The AAP guys have become heroes overnight for winning the elections with a scary number beyond imagination. Aravind Kejriwal, who is called the coordinator instead of supremo, is himself at a loss of wit as to what could have happened to have the colossal opponent BJP decimated so stunningly. When Kejriwal Chief Minister with support from the Congress at the end of 2013, people outside Delhi had imagined he would be eaten up by the then ruling Congress. But Kejriwal began in right earnest what he thought was right, got into huge problems and eventually had to quit.
Delhi is a most peculiar Indian State. It does not have a police force of its own. So, in matters of crime control and prevention, as much in restoring law and order, it seeks support of the Union Government, Which controls the police force. That naturally makes a political outfit a body without arms. Successive Governments, essentially servile, never demanded installation of the arm that manages crime situations.
Kejriwal is no upstart. He is an IITian, has bagged a Magasaysay award for social work and has led epoch-making mass movements to eradicate corruption. What most people have never realised is a fact that Anna Hazare, despite being a great social worker, had never attained the elevated status of being a great Gandhian until Kejriwal projected him as one. People got to know Anna as the greatest living Gandhian. Persons like Kiran Bedi and Swami Agnivesh started defaming Kejriwal behind his back. They levelled charges of dictatorial ways against Kejriwal and that he exploited the innocent old man Anna to gain name and fame.
The movement to bring in place a lokpal Bill to benefit never came up in Parliament. When Kejriwal found all the big techniques exhausted, he suggested the political elections as a way out, to which mostly-ignorant and partly-innocent Anna Hazare did not agree, believably coming under pressure from Kejriwal detractors within the fold. Anna preached nonviolence and patience in an age of guile and machination. Anna said elections breed corruption. No one remembered the history books. Anna and Arvind parted ways.
Kiran Bedi, the first woman IPS officer, had become an iconic figure since long. She too had bagged the Magasaysay for superb jail reforms. Unfortunately, however, she erred on a few fronts. She got her daughter admitted into a medical college on a false declaration. Bedi and Kejriwal said quits to each other and went their way. People tended to believe that Bedi would remain a great activist for all times and keep off elections. Kejriwal has never been hypocritical. He decided to form a political outfit, the Aam Aadmi Party. His think tank did marvellous by naming the outfit so catchy. They fought the 2013 elections and struck gold. But the system was not in favour. Sixty per cent of the Delhi population is poor. The slums they live in are without basic amenities. Besides, even the conscious middleclass communities experiencing rampant corruption at all levels were keen to have a saviour of some kind. They saw one in the AAP. Arvind managed to become Chief Minister but kicked the post as he could do no good especially in matters of grave law and order crises. Political opponents called him names. The so-called
Indian intelligentsia went on heaping blame and bad name on him for quitting as a coward. Everyone thought Kejriwal is finished forever.
When the general elections came, Kejriwal pitted candidates all over the country against established politicians. He lost because his beauty was not known outside Delhi. The poor and the middleclass communities had felt the effects of Kejriwal reforms in Delhi where he made water and electricity affordable by uprooting corrupt elements overnight. It was amusing when Kejriwal removed beacon lights from atop most vehicles and chose to live in an ordinary small house. The people at large found in him a demigod, but before he could be hailed as hero, he was gone. The Delhi people were eagerly waiting for him to reappear. Kejriwal made a very fundamental thing clear: that all stereotype politicians were corrupt and power-hungry. When Anna told him fighting elections would require astronomical sums of black money, Kejeiwal tried to convince him that if the people are approached and told the truth, everything was possible. Anna could not believe him.
Interestingly, Kiran Bedi, a hater of elections jumped at the opportunity offered to her by the BJP, hoping the colossally successful BJP would make her CM. She could not make out that the BJP victory in the general elections was more out of public disgust against the Congress.
The Delhi election outcome is good enough cautioning for the BJP falsely basking in the glory of default success. The Congress had been finished earlier. The BJP, which erroneously imagined it was on the high horse, has to do a massive introspection. The Kejriwal effect is very likely to affect the whole nation and soon enough. That good people without money can fight elections successfully is now a strong conviction in the minds of suffering middleclass who actually make things happen. The dramatic results of the Delhi elections do not indicate Congress is punished heavily. It clearly shows the people have lost faith in the Modi-led BJP. The Vajpayee-Advani led BJP was a completely different outfit with a few street-smart fundraisers who ultimately destroyed the party by arrogantly launching a campaign called 'India Shining'. The campaigns and other big progeammes were designed in the luxury of five-star hotels, which never went well with the masses.
Similarly, Modi talks of big corporates making in India and big enterprises setting up shops in the poor country to benefit the filthy rich only. Not much is in sight for the poor like employment, agriculture and health apart from broader issues of social security and dignity. It is also rumoured that big corporate operators influence and guide him more than people's woes and anxieties. Just to mention, during Obama's visit the media captured Modi with highly expensive designer's suits with his own name embroidered in mini stripes, which is just not acceptable in a country where forty per cent of the population go hungry due to lack of employment. Modi never said he was sorry.
Kejriwal has demonstrated a great sense magnanimity. He has told the BJP that unlike them, he would recognise them as the opposition party in the Assembly and accord all the protocol-based facilities. Further, he would provide a backup team of twenty members from the ruling AAP to help the BJP embolden the opposition group. That would ensure no arrogant monopoly status to the ruling AAP.
Kejriwal has definitely displayed great sense of democracy. The BJP and other parties have to learn a lot from him. BJP president Amit Shah has to wake up appropriately as he had abused and beat Kejriwal to dust in public meetings without persuading Modi to face a public debate which Kejriwal had called. All erring political parties of India must be reorganising themselves now for quality reforms just to survive.
A small tale of philanthropy should not be missed. One Siba Sankar Jena of Sukinda of Jajpur district of Odisha runs a teashop in the Maharaja vending zone of Bhubaneswar near the Acharya Vihar area of the chaotic city. Siba is a poor guy who could never go to school due to abject poverty. But he understands people's woes. He is worried about women and children in distress. He is very anxious to do something for prevention of child and woman trafficking. He makes about a couple of hundred rupees for a meagre living. On the last Republic Day, he called the vendors association secretary and expressed his desire to make a donation from saving over a couple of years.
Without fanfare and trumpeting, he shyly handed over a sum of 16,124 rupees to be sent to the Prime Minister's Relief Fund. No big guy came to sing his praise nor did any social worker say aloud that Siba is a great source of inspiration. The NGO pretenders need to come for apprenticeship under Siba Sankar Jena.
(The writer is a core member of Transparency International, Odisha)