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| Photo credit: BBC.com |
I
remember as a kid, some politicians visiting our home at the time of local
elections. 4-5 politicians visited us in 10 days time, to check our well being,
requesting to caste vote on D-day and circulated pamphlets with their party
symbol and slogan on it. We use to play with Party Symbol cutouts and try to
collect as many as we could. At times there use to be party workers blabbering on
a loud speaker mounted on an auto, roaming around carelessly in the colony.
“Mom, why are these politicians coming to
our place?” I asked my mom wondering might be we were big shots and they
came to take our blessings.
“This is election time, politicians will
come; they will make false promises and hide after elections. This is the only
time when they run after people and post elections, make people run after them for
every trivial thing!”
I
don’t remember if I understood what my mom told me then but now I clearly know
where it came from. Traditionally, the elected candidates did not take the job
of politics seriously. Once elected, politicians are on cloud nine and they
forget the common man. A lot of times voters know that the candidate is not
good but due to lack of choice, they are forced to vote same candidate every
time. This makes politicians more arrogant. There are good people also in the
world of politics but it is as hard to point them out as finding a bucket of
fresh water from salted seawater.
In
my early days, whenever I thought of politics, the only association I could
make of it was with words like: Congress, BJP, Jayalalitha, Left, Mayawati,
Bofors, Narsimha Rao, Rajiv Gandhi, Indira Gandhi, Nehru and few others. Atal
Bihari Vajpayee was PM when I was in my college days. That was the phase were I
use to discuss and debate about politics and policies with friends. And I
remember I use to say that Atal Bihari was my favorite politician! Indeed he was, not
only my favorite, even the opposition parties never denied of his aura and
Charisma. My fondness was more to do with his personality rather than political
views. He truly represented India as a country at the Global platform.
It
was 2004 and Congress/ UPA came to power post elections. Mr. Manmohan Singh
became PM and being one the finest economist and key architect of 1991
liberalization, hopes were high. At the same time there was pessimism because
probably the country has already seen enough of Congress. And I distinctly remember
people saying, “Now things will become
costly…” “…Now country will take 10 steps back…” and I use to wonder
why did people vote for congress in the first place then? To which I never got
an answer.
History
repeated itself in 2009 with UPA coming to power again. Once again Manmohan
Singh was the face of the nation, to the world. This time scams and corruption
became more evident and there seriousness multiplied. Out of hopelessness, I
wrote a ‘Letter to Prime Minister’ to which he never replied. Though I am happy
I expressed my wish and was not mute like him. Miss-governance can be
attributed to weak opposition also who was not aggressive enough to keep the
ruling party in check. Even the international press criticized Indian PM by
putting him on Time magazine cover page with an ‘Under Achiever?’ headline. It
surely raised lot of brows but then everything was forgotten with the passage
of time.
And
then suddenly, out of nowhere, there came Anna Hazare and the anti-corruption
movement. The demand was to pass Jan Lokpal Bill in parliament as a mechanism
to tackle corruption. After initial denials and ignorance government was
forced to listen to Anna’s demands. It was a storm that shook the government.
People saw an avenue to make India of their dreams, into reality. Indians were
on the streets around the country supporting the cause and it was considered a big
victory. News channels telecasted minute-by-minute proceedings of what was
happening at Jantar Mantar. It was a massive movement and I never felt so
strongly or so passionately about any movement ever before. Candle lit marches to
slogans to dharnas, all peacefully.
Since
it was matter of power, stake and survival some anti-social elements were planted among the working committee of the movement. What happened next was a series of opportunists, frauds, hope, exposes
and dismay. Aam Aadmi Party was born with Arvind Kejriwal became crusader and
projected as the representative of common man. Delhi elections were fought and
in the history of Indian democracy, first time a new party got such a huge
number of votes by country men. It was not a clear mandate but it became a
coalition government with local people’s choice.
