"AAP ki dilemmma"

The AAP ki dilemma !( Or is it the Country’s?)

I wonder if Arvind Kejriwal and his friends had ever imagined the political uncertainty they were to unleash when they did not get their 47 seats so vehemently claimed by AK in his interviews to various channels in the Capital and the NCR regions. That they got 28 has further confounded their political sagacity which I rate very highly even now. It has at the same time given them a huge opportunity to clean up the ‘Aegean stables’ so to say, of our country’s none too attractive political journey. They must now force the population of Delhi ( to call it New Delhi would be missing the point) to revisit the history of their political territory and thru this the political territory of the country of at least the last 65 years if not more. Perhaps the earlier period can be left best to the renowned historians and lesser mortals to juggle with.

For what Kejriwal has done is to open up the innards of each political outfit in the country and laid them bare before the embarassed public eyes. That they ( the people ) should be embarassed more, is a different matter and at the same time a very pivotal matter. I would insist that the Indian masses should look deep inside their own ‘zameer’ ( for want of a better english word) and come to their own conclusions as to why during their earlier independent existence they allowed their political thoughts as represented by the ‘established’ political parties to go astray and get deeply ensnared in the corrupt quicksand of any new and developing nation. This probability was very well known to the people or the members of the most effective and honoured party of the post independence era, the Congress Party, formed out of the blood sweat and toils and tears of the freedom movement of the nation. I would also quickly add the personas of the other ‘left of the centre’ political parties  like the Socialist Party, the CPI, the Forward bloc etc. This latter group I would leave out for the present for the purposes of getting to the bottom of what I wish t o say. So, back to the wonderful ‘zameer ‘ of the people of this country which the AAP has forcibly opened up once more.

For well over a quarter of a century, the Congress Party headed by Mrs. Indira Gandhi and her descendants decided what was best for the country and its people. Which sector to be propelled, which financial laws to be pushed thru, which social legislation to be strengthened was her whim and fancy. There was hardly any democratic push for any major sinew of the nation from the party ; what mattered was that the Party boss was kept in good humour and that would ensure that the ‘business as usual’ ethos would continue, and that all is well with the Indian democracy. Slowly, an established but thinly veiled corrupt system of governance got established. So, it did not matter if officials received expensive gifts and junkets and favours from the emerging dynamic business class for files to be moved effectively. It did not matter at all very soon that these powerful centres of change ( read the govt. official, the corporate executive et all ) received expensive gifts during Diwali, Christmas and other such important revered festival days. Gifts and favours which in their wildest dreams they would not have dared to purchase from their salaries or known sources of income. Overnight, many ‘successful’ executives became ‘very well to do’ and sometimes ‘originally rich’ classes of officials and individuals who would naturally scale the heights of officialdom at double speed and all would again be ‘business as usual’. Nobody would point a finger at them or their sudden upwardly mobile stance and ambience. Till something like the Coal block Scandal or the 2 G Scam or the CWG scam would break loose and the dull sensibilities of the Indian masses would be shaken, in fact brutally woken up to start groping for a way out. Not that Arvind Kejriwal  has provided any blue print for sorting these out and getting us on a righteous path immediately enough.

Now that the AAM Party has taken the political challenge by its horns, it is also very heartening to note that they have started by steadfastly sticking to the honest, simple, and straightforward living standards for themselves, C.M.s and Ministers and of course the M.L.A.s elected right from the word go ! No flapping security of gun toting men to signal that they are bringing in tow a ‘Minister’ or a ‘bada Aadmi’ !! No palatial bungalows, and unnecessary fan fare. These are some basics on which they will build ( at least I hope so ) These are the basics on which every other ‘established’ party will flounder and will have to perforce do a re-think. They will ultimately have to do a rethink on the political thought with which they wish to engage the masses.

Aur bhi bahut gham hain duniya mein, abhi yaaron !!

No time to tell the truth ...

Kyunki Sach Bolne ka koi samay nahin hota.... !

I am grateful to Rahul Gandhi for taking this adage seriously when he trashed the ‘Nonsensical’ Ordinance which sought to save the tainted and corrupt leaders from the whiplash of our Courts and the laws of the land. While Shri Lalu Yadav had to pay a heavy price by accepting his new address in Ranchi Jail,  ( there were others too...) the message was clear ; ‘As you sow, so shall you reap...’  At least that was the new ‘diktat’. It is also a undeniable truth that none of the established political parties ( at least the two major ones) will be seriously doing any heart search. Elections have to be won and compromises will have to be made. That also is a ‘Sach’ which can not wait for any auspicious moment to be stated.

