Posted by Dr. Gopal Unnikrishna Kurup
The Lofty Lotus and
the Earthy Broom
What do the recent Assembly election results say loud and clear? What kind of a phenomenon is this apparition called Arvind Kejriwal?
The election results unequivocally declare that good governance can, and will, over run the handicap of incumbency, even over sustained periods. Two of the three states where BJP won have been under long spells of governance by the BJP satraps. Instead of strutting around haughtily like vain cocks, crowing to the world and preening their own feathers, as some self-appointed Congress satraps do, they only spoke when they were expected to, and thus proved to be doers rather than talkers only.
The muddled signals from Chhattisgarh could have been clearer if only Maoists had not deliberately caused the muddle, dastardly picking off the tribal Congress leader, at a time close to the then impending elections. Irrespective of the question whether the govt. could have prevented the Maoist atrocity of that assassination, the Chief Minister Raman Sing had to pay a heavy price for the lapse, almost becoming a loser. When elections loom large, all the hawks and vultures hover and gather close and Maoists were no exceptions who marauded and mined extensively the jungles of Bastar. Most of the affected states are still ill-equipped to deal with Maoist's predatory style and savagery of attack. This is in spite of all the inputs by the Central govt too.
In Madhya Pradesh, however, incumbency or no incumbency, what we witnessed was a digvjay by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, his unstoppable chariot running on well-oiled wheels smoothly and comfortably, flying the saffron flag fluttering in the easily blowing wind, made cooler by the Modi effect. And most befittingly the appreciative people of the state gave him a massive mandate matching fully his mindful governance, and brushing aside the belated intervention and stemming attempts by the scion of Scindia royals, Jyotiraditya Scindia. Incidentally, Scindias wrote a story of their own feudal feuds in the elections arena too, the scion faltering, and the Maharani moving on a massive juggernaut to storm and take the state almost entirely in her hands.
Still reverently addressed by people as 'Maharani', Vasundhara Raje Scindia had a free run in the state, governed badly and haphazardly by the somewhat clueless Ashok Gehlot. His Gandhian facade did not assuage the sufferings of his people and his muddled measures of appeasement some time and meddling at other time had antagonized minorities. Vasundharaji just went, visited and conquered the state. Congress men didn't even know what hit them till the polls foretold and the results confirmed.
Well well, now the story of the stories, the Delhi elections. No one knew what hit one or another there till the results came incredulously on the screens. The recently arrived apparition found haunting for sometime the maidans, avenues , and free spaces of the Capital city, the very Lutyens' Delhi". of avant-garde clubs, boutiques, perfumed exclusives, the commuters, all shivering in their spines in fear of bludgeoning sexual rippers, inexplicably turned a phenomenon of election proportions. The phenomenon of Arvind Kejriwal and his Aam Aadmi Party(AAP) simply plucked Delhi's three-time Chief Minister and snatched her wooden cabinet away, put her in it and send her home.
Flabbergasted politicos, parties, and people looked with awe at the broom-wielding brigade hooded in Anna caps, and strangely reminiscent of the vanishing tribe of manual cleaners. AAP then came menacingly close to sweep away the mighty BJP, the party that was straddling like a colossus in other three states, from any reckoning as the largest single party, but just stopped short. In the process AAP has now hung the party governance of Delhi in mid air. Both the main players are now refusing to touch Delhi governance.
What are the strands that catapulted the AAP in to a game changer in the hard dried out war grounds of Delhi State where the motherly face of Sheila Dikshit reigned for one and a half decade?. Well, the bad governance insensitive to unbearable rise in prices and cost of living , unmitigated insecurity feeling, all round corruption. unpopular anti- people measures are all obvious reasons for the antipathy to Congress. But the question remains : why AAP and not the BJP all the way? How all of a sudden the novice AAP garnered such a big chunk of votes to emerge as the second biggest party.enabling it to put up a blockbuster debut performance?
I have only an unconventional answer, perhaps befitting the uncommon phenomenon. It is their symbol, the broom, and the broom making Daliths, whose life-stay it is, and the real broom-wielding brigade of the gender class of women, the girls, house wives, the mothers - the same groups that sustained Sheila Dikshit, but antagonized this time. Being in the hot vicinity of national politics, drawn innocuously in to the thick and thin of it, the Delhi aam admi is a volatile activist. The reactive response to this volatile activism has now seems to have permeated in to the homes too, raising the women folk out of their TV serials and idle gossip. One may again ask here why this newly, more than usually awakened constituency spread all over in the Delhi homes emerged and flocked even to late polling hours of election day evening, to AAP and not BJP? The answer is: the fresh faces in AAP, in juxtaposition to the jaded, tired and just tolerated old junkies, the BJP fielded. Harsh Vardhan, utterly sincere, is an exception who could still be the leader..
And there lies the golden moment of recognition and salvation for BJP, not only for Delhi but for the ensuing Parliamentary elections as well. Field fresh faces; need not be entirely new but relatively fresh and somewhat evidentially promising. Narendra Modiji, are you listening?
In Delhi, any time the Lieut. Governor might march in. If BJP takes to heart the above golden fact, the Delhiites might have to throw the dice only once again to have a government, and not again perhaps.
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