Chak de or Chuck de AAP
AAP’s vroom of 2013 and 2015 has gone silent. Political analysts have
called it a referendum on failed politics of complaints - a new tag added to
politics such as politics of appeasement, politics of conciliation, politics of
constructivism, politics of confrontation… All analyses will be made in
relation to AAP’s mistakes with an end homily that AAP should reinvent itself
if it does not want political obituary to be written before the next elections.
I am not here to discuss the
fairness or the unfairness of EMVs with the jingle ‘ Fair is foul, foul is
fair/ All’s well with the poll’. AAP stands synonymous with Arvind Kejriwal
very much on the lines of the much vilified phrase “India is Indira, Indira is
India”. Similarly a majority of analysts today wanting to be more loyal than
the King have substituted Modi for BJP to the point of saying ‘India is Modi,
Modi is India’. Even Hindutva is now called Moditva. We have new coinages like
Modinomics, Modified policies and strategies, Modimonetisation,ModiAPP etc. No
other name figures in political discourse without the Modi tag. The same happened to AAP with the media lens
on Arvind Kejriwal. Swim or sink with Arvind became the focus of the media. So
fall of AAP is fall of Arvind. Fall of Arvind is fall of ego, hubris, vanity, cheap
populism, ambition, cronyism …list is getting larger and larger as the media
sycophancy of the victor grows louder and louder.
Very few- and one can count them on the fingers- look at the rise and
decline of AAP by focusing on the people who gave it respectability,
credibility and support a couple of years ago. They have switched their loyalty
from AAP to BJP. The question is why did Delhi vote for AAP in the first
instance- and that too massively? A simple answer – much too simplistic for the
media lexicon, nevertheless true to the point- the vote was for change. AAP promised that change- change from a pedestrian form of
governance to an exciting form where the aam admi was to be given the pride of
place in decision making. Who will not covet such a change? -that too, when one
is treated as a VIP whose decision becomes sacrosanct with the rulers. So AAP
rose to power on the pledge that ‘Delhi is you, you are Delhi.’ This sounded inspiring, motivating and
impressive as a slogan but soon came the realization that to rule means
pleasing some and displeasing many. Government cannot be run with masses in the
decision making mode and sooner than later Arvind found himself in a knotty
situation when he had to take decisions without
the masses and be responsible and accountable to them.
He did well on some of the promises he had made. I have been personally
a beneficiary of two of his major decisions- water and electricity tariffs. I
realized that if water is not wasted and kept within 10000 litres per month, my
water bill would be nil. It is not just the nil expenditure that I benefitted
from, but it has been a lesson in conserving water. So has been the electricity
tariff where one’s use of power, if kept under check, helped to minimise the
expenditure. Water and power are precious commodities and not to waste them is
one of way our contribution to the society. I salute AAP for this policy that
has helped me discharge my social responsibility. AAP had not reneged on the
promises it made with regard to education and mohalla clinics- the latter
coming for praise from the Western countries as a model for healthcare
programmes. The odd-even plying of cars was another big decision that certainly
eased the congestion on the roads and brought down- even if infinitesimally to
a small degree- the pollution levels. Then the question comes back as to why AAP
lost the recent municipal elections?
The answer is again simple. It
is the way of the world, what is given is taken for granted and therefore not
valued or appreciated. What is not given is an issue for flogging. I was
astonished that the autorickshaw drivers were angry because Arvind Kejriwal did
not give them auto stands as promised. There is no reason why those in the
lowest rung of social hierarchy were disillusioned with AAP for they got the
basic amenities promised to them like water and electricity. The upper class on
the other hand has no need to be thankful to AAP for such ‘poor’ blessings ,
but it got worried when told to form car
pool and when subjected to odd-even
scheme that denied them their divine right to use their own cars on roads that were its exclusive privilege. No doubt they either voted
out AAP or stayed away from the polling booths.
