Chit b meri, pat b meri, sikka mere b”AAP” ka

I pride myself on being politically aware and active in a nation where it is still considered a dirty dungeon where no one wants to tread. Hence, I was genuinely happy, when the masses in Delhi turned out to vote for the Assembly elections. Notwithstanding the fact that most voters did not know who they were voting for except that it was an AAP candidate. It was a red flag, but I ignored it, thinking it to be the start and that, it may hold the key to change.

I had genuinely not hoped that AAP would get more than 10 seats- that I guessed were enough to keep the ruling (sic) BJP and the other opposition (Congress) on its toes, as AAP would make a fantastic opposition. The results proved me wrong and horribly so- horrible because I know what a fractured mandate can do- (At the national level) we have all seen it in ‘96-’99 and even now, when vested interests decide major policies. The congress promptly tried to corner AAP in a difficult spot, and AAP fell for it- after a high voltage drama.

I am going to list out in numbers my problems with the entire thing for ease of discussion. AAP members, as I have observed, do not answer questions directed at them, but try to take it on a whole lot “holier than thou” level.

1. AAP asked Congress and BJP for BLIND support on 18 points: Anyone who is remotely familiar with legislative process knows that any law comes into force after a lot of debate, our constitution also provides for the same - LS>RS> back to LS for verifying changes and vice versa. Sure, it does take time, but it also ensures that no one is above a collectively empowered parliament. Or else, the Gandhis would have by now declared India a Gandhian sovereign territory piggybacking on their sycophants. By asking for blind support on legislations/ decisions, many of whom were not even presented, AAP was trying to undermine a constitutional consultative process. What if a BJP legislator had a point to be included/ removed from the AAP version of Janlokpal/ Mohalla samitis?

2. Lies and more lies: Since the very start, we have been witnessing a slew of lies from AAP’s stable. I will not even talk about not joining politics, not taking congress support, not in Lok Sabha fray etc. But it gets embarrassing when Kejriwal brings out a letter from the Ugandan embassy and it is found to be a dated internal memo. Our position in the world suffers due to such antics.

http://indianexpress.com/article/india/politics/mea-calls-bluff-support-letter-cm-waved-is-7-months-old-internal-ugandan-note/

3. VIP culture: Yes we are all sick of it, but Mr Kejriwal- the 4000 policemen deployed for your dharna today were part of someone’s security. You might well say that you didn’t ask for it, but the fact is if something went wrong, you would have come out clean saying that Delhi police is not under my control.

As for a house and security, enough has been said already. Im sure great leaders like Lal Bahadur Shashtri and Atal Behari Vajpayee did live in official bungalows, did use official cars, but never did we associate them with extravagance. On the other hand, I know many MP’s who use the MP shuttle (a Maruti Versa van that seats 6 MPs at one time) in the mornings to reach the parliament, and never did they publicise their austerity.

More important than the above, as we can see in the video attached here, the AAP workers are threatening the police saying- “Ap MLA ko marenge?” Surely something is amiss- because in the hurry of fielding 800 candidates, you are enrolling everyone into the party. Is there a common thread- NO?

http://www.ndtv.com/video/player/news/aap-leaders-shout-at-cops-allege-supporters-are-being-detained-beaten-up/306071

4. Statesmanship: The moment AAP’s government was sworn in, they ceased to be a movement and joined the executive. You may surely be angry at the way the system runs, but that is no excuse for saying “Main in policewalo ko dekh lunga?” (AK said this in the interview with Rajdeep Sardesai) The Delhi Police may have its share of issues, but in my opinion, it is still one of the better managed forces. Disagree- try living in Gurgaon/ Ghaziabad, and you will know what I am talking about.

AK demanded suspensions/ transfers of 5 top police officers on account of non performance- meaning they weren’t registering cases on the basis of audio clips. Try taking one such case to a court and see how it falls. The result: The two honest officers that AK wanted to be posted to the ACB went to the governor and refused the appointment. Demoralizing your honest officers is not going to help.

http://indianexpress.com/article/cities/delhi/cm-scales-down-demand-officers-refuse-to-join-acb/

5. Saving your ministers even when they are wrong: I understand the point about your ministers being accessible to the people, but in these cases, they were clearly on the wrong- the law does not  permit the police to barge into anyone’s house, when there are women present. The day you authorise such actions on oral orders, you become another SP in a rural town, where the local minister can dictate the police actions.

