if he becomes its Prime Minister, my instincts predict. My instincts tell me that the Congress has become impotent. My instincts tell me that we need a leader who is a bit cranky."
    This is the truth that you have written that is scaring me...What is going to be the future of India?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We need a change, Elizabeth. A drastic change. See what the existing political parties have done wherever they have been in power. Do we want a repetition of it again?

      It's our choice. Democracy has given us the power to vote - the only real power we have in this regard. We can use it wisely.

      Delete
  5. Thanks. I started to wonder whether AAP really did anything except what we saw on mainstream media. You have put their work in detail. They need to be given a chance to make mistakes and achieve their agenda. Next few months are interesting. time for political watchers.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Pattu, I have wondered again and again why the media and even the public turned against AAP. Yes, the party showed a lot of immaturity. But they were just beginning.

      Thanks for the tolerance you show towards their lack of experience.

      Delete
  6. Kejariwal playing to the gallery. If he is sincere passing the bill, a) he could have challenged the center intervention in the court b) he should have taken sms poll which he did before becoming the CM.

    He was taking centers permission to table "Jan Lokpal Bill" in the parliament. But he did take permission of center to table "Money Bill" in the parliament. Can anybody explain the double standards.

    Everyone looks for his own gain. Before coming to power, he claimed of having evidence Sheila Dixit and didn't even file a FIR against her.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No doubt, Rajesh, everyone plays certain games and is selfish too. I don't expect saints to enter politics. It's a question of who is a lesser evil rather than who is a better person? We don't have much choice. But I'm encouraged by the entry of people like Medha Patkar and Sara Joseph in AAP.

      Delete
  7. While I agree with you, my concern about the AAP is that they will go the route of nationalization of power generation and supply, a model that has not served us well. I also think they are against FDI when we do need the money to spur growth. One thing all need to understand is that the economy needs to create jobs. The rest I think will follow.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sometimes nationalisation is required, as they did in the Latin American countries where private firms were looting the country's resources (which is happening in India now). Economics is not a static thing, I suppose. It changes as time changes and policies change. Present day capitalism does stand in need of a few reins.

      Delete
  8. AK could have gone a bit slower, in his hurry he did do lot of good things but got caught in a situation where he had to give up.
    Great post.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I agree with you. AK was a bit too quick. Some actions need more duration - even people don't like quick changes.

      Delete
  9. Interesting comments! I enjoyed each one of them!!
    India is beyond the grasp of any person or party - political or other, not even a government. The People have realized this fact beyond doubt. As a result there have been hung parliaments and assemblies; hence parties run to form alliances. But politicians don't learn the lesson.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Remi, India is an enigma. We made constitutional rules to eradicate the caste system, but my beloved ex-chief minister (AK) supported the Khap Panchayat in Haryana. We eulogise children's rights, but thousands of children still work or beg... All these people who support development are seeking their OWN development.

      Delete
  10. "Well, I will vote for him in the Lok Sabha elections too."-----He won you over...mission accomplished for him.

    PS: I don't prescribe to your views. Somehow I find him full of drama and theatrics. Anyway, time will tell how true your instincts were :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I also find him a bit cranky, Pankti. But I find cranky people doing less evil than the supposedly sane ones.

      Delete
  11. Matheikal, AAP style of politics ( i.e we alone are honest and patriotic) scares me. This kind of negative politics can only bring untold misery. Idealism has no place in politics of governance and best is the enemy of the good.

    ReplyDelete
  12. AK was I suppose over enthusiastic. In our country were deep rooted habits are the root cause of much problems, one has to be matured and diplomatic in solving them. I had always felt that AAP should have opted to be a strong opposition party in Delhi instead of deciding to rule for the sake of long term benefit.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Read AAP and I. I may agree to what you say. But there is an old saying - A Bird in Hand is worth Two in the Bush. Arvind should have continued as the CM of Delhi (like Narendra Modi is doing) and promoted AAP by carefully selecting candidates, policies, making strong but sensible comments. But by his over ambition or rush to become the PM, AK threw baby with the bath water.

    Incidentally, all that what Arvind has said and is saying are my ideas since 1978 of New Life, New India and New World -- Nav Jivan, Nav Bharat aur Nav Jagat.