So it was left to the Middle class, the erstwhile staunch supporter of
AAP to decide whom to favour. It blamed AAP for the (a)swachch Delhi. The media
joined the chorus to highlight garbage piled up in all parts of Delhi because
of MCD sweepers’ strike. But MCD was in the hands of BJP and yet the blame was put
on Delhi Government though the latter claimed it had released payments to MCD
towards sweepers’ salary. AAP like the dumb Congress could not match the
rhetoric of BJP to convince the masses that the blame should not be deflected
from the BJP led MCD onto AAP. AAP
resorted to whining and complaining and it became a laughing fodder for the
Dilliwalas comprising mainly the middle class.
The middle class, a perpetual whining class blamed the absence of the
broom for the ills of Delhi and used the ballot as their stick to beat AAP.
Never once did the middle class lift its small finger to take responsibility
for environmental cleanliness but at the slightest whiff of garbage stink, it
thumbed its nose at AAP. It did not
matter to the middle class if corruption had come down- something even the
political pundits not inclined to AAP did admit. But for the middle class such a corruption
free luxury, was its rightful due and hence did not value it. The middle class, like Oliver Twist is ever grumpy
and keeps asking for more and more. When the AAP failed to satisfy the
perennial demands of this class, the latter turned against AAP. Did the middle
class ever question whether MCD had delivered all these ten years when it was
in power to provide for better services such as water, sanitation, power and
health benefits? Did it ever notice that many of the pre poll promises of the
BJP like depositing 15 lakhs per account could not be done because of its
impracticability? Has not the BJP reneged on LokPal which was used as a stick
to beat the Congress? The BJP on the other hand used GST, MNREGA, AADHAR which
they had opposed vehemently when the UPA introduced those schemes to showcase
their governance. It is to the ruling party’s credit that they found the worth
of these schemes and did not dump them. Has the middle class asked why there have been
too many vigilantes roaming around in the country during the last 30 months,
often ending in brutal assault on the innocent poor? Has the middle class
questioned why Kashmir is burning and why our soldiers are getting martyred
every day? Has the middle class asked why prices have not come down? No, because the middle class had survived
hardships earlier during the UPA rule by their own ingenious ways( one of them
being corruption) and now with ease can bear the present hardship using it to
get more DA from the government besides employing its stock weapon of
corruption. As for the other unasked questions, unless each one of the middle class
had experienced personal tragedy that is happening to the Kashmiris and our
soldiers, it will not be bothered about anything happening outside of Delhi.
The middle class gathers news from the TV channels and whosoever speaks louder
is what they believe to be the truth. The government- whether AAP or BJP cannot
do anything more than what they have done- given the limitations of a vast
democracy and its insatiable demands besides the edgy geo-political complexity
among nations. No government is foolish to venture beyond what it can possibly
achieve and therefore one should not complain bitterly against BJP or AAP. The
only factor the two have to guard itself- a lesson that Congress will hopefully
learn – is not to close its eyes on corruption, nepotism and deliberate acts of
provocation.
The media has joined the chorus of victors to lambast AAP for trying to
grow too big for its boots. Is it wrong for a party- even if it is a fledgling
party, winning the very first elections it entered- to grow wings? Is not the
BJP seeking a Congress mukth and an Opposition mukth Bharat and remain the only
one party to rule from Kashmir to Kanyakumari? If this is not ambition, then
why blame AAP for entering the polls in Punjab in the North and Goa in the
South to gain acceptance as a national party? It is easy to call those, whom media
wants to vilify as suffering from bloated vanity and as the Tamil proverb goes
the media functions like the horse that not only pulls down the driver but digs
the ground for his burial.
This is an indictment not of BJP
or AAP but only the middle class which is genetically selfish. For them “your
pain is yours and not mine. I will cry when it is my pain.” So Chak de AAP became Chuck de AAP. The only problem with AAP was to believe
in the impossible task of pleasing everyone and in that infructuous effort
resorting to politics of complaint and confrontation. It has to remember you
can please some people for sometime but not all people all time. Let us hope
that both the victor and the vanquished- BJP, now at the crest of power and AAP
floundering to recapture the momentum that it had lost- remember, “Don’t blow
off another’s candle, for it won’t make yours shine better.”
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