Just pondering over the various ‘’truths’ or ‘Sachi batein’, and even though the list is endless, it is always good to give a start ....another truth which can not be waiting for an auspicious time !

We start our lives with all the good things that we need to be being dinned into our ears right thru our cradle days to school. By the time we reach college, we start believing that ‘thoda aate mein namak milane se jyada koi farak nahi padta’. So we all keep on adding salt (untruth) to our truth(aata) till we realise that we have ‘namak’ in the ‘aata’ ki bori ( life’s final scorecard ).

We start our responsible civic lives with the premise that in order to survive this in ‘cruel’ world you need to compromise once in a while. Otherwise how do we change the society and world if we ourselves don’t survive in a ‘decent’ and ‘fair’ manner?! So we close our eyes to all wrongdoings in the Government, the corporate world, ( of which I was a hard working member ) and society ( of which I am a member) and we carry on.

Till we confront the Frankenstein we have created, be it in the form of wayside corruption, smart corruption in the offices( Govt as well as Corporates), corrupt and dishonest intellectual discourses and finally our helplessness to set right even the minutest of flaws of our civic environment. As I said there are many, many truths which need to be stated to ourselves and there is no ‘auspicious time’ our ‘opportune’ time like in the case of Rahul Gandhi as mentioned in the beginning.

The greatest truth according to me is the inherent capacity in a human being to recognise his or her own ‘untruths’ and know for certain the way ahead as was dinned in the ears ...many, many years ago... It is just that we do not wish to face the pain and failure when we try to embark on a truthful path ahead. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was the only ‘human’ being who could face this pain and discomfort and yet he embarked on his ‘Nidar’ path, something which he exhorted his countrymen to follow, very successfully !

This country needs its people to be truthful, honest, and courageous; and if Rahul Gandhi is attempting that then full marks to him. My suspicion is that very inadvertently he has rekindled the desire among many of us to ‘sach bolo’ even though ultimately this ‘sach bolo’ funda may almost certainly expose ‘his’ Congress party of its true colors.

Let us start our little ‘experiments with truth’.        

The Agony and Ecstacy of having been in Bastar !

The Agony and Ecstacy of having been in Bastar ....

The agony surfaced in the most brutal of manners on our TV screens on 25/26^th of May’13. Not many believed that this was actually happening. Not many, even today, after three days of relentless media campaign to highlight some or the other aspect of the mayhem at Dharba valley, are confident of this huge aberration of our democratic lives being forgotten like many sensational news items. For, in this carnage lies the serious threat of the ‘comfort zones’ of all of us citizens, individuals, corporates, government and countless others including the radicals being permanently disturbed. In June 2005 when I went as the Chief Resident Executive of Tata Steel to Chhattisgarh, I was happy and yet disturbed.

Happy, because here was a chance to replicate what the great Jamsetji Tata had done, with a sense of adventure thrown in.  Not that I would have done something as great as him alone, or that I was stepping into his shoes, but the fact that the ‘wonderful world’ promised by massive industrialisation of the belt would be achieved with some miniscule yet important effort by me, and perhaps recognised at a much later date in our future.

 I was immediately disturbed at the very officious and ‘company like approach’ of our organisation to the whole Project. In two years time I had not only quit the Chhattisgarh Project, but also a great organisation like Tata Steel , thoroughly disheartened and disappointed. You do not change the lives of the poor people of this country without feeling for them or doing your business with only the profit motive as the driving force of all businesses. At least that is what Jamsetji Tata had in his mind .......

Without going further into details and ifs and buts of that two/three year period of 2005- 2008, I can only regret that we couldn’t do much to give confidence to the common man in Bastar.  No social Projects, ( Hospitals, Schools, or even up gradation of the existing ones), no action on the communication front, and no clear cut commitments to the Govt and people who mattered resulted in the organisation getting embroiled in PILs and useless wranglings -the sole fight for the Iron ore tracts of Dantewada and Kanker seemingly hogging all attention and importance. Admittedly, Iron ore is important and has to be extracted for the success of the Steel Projects, just like seven tons of water required for every ton of steel. But if we already know that the Adivasis and others who live on those tracts and mountains are nearly absolutely illiterate, with their own family systems which have not been exposed to the modern world we needed to handle the situation with kid gloves. Not only us but the entire polity and businesses, government, the press, competitors and collaborators and most importantly, including those restless youths who thought and even now think that matters can be resolved by the barrel of the gun, has been really un concerned to the plight that these unfortunate Adivasis and many poor people like them in that area face. The Adivasis have been used by all and sundry. To give them a few lakhs per acre and expect them to part with their only asset and hope, without a guarantee of a better life, is very unfair. All of us have to think out a way to get them on a better plane of lives and not become trouble mongers when the money finishes and they hang around their erstwhile abodes indulging in unlawful and wrong activities. We already have examples of the young spoilt scions of the Haryana farmers who sold their lands and now having nothing to do, money gone,  just hang around and create problems for our ‘civil society’. Same is the case in NOIDA and many other areas where projects have taken off. The Bastar Adivasi doesn’t even ask for much and is not greedy. He would like to live his peaceful life in a better way, maybe get to work in a Cooperative farm, a animal husbandry project or some other rural economy based project where his simpe lifestyle is bettered and he gets a sense of belonging to the new winds of change brought about by the above industrialisation. The Corporates wanting to set up their Plants and Projects have to take a major chunk of this burden and responsibility on themselves. They have to hold the immense value of the raw material wealth ‘in trust’ for the poor and un provided for mass of the people. This Gandhian approach has to be accepted by all wanting to set up their businesses in such areas without exceptions or amendments.

