Changing times in Delhi

(28 Dec 2013)

Arvind Kejriwal taking oath as Delhi’s youngest ever Chief Minister at the sprawling Ram Leela maidan is a moment of pride for each one of us, for it is symbolic of the coming of the ‘aam aadmi’ which we all are. It’s not been an ordinary assembly election, and how the party has so far done what they’ve done is far from being conventional. Of significant importance is the fact that despite the party coming second to the BJP, the electorate actually thought they had ‘won’! Such has been the magic of AAP.

It is for political pundits to debate whether AAP benefited from the strong anti-Congress wave that was so clearly visible across all the four big states that recently went to the polls. Some may also mourn that AAP has created a dent in the BJP’s otherwise clean sweep of all the other assemblies. Let all of this logic rest in peace for now!

What is far more historic in a sense is that in a country whose mainstream political class has for decades silenced its people’s basic rights through a shameful demonstration of all sorts of anarchism, it is still possible to awaken masses and galvanize them to force a change long aspired but long forgotten. This fairytale success of a political party which is still in its infancy and which has constantly been challenged for its unconventional methods in reaching out to people and engaging them in decision making, is a classic proof that the voter of the largest democracy in the world can no longer be taken for granted. The voter has been taken for a not so rosy ride by the political establishment of the country and as a result he had almost forgotten that an alternative is indeed possible. He’s now woken up and ensured that his voice through exercising voting rights was heard!

Many experts would say it is just too early to write a political obituary of the conventional way of doing politics in India. Yes, they’re absolutely right. The tiny Delhi state elections cannot be equated to the mighty Lok Sabha polls, and with less than five months to the run up to the big day, AAP may find it extremely difficult to replicate the Delhi wave across the country, primarily because they’ll be pitted against the biggies of money power and institutionalized political fraternities.

But, every revolution starts with a few brave and selfless men and women. So has this one. The Delhi elections, unlike what many say, were not fought on local issues. Corruption is not an issue only in Delhi; price rise hasn’t impacted only the people of Delhi; water and electricity are amongst the most burning national issues. It hit the right chord with the electorate because this is the kind of issues AAP highlighted. They did not promise color televisions or a Ram temple.

The new government in Delhi may not run for long, especially with the public perception of the Congress capable of pulling the plug on AAP any time. With AAP promising that they will go after all corrupt officials across party lines, Congress may not find it amusing to be seen as ‘supporting’ them, albeit from outside. The new government will anyway not have plenty of time to bring in new policies as the model code of conduct is due soon, but if they can through speedy delivery prove to the people of the country that what they promised isn’t mere pre-election speech as has been the culture so far, they’ll score a winning point. The Congress will, on the other hand, be extremely wary of annoying the public again, knowing well that public sympathy at the moment is strongly in favor of Arvind Kejriwal’s party.

I congratulate the people of Delhi for the courage they’ve shown to come out of the conventional shell and for being the pioneers of what could one day become the catalyst of a new India. I believe if you could do this, so can rest of India. Good luck! 

AAP: What Next?

(17 Dec 2013)

Despite the unquestionably clean intention behind all the tall promises made by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) before the Delhi legislative assembly elections, what has all throughout remained unclear is just how Arvind Kejriwal and his team would deliver these. Kejriwal time without count in all public and media appearances he made before the polls reiterated that even though his team was largely inexperienced in politics or administration, they would fulfill the promises armed with the right intention (‘niyat’ in Hindi). Although this may be perceived as an abstract plan for achieving some really high targets, people of Delhi have trusted AAP and almost voted them in. The debut they’ve had cannot be termed anything short of historic. It has clearly been more spectacular than even team Kejriwal would have imagined. And, that precisely is the problem for them today!

It is factual truth they don’t have clear majority and they aren’t the single largest party. If it was the anti-defection law era, the BJP, by virtue of being the party with most number of seats, would have aggressively participated in horse trading and Dr. Harshvardhan would be the Delhi chief minister now. Times have changed. Political parties have realized that the voters aren’t as foolish as they perhaps were earlier. There has been a strong anti-corruption wave in Delhi and political parties understood the importance of projecting a ‘clean’ face in their political transactions and dealings. Thanks to all this, BJP expressed its inability to form the government, and the next obvious constitutional choice was AAP. Now, this is where it gets really tricky for AAP.

Quite expectedly, both Congress and BJP are mounting pressure on AAP to ‘form’ the government with outside support from them. They’ve started attacking the party for what they call avoiding responsibility. Kejriwal’s team have maintained that they do not have decisive people’s mandate, and also due to the stark ideological differences with Congress and BJP, they won’t form an alliance for the sake of governing the state. Quite sadly for AAP, many who voted for them have started questioning Kejriwal on why he, despite being offered ‘unconditional’ support by Congress and ‘constructive’ support by BJP, is reluctant to take charge of the state. Honestly, all that people are worried about and interested in is for AAP to fulfill its poll manifesto. After all, in addition to the anti-corruption stand of the party, it is their promises of significantly subsidized delivery of essential services like electricity and water that have aroused the keenness in voters.

