Shiban Khaibri
Aspiring for a change for somewhat better in the existing political system, electorate of four out of the five state Assemblies cast their votes recently which heralded a new thinking and a positive hope but undoubtedly with a bit of an indignant mood. The reasons of the indignation of the voters by and large, need hardly to be outlined or stressed upon. However, the results of Delhi being utterly on account of anti incumbency on the one hand while being indecisive by nature on the other, as none of the three parties , the BJP, AAP and the Congress are in a position to form the government. As already opined in these columns, the Congress party would stretch itself to any possible extent to prevent the party with largest seats, the BJP to form the government and with just 8 seats and the same exactly needed by the debutant AAP to form the government. In other words, those, who for the sake of perverted formality, speak about the party with largest seats not forming the government, do hide the fact and that too brazenly conveniently, that the deficient number of five was neither going to be provided by the Congress nor by the AAP by pledging support to the BJP. Therefore the “like minded” combination of the other two had to cobble together to rule Delhi. What then is the hurdle and where are the areas of suspicion especially when the long list of conditions put forward by the AAP, to both the Congress and the BJP, nothing short of a virtual dictation, was responded to by the country’s oldest political Party in the form of submitting its acquiesce to almost all the points in the long list. That was done by it just to fully ensure that AAP and not the BJP came forward in government formation to protect its own interests.
In this connection, Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Gulam Nabi Azad is apt in his remarks by saying that AAP was in a quandary about government formation as its leaders have found the reality very different from the dream world they had been living in . He says that the number of seats won by them is far from their expectations and “with no experience of running a government”, as they are finding it hard to come to terms with the reality. The Union Minister said that elections are held for the purpose of running governments and the Congress was willing to support the AAP which was putting conditions for taking support. He wondered that the supporting party lays down conditions but it was the other way round. He said,” Have you ever seen a party laying down conditions to those who extend support in the formation of the government?” Another senior Union Minister also hailing from our state, Dr. Farooq Abdullah in his peculiar style, predicted a descending position in the gained importance for the AAP leader Kejriwal by saying ,” he would be a zero from a hero because his party would not be able to fulfil the promises made with the people.” He further says that the AAP had promised moon to the people. Another leader of our state, Mufti Sayeed has outstripped the status of the demands of the AAP by saying, “What the AAP has been demanding, the PDP has already introduced in the politics of Jammu and Kashmir after 2002 Assembly elections with a sincere leadership, strong political will and clear vision.” He, however, has not enumerated the causes of the PDP not being in a position to get elected in 2008 elections in a way so as to form the government and, thus, is sitting in the opposition.
What is the point in Kejriwal’s turning out to be against all, the BJP, the Congress, Anna Hazare, the system, the procedures, the Lokpal bill and the like? Why bundle of contradictions and confusions surround his opportunity as well as the constitutional duty to form the Government and fulfil all those promises he made with the people of Delhi who trusted him and thus voted for him and which the previous governments in his view could not fulfil due to the reasons he has been vociferously articulating. In a country, where political propriety, by and large, has been a matter of negotiations, alignments, compromises and opportunities, Kejriwal should have mustered courage and taken the challenge by at least showing the difference to the people by giving a clean, transparent and responsive government in Delhi. The negative approach and hollow idealism are no answer to the aspirations and hopes of the people. Only leveling accusations and the desire to open the “deeds” of the 22 years of the two governments in Delhi – 15 of the Congress and nearly 7 of the BJP with intent to send all guilty to jail is the manifestation of a mentality smacking of arrogance and vilification based on a deficit political mannerism. Who prevents a duly elected government from taking decisions which are deemed to be quite necessary even probing into the doubtful decisions, if any, taken at any level. ? You won’t take the responsibility to deliver, yet clamour for inaction, sounds only prosaic and rue-able. After all, there must have been reasons, the tangible ones, to out-rightly promise 700 litres of water free and to cut power tariff by 50% by the AAP to the people of Delhi and regularizing all those residential colonies which have sprung up in Delhi sans any building permission, planning or elementary norms of town-hood. Are the promises made appearing to be unrealistic and unreachable that now different alibi is raised by AAP leaders? Just accusing all and sundry and only fighting them out at the drop of a hat will not change the system which agreeably needs overhaul, not just cosmetic changes.
In a country, where a film actress charges a whooping Rs. 6 crores for performing on the stage for a few minutes, a country where a few most privileged including many political leaders, spend ostentatiously crores of Rupees on marriage ceremonies of their children , a country where an accused sentenced for a five year term in a case of swindling crores of money meant for animal fodder coming out of the jail on bail, does the first job of without any reason, conspicuously challenging the Prime Ministerial candidate of the BJP for 2014 elections and trying to take cover under the “fight against” the supposed, hypothetical and created myth of “divisive forces” ;a country where the bridge between the affluent and lesser privileged is no where in sight but the gulf getting wider; a country where poverty is watered and sustained to remain at stagnant levels so as to talk about them by the political parties especially on occasions of elections and then dole out subsidies and to tailor welfare schemes for them against garnering votes, lot of work needs to be done and for that a new political renaissance based on morality and true Indian values needs to be inculcated into the young generation. They need to be taken out of the misconceptions and misinformation spread about the concepts of secularism and democracy.
The people especially the young are feeling disconsolate at the prospects of the imminent President’s rule in Delhi and perhaps, are in a doubt whether their vote went astray and got violated if not disrespected as they are compelled to face another election and to bear its high cost in an air of high inflation and unemployment. What, they fear, if that election too gives the same picture of the peoples’ verdict? Most of them argue that an artist can dance any where and not blame the “Aangan” for being “Taidha”.
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