Whenever a person in uniform with his cap on enters any space where I happen to be, I normally get up. It is what I have been taught by my parents: RESPECT. If it is someone dear to me then I am quick to ask him to remove his cap so I can give him a hug. I know how puzzled my staff felt when in early Project Why days I sprung up like a jack in the box even if the beat constable entered my office in full uniform. Yes, the very beat constable who has known for his harassing and his corrupt ways. It is only when he removed his cap that I sat down. It was the very woman whose father and loved ones were mercilessly beaten by men in uniform who taught this as there was a difference: the ones who beat my granddad where working for the coloniser; the one who entered my office represented free India. That he was despicable was a matter of his conscience, not a reason to disrespect an institution in free India.
The reason I am reminded of this incident is the absurd drama we are being subjected to by someone we all thought, or some of us at least, would bring a change in the political firmament of our country. This post is from No 354495 ( my ancestor’s indentured labour number) to No 3646, the prison number of the main protagonist in the aforesaid drama. This is the person many one believed would change the course of politics in India and usher better times. Today one feels totally let down more so because some of us did ‘forgive’ him many faults as we felt he was a neophyte in a well oiled machinery. We hoped he would learn with time.
You must have guessed that I am talking about Mr Kejriwal and his AAP. I wonder if it is time to write the obit of his career or wish that he has some epiphany of sorts. But dear Mr K your main agenda has been cleverly appropriated by the new rulers who have been voted by the people of India across the Board, obliterating all schisms that had been nurtured over the years in the name of vote banks. That was one of the things you too had done but then you lost it all. In delhi you did not get the majority you needed and we would have thought you would sit in the opposition. One never thought you would sleep with the enemy. Had you waited and new elections were called for, you would have been voted back to power with a thumping majority. But you chose to rule. Was it hubris that had started taking hold of you. Hubris is a hydra headed monster that few, if any can slay.
That is when your downslide began. You were unable to check some of your associates and take the stringent actions you once extolled. Then you threw it all leaving us rudderless and confused. Did you think that you were ready for the top post of the country.
I remember once being asked by a well seasoned politician whether I wanted to join politics. My answer was no as I had experienced the corridors of power up close and personal. He nevertheless advised me that were I ever to think that way, I should begin at the very bottom of the pyramid and work my way up. I think his advise was extremely wise. You cannot compete with a person who has worked his way up and spent decades doing so. The learning process is politics is a long and tedious one.
You also need to be constituent in what you say and that is something we did not see. Your discourse often sounded erratic, as if you espoused different causes and targeted people at your whim and fancy. The one day friend could become foe the next. Having lost you totally floored us when we heard that you were ready to come and rule again, after having lost the battle you abandoned us for. But we are not ready anymore and it will be a long time before we trust you again and you will have to regain this trust if you one day abandon hubris for common sense and accept your shortcomings.
Your latest cause is too me nothing short of absurd. True that we have heard in recent speeches about freedom fighters who went to jail to get us freedom. The reason I chose a number to identify myself is because my ancestor became an indentured labour as his head was put to price. He was a freedom fighter and so was my maternal grandfather whose daughter did not want to give birth to a slave child and thus married post 47. Your going to jail for deliberating breaking the law of a free India does not make sense. You cannot fight in free India like our forefathers did in British India.
Today you have to respect the law of the land, even if its absurd. Should you want to register your views, there are other ways to do so. Courts have to work according to the laws that have been legislated. If that is not done then there would be chaos. You may be innocent and according to law your are innocent till proved guilty, but again you have to follow the system. There are no two ways about that. Your fight has to be within the system that is open to all sides. If you state something that someone finds offensive, and if that person choses to knock at the door of law, then a procedure is set in motion and we all have to abide by it. I do not think this drama your are enacting will get you sympathy. I find it impossible to defend and I am a good student of Socrate’s maieutic.
Many saw hope in you but today the same hope is seen in the new PM who also talks of ending corruption. Those who voted for you have crossed the line.
You will need to set your house in order and find a sound platform to regain those you have lost. Sporadic and incomprehensible actions like the ones we have been privy to recently are alienating you from the very people who once supported you.
India is impatient for change. Maybe what you really did achieve is making your opponents conscious of the ground realities. I guess they need to thank you for that.
This post if from the descendent of No 354495 ( my ancestor’s indentured labour no) to no 3642
