'NO' Ministers-Arvind and his Cabinet

                                                   ‘NO’ ministers – Arvind and his cabinet.

Come December 28- three days before the year of aam admi  ends- and Delhi will have a new Chief Minister whose ‘NO’ to corruption has been further bolstered by his  ‘NO’ to  security, ‘NO’ to official bungalow, ‘NO’ to red beacon, ‘NO’ to convoy and the latest ‘NO’  to elegant wear. He seems to spurn everything beginning with ‘NO’ to support from either Congress or BJP. He has finally ended saying   ‘YES’ because the ‘aam admi’ said ‘NO’ to his not accepting the Chief MInistership.  The new CM is certainly a ‘NO ’ man with the sole exception of turning ‘NO’ on its head with regard to forming an AAP government in Delhi.

The media has gone gaga over the CM-designate. All those experts who make their regular appearances on the TV channels- except for an occasional dissenter -were eloquent about the positives of Arvind’s ‘NO’s especially his NO’ to the red beacon and the convoy.  But in their enthusiasm to welcome the new ‘NO’ minister, they forgot that neither the earlier CM nor the present Goa CM have ever used a convoy or the red beacon and Arvind is not the first one to claim for himself this  special honour. In fact not having a red beacon and a fleet of cars to follow is the greatest security for any CM or any Minister. This is Arvind’s master stroke to get security by denying security and making a virtue of it.

As for the security cover, it is good that the new CM has more faith in God to provide him security than mere police mortals. May we all pray that the Lord gives Arvind a protective cover from the assaults of brainsick, crazy and demented individuals who are paid to be trigger-happy. An aam admi in pre-election mode  will have to turn a responsible leader post-election. To take undue risks is reckless daredevilry and does not behove of someone who has been entrusted with responsibility to govern. Anyhow the good thing is the security personnel will be released to protect the aam admi and fuel charges on convoy diminishedTo that extent AK has set in motion a key change.

AK’s  next ‘NO’ to is to official bungalow. The reasons given are as follows: He regards official bungalow as a perk and so he has to say ‘NO’ to it. It defies all logic. Where CM stays is CM’s residence and it has to be maintained, whether it is a kutir or a palace. It is the official place where people from all walks of life congregate to meet him daily.  Arvind cannot expect to meet all people in his office unless he stays there 24x7. There is a certain quiet dignity about CM’s status. Even if one loves to remain an aam admi, one can remain so even in a bungalow. There is the White House for the US President, Rashtrapathi Bhavan for our President, official residences for the PM and his ministers. The official accommodation is not for the individual but for the official position to enable him/her to work outside of the office hours. It is misguided mindset that looks at a bungalow as an extravaganza to be shunned and an apartment(that Arvind wants to demonstrate that he is an aam admi) to be welcomed. If so, how many of the aam admis who have voted him to power have apartments?  Why all this rhetoric and gimmick he has to resort to by cheapening the official status of a Chief Minister? What happens to the bungalows? If economy is a priority, then maintenance of these bungalows to the tune of 14 crores per annum may be a saving. But that means the well kept bungalows that add to the elegance of Delhi should be left to decay and disintegration or does Arvind have a use for them by handing them over to those who do not have a roof over their heads? In that case also the maintenance charges will have to be incurred annually. But the moot question is what happens to all the malis and gardeners and maintenance personnel engaged in the upkeep of Ministers bungalows?

The last ‘NO’ is to elegant sartorial wear as he prefers to be in his trademark commonplace clothes, crumpled and worn with deliberate carelessness.  He wants to prove that he is an aam admi at heart, in mind  and in dress. Again the question arises as to how many aam admis that we see on the Delhi streets do not wish to be better dressed? Today no aam admi wears a dhoti; he is always in shirts and jeans. He wants to wear elegant clothes to be on par with non aam admis. The goal or vision  of those elected to govern is to raise the aam admi’s living standards and this cannot be done by remaining an aam admi . Mark Twain said: “Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.” If Arvind wants to influence aam admi to dream high, he cannot clothe himself forever in common man’s clothes that we see in Laxman’s trademark cartoon. There is a difference between elegance and extravagance. Arvind should recall Polonius’ advice to his son in Hamlet :

Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,
But not express'd in fancy; rich, not gaudy;
For the apparel oft proclaims the man,

He should understand that clothes do not make the man but when man is made, clothes greatly improve his appearance. On a more serious note, if Arvind sets up his brand of unironed and commonplace wardrobe, what will happen to all the presswallas who have entrusted their total faith in him.

AK has fired his gun. Hope the gunshot is only  in celebration of the aam admi’s victory bringing in a new brand of “NO’ isms.