Until now, it’s been a winning plot for AAP. But what is next for them? Other political parties have already started going to the electorate with theories of AAP cheating them, of AAP not being serious about fulfilling their democratic commitments, of AAP shying away from responsibility. Many ardent supporters of AAP have started voicing their displeasure with Kejriwal’s – what some would say – delay tactic by indulging into the unique yet superlatively funny SMS voting!

One only hopes that by doing all it has been doing in the last few days, AAP is not plotting a political hara-kiri! 

Why Congress needs the Gandhis

(16 Oct 2013)

Long known is the fact that the Congress party would fall apart like a pack of cards if its powerhouse was to be decentralized. The Nehru-Gandhi ‘dynasty’ since India’s independence has been the default custodian of the party. All decisions have always been taken from en extremely small power corridor in Delhi. Any party-worker nurturing political aspirations must consistently display vivid evidence of loyalty to the country’s ‘first family’ to be considered for a promotion within the Congress rank and file. Let’s look at a Congress party minus the Gandhis.

The dwindling fortunes under the presidentship of Sitaram Kesri was a difficult time for the Congress party; several of their leaders openly revolted against Kesri’s leadership capabilities. Sonia  Gandhi, who was till then a permanent absentee from the Indian political strata, was approached by party workers; she joined them and soon became their president. Congress, to people of India, had always been a party that was synonymous to a particular surname, having seen Nehru, Indira and Rajiv rule the country. Sonia did not have any political background; she had until then never shown political acumen. She however had the name! She not only turned Congress fortunes in her favor, she could also almost single-handedly win the 2004 Lok Sabha elections. That stamped the emergence of Sonia Gandhi.

Mass leaders aren’t born overnight, unless of course you are a Gandhi. The problem is not with the family, the problem is with people who still haven’t forgotten the tales of the British ruled India. Our people have a sadist attraction towards monarchy. They have a deep-rooted desire – mostly unknown to themselves – to be ruled by a dynasty. It’s easy escape for them to somehow surrender their fate to a throne and seek salvation. How else do you explain the omnipresent reverberation of the ‘hope’ that one day Priyanka Gandhi – who’s only campaigned for the party and has done nothing more – could take the center-stage if Rahul proves a burst bubble? How else do you understand the craze amongst people for certain individuals of a family who have not only not been impacted ever by the common man’s issues, but have also not done anything for the society?

A monarch would never tell his people, ‘Do not listen to me. Throw me out.’ Everyone enjoys the attention, the following, the madness and the adulation. Especially if you don’t have to ‘earn’ it. 

Congress however needs someone from the family to be in charge. It is only in a party like this where an 81-year-old Prime Minister can declare openly how much he’s dying to work ‘under’ a 40-something boy. If Congress is to survive in the Indian political space, it would for a long time to come need a Gandhi face at the helm of party affairs. Until such day when they run out of faces, it would be loyalty over merit, proximity over experience, and mind over brain! 

And Now... The Ordinance Drama

(28 Sep 2013)

The Union Cabinet showed a never-before type of a hurry in overturning the Supreme Court’s verdict against convicted lawmakers. While the intent behind bringing this Ordinance was clear as a crystal, the timing was seen as just appropriate to save UPA’s long-standing ally Lalu Yadav who faces conviction by a court in the multi-crore fodder scam. The Ordinance, however, had to be signed off by the President. Pranab Mukherjee is a man of high political acumen. While he may still have affection for a party he dedicated his life to, he reportedly expressed his discomfort with the legalities of the Ordinance. Some of the tall leaders within Congress too quietly opposed the Ordinance.

And then this happened. Our heir apparent, Congress number two, Rahul Gandhi para-dropped on a press conference originally not organized for this crash landing. In an utterly foolish display of lack of understanding of and respect for the democratic system, he urged in rather unusually strong words that the Ordinance should be ‘torn and thrown’.

While it’s obvious that most of the party leaders now will applaud Rahul’s charisma and hunger for a corruption-free political system, the fact is, Manmohan Singh, despite being repeatedly dubbed as a dummy PM, has never been so openly rubbished by his own party. Dr. Singh and his government now have egg on their face, thanks to a statement that originally was a photo op PR exercise, at a time when it was almost widely understood that the President was set to return the Ordinance. Not even the dumbest of the voters will believe that an Ordinance of this gravity was passed and sent to the President without prior consent from Sonia and Rahul. Isn’t Congress a party that for every silly matter keeps referring to the High Command?

Manmohan Singh, despite being used to the style of functioning of his party, will find it difficult to explain to the country how the Vice President of Congress openly dares the Prime Minister of India and pretends prior ignorance!

Rahul the kid obviously doesn’t understand what he has said, or why how he has done what he has done is immensely laughable. He talks of a utopic India but does not tell us how he plans to join the dots with the real India. Rahul, shall we the people of the country bring in an Ordinance that mandates you to grow up?