    Arvind Kejriwal infact messed up the silent, non-violent people's revolution by rushing in where Angels fear to tread. For more details read my 42nd book Dr. Leo's Lens - The Blueprint for a Holistic Development of India and the Special issue of Just-in-Print (March 1 to 15) at http://justinprint.in/drleorebello.html.

    My instinct too has not failed me. And my instinct tells me that AAP is washed out, unless Arvind meets me one-to-one for serious planning rather than the road shows. Otherwise, even fine ladies like Medha Patkar and Soni Suri may not win. And what about Irom Sharmila? All political parties, including AAP, have forgotten her.

    Keep in touch. Best Wishes.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Adventures of Toto as a comic strip

  'The Adventures of Toto' is an amusing story by Ruskin Bond. It is prescribed as a lesson in CBSE's English course for class 9. Maggie asked her students to do a project on some of the lessons and Femi George's work is what I would like to present here. Femi converted the story into a beautiful comic strip. Her work will speak for itself and let me present it below.  Femi George Student of Carmel Public School, Vazhakulam, Kerala Similar post: The Little Girl

Don Bosco

Don Bosco (16 Aug 1815 - 31 Jan 1888) In Catholic parlance, which flows through my veins in spite of myself, today is the Feast of Don Bosco. My life was both made and unmade by Don Bosco institutions. Any great person can make or break people because of his followers. Religious institutions are the best examples. I’m presenting below an extract from my forthcoming book titled Autumn Shadows to celebrate the Feast of Don Bosco in my own way which is obviously very different from how it is celebrated in his institutions today. Do I feel nostalgic about the Feast? Not at all. I feel relieved. That’s why this celebration. The extract follows. Don Bosco, as Saint John Bosco was popularly known, had a remarkably good system for the education of youth.   He called it ‘preventive system’.   The educators should be ever vigilant so that wrong actions are prevented before they can be committed.   Reason, religion and loving kindness are the three pillars of that syste...

Coffee can be bitter

The dawns of my childhood were redolent of filtered black coffee. We were woken up before the birds started singing in the lush green village landscape outside home. The sun would split the darkness of the eastern sky with its splinter of white radiance much after we children had our filtered coffee with a small lump of jaggery. Take a bite of the jaggery and then a sip of the coffee. Coffee was a ritual in our home back then. Perhaps our parents believed it would jolt our neurons awake and help us absorb our lessons before we set out on the 4-kilometre walk to school after all the morning rituals at home. After high school, when I left home for further studies at a distant place, the ritual of the morning coffee stopped. It resumed a whole decade later when I completed my graduation and took up a teaching job in Shillong. But I had lost my taste for filtered coffee by then; tea took its place. Plain tea without milk – what is known as red tea in most parts of India. Coffee ret...

The Real Enemies of India

People in general are inclined to pass the blame on to others whatever the fault.  For example, we Indians love to blame the British for their alleged ‘divide-and-rule’ policy.  Did the British really divide India into Hindus and Muslims or did the Indians do it themselves?  Was there any unified entity called India in the first place before the British unified it? Having raised those questions, I’m going to commit a further sacrilege of quoting a British journalist-cum-historian.  In his magnum opus, India: a History , John Keay says that the “stock accusations of a wider Machiavellian intent to ‘divide and rule’ and to ‘stir up Hindu-Muslim animosity’” levelled against the British Raj made little sense when the freedom struggle was going on in India because there really was no unified India until the British unified it politically.  Communal divisions existed in India despite the political unification.  In fact, they existed even before the Briti...

Relatives and Antidepressants

One of the scenes that remain indelibly etched in my memory is from a novel of Malayalam writer O V Vijayan. Father and little son are on a walk. Father tells son, “Walk carefully, son, otherwise you may fall down.” Son: “What will happen if I fall?” Father: "Relatives will laugh.” I seldom feel comfortable with my relatives. In fact, I don’t feel comfortable in any society, but relatives make it more uneasy. The reason, as I’ve understood, is that your relatives are the last people to see any goodness in you. On the other hand, they are the first ones to discover all your faults. Whenever certain relatives visit, my knees buckle and the blood pressure shoots up. I behave quite awkwardly. They often describe my behaviour as arising from my ego, which used to be a oversized in yesteryear. I had a few such visitors the other day. The problem was particularly compounded by their informing me that they would be arriving by about 3.30 pm and actually reaching at about 7.30 pm. ...