Instead of taking actions against your ministers- you go on a televised drama using the rape case of a Danish girl, and your minister twice- against the law -spurts out the names of victims.

6. The last- biting more than you can chew- Even before any concrete work on Delhi has been delivered, the entire brass is busy making claims/ plans about the national election. It will be difficult to get 800 clean and capable candidates in a short period of time, especially when the party has no central ideology to bind people together. So, instead of expanding like Mallya did, be prudent and evolve a central ideology. Anti corruption can not be an ideology, there are many examples of partly corrupt nations that are doing pretty well in the world, for themselves and for their people. Get a backbone, and stick to it.

AAP has become a consortium of smug people, and a borrowed quote summarises it - “Subah ka corrupt agar shaam ko AAP me aa jaye to usey corrupt nahi kehte” My advice would be to take your mandate seriously before the people who voted you in, throw you into oblivion.

We as a nation

Its not the first time that I was hearing this: Iss desh ka kuch nahi ho sakta. But this time it was different. It was not coming from another cubicle bound software engineer, but from someone who left the green meadows to plough the fields back home. A dear friend, who left the relative ease of the corporate world to join scores of aspirants shuttling in and out of various coachings chasing the elusive dream called IAS, was now leaving the country to contribute to the brain drain that we so eloquently talk about.

I sat down to think, what are we doing wrong as a nation. A friend recently told me that in order to become successful, two full generations of a country have to slog hard in difficult times. He cited China, Japan, even Thailand as examples. True! but then which are the two generations that would have to take this mantle. Is it ours. Yes, if not entirely. Our grandparents really did not know how to handle the newly found independence. They did not have the benefit of hindsight, nor was there the money and the expertise of technology. Our fathers did, in some measure have the benefits. Our generation, blissfully has the advantage of technology. An advantage, that belies all other disadvantages we may have as a nation (with the possible exception of internet speed). To be true, I am sometimes amazed looking at the various memes floating on the net. We have exactly the same tastes, preferences, and knowledge as any other of our generation in any country. That is the power of globalization. We can acquire as much knowledge and expertise as required within the comfort of our chairs. I'm not discounting the power of globetrotting, and global education- Im sure it's in my list of to  do's in life as well. But to leave your home country in disgust with an aim to settle abroad surely is a warning bell.

So why are our countrymen turning into people cynical of everything- the corporations, the government, the lowers, the uppers. Just today I read an elaborate article in Open that talked about foreign funding of NGOs and how they are potentially harmful to the country.  Notwithstanding the awesome results from the stable of NGOs of the likes of MKSS, PRS, TERI and CSE- we are still skeptical.  However, where the country should be skeptical, we remain silent. I remember a  dialogue from the movie Oh My God, where one of the priests says-"The problem with people is that they are not God loving, they are God fearing"- They look for ways to please god, in order to get on with life.

Apply the same to our people. We want messiahs or people who would deliver us from all the wrongs in the society. RG may have no idea about the politics of the country- but look at people in the villages, for them he is what will deliver them from their misery. Modi's biggest supporters claim he will ensure transparency/ accountability. What they forget is that bulk of the system will remain comprised of the same people. Palm greasing is and will remain the norm till the people change their minds. A ruthless administrator cannot keep a check on 125 billion people.

Similarly, what we lack is the followup- I can point out certain instances where our anger vanished as soon as the story was off air:

• Anna hazare: All those who were roaming around with "I am Anna" caps last year won't even know where the bill is stuck today.
• Coalgate: The companies are functioning as usual, raking in the moolah
• Helicopter Scam: No body has yet asked the question- What was the Indian government doing all along?
• Vadragate: Last known, he has even got huge land tracts in Rajasthan at throwaway prices (mis)using the National Solar Policy- the BJP is quiet for some reason, and so is the press!
• Italian marines: Went home for Christmas, and will now go home to vote. No chargesheet filed.
• Kudankulam: The brouhaha over, nobody knows the state and fate of the project
• Leave these old timers: I recently read in the papers about the Delhi Rape Case- the victim's friend, who had pointed fingers at the police earlier, now says the police did a good job. Nobody raises a question, and the entire Jantar Mantar attendance is sipping coffee in the cold Delhi winters.

