Prof Javed Mughal
Anything which comes with a forceful flow avoiding all equanimity is likely to crumble very fast. Something of the same sort is likely to happen to the AAP if it does not develop a balanced approach to settle the affairs. The AAP’s sudden entry into the power reminds me of 1967 when in the same fashion the communists came to power in West Bengal. It will not be out of place to say that Mr Kejriwal and his companions have studied in details the political philosophy of the Communists and have re-implemented the same after a long spell of forty six years. It may be recalled that 1967 was the year when the Congress suffered major jolts as power passed into the hands of its opponents – the Left in West Bengal and Kerala and the Samyukta Vidhayak Dals (SVD) in U.P., Bihar and Madhya Pradesh. Like the AAP at present, the communists who became the rulers in West Bengal were novices in the game of politics. However, they were propelled into power by the widespread dissatisfaction with the Congress which, then as now, was seen as corrupt and indifferent to the plight of the poor.
The communists, on the contrary, were perceived as knights in shining armor – as the AAP leaders are regarded now – steeped in idealism and personal integrity. Not surprisingly, just as the AAP has been hesitant about living in large houses and riding official cars, the newly-elected ministers in West Bengal in 1967 decided to dispense with air-conditioners in their Writers Building offices because they symbolized luxury. In a way, they were in their political adolescence, imbued with a romantic notion of representing the ordinary people and engaged in transforming the decaying system for their benefit. There is little doubt that to many in the state at the time – both sympathizers and critics of the Left – their entry into the corridors of power was seen as the harbinger of a new dawn. But in a very short span of all utopian philosophy ended in a smoke when the same problems of employment, water supply, power cuts clubbed with many other travails recurred time and again to compel the people to throw the communist party out of power in the following elections. Aam Admi Part has all sympathy for the common people beyond all doubts and it genuinely wants to do something for them. AAP is deadly against the corrupt system, no doubt. They are making all out efforts to render the ideal type of governance to the people. But the fact can’t be overlooked that one honest simpleton is not likely to overcome the human vultures who have contracted a habit of pecking at the hearts of the innocents, belching public money and running the politics of crime and corruption. Mere noble intentions, slogans and the bare commitments can’t serve the purpose. The biggest mistake the AAP has committed is to have decided to jump into the power domain at this stage. It is, off-course, too early. They should have waited and decided not come into power till moving into the perception of common man in the entire country. Another suicidal blunder which the AAP has ever committed is to have formed the government with the support the Congress against whom the AAP was given the largest mandate in Delhi.
Delhi sarkar system is a little different from the state government system. Delhi sarkar has to depend on the goodwill of the center government even in the little affairs of governance. Naturally with Congress at the center, the success of AAP in Delhi is not even a distant possibility. Mr Kejriwal has been a little earlier to become the Chief Minister. He should have waited for the right moment to click. Now the AAP is likely to fall into a great trouble and if something uneven happens to the AAP’s government in Delhi, it would also be disastrous for it in rest of the states in the next elections. Some immature steps have off-course been taken by the AAP which were not even non-political but counter-productive too. AAP should not have raised its political profile so high in advance without studying and analyzing the ground realities. Mere commitment to provide seven hundred liters of water to every house without seeing that more than fifty percent people of Delhi don’t have water connections. What will happen if everyone in Delhi is provided a legal water connection? Will the AAP be able to provide the promised amount of water to everyone then? Has the AAP ever thought of the consequences of curtailing fifty percent electricity used by the mega Malls and Udyogs of Delhi despite knowing that the business class is the backbone of economic system? Certain steps taken by Mr. Kejriwal have already proved fatal to the AAP and to the interest of the public as well. He had promised the implementation of Jan Lok Pal bill within fifteen days but the bill in fact has almost been put into the cold storage. He promised fifty percent concession on electricity bill to the consumers but later on he fell back out of his promise and restricted this concession upto 400 units only.
The commitment for constituting a task force committee for the safety of women is still awaited and telephonic rapport with the public impractical at all. All these loopholes at the very outset indicate that the AAP does not have even iota of political knowledge and acumen. They are not well acquainted even with the extent of their power. A chief minister, who can not initiate action even against a small police officer on his own, should not talk so confidently of bringing about a cataclysmic change in the country. The changes do not taken place overnight. Such initiatives as to make metamorphic transformations in the system need time, patience, judiciousness, microscopic understanding, pantoscopic outlook and above all a well defined policy. Mr Kejriwal, without bearing any political background, has decided to be the trafficker of political fair. He simply cashed on the reputation of Anna Hazare and the common sentiments and captured power in Delhi and later on committed a suicidal blunder of not only distancing himself from Anna but at times used abusive language for his mentor’s team too. It clearly shows that his designs and styles to show love to the Delhities was in fact a gimmick to switch on to the power chair.
Another blunder he committed was not to set up a liaison with the Center Government which is actually the back bone of Delhi governmental mechanism, and came openly on the logger’s head with the Congress. To the best of my understanding the ultimate motive of a leader should be to do something for his public for which he must be ready to go to any possible extent of compromises and reconciliations. He should not come on to block the roads, Metro railway, and create traffic deadlock worsening the situation for the common masses. No hope for something bigger can be pinned on a government who can’t lift up the finger unless allowed by the center sarkar. Kejriwal should have gone to the public with a medium profile; not have formed the government, gone to the public for Loke Sabha mandate, and waited for the appropriate time to come up. He must also have control over the language he speaks for his senior political colleagues and must desist from using bureaucratic whip to flog the dead horse of India politics. Whatever happened in Dehli has left a crippling effect on the future career of the AAP and it will hurt them in the parliamentary election too.
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