Roads to hell are paved with best intentions
- Arvind Kejriwal adorns the front page of news papers today. The smiling engineer is shown reconnecting a disconnected power supply in Delhi. And he calls it 'civil disobedience'. Speechless!
- One of the first things he does after the official announcement of his political party he fires a salvo at Gandhi family, particularly Robert Vadra.
The first moves are very critical in any machinery. Because first actions, just like first impressions are very hard to override and they come to define / benchmark subsequent actions / proposals. And these two being the first two actions from the new party, I can only laugh (and cry) at these projects.
While we admire his intentions of fighting the corruption and black money, he probably has a long way to go before he can fool enough people to get to the kursi. And if these are the trailers of what we can expect, then I am sorely disappointed. I expected much more from him. A better, calculated response that will make him a credible party than something that stands on sensationalism.
Allow me to explain the problem of these two actions.
1. "Civil Disobedience"
Even for a non-Gandhian like me, it is very hard to call Kejriwal's moves and call of action "civil disobedience." This is absolutely no "civil disobedience" but a darn populism. How can connecting the electricity disconnection due to unpaid power bills be called a civil disobedience movement is beyond my comprehension.
For all the practical matters this is a plain theft. Calling a theft as civil disobedience, rationalizing it and encouraging it as a movement among wider masses is gross politics. And such a move should be crushed without delay.
Kejirwal by calling this non-payment of bills as a from of disobedience has laid out the path which is most certainly (and absolutely surely) ruinous to economy and everybody in long run.
If Kejriwal’s first move is so populist, I cannot imagine what his other programs would involve! I would guess, it may have some form of free electricity at some point. I am not going to discuss the impact of subsidies as It is for some other day. However, let me point you to please have a look at Greece and the impact of Greek court’s verdict ruling against discontinuation of basic facilities like electricity and water and its impact of the Greece’s financial health and its subsequent impact on wider population and socio-economic collapse.
2. Robert Vadra
I am really not sure what Kejriwal wanted to attempt except having a shot at some sensationalism to publicize this political efforts. Firstly, this is not ‘news.’ These allegations have been in air for quite sometime now.
It is one thing to allege and other thing to prove. If Kejriwal and his party has any proof against any party, they should go the court and not the media channels. If they have proof of a criminal activity but are not sharing it, it would be an abetment in crime. It was a very bad strategy to go to media, without first going to the court. It reeks of sensational attention-mongering.
I would assume Kejirwal and party have no material evidences except some circumstantial evidences, or anything that would be materially affect the decision in court if either party – Vadra and DLF, were to come with arguments. From a purely logistical view, Kejirwal has accused a private citizen of being involved of corruption.
Going by the above two “first” actions of the party, this party is, in my opinion, has the makings of a anarchist right-wing and a populist party.
It’s actually very sad to see these two moves. I was hoping a much better governance, attitude and approach from the “civil society” party. But these two moves, especially the first one, have definitely put me on the edge. If the new party decides to go along this road, it takes the same road every other party in India have taken to get votes, resulting in the same state of economy we are in right now, or even worse.
Please note, these are early thoughts on the party, which doesn't practically exist too. And also they may, and I hope, change their stance and develop a more mature approach, encompassing the growth and vision for all sections on society based on equitable, democratic rights. But as long as they are being sensationalist and populist, they will not be able to defeat the Pros in this field, and will remain a marginalized player in the polity. Let’s hope the film is better than the trailer.
On the brighter side: Anna Hazare’s complete divorce from any activities of Kejriwal and IAC, will stand in good stead with Anna and will even boost his image as a completely apolitical person and will increase his support base. The fight against corruption will have got its true leader ‘back.’ And is probably unfortunate, that it had to come about this way.
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