BJP MODIfied

(14 Sep 2013)

The long drama has finally ended with the BJP anointing Narendra Modi as their PM candidate for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. For every political observer and analyst, the developments in the last few months have been nothing short of potboilers even though the last scene of the melodrama had long been known!

Many would for years to come remember L K Advani as not only one of the founding pillars of what today BJP is, not only as someone who mentored the rise and rise of Modi, not only as their ‘iron man’, but also as the man who was an eternal ‘PM-in-waiting’ candidate. The closest he would ever consider himself to the coveted job was when he played Atal Behari Vajpayee’s deputy. Is this then an obituary of the illustrious political career of the patriarch? A rationalist would perhaps guess so.

What does this mean for BJP now? Narendra Modi has long been seen as someone who does not believe in the philosophy of a ‘number two’. He has been the Numero Uno in his own right. He has crushed many a political aspiration en route to his nomination yesterday. But is it really fair to blame Modi for how he does what he does? Not quite.

Although BJP claims to have some great leaders in their rank and file, it is no secret to the informed lot of the country that after Vajpayee and Advani, there probably was no one who came even a distant third. Advani – who is 85 now – as BJP’s PM candidate failed to galvanize the masses to vote for the lotus brigade in the previous Lok Sabha elections. Modi on the other hand has been an exceptionally successful leader in selling his Gujarat ‘growth & development’ story to the youth of the country. He is tech savvy, he has connected well to the youth, he has dared the Prime Minister to face him in a presidential-style debate, he has traveled extensively throughout the country, and he has projected himself as a potential alternative to some sections of the population at a time when the UPA is plagued by a series of scams. He has by far emerged as the powerhouse of the BJP, someone that the party can bank upon when they seek people’s mandate next year, and when they get into what many call the ‘semifinal of sorts’ in the form of the assembly elections later this year.

Some voices from within the party have resented the elevation of Modi to this level, calling him a ‘polarizing leader’ even within his own party. They believe, charity, for Modi indeed began at home, in 2002 when he almost lost his job in the wake of allegations of not doing enough to control the Gujarat riots. Modi still has blood stains on his face. But BJP, backed strongly by the RSS, could not have risked an ageing and often ‘rebellious’ Advani as the PM candidate, nor could they think of an equally popular leader who could be coronated. Many political pundits would say the timing for BJP in naming Modi could not have been better, with a still-confused Congress party not sure of officially announcing a reluctant Rahul Gandhi as their mascot, and some politically important states going to the assembly polls shortly.

It remains to be seen how the BJP reaches out to its allies, after suffering a bitter marriage break-up with Nitish Kumar’s JD(U), and convinces them to support the Narendra Modi-led party in the elections. Considering the volatile nature of coalition politics, while some may back out citing discomfort with Modi’s track record, there may be some parties that will not mind riding the popularity wave and joining the NDA bandwagon. Only time will tell if Modi will continue to be as authoritative and as ruthless as he has been in his home turf, now that he has assumed a national role and he has to work with a battery of senior national leaders like Sushma Swaraj.

As for L K Advani, we will miss him. Even though the BJP on paper calls him their ‘tallest leader’, we know who the new king is! 

Open Letter to Dr Manmohan Singh

(8 Sep 2013)

That you’d openly recommend Rahul Gandhi – someone who’s half your age, one-tenth your caliber, and one-hundredth your experience – as your preferred choice for the Prime Minister’s job in 2014 was no surprise. But Dr. singh, did you realise you scaled the highest order of shamelessness when you offered your gratitude to be able to work ‘under him’? Guessing the answer is a no-brainer.

It defies every logic known to humans that can explain how this person who has no understanding at all of politics or the political system or issues facing today’s youth, can be your ‘leader’, whereas he’s repeatedly proved how worthless he is even as a ‘follower’ of his own mother. He had a rather filmy parachute landing onto the political spectrum, much in line with his family tradition. He’s failed miserably in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar in galvanising the youth, something he’s been proclaiming as his highest priority within the Congress machinery. He’s hardly made any public appearances as a ‘speaker’ and he’s almost never faced the press to communicate what solutions he would love to propose to the country. He is either always missing from the parliament when it’s in session, or he is dumb as the dead if he’s in there.

Dr. Singh, the people of the country want to know your projected ‘leader’ better. They have millions of questions they’d love to ask him. They want to know what his plans for them are. Where does he live? Neither India nor Bharat seems to know where he is! Gone are the days when you could fool people with photo-stunts like spending a night with a ‘dalit’ family or boarding the public transport for a travel.

Mr. Prime Minister, please be advised that you’re still the leader of the country. We know you’ve got used to these practices, but then please have a secret conversation with your conscience and ask it if it knows where your true dignity lies. Everyone knows you won’t be the next Prime Minister of India, but do you understand that the best thing you can do to restore chunks of your lost valor is to take ‘sanyas’ from politics after your term in the office?

We could still remember you not only as the weakest Prime Minister of all times, but also as someone who listened to his conscience, albeit too late! 

(Written on 8th Sep 2013, after Manmohan Singh openly announced he would be happy to work under Rahul Gandhi, who he thought was a great PM material)