This is quite a controversial notion to dissociate with a phenomenon that most people consider to be a positive wind of change within the country. It quite possibly might be the biggest phenomenon that India might have seen post Independence, and therefore the views that are going to be shared here are going to be quite unpopular. At the outset, views are strictly personal and is what I derived and understood with my limited capability. It is not meant to offend, but if it does, I really couldn't help but say " I feel your pain, but you should really think before you claim and speak".
Cheers to the brickbats!
One always writes and speaks comedy in times of mass hysteria - V.S. Naipaul
The day of 28th December, a strikingly beautiful cold Delhi morning, brought news that a certain common man, would ascend to legendary status. A man who battled the odds, braved the
intellectuals, the stalwarts of politics and psephology, and managed to capture the fantasy of every self righteous proud Indian. A man who broke off the tag of being second fiddle to the movement started two years ago, and dove head first into the muck that was Indian Politics.
Arvind Kejriwal was to become the youngest Chief Minister in Delhi
The fever, the frenetic pace, the hype and the hoopla surrounding the Aam Aadmi Party right now is staggering. They are the stuff of legend. Warriors who braved the odds. When winter came to Delhi, they brought it, and fell the mighty ones that dared them to. They were "the saviours" that came into the Biblical arena of Indian Politics, the "Illuminati" to the church of "Parliament", the original version of "Robin Hood Pandey" in ordinary clothing.
Having experienced the wave of the AAP first hand, with my 3 month stint in Delhi earlier this year, it was quite apparent that the election result would swing in their favour at some point in time. But no one realistically expected this fledgling debutant to do this well. This wave, met its legitimate
fruition, when Arvind Kejriwal formed his cabinet today, at the Ram Leela Maidan, thus marking a full circle from where the movement that started 2 years back.
It was with great scepticism that I myself, looked at the AAP. But, there was something remotely reassuring when you look at the national parties. From whatever little I gather about politics, I am a staunch naysayer to the ideas of the BJP and especially Narendra Modi. Never understood right wing politics and never will subscribe to such lunacy. On the flipside, we have a family oriented system to go to, that is seemingly so much better than the K-serial family that Ekta Kapoor could direct. The Congress expects you to trust them implicitly, that they know what s right for you, and they do expect you to understand their promises, but never raise up their achievements or their motives, a few months before election, in the most atrocious manner, that would put the Flash and Speed Racer to shame. Therefore, it was legitimate for people to explore, to look like for better deal, and it seems like they found it. I, for a fleeting moment thought so as well.
But are they?
I had never been to an AAP Jansabha, even when I was in Delhi. I just thought it was annoying and irritating then. Even when they went door to door, which of course was hard work, I found the volunteers ill informed, and most importantly, oblivious to what the actual measures were that they would utilise to bring their claims to life. Well, this is exactly what the BJP/Congress does. They say that they will do things. Put up fancy numbers and graphs, and say that we have done a lot. But no one knows how the hell one actually got there.
So yes my dear AAP, you are also not very different!!
It was exactly, with this scepticism that I went into the Jansabha. And hence the story does unfold ::
The AAP Jansabha was held at the "Sathyan Memorial Auditorium", a mid size auditorium opposite the Museum. It was a lazy Saturday afternoon and I really didn't expect a huge crowd. Student politics is huge in Kerala, with very well delineated party leanings marked up since school. But boy was I wrong! I was one of the few "lucky" ones that arrived first, and therefore, managed to get both parking, and a seat in the audience. The total footfall must have come to around 200 odd folk and at first glance, I was mighty impressed with how many people were willing to come in to bring the change in our city.
