In the dusty interiors of Western UP and Haryana, the bania is an interesting character. One with no scruples whatsoever and with single-minded focus on money and profit. One who would rob you with the proverbial meethi chhuri ! However when it comes to being combative, people believe a bania can be anything but that. There are jokes that mock this supposed lack of mardaangi. That is how stereotypes are cast in our society.
Arvind Kejriwal is a bania from Haryana. And he defies all perceptions that people have about his caste. One, he has his heart in the right place. Two, he is always ready for a fight, however high and mighty the opponent may be. And finally, he is acerbic and hard to befriend. That makes for an instant recipe for attracting a lot of derision. Because such are the times we live in.
Kejriwal has always been uncomfortable about the way our systems work. His professors at IIT recall a young man who wanted to change things in whichever way he could. For the better. He used to be uneasy about the chalta hai attitude of all. It must have been with this will to make things better that he aimed for and got through the civil services exam. As an officer in the Income Tax department, his colleagues say, he worked for change earnestly. But they also say they could sense a rebel in him who could stand up to any person or process that was crooked. Try hard he did,but to no avail. IT department signifies all that is wrong with the sarkari bandobast. Epitome of corruption in a moth-eaten , rotten system. And so Mr. Arvind moved from IT to a field where he could fare much better. And he did. He turned a social activist.
Working with Aruna Roy, the RTI was his grand success. Ramon Magsaysay in 2006, he took off. Gradually, like an undercurrent , he built a base that would serve him well in 2011. Anna was the superstar , Kejriwal the director. An year later, the superstar has faded, the director is going strong.
Why to love him?
Now , there is no doubt the man means business. He is ready to take all the brickbats if it means he can better people's lives. And that is why he needs to be supported. He is one of us. He wears his shirt like the school teacher of a suburb. He does not wear starched white kurtas or shiny bandgalas. His oration is so very middle class - brutal and frank.Most importantly, he believes in what he says and does. His kathni and karni tend to converge in a political system where for most(if not all) other politicians the opposite it true.
He brings a much needed honesty of intentions to the table. Unlike the G-family, he is ready to face the media,ready to answer their menacing questions, ready to be challenged into a debate, ready to fight - for a cause. Apart from Lohia and JP we have hardly had any politician who believed in a cause with so much of sincerity and courage. We need a lot many Arvinds for their courage and conviction.
He also offers a rare combination- an honest heart and a brilliant brain. He has all it takes to turn the system around. Except popular support of course. He has a love for details and understands the nuances very well. He also has that much needed ability to say "NO". A yes-man is more gullible. Kejriwal is not easy to fool.
Connecting with people is something he is learning fast. His rock solid belief in his ideas has often resulted in people parting ways with him. But over the last year and a half, the man has taken to a more democratic manner of functioning. He is learning his alphabets well.
More than anything else, he MUST be supported because he offers what no one else does at the moment - HOPE. We all know he can't get more than a couple of good people elected in the next elections in Delhi, yet we also acknowledge that the man is good for us. At a time when the Con-gress stands exposed with its soiled pants and the party with a difference BJP is embroiled in its own internal civil-war, Kejri and his team at least offer a different kind of politics. At least for people who think that the UPA - NDA bipolarity is akin to choosing between Scylla and Charybdis, Aam Aadmi Party offers a silver lining.
Why to fear him ?
But then he has a fundamental flaw - his ultra-leftist views. I believe-more out of hope than conviction- that his ideas on big government spending on subsidies are more out of josh than hosh. If he really is an anarchist that he come across to be, then he would better be an eternal Opposition. If not, we can vote for him.
We can not afford any more of 'left' . The Left is always there. The Congress seems to out-left the Left. Even the so called Right ( the BJP ) is slightly towards the left of right. We do not need another Sonia-G led NAC to offer a MNREGA that creates useless employment. We need better primary schools and better teachers and better doctors and better administrators. Doling out reservations will not work, doling out jobs will not work. What will work is imparting skills, educating children, and empowering women. If we were to place all parties on a scale from left to right, Kejriwal ( and his AAP ) would probably stand at the left most tip of that scale, with all barring the BJP to the left of centre.
Anarchist ?
And that is why he poses a danger. His economics aims to take us "back into the future". His actions make him a perfect Leader Of Opposition but with the kind of policies he seems to envisage, to see him as the head of a government is to play a ultra-high-risk-game. Purely for the economics of it.
