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India After AAP victory in Delhi & CAA 2019
A whatsApp post making its round had the following to say
Is the air in Delhi breathable? No
Does every home have piped water? No
Does Delhi have 24x7 electricity? No
Does every mohalla have a clinic? No
Is every government school perfect? No
Is Delhi safe for women? No
Did they clean up Yamuna? No
Does Delhi have enough buses? No
Did corruption disappear in Delhi? No
Are all the AAP candidates squeaky clean? No
If the answer is ‘No’ then why AAP was voted back to power for another 5 years?!
Aren’t these questions similar to the ones that were asked when Narendra Modi led NDA romped home with 350 seats in the house of 544 seats, more specifically BJP got 303 seats out of this 350. NDA II too has won hands down for another 5 years term despite many questions negatively answered.
We all need to recognize the truth that no government works 100% positive while conversely it’s also true that reverse, that is, no government works negatively 100%. So the performance of all governments is anywhere between 1⁄(3 ) rd &  2⁄(3 rd ), some perform 2/3rd good, while some other 1/3rd good. If you do consistently 1/3rd, you get booted. So you have NDA in the centre and AAP in NCR. Of course, incumbency factor too can play the role, if the government lasted long enough electorates may vote for others with the hope that it may do better.
AAP, fortunately came as a breath of fresh air in the Delhi’s political scene. It’s a government with some fresh approach to the urban living, fairly transparent but playing electoral politics all the same.
‘People of India are sick and tired of most political parties. They believe all of them are deeply involved in massive corruption and only care about power. People do not appreciate parties creating division among people for the sake of votes. People think, anything ‘government’, automatically, means inferior quality and waste of tax payer’s money.  People hate violence and hatred’, informs the same whatsapp message. But what happened in Shahin Bagh, had certainly a streak of hatred. The crowd and their hidden leadership displayed a pathological dislike of Modi led NDA II, more specifically BJP and its unrivalled leader Narendra Modi. Will get to this insidious high profile drama later.
Voters are frustrated with the kind of candidates parties field but feel helpless. Voters want to vote based on real issues like health, education, jobs and environment, but most mainstream parties have, too many issues to highlight and real issues like health, education, employment and environment get diluted. In the capital region- Delhi- there were three major contestants, AAP, the ruling party, BJP & Congress. BJP is the world’s largest political party and also the ruling party at the centre. So certain amount of arrogance is ever present in both its leadership as well as its cadre. They had both money power and numerical human resources. It was also true that BJP had won all 7 Lok Sabha seats in the election held earlier in May, with Congress following and the local Delhi’s ruling party AAP trailing 3rd in all assembly constituencies. Hence the confidence of BJP/NDA was not entirely misplaced that they will not only do well but also romp home to win the majority to rule the state. In the event, a whole lot of ministers, members of parliament descended on Delhi and made the election to the Union Territory of Delhi a high profile battle.
The other national party, GOP, the Grand Old Party, the Congress, who ruled Delhi for 15 long years, couldn’t get even one seat in 2015 and was not expected to reverse the trend, although it did improve its position in some of the states, where it could manage to reverse the fortune of BJP. They only tried some old wine in new bottle.
In the event, GOP was so thoroughly ‘roughed up’ to an extent, that 60 of its candidates lost deposit in Delhi. It was a complete wash out which signaled a fresh crisis for the party which had ruled the capital for 15 straight years before AAP emerged. 
Election result was mostly on expected lines. For whatever AAP government did to Delhieites, they voted for them and AAP got elected with huge number, although less than that of 2015. But is there lesson for other political parties, so also other state governments?