As the soil parches up the spilt blood on the roads of Bastar, I bow my head in respect to the people who lost their lives, irrespective of their politics, for this is not how anyone, including  a political being has to go from this world. I remember the simple atmosphere of Chhattisgarh, its simple people and the very ‘Indian ethos’ that no one can miss there. My tributes ....to those who lost their lives.. 

The Vox Populi...
It was the ‘Blitz’ weekend tabloid during the sixties and seventies at least, which used to run a column headed as ‘Vox Populi, Vox Dei’ if I remember correctly. This Latin saying simply translated means that the “Voice of the people is the voice of God”. Any student of modern Indian history will believe that our rulers and elected representatives in the assemblies would believe in this dictum deeply and seriously. Unfortunately they come face to face with this reality only when the elections are round the corner or have actually come out ! Though the Blitz column was usually a very biased write up meant more to propagate the C.P.I. line of thinking than anything else, the phrase somehow is still very meaningful to me and perhaps many who still believe in this old adage.
The small episode that I now intend to relate my friends is not something which touches on some intriguing political happening or incident, but something which I experienced with my father and the general masses/people of this country way back in 1981. It happened on a sultry and hot late evening at the Kanpur Central Station. I had anxiously been waiting for the ‘Deluxe Express’ or the popularly known AC Express to arrive when the PA system announced that it was running two to three hours late. Which meant that I would have to wait in the sweltering heat of the Kanpur station to receive my parents who were travelling by that train to Kanpur en route to New Delhi. The plan was to receive my mother, spend a few minutes allowed by the stopover with my father in the bogie itself after which he would carry on alone to New Delhi overnight where my brother would receive him while I took my mother home at Kanpur. The wait meant that I had to find a telephone booth to convey the message to my wife and I very soon was sweating profusely running from pillar to post to find a telephone booth that worked ! I was somehow able to convey the message to her and she prepared herself and the kids for a delayed dinner for us and changed sleep time for the children who were excitedly awaiting ‘Aajee’s arrival.
From the heated up platform my thoughts went to the morning when I spoke to my father and finalised the programme for his tour as per his schedule. I came to know that he was not getting the reservations and that it may not be possible for him to go to Delhi via Benares. More so, since I had insisted that he should travel by the AC Chair Car at the least in view of the intense heat wave and humidity prevailing in the months of June/July, there was ‘No room’ in any of the AC Coaches. I remembered how with several run ups at both his end and mine thru the Railway reservation contacts he was finally able to get two confirmed AC Chair car tickets, and how relieved we felt ! So, when the train announced its arrival at he Kanpur Central Platform no 1, I very excitedly rushed to the location where the AC Chair car would normally stop.
My surprise knew no bounds when to mine, and several other people who had come to receive or meet their friends and relatives on the train, it was clear that search as we might, we could not find the AC Coach ! Yes, there was the 1st AC and the 2nd AC Seeper coaches but no sign of the AC Chair car ! A few minutes later we came to know that these Coaches had developed some problem at Howrah itself and instead of the AC Coach all the passengers booked had been ‘accommodated’ in the ordinary Sleeper Class. My anger knew no limits and before I could curse the Indian Railways sufficiently enough, I heard a voice, weak and yet loud, of my father shouting out from somewhere my name “ Munnu” and again “Munnu, where are you ?” I rushed backwards a couple of bogies to find my father helping out my mother at the doorstep of the bogie ! Already more than 5 minutes must have gone by since the train had come to a halt at the platform, precious 5 minutes which I
could have spent along with my mother and father, but there was no moment to loose, as there were only about another 5-7 minutes left before the train would start on its journey to New Delhi. By the time I reached out to the coach, my mother had already been helped down by the other co-passengers and I found several of them touching the feet of my mother and bidding her goodbye. It was as if they had all know her and the elderly gentleman standing in the doorway since very long ! “What has happened ? Why are you in the ordinary Sleeper ?” Pointless question, but I nevertheless had blurted it out as many of us do – we ask the question despite knowing the answer ! I had by then been embraced by my mother and had touched my fahers’ feet and received their “Ashirwad” before the all understanding and knowledgeable small crowd which had encircled me and my parents