As soon as the boiler turned down in our own backyard, the kettle started to hiss in our neighbour’s!
After the last couple of very taxing months, January finally allowed me the privilege to leave behind my rustic pair of eyes and look beyond our borders. While our own political drama in Bangladesh had reached a high pitch, India had not been lagging behind either. Especially with a country where a startling 387 languages are spoken, not to mention other mammoth diversities in terms of religious faith, caste and culture — a single disturbance in the ocean is capable of creating ripples of exponential reach and before you know, it is a well-coordinated symphony orchestra all over the country!
An orchestra of this nature was initially brought into the political scenario by a figure known as Anna Hazari in India, back in April 2011. When he announced an indefinite hunger strike to pass the stringent, almost a matter of life and death (literally) natured anti-corruption law, the Lokpal Bill, the entire nation shook in a favourable uproar! Here was a social activist, backed by a Padma Bhushan – the third highest civilian award by the Government of India – friend of the farmers, enemy of the corrupted politicians and ready to give his life for his cause! For most of us, this was very reminiscent of the yester years, in particular of the life and practice of the great Mohandas K. Gandhi. Even the name Anna, which in Marathi means ‘father’ or an ‘elder person’ held clear resemblance to the endearing term “Bapu” (also meaning father in Gujrati) associated with Gandhi. Now lightning may strike in the same place twice and apples might not fall too far from the tree, but great heroes, especially in our times, are very hard to come by! I was cynical, to say the least and waiting to see how the situation unfolded thereafter.
In the end, 150 supporters had joined in on the indefinite fast in favour of the bill that was initially rejected by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. This bill entailed the formation of an independent Ombudsman, endowed to deal with corruption in public places and included admission of even ‘the Prime Minister within the ambit of proposed Lokpal’s powers.’ These dazzling high ideals related to the demands, coupled with the riveting fast-till-death resolve ultimately pressurized the government to accept the movement’s demands. The sudden upheaval simmered down with several acknowledgements for Anna Hazare in national and international media and equal amounts of criticism for a lot of his ‘un-democratic’ and ‘non-secular’ ways.
Fast forward to 2013 and my interest was once again piqued by a similar phenomenon, now more formalised and politicised as the “Aam Aadmi Party”. While the rest of the Indian Subcontinent was once again rejoicing the messiah-like nature of this party’s win at the Delhi legislative assembly elections, emerging as the second-largest party, I was chewing my lower lip and cursing my realist mind! The AAP party came into form due to a difference in opinion between the social activists Arvind Kejriwal and Anna Hazare, both involved in ‘Team Anna’ previously for the anti-corruption Bill movement. While Hazare was more inclined towards keeping the movement off any political frontier, Kejriwal saw the necessity as in his opinion the then existing talks with the political parties had achieved nothing for the progress and implementation of the Bill. A party headed by Kejriwal was officially launched beginning of 2013 with the simple ideals, as implied by the name itself, to find solutions that cater to the aam admi – common people of India and a government that is directly answerable to the people, based on the Gandhian concept, rather than higher officials. After the results of the Delhi assembly elections in December 2013, Arvind Kejriwal, coining the symbolic broom to sweep the scene clean, became the second-youngest Chief Minister of Delhi.
Assuming power in Delhi, Kejriwal has pulled a series of wonders already, including the reduction in electricity bills plan, encouraging metered connections with free water supply and the anti-graft helpline for the citizens to report corrupt officials, with increasing popularity and support from the general population and celebrities alike. For me, the most notable quote from Kejriwal that made me sit up and take notice was “security of people in Delhi has been left to God”, said in retaliation to the Danish tourist gang rape incident, indicating that any crime prevented in the nation’s capital was not because of the police force but rather God’s grace.
Despite a lot of allegations against workers of the AAP party, Kejriwal and his party’s Gandhian activism continue robustly. There is news that the party intends to contest over 300 seats in the Indian general elections in 2014. I have often blamed our cultural scene for promoting this feeling of elation even in the direst of circumstances – in other words – for making us hopeless romantics. I can already see several recaps from Bollywood movies. People see hope.
Source: Bd news24