For
the first time it looked like the country has taken many giant steps forward on
the path of progress. The canvass looked perfect and beautiful. It was time for
an agitator to become an administrator. It was time for the crusader to fulfill his promises. Though promises were short term like free to heavy subsidy
on water and electricity yet people were swayed by the miracle of having an
alternate in the politics.
Arvind
Kejriwal promised to clean the system. He seemed to be Anil Kapoor from the
famous Bollywood movie Nayak. But
when it came to execution, the dreams seemed to be faltering away. Day by day,
the way Delhi was miss-governed, looked dubious. The man who stood against
corruption and exposed from CM to Industrialist became soft on a section of
political society. The dharna politics
became way of life. But Indians are always hopeful. In the game of Cricket,
even if we would need 8 runs to win on a last ball, we would hope for opposition to bowl a No-Ball, our batsmen to hit a four on it and then hit another four on the last ball. We are a land of hopefuls, forgivers,
'Chalta Hai' attitude endorsers, Cricket lovers, God-fearers and not so politically inclined people.
Supporters
of AAP ignored and discounted all the miss-doings of AAP under the name of
inexperience party. But it became evident that AAP had soft corner for
Congress with the passage of time. It was called a Team B of Congress and a well-planned movement to gain
anti-congress votes in Delhi elections. In hast, Arvind Kejriwal quit CM ship and dissolved his
government. The man who appeared as crusader, a common man driving blue
Wagon-R, who gave hopes to clean the society, change the way politicians work, broke millions of dreams and
hearts. How can you leave Delhi and Delhiets in a state of political limbo?
Anarchy? Double standards? There are many questions that Kejriwal needs to
answer not to us, but to the people who believed in him and who voted for his
party. The alternate government, the very option seizes to exist now. There
seems to be no difference between AAP and any other political party.
Ideally,
Kejriwal should have stayed as Delhi CM and strengthen AAP as a national party
over a period of time by good governance. The country capital faces so many
issues, biggest being women security. He could have picked 2-3 major issues and
resolved them permanently. This would have given him some political experience
and chance to prove his administration capabilities. Changing the system is not
easy but he had biggest strength with him – The Common Man. With passage of
time it became more evident than AAP is against Modi and BJP. It never gave
importance to people who actually gave birth to the party. Jumping for Lok Sabha elections shows that Congress wants to get anti-congress votes through AAP and keep BJP away from power. And this is the reason
why my mom was so correct back then, when I was a kid, about the politicians.
Arvind
Kejriwal who is projected as an alternate PM candidate for Narendra Modi and
Rahul Gandhi, have shared very shocking thoughts. His priority is to defeat
Narendra Modi. He is of the view that there would be another elections in a
year or so and then India will get new stable government. More can be read here.
Any sane person would not subscribe to his
views. When the country is in such a fragile state, economy is crippling,
constant threats to internal and external security, corruption is spoiling the
image of India at International level, this guy seems to play a trial-match this
time to get some practice and then play real match again next year! In all this humdrum the only thing that is being ignored is – The Country. We still have
time and resources to put country back on the growth track. If not this time, we
may get deviated so much that the road to growth might look impossible.
To
me, it is always nation first. Whatever takes the nation and its people forward
should be done. The world is progressing and we have to lead the way of
development. We are self sufficient, self-sustaining and a vibrant force of
energy. All we need is good leader and decisive policies, which are executed
for the benefit of society as a whole and not just a particular section. It is
time we shun the ‘Chalta hai’
attitude and vote for a change. After looking at the manifestos
of BJP, Congress and AAP, I would opt for the one giving hope of development
and willingness to execute and take some difficult but corrective actions.
Enough of communal card has been played and this time we should vote for
development. We should not forget that we ourselves would progress if the country
moves in proper direction, we the people would be the most benefited.
fOoD fOr ThOugHt: For
the country and for the dream of development to fulfill the unfulfilled, please
go out and vote for an able leader. Let not your heart rule over your head!
