I will here not evaluate the
veracity of claims and counter-claims by AAP and its opponents, which are as on
day listed as Congress and BJP, both colossal forces, one driven by history, another by a promise of future. The election surveys are a different game
altogether and true or not, do not honestly analyses the impact of a political force.
AAP rose out of the desperation
of the middle class, driven to the edge by blatant corruption and a response to
it by the government of the day which grew even more blatant with each new
expose. Nothing was left sacred and nothing was left untouched. The shame grew
to engulf the highest citadels of power, which sat in the assumed security. That
power corrupts, we knew as a nation and to an extent, we had given a realistic
acceptance to corruption in governance. In that sense, I believe, we Indians
bore a great resemblance to Irishman, as written about by GK Chesterton, has
two eyes. By which he implied that with one eye “an Irishman saw that a dream
was inspiring, bewitching, or sublime, and with the other eye that after all it
was a dream.” This sense of fatal idealism which prepares itself to be murdered
while it grows and pleases and entices also applied equally well to us Indians.
We give great value to morality
in thoughts and actions, but do acknowledge that there could be something like
too much of a good thing. We know that the practical necessity contradicts the
ideal fantasy. But we still want things to not go so deep in the rut that there
is no escape possible and also even the fantastical idealism dies breathless in
the deep, dark caves of immorality. We want the pretense to stay alive, a
pretense of shame, a pretense of respect towards the last man in the line. This
government downed the pretense and blatant response to the corruption and
mis-governance of the country, brought to a sense of infinite impotence which
fell over the nation at large. The standard response was so well-scripted that
people knew the turns which the story would take by heart. The charge will come
about, government will deny it. Step two, it will charge those who brought up
the story with malfide intent and question their patriotism. If the anger and
annoyance survives this, it will order some hogwash inquiry and when courts
step in, will tell them to stay within limits, before finally surrendering to
the courts and then trying to undermine court monitored enquiries with doctored
affidavits and staged witnesses and failing all else, finding scapegoats. The
process was so blatant as the in case after case, beneficiary was penalized,
procedural cogs of the wheel were put in the dock, the final authority flew
high in hallowed image of purity. This killed the sight in the other eye and we
as nation ended up with one-eyed people. AAP, in its earlier avatar as IAC, offered
a new vision to the dreaming eye. The dead darkness of the inert eye flickered
under the new light and possibility. AAP offered an answer in the helplessness
which was highlighted by Ruling party spokesman on the alleged land related
corruption of the first family member, when he claimed that there was unwritten
rule that between BJP and congress they would not attack the family members involved
in the acts of corruption. This, if true, is based on the false premise that
national wealth is a private property of the ruling dispensation. This extended
the government logic of coalition compulsion to the opposition of the day.
AAP threatens to upset the
alleged apple cart. One party is said to have looted the nation for sixty
years, another sat silent witness to the loot. AAP is an unknown devil, but
things have hit such a nadir that it can only go up, or so the dreaming eye
with its slightly recovering faint vision believes. AAP sure will have a shot
at Delhi, if not for anything, but one-eyed people will vote them for the fun
of watching how the unruffled rulers of Delhi treated by the new
contender, if they were to win the
election.
What Works for AK also works for Namo at National Politics
The same novelty factor works for Narendra Modi at the
national stage. I
remember there was a debate how Modi, sticking to state politics will
negatively impact his chances. I believe, that is working to his advantage.
People feel he, being new to Delhi has yet not been corrupted by the city. I
believe, and presume, most will believe that Arvind Kejriwal and his team is not a part of unsaid Omerta
which Digvijay Singh indicated signed off between Delhi functionaries of BJP
and Congress preventing bringing out cases of misuse of power by immediate families of ruling elite in open for public scrutiny. Modi also offers similar hope of breaking down the existing unholy cartels. That is the reason his appeals transcends that of BJP.
Also such an arrangement, that is AAP forming government in Delhi, does not impact the national issues in any way, since AAP views on Kashmir, International relations, Foreign policy
and even Secular polity and Common code is baffling and even worrisome, reflecting the Left in many ways. I am still trying to grapple with the fact as to why it was so necessary for AK to disown any support of RSS to its anti-corruption stance. That brings to mind some worries of Mulayam Singh Yadav kind of politics, where disowning your faith, particularly by majority is a primary condition to join in any protest of national interest. But in Delhi, they can bring much good, if by nothing else,
at least by dismantling the existing equations and understandings. I would like to look forward to the fun of watching the great one-liners of current Delhi CM being explained, like suggesting people to pray to god in case of water logging, and advising women not to be too adventurous in the backdrop of killing of a Journalist. One can only
believe this will help, no pre-existing alliances will help AAP go deeper into
the rot and clear some of it. For instance, to pick a case as Nirbhaya, accountability
of governance does not end with sentencing the culprits, someone ought to
answer, why was illegal bus plying in the city and picking citizens? Why the
government sat idle doing nothing, while Home Minster compared the common
citizens protesting against the ghastly act with Maoists? Under whose
instructions were FIR filed against four young men under the false murder case
of a policeman, merely to break the protest? Everything that comes out in
public is a symptom, and case is spread under the earth, like a multi-headed
hydra.
I believe, these changes will help address the causes to the symptoms. I
am of course, looking through my dreaming eye which has very faint vision these days.
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