"And then, I started to notice things"
3 tables with 9 AAP volunteers (weirdly, senior citizens) were doing the registration business. Everyone who entered had to fill in a membership form, worth Rs.10, and if required, but the AAP topi for Rs. 30. They said that they wouldn't accept donations, but weirdly, will give receipts and take
Once we were seated, my immediate attention was drawn to two things :
- The female representation was very very poor
- The representation by the youth was dismally minuscule
The auditorium was filled mostly with old people, who were intrigued with what the AAP had to offer. They said that, they came in just to see and hear what the fuss is all about, and what the AAP representatives had to say, that they already hadn't heard before from the national political parties. Other than that, there were AAP representatives from all over Kerala, who made up the chunk of the sizable population present.
A sceptic in the midst
The event kicked off half an hour late, during which time, I, unfortunately had to interact with this independent candidate who contested from Trivandrum sometime ago. His name, if I remember right, was Mr. V.T. Cherian, a former Air India employee, who quit his job to get into politics. Having tasted failure, he wanted to see what the AAP can do to get him on board. He claims that the AAP has said nothing new. He even had the audacity to claim that, the ideas that the AAP put forward, were ideas he had put 10 years back, and pestered me to google him up. He did have a write up in The Hindu. But I was too bored to give him any attention. The only thing I caught on was this
" They mostly rehash what all political parties say, put a spin on it, and then claim it as their own. There is nothing massively path breaking or earth shattering in what they say. Just that, when they say it, it has been portrayed to be the voice of the Aam Aadmi"
I was reminded of most of the sting operations that was done during the IAC time, and agreed with him to an extent."
His name was Georgy, and he s an Aam Aadmi
The AAP event kicked off with the National Anthem. Then came this strapping young lad in a FabIndia "Om" kurta in an AAP topi, with a ridiculous Anglicised Malayalam accent. He had some ridiculous tall claims in his arsenal as well. Reminded me a little of Rahul Easwar in a way, but that description would be a little too
He started off by claiming that Kerala is not God's own country. Stunned silence did follow from the audience. He claims that Swami Vivekananda allegedly said that Kerala was a state of madmen.
"Keralam oru praanthalayam aanu"
Recovering from this start, did take a few moments. Some sort of ridiculous explanation followed as to how we dont question anything the government in Kerala does. Something about our GDP being close to 1.6 Lakh crores, 20% of which comes from the Gulf, 10% from Liquor sales, 10% from Lottery tickets and the rest from taxes and what not. He claims all of this was unaudited,unused for the good of people, and directly being used to fuel corruption. He tried to put this point across as painfully as he good. Sadly, his oratory skills were not better than Spongebob Squarepants on crystal meth. He claimed that the country was sucked dry by the politicians. The media has been bought and they play news as a diversionary tactic, so that the real issues never get highlighted. There is nothing worthwhile being covered and apparently real issues are brushed under the carpet. He also gave the history (in a nutshell) of how mainstream parties forced AAP to get into politics after they were challenged by the Goliath mainstream parties.
Lesson 1: Questioning whatever comes in your way is a direct indicator of your sanity
Repeat Play and more Repeat Play
The District Secretary came in and talked about this exact same thing, in softer tones. What was being stressed was the David vs Goliath battle and how they put new wave politics on the map. With of course, general updates on how they set up the Trivandrum chapter of AAP
The State Secretary was no different. He also came in with the same old recycled story in a much heavier baritone, exhorting all of us to include social work as part of our daily lives.
(Don't ask me more, I was really bored, and was busy responding to tweets)
He also gave updates on what was happening in the state circuit, about what all each AAP district setup had achieved.
The most important ones being :- AAP Ernakulam/Thrissur was directly involved in the Delhi Elections, and they volunteered to convince Malayalis in Delhi to vote for AAP
- AAP Ernakulam celebrated World Environment Day by planting trees
- AAP Trivandrum has been holding constant meetups and recruitment drives, and managed to garner over 1.5 Lakh Facebook likes on their page.
- All AAP district units have been set up, with the exception of Kaseragode and Wynad which would be up and running by 30 December
During this, the speech was abruptly ended for the arrival of the chief guests, Sukuthakumari Amma Teacher and Mr. Prashant Bhushan of the AAP.