AAP being development oriented government, it was also populist. Fortunately for AAP, Delhi always had a surplus budget, even during Sheila Dikshit period. But Sheila Dikshit did not tom-tom about the surplus budget and therefore it did not make news. Kejriwal used it only to show others in poor light and media played it up and the ignorant voxpopuli lapped it up. But it is also true unlike previous governments, AAP government imaginatively and purposefully managed their education and health portfolios to the advantage of people, the aam aadmi. Of course, every pre-AAP government in Delhi could have done this, but didn’t, because they didn’t have a vision for the marginalized sections and migrant population of Delhi. Most governments have cried with the poor, but didn’t do much to alleviate their situation, either to improve schools to empower them or to address their health issues, which all took it for granted, both the government and the governed, and the helplessness and suffering of people continued. It is certainly to the credit of AAP leadership that, they have redefined what an elected government in India can do, especially in education and health. A grateful electorate had no qualm or rather positively inclined in voting AAP again after 5 years of successful experiment. Of course, it is also true that AAP indulged in wholesale populist measures also, like free electricity, free water, free bus/metro ride for women etc. This kind of largesse is surely going to hurt the finance of the state if not controlled. Surplus will not be there forever. However the latest move to pay emoluments and increase the emoluments of a section of clergy is the most divisive move of AAP which can clearly hurt the social fabric of Delhi. This is clearly a move to appease a section which can cause rupture in the body politic of the union territory. Would it have a cascading effect? How it can be tackled could be food for thought. While we are about it, it is interesting what a Mumbai based  print media had to say in its editorial on Arvind Kejriwal and we quote, “Anna Hazare’s movement against corruption gave birth to one of the more opportunistic and unprincipled politician for whom unscrupulousness is second nature. Kejriwal can stoop low for power. And his winning principle is neither an ideological appeal or a programmatic agenda of governance. He believes that the voters have a transactional relationship with politicians and distributing freebies is the only way to retain their support. So free bijli, free paani, free rides for women in local buses and the Metro, schemes such as all-paid visits for senior citizens to major centers of pilgrimages, are a potent weapon to retain power. Monthly savings of Rs 1,000 or more means a lot for the large proportion of the voters in shanty colonies. The surplus cash helps them remit a larger amount to families back home in states from where they had re-located in search of gainful work. Giving away freebies was only a major part of the story. Kejriwal is a 24x7 propagandist, marketing his real or unreal achievement without any reference to the actual reality. It was  clever of the AAP supremo that he refused to join issue with the BJP on Shaheen Bagh. He was aware that with the collapse of the Congress, the 16 per cent Muslim vote was certain to be polled by him and therefore saw no percentage in publicly supporting the Shaheen Bagh tamasha. Besides, his MLA from the Shaheen Bagh area was the main inspiration behind the protest against CAA. The BJP, predictably, weaved its entire campaign around Shaheen Bagh, selling a version of hard nationalism which suspected the patriotism of ordinary Muslims. The forces behind the more than two month long blockade of one of the main arteries of the capital were extremist elements in the Muslim community who had gained the support of the elite secular media because of its visceral animus of Modi. The 16 per cent Muslim vote in the capital turned out in strength, recording nearly 96 per cent polling. This was virtually to the last vote the AAP gain.  Meanwhile, the Kejriwal victory can have a most deleterious impact on the economy, if state after state follow his lead in giving all manner of freebies. The announcement by a number of governments to provide free electricity to the poor will worsen the financial position of state electricity boards which without exception are already in deep financial distress. If the Delhi contagion spreads further free rides for women in buses and local trains will be next, especially if an Assembly poll is near. Such reckless populism will only add to the fiscal deficit of the states. We can ill-afford such a waste, especially when the economy is in the grip of a slowdown”.
Coming to the post CAA 2019 enactment scenario, it is clearly very disturbing and distressing to see how some of the people and their leaders have shown their opposition to an eminently sensible piece of legislation.
The country has witnessed sporadic protests in different parts of the country, especially, Delhi, Assam, Mangalooru & Bengalooru in Karnataka, Mumbai etc. Of course, although the number of participants were large enough to create ruckus including violence. It is also true that there have been outpouring of support to CAA in different parts of the country. But media having taken upon itself as supporters of anti-CAA protests, they remained partisan and have over-highlighted anti-CAA protests to show the central government in poor light. Some of the so-called intellectuals joining the crowd was very saddening. They even supported the barb “Pakistan Zindabad” as freedom of speech, when it was no less than seditious. 
In all these anti-CAA protest, one thing became increasingly clear that it’s the Indian Muslims who are spearheading this protest, some on their own –spontaneous- and many were ‘bhaade ka tattu’, paid protestors. But all of them had a hidden leadership, either from the community or some so-called intellectual brigade who lectures on secularism in India, knowing full well there is nothing even to remotely suggest secularism within the Islamic tenets or its followers. Also allegation that these protesters are funded by vested interest within the country and their supporters from across the western border, which may not be untrue. Interestingly Popular Front of India (PFI) and its affiliate Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), both have its offices in Shahin Bagh and nearby Hazrat Nizamuddin area in Delhi. Both these outfits have been accused of funding the protestors. The government agency which is probing the PFI under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) since 2018 has found that at least Rs. 120 crore were deposited in bank a/c in Western Uttar Pradesh after the new citizenship law was passed by the Parliament late last year.