All in all, the heart says let us give him a chance, while the head underlines the need to be cautious. But as goes the saying - when the heart speaks, the mind finds it indecent to object.
Arvind Kejriwal is a bania from Haryana. And he defies all perceptions that people have about his caste. One, he has his heart in the right place. Two, he is always ready for a fight, however high and mighty the opponent may be. And finally, he is acerbic and hard to befriend. That makes for an instant recipe for attracting a lot of derision. Because such are the times we live in.
Kejriwal has always been uncomfortable about the way our systems work. His professors at IIT recall a young man who wanted to change things in whichever way he could. For the better. He used to be uneasy about the chalta hai attitude of all. It must have been with this will to make things better that he aimed for and got through the civil services exam. As an officer in the Income Tax department, his colleagues say, he worked for change earnestly. But they also say they could sense a rebel in him who could stand up to any person or process that was crooked. Try hard he did,but to no avail. IT department signifies all that is wrong with the sarkari bandobast. Epitome of corruption in a moth-eaten , rotten system. And so Mr. Arvind moved from IT to a field where he could fare much better. And he did. He turned a social activist.
Working with Aruna Roy, the RTI was his grand success. Ramon Magsaysay in 2006, he took off. Gradually, like an undercurrent , he built a base that would serve him well in 2011. Anna was the superstar , Kejriwal the director. An year later, the superstar has faded, the director is going strong.
Why to love him?
Now , there is no doubt the man means business. He is ready to take all the brickbats if it means he can better people's lives. And that is why he needs to be supported. He is one of us. He wears his shirt like the school teacher of a suburb. He does not wear starched white kurtas or shiny bandgalas. His oration is so very middle class - brutal and frank.Most importantly, he believes in what he says and does. His kathni and karni tend to converge in a political system where for most(if not all) other politicians the opposite it true.
Aam Aadmi
He brings a much needed honesty of intentions to the table. Unlike the G-family, he is ready to face the media,ready to answer their menacing questions, ready to be challenged into a debate, ready to fight - for a cause. Apart from Lohia and JP we have hardly had any politician who believed in a cause with so much of sincerity and courage. We need a lot many Arvinds for their courage and conviction.
He also offers a rare combination- an honest heart and a brilliant brain. He has all it takes to turn the system around. Except popular support of course. He has a love for details and understands the nuances very well. He also has that much needed ability to say "NO". A yes-man is more gullible. Kejriwal is not easy to fool.
Connecting with people is something he is learning fast. His rock solid belief in his ideas has often resulted in people parting ways with him. But over the last year and a half, the man has taken to a more democratic manner of functioning. He is learning his alphabets well.
More than anything else, he MUST be supported because he offers what no one else does at the moment - HOPE. We all know he can't get more than a couple of good people elected in the next elections in Delhi, yet we also acknowledge that the man is good for us. At a time when the Con-gress stands exposed with its soiled pants and the party with a difference BJP is embroiled in its own internal civil-war, Kejri and his team at least offer a different kind of politics. At least for people who think that the UPA - NDA bipolarity is akin to choosing between Scylla and Charybdis, Aam Aadmi Party offers a silver lining.
Why to fear him ?
But then he has a fundamental flaw - his ultra-leftist views. I believe-more out of hope than conviction- that his ideas on big government spending on subsidies are more out of josh than hosh. If he really is an anarchist that he come across to be, then he would better be an eternal Opposition. If not, we can vote for him.
We can not afford any more of 'left' . The Left is always there. The Congress seems to out-left the Left. Even the so called Right ( the BJP ) is slightly towards the left of right. We do not need another Sonia-G led NAC to offer a MNREGA that creates useless employment. We need better primary schools and better teachers and better doctors and better administrators. Doling out reservations will not work, doling out jobs will not work. What will work is imparting skills, educating children, and empowering women. If we were to place all parties on a scale from left to right, Kejriwal ( and his AAP ) would probably stand at the left most tip of that scale, with all barring the BJP to the left of centre.
And that is why he poses a danger. His economics aims to take us "back into the future". His actions make him a perfect Leader Of Opposition but with the kind of policies he seems to envisage, to see him as the head of a government is to play a ultra-high-risk-game. Purely for the economics of it.
All in all, the heart says let us give him a chance, while the head underlines the need to be cautious. But as goes the saying - when the heart speaks, the mind finds it indecent to object.
Aam Aadmi Party can be called AAP which should refer to public and should mean 'pehle Aap' instead of self-serving like other parties. I am sure Kejriwal stands up to his commitment.
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