Sukuthakumari Teacher
The mike was handed to Sukuthakumari Amma who, is a noted social activist, especially in the case of the Aranmula airport, which has faced a lot of flak and controversy. In a district like Pathhanamthitta, where road and rail access are a little tedious, the opening up of an airport looks very suspicious, and therefore, she has been at the forefront of those protests.
(I am not aware about this so, shall refrain from writing. Kindly do read up on her.)
She was instrumental in bringing the AAP to Kerala, and the boys who were with her helped her in those protests by documenting it, in blogs, in writeup, on social media, and have even produced a documentary on it. So, she just said best of luck to the AAP and hope to see good work from them.
Nothing more, nothing less.
Lights, Camera, WTF!!
Now, when Prashant Bhushan came up on stage, I had a feeling that he would make more sense than the people who had taken the floor before him. He, of course, was instrumental in the working of the AAP. He knows the internal logistics. He s a known reputed lawyers, and a social commentator on TV. Having regularly seen him on debates, I did expect him to make a dive for it. Gracefully!
Sadly, my psychy was bombarded like a chubby kid doing a cannonball.
He started off, with the usual emotional atyachaar, about how the AAP fought a lonely battle, progressing onto how biased and corrupt all other political parties were. Mainstream political parties were basically sellouts. Even though, he didnt particularly use those words, the intention and meaning of his statements were quite clear.
The example given were the Radia tapes. One example was a conversation between Vajpayee's nephew and Mukesh Ambani, where Ambani allegedly says :"Congress to humari dukaan hai, jo chahe karwa lenge"
Another example was also quoted where some bill was supposed to be passed, when Pranab Mukherjee was the Finance Minister. Arun Shourie was opposed to it, and the parliamentarians knew that if Shourie was there, he would oppose it. So it was fixed that Shourie would be ousted and Venkiah Naidu would take his place and that was how that particular bill was passed. Apparently, Arun Shourie had revealed this to Karan Thapar in an interview.
Therefore, his conclusion is that there is a major political mafia and a corporate nexus that runs the Indian democracy. Most importantly, he said that the PM, Speaker and LOP were hand in glove with all the nonsense that occurs in Parliament.
Therefore, the allegation lies that the mainstream political parties have sold themselves out to rich corporate houses like Reliance and Tata. This is exactly where mainstream parties get their arrogance from. This is how they fleece the Aam Aadmi. They think its all right to come once in five years and ask for votes, only to sit on their chest, and be servile to their corporate masters.
After successfully getting me disoriented with that tidbit, he hit us with the fact that they had done a revelation. Yes, in those series of (rehashed) revelations that Arvind Kejriwal had said that were earth shattering, on some days at 430 PM IST. He says that the law against SEZs, where farm lands were blatantly converted into Special Economic Zones and robbed poor farmers off their livelihood, was passed in a record 3 minutes, without discussion in parliament.
This, further helped cement his allegation, into the minds of the audience that everyone in the institution is hand in glove.
He then went into the history of IAC and how the government was forcing them to produce a toothless Lokpal bill. A bill which was a "Shell of a box". A bill where the independent investigating agency had to go through the government agencies to bring the truth out. The Lokpal was a fraud toothless idea that was passed just for the sake of passing it
Idiotic ideas - Let it flow
Prashant Bhushan's solution is that one should bring a national referendum, where people can vote - for or against a bill. This was to be done through the mohalla sabhas and upgraded to the top. If in actuality, its signed on by a majority of the people, then it can be directly passed, without having been sent through Parliament.
Viva Voce
I have had better vivas at University Exams compared to this "Question-Answer" session. The JanSabha in my idea, was supposed to be an open frank discussion. Where ideas could be represented and discussed openly. For the good of the country. Where one can get to interact with the folk responsible for change. Sadly, this was not meant to be.
Here, sheets of paper were given. We got to know that 60 questions were present. Our questions were all taken. They were screened, and 10 random questions were asked. Such a cool lucky draw. Out of these 10 questions, 2 sets of 2 questions were clubbed to make a long question, reducing the total questions to 6, and then, in a nice gesture, one more question was taken, to which a curt answer was given
Women's issues
- Rapid action force setup
- Local police station to be answerable to the people
- Better access to technology.