In Shahin Bagh as the days rolled by language became increasingly inflammatory. It started off as a protest against a law approved by the parliament. It soon escalated into chants of aazaadi, slowly Kashmir began to creep in surreptitiously and now it is Intifada. Some of the videos making its round are clearly bad socially & politically talking of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Home Minister Amit Shah in extremely disparaging terms, by face covered burqua clad women, even terming the duo as ‘dogs’, while calling themselves as Lioness. It looked very funny that they were afraid of showing their faces while calling themselves as ‘Sherni’ (Lioness). 
In all their barbs, one thing became increasingly clear that all those Muslims who entered India illegally too should be covered under CAA, clearly ignoring that these Muslims have not come to India due to persecution in Pakistan, Bangladesh or Afghanistan.
Media members were clearly taking sides by declaring CAA 2019, as unconstitutional and against the secular credentials of India. They even print patently wrong information. The WEEK, in its December 22, 2019 issue had this, “Akshyakumar is a Canadian citizen and you are having the provision for him to get citizenship. On the other hand, Katrina Kaif is a British citizen and she will be turned away. This is discrimination” published under column –POINT BLANK-ascribing to Congress politician Sanjay Nirupam. Clearly both this Sanjay Nirupam, and the person responsible for publishing such sensitive matter have-neither read, nor understood the enactment CAA-2019. This was absolutely irresponsible for The WEEK to publish such gibberish. And who is this Sanjay Nirupam? He is the same politician who had questioned the armed forces and demanded proof for the airstrikes by the Indian force on Balakote in POK. The WEEK, January 26, 2020 published similarly another pearls of wisdom from professional hate monger Badruddin Ajmal, an MP from Assam. “Muslims are not being considered citizens of India to-day. They are not being considered as human beings and are treated like insects”, this Badruddin was supposed to have remarked. In his right to speak, he stated this garbage and The WEEK, in its programme of being anti-BJP published it, as a matter of freedom of expression, while fully knowing this man Badruddin is an honorable MP. Can somebody like an insect ever be a Member of Parliament and there are any number of MPs/MLAs and even governors in India, who are Muslims.
Then you have likes of Haripada Biswas, a Forward Block politician from West Bengal. He is reported to have stated “Citizenship cannot be religion specific. Muslims who came from Bangladesh should be given citizenship”. With nearly half the population of West Bengal tracing their origins to East Pakistan/ Bangladesh, how could this be possible! Mamata Bannerji sent a team, all the way from Kolkata to Mangalooru, to pay compensation to the victims of firing in Mangalooru violence at anti-CAA protest. Prima facie it was mischief driven and certainly not human consideration. Then there are likes of Salman Khurshid, a former Union Law Minister and a Congress leader joining the chorus of aazaadi with the women protestors in Delhi. These are politicians looking for short term benefit for themselves as an election victory, they are not worried about the nation.
However, as a journalist from Delhi puts it, “what is absolutely unpardonable is the lengths the student agitators have gone to make universities high voltage zones of intellectual intolerance”. Fortunately most institutions of higher learning were not infected with the disease.
And there are intellectuals like Arif Mohammed Khan, a former Congressman, but currently a Governor in Kerala appointed by the NDA. He is on record having said “Shaheen Bagh protest is an attempt to impose views on others” speaking to journalists on the sidelines of a conference in Panaji, he is reported to have remarked “some people have decided to take the law into their hands and disrupt normal life and call its right to dissent”. There is enough and more to write about the diabolic utterances and happenings within the country.
And then suddenly violence takes over parts of Delhi. Accusations fly thick and fast, some 40 or so died. After remaining inactive police in Delhi is suddenly active and Delhi became quiet. Who is responsible for the mayhem has to be found out, but rupture did take place, can it heal? Now that the high profile Donald Trump visit has come and gone, would the national government assert itself by giving a semblance of governance? Hope that happens!




































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