Back in 2015 when Arvind Kejriwal won Delhi with a whooping 67 out of 70 seats, I along with a lot like me thought that even though he is intelligent and possess all the traits that we want in a politician, he might not survive this fierce political battleground. Five years later, he has successfully proved us wrong. He not only survived this fierce political battle, he aced it. His 62 out of 70 in 2020 mean more than the last time, as the voters had a five year political history of the party to look at, whereas in 2015 there was no such history.
The moment he set foot in the arena, he made it clear that he sees his party as a national party and himself in the Prime-Minister’s chair. In the given political scenario in India where parties like Indian National Congress or NCP or DMK are restricted to a mere family businesses and are not willing to look beyond the family; other regional political parties like SP, BSP, TMC are not willing to expand beyond their strong holds or their specific vote banks i.e. Muslims+Yadavs, Muslims+Dalits and Muslims+Bengalis respectively; the communist parties like CPI, CPIM and some other groups are simply irrelevant in this competitive era; there is no place for them not only in India but anywhere in the world. Hence, this ambition of Mr. Kejriwal is the only hope India has to see a truly national pan India party along with BJP in some years. This is the only reason, why his victory in Delhi is extremely important, even though he is not good for Delhi. Delhi is the collateral damage the country is bearing to usher Indian Democracy back to a two party democracy with a strong sensible opposition.
Before you raise your eye brows after reading “collateral damage“, remember the elections are over now, and he is already the CM for the next five years. So, the article is aimed neither to persuade anyone nor to create an opinion for or against anyone.
Everything, living or non-living that crossed Kejriwal’s way, was exploited. What happened to all other people that started with him after the India Against Corruption? Where is Anna Hazare, a the father like figure to him, these days? Lost in the oblivion; Kumar Vishwas? Back to singing “koi deewana kehta hai koi pagal…” or hosting tv/news shows; Ashutosh? back to reading news and commenting on political events; Yogendra Yadav? back to his communist mindset along with overemphasized phonetic accent and confused about his own identity – trying to figure out if he is a politician (Swaraj Abhiyan not AAP), a psephologist or a political analyst.
And many more to go..
If he could treat living beings who stood next to him as rungs of a ladder, what makes you think he isn’t doing the same with the state? All the so called work he has done in the last five years was directed in only one direction, him snatching a victory again. Each of his schemes will either be recalled in the coming years or the state would turn bankrupt in less than a decade.
Free Water! Where is the extra free water coming from? Did he discover a new invisible river in Delhi that we don’t see? Has he installed a desalination plant and using sea water for drinking purposes? If there is no extra water and the supply is still the same, who is paying for the water that is distributed as free?
Free Electricity! Where is the free 200 or 400 units of electricity coming from? Has he found a cheap way to generate electricity? Or are there new solar power plants in the state? If there is no new power source and the supply is still the same, who is paying for the electricity that is distributed as free?
Free Bus Rides! How is the state affording free bus rides for women in Delhi? Have the buses started using the PM2.5 or PM10 particles from the polluted air to run?
Has he unearthed some hidden treasure? I don’t think so, do you? If that is the case then where is the money coming from?
He is making Delhi another Greece; Greece 2.0. It did not take more than a decade to destroy the country. What happened to the people of Greece? Did suicide rates in Greece increased by 36% after the taxes were increased to save the nation? This happens when you willingly start accumulating huge debts for your short term goals.
He worked as IRS officer and knows exactly when it would happen and that’s why he is not worried. He would have moved on by the time this bubble bursts. Ongoing crisis with PSUs like BSNL, Air India etc are the result of previous government’s political stunts like this. You should read: Is BSNL Crisis a product of 2G Scam? to get an Idea as to how and why you might see DTC or some electricity board in the similar state. Add Free Wifi! to the list too.
Worse than this, is the so called reform in the education system. You could have a look at Mission Buniyaad: A mission to weaken the foundation. where I wrote about the severe consequences of this scheme. A student who would be moved to the third category “Umyad” as per the Mission Buniyad would see the after effects of this so called reform when he would start applying for graduation; i.e. 7-8 years later. This is exactly the same as current unemployment situation in India, do you see any correlation of unemployment with RTE act 2009 brought by the UPA? You could read this A Right to Unemployment.
Arvind Kejriwal’s government had picked up small parts from different systems that are easy to implement from different countries, and intentionally or unintentionally overlooked the different consequences and the other factors that affect the system. Odd/Even is another such scheme taken from a different country. Do you consider implementing odd/even scheme for 15 days a solution for air pollution? What about the other 350 days of the year? This scheme would have been helpful if it was implemented for the entire year. Why? People would have built a network/system of car pooling services, but this won’t be possible if the scheme is only valid for 15 days. For 15 days this scheme is a disaster.
There were supposed to be 3000 new buses with 1000 electric buses procured by the Delhi Government. Where are they? Still on papers. Where is the infrastructure for the electric buses? Missing!! Delhi’s public transportation is over crowded. Unless there are enough buses and trains so that daily commuters don’t feel as if they are going on a war, they would continue using their private vehicles. End of discussion! And by the way, why only 1000 electric buses and not all 3000 electric buses? Will the new non-electric buses not pollute the air?
Also read: Delhi’s Political Pollution and Some ideas to reduce pollution and create startups/ employment opportunities
What else? CCTV cameras! Has he installed the humongous number of cameras he claimed he would be installing in the city? These are vital for the safety and security of the citizens, where are they? He himself claimed during the election campaign last month that he would be installing the cameras in this term. Same goes with cleaning up Yamuna.
Do you think door to door delivery of services a good initiative? If you think it is you need to think about how corruption happens. This policy brings in one more layer of human-beings (read greedy beings) in between you and the service you are looking for; the logistics department. For example, if there were five departments were working together so as to provide you with a service, the extra 500 you were paying to get your work done was getting divided in five departments, now add one more team to it. Do you think your 500 will have to be increased? That’s why Modi’s policy of getting rid of the middle man has helped in curbing corruption. Remember Rajeev Gandhi’s statement “I sanction 100 rupees for poor but only 15 reaches him”; where does the rest go? I guess to these layers and layers of departments.
Each and every piece of work he and his government has done fulfills a short term goal that would keep him and the party afloat in Indian politics. The other tasks that would have actually helped the state are simply pending. He is just waiting to get bigger and meaningful in the national politics; as soon as he accomplishes this goal, he would bring in his austerity measures: adding taxes, increasing prices and of-course his favorite blaming the center, the LG and the neighboring states. Delhiites are just waiting for the storm to hit them. The best part of this politics is that we Indians will get a second national competitive party without any hard work, Delhi will be doing all the heavy lifting .
Offering freebies in Indian Politics is not a new concept, we have seen it time and again. Be it in the form of gifts like Saris, Liquor, Laptops, E-Rikshaws, tax cuts etc. or going even further by adding an entire community in reserved category, letting students pass without exams; the list goes on. The giant elephant in the room now is how a well established political party like BJP failed to convince the voters that they are digging their own graves by endorsing this freebie politics?
Please stay tuned to my blog to know the two reasons why BJP lost the Delhi elections!
Thanks for your time and patience!
