IN NOTIONAL INTEREST Finally, the end of a decade of misrule under UPA 1 and 2 seems quite imminent, with the billion plus democracy waiting to go to the hustings in the summer of 2014. A decade of not only misrule, but of lost opportunities, regression, and complete erosion of whatever little shine Indian economy had gathered. In its wake, the gross misrule also created a strange vacuum that gave a desperate cry for a wave of change, any change . In the decadent cesspool of a degenerated polity, hope is the only alternative available to the electorate to get a whiff of fresh air. By design or default, the rise of AK and birth of AAP coincided with the above backdrop. Arvind Kejriwal, the maverick crusader with a symbolic broom in hand was the perfect mascot fitting into the restless mind-sets of a new generation grown wary of everyone and everything around them. From indolent academicians to bored professionals, from housewives to yesteryear bureaucrats, men and women thronged to join the mesmerising appeal of a graffiti embossed Gandhi topi on head and an oversimplified slogan on lips. AAP, or the aam aadmi seemed to have finally arrived , to clean sweep the entire system by its sheer zest, if nothing else. Alas, slogans and rhetoric rarely lasts beyond their context and use by dates, especially those which happens to be sensational in design and intent. Less than an year from its birth and a month in actual governance, AK and AAP both stands exposed for what they really are—mere vacuum filled with misplaced, immature and perhaps dangerous notions of governance. Ironically, both AK and AAP owe their very existence on the public platform almost entirely to the uncompromising Anna Hazare and his anti corruption movement in 2012. You remove that historical hunger strike by the septuagenarian from the context, and you automatically remove both AK and AAP from the scene. While Anna’s hunger strike gave AK a perfect stage for instant recognition, the prying media through images and sound bytes gave him a pan India coverage, almost 24x7.The leader was thus instantly born, and the opportunity due to vacuum left by UPAs misrule gave the space to the party. To be fair to AK, his impeccable honesty, his enviable academic background and his unwavering sense of purpose for his chosen goal are his stellar attributes which are conspicuously lacking in most politicians today. He is simple in personal choices, straightforward and articulate. But these attributes hardly make a full statesman, leave alone an effective one. These attributes perhaps made him too appealing as a crusader, as an activist, as a courageous protestor who dared to take up cudgels against the high and the mighty ones. With only these attributes, it is Ramlila Maidan, India gate and Jantar Mantar where he belonged, not the hallowed office of CM. AK and AAP unfortunately lacks a coherent political and economical perspective that can be effectively translated into good governance. Their very approach to governance in negatively biased, relying predominantly on quick fix solutions (Read dismissal, arrests, suspension of officials etc) for real life problems that demand cool application of mind and procedures.Anti corruption is certainly an important agenda, but as a man possessed he has unwittingly got himself blinded to other equally important issues,. Here too, if one observes carefully, the main focus is on superficial treatment through the so called lok aayukt legislation, not addressing the disease from deep within. The measures that he advocates to rid the system of corruption are at best deterrence to instil a temporary sense of fear and remains well short of addressing the very eco-system that breeds corruption. Given the ingenuity of the Indian babus and the loopholes in system, the most likely outcome of such measures are mutation of the very nature of taking and giving bribes. From the overt format, it will mutate to the covert format. From cash to kind . From direct means to indirect ones. More virulent it will get in times to come, and resistant to existent therapies, unless he focus simultaneously on multiple fronts(read kkraja3.blog/2012/11/23/anatomy-of-corruption/) As for his and his party’s visible dispositions towards economic agendas and policies, they are different from the terminally toxic nehruvian socialist variety only in terms of toxicity—they are many times more toxic. It is surprising as to how this crucial aspect was lost to many of his high end supporters who represented responsible positions in the corporate world. All the freebees and , doleouts strategies his party adopted have been time tested and misrebly failed by different parties over last six decades. Under the influence and guidance of the likes of Yogendra Yadav( the exJNU leftist intellectual variety) and Dr Binayek Sen (a known naxalite) who form the core thinktank group of AAP, little else is expected. Their economic outlooks and ideas have all the potential to drag India back to those dreadful economic dark ages of perennial shortages, low growth and an overbearing licence permit raj. Yogendra Yadav is a gifted, soft spoken man who can speak with conviction and sell all the toxic leftist ideas that will eventually harm the poor themselves, even though may superficially sound uplifting. Free power and water may garner votes from the ever hungry section of populace conditioned to freebies from the government, but will eventually leave them empty handed once the coffers are empty and no sensible person will come to invest where such reckless policies are in vogue.In the name of equitable distribution, AAP will be eventually left to distribute not wealth and prosperity, but sheer poverty. Such has been the nature of all such socialistic misadventures historically all over the world, sermons from the likes of Amartya sen notwithstanding. Perhaps, AAPs economic policy is one singular reason that they should be exposed for their hollowness and stopped right in their track. There are other in congruent characters that dominate the party like Prashant Bhushan and S Bharti. Although AAP outwardly chose to disassociate from their weird versions of Indian sovereignty in J&K an NE, the party lacks clear visions and perspectives on such important national issues . Lastly, the self righteous, self propagated and the complete lack of constitutional propriety of coherent functioning as a government shall eventually do him and the party in. Anarchy as a disease resides both in the mentality as well as the actions of AK and AAP. The party in general and AK in particular did cash on spectacularly through the tracks of anarchy, but that was when they screamed their throats off from Jantar manta and Ramlila maidan prior to elections. The voters of Delhi are left marooned now, between the empty rhetoric on one side and miserable antics of the party led by the CM himself on other. Governance of our national capital, in short has been held in abeyance thanks to such a bunch of overzealous bigots captivated by their own misplaced notions. In their attempt to change the very grammar of Indian politics, AAP and AK have lost the very script to see the larger picture of governance through cogent, rational perspective that is in tune with modern times . Their professed interests for the aam aadmi, alas, turned out to be notional interest only. kkr
Posted on: Fri, 31 Jan 2014 15:41:28 +0000