“Kitne baazu, kitne sar, gin le dushman dhyan se, haarega woh har baazi
jab khelein hum jee jaan se” went the lyrics of the 1989 not-so-popular
film, Main azaad hoon. Protagonist,
Azad played by Amitabh Bacchan hits out at the sorry state of affairs and lands
up wrangling with none other than the baddies of our life, the politicians. Before
being slammed by charges of being invidious, let’s make it clear that what lies
at the heart of this plunge is to understand that yes our country is in fact
witnessing a peculiar kind of churning, whether we are inching towards our
ambitious goals of overtaking the world by 2020 or recapitulating back to the
political tumults of the 70s is something which shall become clear with every
passing day.
According to the journalist,
Ashok Malik, the ongoing phase is in fact India’s share of gilded age when the
robber barons and wily political honchos are being challenged publically like
never before. America endured it in the years preceding 1900 and has been able
to cover many loopholes ever since. Though, Chomsky might pop with yet another
blooper committed by the helmsmen, thanks to the travails of the War on Iraq,
not to forget the 2008 recession and growing joblessness among the American
youth. Times here in India are truly charged up in a similar fashion. At the
center of it all is a former bureaucrat who is the Indian avatar of Julian
Assange, unleashing slurry of exposes and irregularities at every level, with both
the National level parties landing in a soup like never before.
Turmoil like these is however not
new for India, for quite long a phenomenon that has recurred is the emergence
of a party by grouping of the Congress dissenters. JB Kriplani’s Kisan Majdoor
Praja Party (KMPP) in 1951, Rajaji’s Swatantra Party in 1959, Jagjivan Ram’s
Congress for Democracy (CFD) in 1977 and the more famous ones being the
Congress (O) and Congress (R) in 1969 (with O standing for the old guard being
led by Morarji Desai and R standing for the requisitionist or the loyalists of
Indira Gandhi), these were factions that wanted to be released from the
clutches of the Congress. Arvind Kejriwal in that sense seems to come with no
baggage at all. He’s not here to settle any scores the rabble rouser is at the
moment making the most of the OB vans to turn the electoral tide in his favor.
The vision statement of his party
is nothing less than a soft board replete with many thought provoking stick-on
leaflets. It talks about Direct Democracy, getting rid of red beacons for the
wining candidates as also establishing the Lokpal, the original idea from where
it all began. Now all this might give an ordinary citizen a high for a while
one should know that handling the odds of a highly pluralistic society like
India has never been that easy.And unfortunately the unnamed party's vision is nowhere near to suggesting the cure of all ills. His supporters might argue for some more time as the process of building base at the grass root level has just begun. Fair enough only as long as the audience is not bored of the tamasha called public expose.
So yes my mind does echo the concerns that Mr.
Kejriwal should start pitching in his ideas on building the nation. A faint
possibility might be that perhaps all that paraphernalia is being saved for the
2014 campaign, would be waiting for you signor IAC!
Arvind is the cynosure of byte
collectors these days for the RTI revolutionary has a lot to spell out other
than Kejri-leaks. The only achievement of Kejriwal Inc. shall lie in breaking
the omerta of the political circle, that being not to raise a finger at the
Gandhi clan, it’s not even half the battle won. Remember our 24*7 channels have
recently given us the food for thought, why not have debates in India in
Romney-Obama style! Before we can really head towards that, political aspirants
as also those who are veterans, you got to have some substantive policies,
issues and remedial measures to debate upon. A Candy Crowley for that matter might
be stupefied by the hilarious comments our political champs make about
sensitive issues such as rape and denigrate women with their archaic outlook.
The battalion of muckrakers should also be aware of the fact that these are the times of coalition politics. Caste still dominates the voter's mind when his index finger is inked. Corruption might not be a relevant issue for every section of the billion population. So the troupe of Kejriwal would have to diversify their approach and harp upon offshoots of red tape, may be even a few unrelated courses too. Definitely, the guttersnipe has a long way to go,as the 3rd rate people watch in anticipation.
