By Bitan Bhadra:
Very few politicians have had a meteoric rise in India’s politics as Arvind Kejriwal. It seems very weird to see how a political party less than a year old and composed of a few notable politicians led by a person whom the nation didn’t even know two year’s back swept off the votes of the capital. It has truly been a great debut in politics. Well it is a matter of debate and it will continue for some time now how it was achieved or what facilitated it. But some factors seem pretty obvious that none can deny.
The nation’s oldest and most glamorous party that had brought India its independence and has been in government for quite some time now, is no longer the same. Indian National Congress is no more the congress of Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Patel, and many more notable names we know. If you ask someone today about congress they would not talk about its past glamour or its great leaders, but they would talk endlessly about the scams of the much recent past. They would talk about many other scams coming into spotlight in different parts of the country.
The youth and citizens in general today are much aware and sensitive of their rights and their surroundings. We are much aggressive when it comes to talking about our freedom, rights and problems in society and demanding changes. With the fast changing India in terms of world economics and politics, our society has evolved much and for good. And this is reflected by the aspirations of the country today.
We have always known of predominant corruption but never in history had people come down into the streets in protest, demanding a law to prevent the same. With a much vibrant media, active social sites and rising literacy, people are increasingly aware of their surrounding polity, wrongful elements in society, and hypocrisy of all sorts. We have a rising economy that has set its goals high and increased rates of growth in the past decade have pulled out numerous people into the middle class. We now have one of the world’s biggest middle class exposed to latest technologies feeding them with real time news and information and backed by an ambitious psyche. Everybody pretty much realizes where the country could be headed and how it could improve our living standards and abolish problems of society like poverty, fragmentations etc. In such an era, AAP harped on just the tunes people were eager to hear. Promises of a corruption free India, welfare reforms state, free education, and an accountable and transparent government was too good to resist. People were kind of sucked into this rapid whirlpool of democratic revolution.
The promises of AAP have been just what India wants at this hour. But there have been many promises of AAP that require a bit of inspection practically. We must realize that production and filtration of drinking water comes at a cost. You can’t process it for free. Education to be provided in schools requires infrastructure and paid teachers. Even that doesn’t come free of cost. Now, distributing such welfares without cost might put a crunch in the treasury and economy.
The model will be somewhat like what was once practiced in USSR and today exists in the welfare nation of Brazil. But we must realize that their models and the Indian model are totally different and you can’t just convert yourself from a system that has been there for two decades to a new system overnight. Again, neither of those forms of government have fared well or are widely accepted due to numerous drawbacks. Such a transition might cost us what we have gained already. The promises do sound good to the ear, but we should hope they do come up with innovative measures and solutions to achieve what we expect of them. AAP has conquered Delhi and it remains to be seen what the rest of the country think of them and their corresponding performances in the Lok Sabha elections. They have put up a good show till now and just like citizens “expect” after each time they cast their votes, we should “expect” this time too that Aam Aadmi Party lives up to its name.