Violence against women can be reduced if evils like alchohol are weeded out. Women have the power. If a local referendum is set up, and women in the area can vote if they want alcohol in their area or not, they can do it and send it. If more than 50% dont want it, then no alcohol joints will be allowed to be set up
(SERIOUSLY)
#Quote #WTF #Bhushan
Black money
- Find them
- Expose them
- Hunt them,
- Punish them
Donations
- Will accept donations upto Rs10 lakhs from companies if they are satisfied about the honesty in their dealing
Hyped promises
- Will work. Will get them through. Empower people. People will enact
What do you expect from us as people?
- Voluntary work. We can change the country like we did Delhi.
Terrorism
We dont support it, but it is essential to understand roots of internal strife in the country. The Maoists are deeply unsatisfied people and have picked up arms to battle the tyranny they have faced. Will have to be dealt with sensitively and sensibly.
Will you support any mainstream political party in the 2014 elections?
(This is interesting. So Im going to tell you exactly what he said. Live tweeted all this, so please go through the tweets as well)
Its too early to comment on this. But we will only field honest candidates with a proper machinery that is set up. We will contest only from there. We are targetting a total of 40-50 LS seats. If we do achieve that, then no party can get a majority without taking them into serious consideration. We will then give them an agenda, and basically make them agree to what we have to say. Then, we will check if they are being implemented. If not, we shall take a no confidence motion, and force an election in 2015. During this time we will double our seats, and we shall repeat. We shall also do the same thing until we get what we have set out to achieve.
#WTF #QUOTE #BHUSHAN
(The End)
I also had the oppurtunity to talk to Prof. Alex Koshy at the end of this all,
who retired as a Professor from XLRI Jamshedpur, and he claims that he is interested in
the AAP because of the social experiment angle. As an social
anthropologist, he was interested in studying people's reaction to this
new phenomenon. His observations were those synonymous with hysteria,
delusion and delirium. People see that something special is happening,
and they want to clamour on board. He said "Imagine a kid seeing a toy
with his friends. He doesnt know if its good or bad for his health, but
he knows just one thing, he wants it". It is somewhat of a primal urge
that the heart feels. A sort of support you lend to satiate your inner
mentality"
Quite well answered, and wholly summed up the insanely pointless 2 hours I have spent listening to someone rant.
My take:
The AAP might be a social experiment, but it is quite a weird one at that. Something that claims to be valid, in times of poor economic growth and growing public discontentment. In an arena, where our options are restricted, to a hyped up "saviour" in Narendra Modi or a brat who people (read Congressis) claim as a genius in Rahul Gandhi, the people have a tendency to look for another way out. In a country which has seen coalition politics in the last 20 years, if the AAP wave manages to go forward, it does threaten to form a veritable tsunami, and become the single largest party in the coming few years. Given the frenetic pace at which they are mushrooming all over India, and with the manic enthusiasm they work with, discounting this would be akin to political suicide.
Most people will scoff at the latter half of this take, and dismiss it lightly, but it is something that I sincerely believe, so here it goes :
The AAP caters to the middle class, those confused souls, who are frustrated with rising prices, and government policies, but want to spend their money on daily booze,retail therapy and nights out. They cater to the people who want to do the right thing, but are chicken to do it. They cater to the folks that follow the herd, in times of law and lawlessness. They play to the hypocrisy that exists in our own self, and they show a mirror to us. The essential target are the people who are looking to fill that void of righteousness that is present in them. It caters to that part of us, where we want to do the right thing, and we expect other people to do it for us, so that we could just follow like lame ducks. It caters to the people who have no idea what their rights or powers are, those people who are educated, but not well read. It caters to a class of people who want instant gratification of having done the right thing, but not by bringing a change on to themselves, but by having someone force that change, so that it is brought about. So now, if that isnt anarchy then what is?