It is such lack of followups that makes the country weaker by the day. Such leaders know it will be a 10 day hoopla over issues, post which they can resume their vote bank politics, the nepotism, and the siphoning off of public money to last an eternity.

I wrote this earlier, but till the point all of us become responsible enough  to ask tough questions, to follow it up with actionable inputs and make this country a better place to be in, we will continue to see the despair in the eyes of the generation that is responsible to make this country a superpower. That invariably, will contribute to the best brains going abroad, and our country being ruled by dumb and corrupt people for atleast another generation- and probably we will miss the bus again!

In quest for a controversy (genuinely)

The internet is a marvellous place. It makes celebrities out of ordinary individuals. It gives people an access power that was once limited to the priviledged. So, a sweet little girl from a small town, who was rejected for Saregama finds 20 lakh fans in a matter of 14 weeks uploading six music videos. Similarly, a girl who could not adjust to her surroundings and started an online rant earned thousands of followers overnight.

I had signed up for Adsense. The wonderful program that makes you earn money for the traffic generated on your site/ blog etc. With this, started my quest for money. The so called marketing specialist in me looked at  all ways to attract people to my site. However, it was not easy. I thought of singing and uploading videos. I soon realised that I would be violating Google's policy of objectionable/ harmful content if I sang. Putting up a solo harmonica show was also considered. This too, was set aside after a few tunes went bust.

I was getting impatient. And then it struck! A controversy was what I needed. It is the easiest way to attract people to you. Start a new rant and the rats follow the piper. So started the genuine search for a controversy.

There were various topics ahead of me. Yes we live in totally controversial times. A critical analysis of all possible topics ensued.

A lot of water has flown from Delhi to Madras in the past one month through various perennial and seasonal rivers.  All the cargo that I wished could reach the exaltic shores of Madras has already reached in good, bad and neutral shapes. Ruled out!

Next was the band of Dr. YumYum Singh (of Twitter fame) and his friends and foes. Of people talking too much and some others remaining tightlipped. Immediately ruled out because of certain other policies that I have to abide by.

How about the historically marginalised and oppressed societies of India? How wronged was the senior IAS official who was surpassed for promotion and then declared himself "historically oppressed". Yes he was! Forced to enter IIT despite a lower rank, then forced to enter IIM, then almost shoved into the IAS and then offered promotions over his peers because he was historically oppressed. I wonder of the quantum of the burden of this history that this person is carrying, to encounter which he had to be offered everything in his life. A mere IIT or an IIM degree do him no good: he needs support throughout. However, had to drop this too as a lot of debate on this has landed us nowhere and some more insights would go unnoticed in the already saturated market.

Moving on to something more interesting, like the cause of women in our society. Similar to the above, they too have been marginalised. So they need a special place everywhere: A coach in the metro where men are beaten up (the oppressors), places in buses and trains, separate queues and yes, guys should pay the bills. We talk of women reservation to the lowest level, but it is not unusual to find a rubberstamp panchayat member who depends on her all powerful husband for all decisions. It almost makes a mockery of the entire representation talk. Here again, women from the elite levels corner almost all sops and leave their oppressed counterparts in the  lurch. They find it worthwhile to fight more for a coach on the metro than the general upliftment across boundaries. But, alas, logic it is and women, those are. Topic dropped!

I thought of IIPM too. However, the prospect of having to defend myself in a faraway court in Assam deterred me. I don't mind travelling to Assam, but the entire legal tangle would wipe away all my Adsense earnings. Dropped!

I moved on to media. Yes, the same media that asks a crying gentleman, "How do you feel?", and act genuinely surprised when he cries even more. The same media which publishes the news of an actress' pregnancy above the strategic dialogue that may change how we live forever. The same media that generates controversies to cash in on them. And then it rang: Was I becoming one of it? Yes, said the mind. The entire idea dropped!

But it did leave me with a striking thought: Have we beaten to death all major issues and yet found no solutions for any of them? If 60 years after independence we are still fighting for reservations, for representation, we have not attained the "Dream Country" our fighters aspired for. We have instead become a mute and meek society that discusses issues and goes to bed thinking we have done a good job. The good job, alas, is not our job, right!

(Views are personal. Image courtesy: Callmistry)