Shiban Khaibri
Reminded of the famous lines from the book “The Prince” of Niccolo Machiavelli , who is considered by many as the father of modern political philosophy and he says ” Men are so simple of mind, and so much dominated by their immediate needs , that a deceitful man will always find plenty who are ready to be deceived”. We, very often believe politicians , most of whom promise to ”build bridges even when there are no rivers” but sooner we realise that all that glitters is generally and necessarily not gold . Anna Hazare did apparently something near notable in 2011 in Delhi in his ”fight against corruption” but the agitation with a great hype while in the process of getting fizzled out , however, gave us only one product – the so called concept of Aam Aadmi . This phrase was something new and directly appealing as against “Gareebi hatao”, ” Ek Sherni , Sau langur , Chikmaglur, Chikmaglur” — “Congress ka Haath , Aam Aadmi Ka Saath” , “India Shining” etc , until the coining of “Aam Aadmi”. Please recall how Anna Hazare conceptualised a mini political revolution as he had given a call to the public to go to the extent of confronting directly individual members of Parliament and Union Ministers at their respective residences in case they failed to enact Jan Lokpal Bill within 30 days and rooting out corruption from the system. He thought to his wisdom that all the ills would get eradicated by the institution of a Jan Lok Pal. Thus setting up an anti- corruption ombudsman was the belief of Anna Hazare to bring in a perceptible change in the overall political cum administrative system. What is to be noted is that Anna Ji chose the timing ripe for launching the movement when the then UPA government was battling to get itself cleared of countless allegations of scams and irregularities. Therefore, as a sequel to Anna’s call , more than a lakh supporters in Ram Lila Maidan assembled who were showing growing opposition to corruption as he had warned the then UPA government of its very survival in case it chose to take the issue of fighting corruption casually and not enact a law within the stipulated time of 30 days.
The centre stage of the protests led by Anna Ji , at the venue of Jantar Manta and Ramlila Grounds , among others, was occupied by Arvind Kejriwal who undoubtedly was one of the chief forces behind the India Against Corruption (IAC) movement. Raising his right arm to the sky height as is his wont and chanting Inqalab Zindabad , what we saw something unusual was that Aam Aadmi Zindabad slogans raised by kejriwal too were renting the air through most parts of the capital . Here, the political prowess , calculations, the skill of optimum use of the opportunity, striking when the iron was red hot, keeping a yawning distance between saying and actually implementing like political tools , perhaps, had been not only kept ready but sharpened too much before the movement of Anna Hazare ended in a smoke. The credit for this political mastery goes to the unmatched wit , if not any notable intelligence of Kejriwal. The adage of ”everything is fair in love and war” proved outdated as it is gradually being replaced by ”everything is fair in politics and getting political power”.
On the other hand, however, it also is a fact that a general feeling and a wave of a change imminent, got percolated in the people throughout the country so much so that in many cities, people on their own organised protests and even token hunger strikes in full support of Anna Ji’s movement. Kejriwal Ji, in his usual apparent look of wearing mufflers and complaining of frequent coughing denoting fatigue and poor health , of course, due to hectic involvement in the movement coupled with his ”Tyag” of having relinquished a lucrative government job for the betterment of the “Aam Aadmi”, earned him general acceptability from the public when finally the cat came out of the bag by sprouting of Aam Aadmi Party. In other words, he and a section of the leadership of some others founded Aam Aadmi Party even when he had publicly vowed never in his life to enter politics and never ever fight an election. It is another thing that most of the architects of the Aam Aadmi Party were, one by one, shown the door , expelled or their association with the Party rendered ineffective.. Yogindra Yadav, Ajit Jha, Prashant Bushan, Dr. Kumar Vishwas, Medha Patkar, Mayank Gandhi, Shazia Illimi , Anjili Damana , G.R. Gopinath etc followed by Ashutosh, Ashish Khetan etc are a few names worth mentioning. That reflects the degree or the levels of democracy and respect for dissent in the Party.