The AAP is a successful party, and they are spreading like wildfire. Both the RSS BJP and AAP are a direct result of the ineptitude of the INC. Had they not behaved like elitist, know it all but wont say it, will not engage with the public until election time, and arrogant at most times, they would nt have faced the ire of the people as they did in the recent elections. The problem with the INC is that they think that they know everything, and this arrogance is reflected in most of the party workers that I have had limited interaction with. The others are bound to fail, this country cannot run without the Congress and no matter what, we will come into power, because they read the signs as much as we do
"This country will go back to them, because there is no alternative". This arrogance that has existed as the Gandhi-Nehru family is rife and rampant, and is an undeniable trait in the sycophancy most INC supporters show. If they believe that Sanghis and their NaMo bhakti are so wrong, perhaps, now would be a good time to introspect and hold a mirror to yourself and see how you behave. You are no different! Well, to give credit, a little less fanatic, but you do reek of soft sycophancy
The BJP on the other hand, has built up its ranks systematically, and have successfully managed to make the INC run around like headless chickens, thanks to their shoot and scoot strategy, be it in the Parliament or on the social media. One thing though has to be commended. They are organised, they have single minded determination, and they are methodical in their actions. Their brand of politics might be something I am completely against. But their brand of politics, which revolves around communalism, and banking on the "Hindu stronghold" is as venomous as the Congress' ideology of "secularism" and "pluralism", which to me does look like "pseudosecularism". The BJP folk are brash, in your face, will take things and get things done, or get a point proved by any means necessary. Congress folk are nice, appear to be sophisticated and suave, but underneath it all, lies this discontent, infighting, crazy bunch of people, whose egos are more inflated than the Hindenburg. Just because you behave nicely, doesnt mean that you are echelons ahead. Results are not in numbers, results are not in graphs, the results come in votes, and how you connect to the voter, and hence, the INC has failed, on most counts, at least to me.
The AAP on the other hand, have recognised this, and have decided to build a brand of communism mixed with socialism. They have no idea on how to implement what they promise, or at least appear to do so. Their national referendum ideas and what their ideas of the Lokpal to me, sounds more dictatorial and reeks of majoritarianism. They say that the political parties of India will lead India into anarchy. But isnt that exactly what you are peddling. Sugarcoating your ideas in the cloak of the "Aam Aadmi" doesnt change the fact. What I saw in Trivandrum were mostly old people with utterly scandalised looks on their faces. The response to my live tweets were the same. We were mostly shocked at this level of "revolutionary setup" that actually questions the very democratic set up laid by our founding fathers.
At the end of the day, I feel more scared of this new friend, that the evils that I already know. This is a country. Bringing in a systemic change does not mean that one should change the very way a parliamementary democracy works. So this time, for me, In Kejriwal and the AAP
I DO NOT TRUST
And as I told a close friend of mine, I believe that AAP will lead us straight into Anarchy. The AAP claims that the INC and BJP will lead us into Anarchy. There are real fears of anarchy displacing our democracy, at least for me. The only solution that pans out to me is that one man truly will rise to save this city from crumbling into what appears as a congregation of people that want to establish a stake in India.
This will herald the rise of a hero, and sign will be sent out. Its about time
INDIA GETS IN
Batman!
And as I told a close friend of mine, I believe that AAP will lead us straight into Anarchy. The AAP claims that the INC and BJP will lead us into Anarchy. There are real fears of anarchy displacing our democracy, at least for me. The only solution that pans out to me is that one man truly will rise to save this city from crumbling into what appears as a congregation of people that want to establish a stake in India.
This will herald the rise of a hero, and sign will be sent out. Its about time
INDIA GETS IN
Batman!
And this I run out of my rant with whatever sense I have, and to get some Paracetamol for my raging headache, and through this all,in my haze, Georgy's words were becoming quite apparent to me
Kerala is ,indeed, a freakin madhouse right now!
