Friday, 28 April 2017

Chak de or Chuck de AAP



   
                                                             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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