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Macro and micro levels in politics of swaraj... as AAP seeks to break an ugly nexus

By Indraneel Mukherjee* 
Over a hundred years ago Tagore had lamented in one of his many songs, speaking of his motherland Bharat Mata in utter disenchantment, he said - "Kaino cheye aacho go Maa? Ayeraa chaahenaa tomaaray chaahe naa re, aapono Ma-ayere naahin jaanein, ayeraa tomaaye kichu debe naa, debe naa – mitthaa kawhaye shudhu kawtoh ki bhaanein - kaino cheye aachogo Maa !?!" This is part of Rabindra Sangeet I quoted in original, in English it means – “Oh Mother why do you stare in the oblivion? Your children, do not want you ! They don't even recognise their very own Mother ! They will not give you anything but keep on making tall promises year after year, over ’n over again, in so many different masquerading ways! Why do you still wait and keep on expecting, they will do something good for you?"
Yes, sons there were a many! There was a Netaji, there was a Mahatma, Jawahar, lndira, Rajiv; there was Vajpayee, and a guileless Abdul Kalaam. Much earlier a Rajendra Prasad or a Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan! Till we reached the Era of Modi, Shah, Nadda, Yogi ! But what Tagore said was crystal clear – ‘why O mother you keep expecting these son's will ever do anything for you? No they only know how to cheat you’! And today even after 75 years that lndia gained independence we still struggle for a clean glass of water, education, health, good roads, electricity, transport - we are still badly struggling for a corruption free governance ! Instead we are still fighting lakhs of crores in written off NPAs, and after the dynasts', we have to digest the love of friends in Government helping select wealthy friends and filling up their coffers to make them the richest in the world!
In this background of Tagore's first hand experience on lamentable human behaviours we arrive at the 75th year of Indian Independence and there seems to be a great twist in the turn of events. “Hazaaron saal Nargis apnay benoori pe rotee hai, badi mushqil se hotaa hai chaman mein ek deedaver paidaa”! A Kejriwal has arrived and its AAP, AAP and AAP everywhere! After smashing down the hydra headed monstrous snakes of the corruption mafia, India is slowly getting secured. The new people on board this time besides Kejriwal are, Sanjay Singh, Gopal Rai, Manish Sisodia, a Satyendra Jain, a Bhagwant Maan, Raaghav Chaddaa and besides many a gem a great humanitarian Somnath Bharti!
I have yet to figure out why people at large especially the established, are always quite silent on Arvind Kejriwal and especially at media level, they are very careful not to name him in any discussion, leave alone any support! Is it cause of his hardcore honest and incorruptible image and their awkward state of incumbency? They are trying their sinister best to implicate the greatly effective minister Satyendra Jain, but everyone can sense the futility of their findings. It is extremely important that we side with this revolutionary party who are trying their utmost to break the ugly nexus of Indian corruption prevalent in high offices through n through! It is hugely lamentable to see how some of us react negatively, insensitively and irresponsibly towards this new AAP regime!
Well these are macro levels if we could call it so, of mundane politics – I have sat down to write about the micro levels of this new Party, and politics as envisaged by our South Delhi MLA Somnath Bharti and how greatly he has harnessed modern communication / technology in his daily, untiring workaholic style of functioning! His constituency of over 300 colonies is grouped into 35 Mohalla Sabhas each consisting of 5 - 6k voters. Each Mohalla Sabha has 3 to 4 Mohalla WhatsApp groups and in total there are 83 Mohalla WhatsApp groups which are called MLA's official Mohalla WhatsApp groups i.e. 83 MLA' virtual offices through which MLA and his office are available to people 24/7 for every need. A given format needs to be filled with the name, contact, date, problem faced, which department related etc. 
What people say about Somnath Bharti
It means if you have a water problem, electricity problem, water harvesting problem, desilting of drains and sewerage related problems, crater on roads or watering of road plants / horticulture problem – whatever the problem – the Whats app office of our MLA Bharti ji is abuzz with constant activity! Be it a happy ocassion, a birthday or a sad one no occasion is complete without his presence. During covid times / the most testing times, hospital beds, medicines, oxygen, general rations, cooked food twice a day to long lines of poor people – our Vidhayak was always there. Loss of lives, old people / covid patients dying in hospitals with no one to perform last rites, our MLA has done that too; he was seen attending to each one of them, when family members abandoned the final journey – truly devastating times! The Mohalla Sabha group meetings are carried over currently to e – meetings (which earlier used to be conducted physically) with all grievances and its solutions, sought together with civic service providers once every month on Zoom. Reviews – just four of them are collected with the pic of my area MLA, which speaks for itself.
Coming back to Tagore from whence we started. This time we got to give serious chance to the current set of sons / leaders in the horizon. They are born out of a struggle, and must be trusted with power completely; and as current India passes through some harrowing experiences hitherto unseen with astronomical loots – shrewdly legalized crimes by making it legal that no legal action can be taken on their actions and duly passed in Parliament!
Barring a few we are still quite a few political illiterates. And quite candidly Brecht commented and I quote – “The worst illiterate is the political illiterate. He hears nothing, sees nothing takes no part in political life. He doesn't seem to know the cost of life and living, the price of beans, of flour, of rent, of medicines all depend on political decisions. He even prides himself on his political ignorance, sticks out his chest and says he hates politics. He doesn't know, the imbecile, that from his political non-participation comes the prostitute, the abandoned child, the robber ‘n, worst of all, corrupt officials, the lackeys of exploitative multinational corporations!” So from whatever little I understand I strongly recommend the AAP – its time we gave them a chance and with all Power ! Otherwise we all know what a Winston Churchill had to say about India’s independence! This is what he said and I quote – “If Independence is granted to India, power will go to the hands of rascals, rogues, freebooters; all Indian leaders will be of low calibre and men of straw. They will have sweet tongues and silly hearts. They will fight amongst themselves for power and India will be lost in political squabbles. A day would come when even air and water would be taxed in India.” Word verbatim is coming true except a Kejriwal is proving him wrong completely … but the current Central dispensation?
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*Celebrated singer-musician based in Delhi

Comments

Aftab said…
Beautifully written article! Absolutely loved it and couldn’t agree more with every sentiment, especially the Tagore quote at the beginning!
August 15, 2022
Anonymous said…
Excellent article. Glad to see a proactive AAP party focussed on real issues. Hope they stay focused & keep true to Their vision. Three cheers for their focus on Education & Medical.
August 26, 2022
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