and were looking at the somewhat emotional scene very approvingly. “The AC coaches had been disconnected at Howrah only and we all came to know about the fact only when the train pulled in at Varanasi”, said one of the co-passengers “but don’t worry your parents are well and we have had a wonderful time together, even though we have so many questions and incidents of importance to know from him that the remaining journey to Delhi will not give us that much time as we would like with him !” My mind was on overdrive, “ let me see if we can get a couple of berths in the 2nd AC coach”, but within no time after a furtive search thru the chart with the TTE it was clear that the remaining journey will have to be carried on in the same Ordinary Sleeper to Delhi. All the other co- passengers were now a little worried and asked “You have faith on us, we will not allow any problem to come over ‘Baba’ ..after all he is like our father too isn’t it bhaiyya ?” Still, I felt that my father should break journey at Kanpur and along with my mother who was already down on the platform with me, spend the night at Kanpur and we will organise a trip from Kanpur to Delhi the next day. My father was not very impressed with this suggestion as he felt that getting another reservation at such short notice will be difficult and that he should continue his journey in any case despite all the problem of the heat humidity and the overcrowded bogie. Besides, communications being what they were, it would be not certain if we could get across to Shashi bhaiyya my brother, who would be waiting at Delhi station in the early morning and not finding my father on the train would set off another chain of nervous reactions from all ! As if he had read my mind, he said, “ don’t worry, I will be fine. These kind people have ensured that I get a lower berth next to the window and get a good breeze all thru the way to Delhi” and gave me his by now famous endearing smile. All my pleadings failed and as the crowd around us got to sense the mood of ‘Baba’ to continue his travel to New Delhi with them, they became more forceful and happy with him and with a shout of unified joy asked my father to step back into the warm confines of the bogie. In fact before I would know, he was already on the steps of the bogie and I ha no option but to listen to his last instructions to take care of my mother to whom he bid his usual short good bye, “accha ji, hum chalte hain, tumm munnu ke saath ghar pahunch ke aaram karna, main theek hoon.” I looked around me not knowing how else to argue with him when one of the people who were holding him at the doors of the bogie said,”how can you deprive us of the wonderful experience that your father is relating to us. After all it is not every day that we will get to have amongst us such a great personality who has lived his life as a common man, seen the ups and downs of life, seen the ups and downs of our country’s political and social life and who is as comfortable as any sitting in this crowded Ordinary Sleeper bogie, sharing our presence, the heat and the dust and the discomfort that this journey is giving...how can you deprive us of this?” The man asked again, and as if on some Godly cue I looked up to my father and asked him “ are you OK ?” without uttering any words but tears in my eyes as I heard the whistle of the guard and felt the push and the rush around me of last minute activity around the bogie entrance as is so common in all our trains. My father, or ‘Baba’ by
that time to the dozens who had been accompanying him was on the doorstep, his frail body wrapped up in the white khadi kurta and dhoti, his hair a little dishevelled from the rush, hustle and bustle inside the bogie, looking to me as though he had been taken in the arms of the people in the doorway, so very caringly, and carefully, as if he were a small child being held in the loving arms of his mother ! He seemed to ask , “do you have the answer son to what these people say? I am happy with them and don’t worry, bade araam se rasta kat jayega pata bhi nahin chalega”, and gave me the famous smile while he raised his hands to wave goodbye as the train started to move. I could see the happy and cheerful faces of his co passengers waving out to me and shouting out “bhaiyya don’t worry, it is our gift from God that we have him with us today, and we are looking forward to our journey with him. Thank you for agreeing to let him go with us....” and the voices trailed off in the dark and humid atmosphere of the Kanpur Platform and very soon only the red tail light of the train was faintly visible.
As I held the hands of my mother and made our way slowly to the exit, she asked me what all that shouting was about. I looked at her and simply said, “woh log keh rahe the ki ‘Baba’ ko acchi terah se Dilli tak pahuncha denge aur koi chinta mat kariyega...and before I knew, I was trying to hide my tears from my mother. I acknowledged the presence of God and the people in whom he resided, as I walked my mother to the car, sure in the belief that yes, even today ( read 1981 ) truth always prevails and one who has won the faith of the people has won over God Himself.