There were Chief Ministers in Delhi from the Congress Party and the BJP but none had the ”gumption” of distributing freebies and largesse to the general public like free power , free water , free transport ( Females) etc to lure voters to vote for both the national parties as the concept of freebies goes against sound economic principles, healthy fiscal policy and is discriminatory against the interests of the honest tax payers who otherwise feel relaxed and satisfied that their every penny of tax was destined to be prudentially, meticulously and carefully spent by the government . The moot point to be noted is that it was probably not the golden hope nursed by the public of having corruption getting rooted out by the Aam Aadmi Party which its leader had well calculated and not only anticipated but the allurement of the promise of a few hundred units of electricity and water quite free etc to thousands of ”eligible” families resulted the Party winning Assembly elections three in a row. Why not , on an average, a family stood to gain a few hundred Rupees per month hence the vote for the AAP but for the Lok Sabha interestingly people voted quite differently.
The important question is that should some politicians once elected , treat public money as their fief and squander it mercilessly only for their royal luxuries and comforts? We, the tax payers have every right to know where was this money of ours spent for which , of course, there should be a mechanism more robust and prompt to act . On the other hand , the premise otherwise is impeccable honesty , transparency , accountability and above all the trust that the hard earned money of the public would not be spent on unproductive and avoidable things. A row has erupted , much to the bewilderment of those who try to match Arvind Kejriwal’s earlier words of promise wherein he had asked or a smaller house, with that of a residential building nothing short of a magnificent palace as was revealed by the media a few days ago. This renovated and reshaped residential house originally comprising 2.45 acres of prime land slated to be expanded to 7.2 acres (now popularly called as Shhesh Mahal) with curtains, carpets, Dior Vietnamese marble flooring, furniture and fixtures, vanity in toilets, royal wardrobes, 15 bathrooms, interior decorations , Kitchen appliances so on and so forth has prompted many to wish a physical glimpse of this modern Palace as a feast to eyes though overall no less than a shock.
It is learnt that a residential house of an Aam Aadmi Chief Minister where so much luxuries and comforts and sophistications and grandeurs and opulence and splendours etc are provided that no one could ordinarily conceive using even the increasing heights of imaginations. Had it been the case with any other CM or any important authority in the country, the waves of astonishment , dismay and disbelief would have not been as much as for a person projecting himself as one among Aam Aadmi . Simplicity falsely thus propagated appears to be swept under the carpet. Mughals built buildings , forts and mausoleums etc using all the material from this country and ”Makrana” marble considered the best in this country, is said to have been used even in Taj Mahal but Delhi CM’s residence under Aam Aadmi government rule, imported Dior marble from Vietnam for flooring . Makrana marble is best for Shahjahan and Mumtaz Begum but not for our Aam Aadmi CM of Delhi. A whooping amount of Rs.45 crore was reportedly spent at a time when Delta Covid pandemic was at its peak and desperate Aam Aadmi(s) were standing in queues with even Oxygen cylinders to get a bed for their loved ones engulfed by the deadly virus, in the hospitals while the crusader of ”absolute” simplicity was interested in devising ways how to make the residential house of the Delhi CM as the one with little parallels in grandeur in the country. The break-up of expenses on various items is now fairly known to everyone , however, the argument of some AAP representatives on TV Channels that this Mahal was not a personal property of Arvind Kej, is as fallacious as it is hollow. That is because as against our hope that Kejriwal Ji would fix a benchmark of simplicity and sheer austerity for others particularly for future CMs starting as an example for himself , alas – he appears to have done quite the opposite. Accountability , therefore, needs to be fixed for alleged gross irregularities and verily now, Delhi L-G has sought report on Kejriwal Ji’s home ”renovation” expenses to be submitted to him within 15 days.
Also reminded in this connexion, of the famous words of Akbar Allahabadi -“Qaum kay gum main dinner khatey hain hukkam kay saath , Ranj leader ko bahut hai magar aaram key sath..” and that idiom – “that you cannot judge a book by its cover” all become relevant in the instant case . Can it be deduced that politics is rather another name of tricks and deception ? Conversely, does it mean that good , really honest , sincere, hard working , committed and ablest politicians should not be loved but abused and insulted ? The point needs deep introspection but in the mean time , an Aam Aadmi as usual continues to be taken for a ride by many outsmarting , witty and quirked politicians.
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