Dear Mr. Kejriwal,
I am an aam aadmi. Let me
begin by congratulating you on the impressive political debut your party has
had in the state of Delhi. It’s not been an easy state to contest in, and we
know that. Your government has been in power in the state for just over half a
month. I know yours is a rookie party and you guys hardly have any
administrative or governance experience. That is definitely a big negative for
you and you unfortunately cannot change it. You’ve generated a lot of hysteria
in the voters of this country, which is why you’re right in the middle of the
media glare, twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. Every little thing
your government or any office bearer does becomes news. I know you’re aware of
the tremendous public scrutiny your team will now have to live with. Some of
your party leaders – at the time when you stormed into the power corridors of
Delhi – had asked the media to follow your government and criticize whenever
necessary. The media, I must say, hasn’t disappointed you. You have all of a
sudden eaten up much of the Modi-space in the media coverage. You’re suddenly
someone people want to get more of. I know these are early days and hence I
shouldn’t apply the ‘morning shows the day’ proverb just yet. In this letter,
however, I want to talk about your national ambition, and what I as an aam
aadmi think of it.
I don’t care about the
freebies you’ve distributed in the form of electricity or water. I’ll not judge
you by that. In the context of the Lok Sabha elections, this doesn’t matter
simply because you cannot run India on freebies. Consumption of natural
resources should be backed by strong pro-people policies, and we don’t know
even a single policy or strategy that your party has vis-à-vis what matters to
India in 2014 and beyond. You going national is not as much the concern as is
the timing. I agree, if you don’t jump into the electoral pool right now, you
may have to wait for another five years. But why should the people of India
trust your ability? Wasn’t Delhi supposed to be your laboratory where you
‘experiment’ and prove to us that you’ve delivered? You’ve not yet understood
the problems of the state, you’ve hardly had the time to demonstrate
administrative acumen, you’re going to the public for just about everything
fueling speculations that you don’t know how to govern and what to do!
A more alarming development
is your vision of expanding the party cadre base across the country with an eye
on the Lok Sabha polls. Surely, elections are all about numbers. But what about
the ethos and ideology of your party? When you go on such a frantic ‘mass
recruitment’ drive, can you assure why the quality of the people coming in to
your party will not be compromised with? You have a member of your party,
Captain Gopinath, who’s been fiercely protesting against some of your policy
decisions of late, and he says he hasn’t even read the party manifesto! That is
such a laughable tragedy; how could the party in the first place offer him
membership if he hadn’t read the manifesto? You’ve recently been joined by many
prominent personalities from various cross sections of the society. The only factor
that has united them is your anti-corruption plank. I hope you realize that is
just one of a hundred things you should be clear about when you dream of
governance or serving India. Each of these new entrants hails from a different
school of thought. While they’ll agree with you on your anti-corruption stands,
you’ll find it impossible to contain them to your party’s position on issues
concerning India, be it economy, foreign affairs, national security, jobs etc.
I’ve been a proud aam aadmi
for whom your Delhi victory was more his than yours. I’ve supported you in
every way I could, from exercising my franchise to coming out to the streets. I
nearly gave you a mandate to govern my state. For a party which is still being
born, how do you convince me that your national aspiration will not kill
Delhi’s desires? You and I have dreamt of a corruption-free India; but should
it not be at a sustainable pace? Why do I believe that you’re not in a mad
hurry to grow inorganically? If you’re still on a learning curve, how do you
justify the timing of your Lok Sabha plans especially when your government
clearly has been struggling every day to deliver even simple office work?
In the end, Mr Kejriwal, I’m
an aam aadmi, and I believe in cause and effect. I understand you’re dying to
capitalize on the mass frenzy all over India, but please remember that if you
fail to govern Delhi to the satisfaction of its residents, you’ll not only not
be forgiven, you’ll soon become part of yesterday even before you could
properly script your today. I want you to ponder upon your priorities and act
accordingly. All the best!
Truly,
An aam aadmi
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