Second opinion

No wonder, looking at the recent developments with the aam aadmi party, it is natural to feel that they are self-proclaimed-idealists, leftists, opportunists, cowards, B team of BJP/congress, anti-industry, delhi centric, dramebaaz, feku. There is no harm in looking at the freshly created party with conjecture. Also, it is but obvious to feel disappointed by them when they failed to bring the janlokpal bill in delhi, when they attacked vehemently the Gujarat development model, when they made allegations against some corrupt politicians and did not follow through. The feeling of betrayal against AAP when we see a senior party leader discussing what to show and what not to show in his interview with the anchor is nothing but natural. However, it doesn’t’ take much time to introspect and think over it- What exactly is the thing that this party, created by people-of people lacks and where there is the scope for improvement.

                  The party lacks experienced candidates to contest in elections. True. Because it was formed only fifteen months ago and had contested in only one state assembly election. Wait, but they formed government there and brought anti-corruption helpline and.. (list of works AAP did through Delhi government in 49 days). It won’t be wrong if we count this as ‘experience’.

There are things or two to consider before we talk about lack of experience. British had experience of ruling the country for 150 years and Nehru had none. Still, we preferred handing over the control of India to the inexperienced Indians. Why? Because we knew that a common man in India has the potential to run this country through democratic system of governance. Though we were not sure about ability of our leaders to make the India of our dreams a reality, we were confident that the youth of India has the ability to create miracles when they are included in government through universal adult suffrage.

               

              Yes, we had hopes and hence we had taken the chance. Now the time has come to revise our system. People reaped the right to elect their own leaders through voting sixty six years ago, as they were sure that their representatives will serve their purpose best when we support them. Today however, we need to add mere one more step to this. Showing support to the representatives is not enough. Helping them achieve the goals set by government through public participation and keeping a watch on functioning of state so that no mafia takes control over it, is to be seen as the voluntary responsibility of citizens. For this, we need leaders who will listen to us. Better, if they are the ones among us. So let’s look at this- (candidates who care for people)

                Every citizen needs to have a role in taking administrative decisions of public interest. For this we will require rule of people, ‘Swaraj’. Meaning of this- for example, we need mohalla sabhas to get opinion of citizens on various issues so that public decisions are taken by people, with the help of leaders. (Telengana Bill passed behind closed doors in Lok Sabha)

There is an idea of self-rule by people, worth having a look at- ‘how we can be a part of government’. To express the views in this regard, provisions of which were asserted as the manifesto of IAC campaign by Anna Hazare during the JanLokpal movement, is absolutely necessary. Diverting from the center of party ideology, which is Swaraj may lead to dereliction by again, people of this country and this indeed is an area for improvement.

             This graffiti made by me three years ago makes much more sense today than ever. Who said the problems of India will be solved just by electing honest and capable candidates to parliament? They are wrong. The responsibility of citizens cannot and should not end here. Everyone believes that politics is filthy and you need to be stubborn and tough enough to be in it. But how much time we take out to think about the freedom struggle, which was more or less incarnation of common people and their efforts to bring freedom to their motherland? All over the world, people have shown that will power of mass of individuals makes impossible things possible. ( by the way Dan Brown agrees with this, in his book ‘The lost symbol’, must read! )

             A common man should get credit for the positive developments in society which eventuate as a result of their collective thinking. (http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/caught-in-sting-two-up-leaders-sacked-from-aap/article5814655.ece)  (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25mG_qHWcfA) Though the tough step was taken by a party, the credit goes to public. Because, it is the positive pressure created by people which eventually reflects in decisions of leaders. The party might be doing it for political gains, but there are the civilians who scrutinize the moves of political players, keep a watch on them and assert them to take the right path. There is a scope for improvement when we conceive here that nominating only and only honest candidates will get firm backing by the aam janta whom they are fighting for.

             Sometimes, while forming an opinion based on a statement, we take short-cuts. This is human tendency and there is absolutely nothing wrong in it. But disadvantage of these short-cuts is that we miss the whole picture. We solely need to understand the meaning of a statement rightly. In other words, looking at both sides of a coin. When a news channel anchor proclaims- "to say that millions of people studied JanLokpal bill and then came out on street to demand for it to be passed, is wrong." In one instant, the immediate interpretation of these words comes out to be – “no one cared about JanLokpal bill, everyone was out on street because of anger against corruption”. But if we stay here for an instant and look at it again, we realize that it indicates to something else too. The other side of coin reads that- indeed there were people who cared for JanLokpal bill (not everyone though) and came out enthusiastically on streets to support it! The moment we will be able to see the positive side of such statements, we realize where we have scope for improvement.

               The one thing that easily escaped the attention of public was that, the funding AAP gets for running this mission is cent percent coming from legitimate sources. It is a great victory for people when they have enabled the candidates to campaign and contest elections with pure white money. It gets enormous weight in a country like India where there was no accountability for party financing and nobody even cared for it, as we assumed very conveniently that you need ‘connections’ to contest elections. (https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=701438936588330) We had made up our mind that without truckload of cash, we can’t get elected. But thanks to the people of Delhi, they showed us what can be done by a party with donation of rupees twenty crores by public and their ceaseless support for honest politics. (http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2013-12-26/news/45592936_1_delhi-assembly-elections-aap-delhi-polls) It blows our minds when we see that an extraordinary thing was done by an ordinary party- They stopped taking donations when the target of rupees twenty crores was met. Unthinkable thing in Indian politics! Extending the sincere appreciation to people, for accentuating the power of honesty, does have a scope for improvement here.

                    The leaders of AAP have often changed their decisions. Bad. Very bad. But can be a positive interpretation of it? Being flexible(opposite of STUBBORN?) is one thing, being fake nice to people and then talking shit about them behind their back is another. If you're truly being FLEXIBLE then you're not being two faced, you're just being mature.