Delhi’s Political Laundry
Delhi Assembly Polls-2025 ? Fools Rush In Where Angels Fear To Tread
What an irony indeed ! Even after almost more than seventy seven years of the nation’s independence and recently into 76th year of its republic hood,”We the people of India….” have still to learn a lot to be mature enough to have a developed and advanced outlook in various walks of life but unfortunately Indian polity at present bent only upon just marking time, building castles in the air to dwell in frivolous a dreamland thus busy weaving a rosy but fictitious dream pedlary for over a decade “to be a developed India by 2047.”
It is in this light of February 05, Delhi Assembly Polls now only a week away,an English poet Alexander Pope’s famous line haunts sounding quite relevant so far as the day to day functioning of nation’s polity these days is concerned, “Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.”
Manifold questions spring up in wake of Delhi enjoying altogether a “turbulent statehood status” for almost past one decade now with Centre and Delhi AAP Governments virtually at daggers drawn off and on,most of the time blowing hot and cold on sensitive issues and burning problems of the day.
Late Mrs.Sheila Dixit’s three terms as CM in office did see a smooth sailing for Delhi Government coming true and living upto to the expectations of the Delhi populace with development its prime focus.
Do not Delhi Assembly Polls now seem to be making a mockery all these years of the spirit of democracy obviously jeering at the popular will of the people by dint of frittering away the time,energy and rich human resources of the nation on good for nothing pursuits with the leitmotif of settling political scores only and only to “manipulate power” by the sheer din and noise of rhetorics alone every time bringing all-round progress and advancement of Delhi to a standstill ? BJP, AAP and Congress the parties in the poll fray are resonating this factor in their recent poll campaigns indulging in mudslinging flaying each other.
Another question at present stares the polity in its face,why polls for Delhi Assembly Polls- a Union Territory(just half a state)to see a fierce tug of war all these ten years becoming a prestigious issue for both BJP, Aam Aadmi Party as Modi led Union Govt.at Centre has not been allowing a free and uninterrupted run for AAP led Delhi Government- be it either Mr.Arvind Kejriwal or Ms.Atishi Marlena.
Do not PM Narendra Modi and two time erstwhile Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal with the designs of sustaining just their “insatiable lust” for power, playing havoc with the system and elite masses of Delhi and elsewhere too? Do not almost all these ten years,the will of people and overwhelming mandates of Delhi public in 2015 and 2020 imply vitriolically tearing asunder the very democratic and federal spirit enshrined in the constitution of India at the instance of Centre? Have not Arvind Kejriwal earlier on and now Delhi CM Atishi Marlena struggling to assert their positions following massive mandates twice in a row in favour of Aam Adami Party but ironically finding themselves at the receiving end and at the merci of Mr. Modi, Mr.Amit Shah and Lt.Governors all the time.
Out of power in Delhi for more than 25 years, BJP is desperately leaving no stone unturned so far to taste power again in Delhi in King Bruce And The Spider Scottish tale style like the Centre too but all in vain so far.Despite the Apex Court directions,the BJP blatantly overlooking those has so far been contented with calling the shots by proxy through Lt.Governors, not allowing free hand to AAP led regimes.When Kejriwal led AAP ministry secured the Supreme Court orders to govern freely and fairly in accordance with constitution then BJP resorted to the legislation course in Parliament to thwart,unarm and upset democratically elected government of its due as well as its constitutional right to govern.
Hence,has not nation’s polity,be it the Apex Court, Parliament, Election Commission of India,CBI,Income Tax Department, Enforcement Directorate, main political players in Delhi musical chairs race-AAP, BJP and Congress reduced to “a butt of ridicule” in one go called the Delhi Assembly Polls now appearing to be “Much Ado About Nothing?”
Why then INDIA bloc parties Trinamool Congress Party, Samajwadi Party and Shiv Sena(Uddhav Thackeray)having no clout in Delhi voters in a bid to throw their weight behind AAP, making a fun of their parties as the Congress Party may emerge as a pleasant surprise springing up as “a black horse” this time in Delhi Polls thriving on social justice and then promising due share in power for dalits, marginalised sections of society such as other backward classes and scheduled tribes planks but this outcome though too will result in sharp conflict and confrontation with the Centre !
What sort of democracy is this ? Would not it be justified to do away with the half statehood status of Delhi relegating it to its status quo position of Union Territory when democratic,constitutional and federal norms are to be thrown to winds with impunity by twisting and turning the polity into to the instruments of “Might Is Right” and “My Way High Way.” In this extreme hollow and stooping very low political game of one upmanship, AAP’s National Convener Arvind Kejriwal as the Chief Minister Delhi remained behind bars for months in alleged Rs 100 Crore liquor scam, then continuing to run his ministry from Tihar Jail- new and unprecedented a norm of governance in the annals of independent India. His then Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh and former Health Minister Satinder Jain too remained incarcerated for long spells for many alleged cases of corruption.The BJP leadership has been painting AAP as a tainted party but Kejriwal and his bandwagon sticking constantly to its guns as the “Kattar Imaandar Party”(Staunch Honest Party).
The moot question arises what is the fun and logic of holding democracy to ransom by conducting polls to Delhi Assembly when people’s mandate has no sanctity and meaning at all, which is being shattered into pieces for hollow and petty partisan ends every time. In wake of the prolonged acrimony and confrontationist stances between BJP and AAP political outfits in Delhi,would not it be prudent and in the fitness of things to disband Delhi as a state to restore it as a Union Territory in the best interests of India.Is this not indeed an exercise in futility to keep intact the statehood status of Delhi? Will good sense prevail upon Centre to get the needful done in this regard,earlier it is done better it would be?
What Lord Rama and his devotee deity Hanumana signify and emblematize for both Modi and Kejriwal respectively while heading Union and Delhi ministries, if BJP and AAP “could not” and “can not” harmonise in the national capital of Delhi spiritedly?Are these the Hindutva and Sanatan Dharama tenets both following for two terms both in power, very queer ? Will “nation above everything” vision and spirit ever dawn upon these two leaders rising above all other priorities?
One of my friends, Mr.Brij Bhushan Goyal Organising Secretary of premier an institution of Punjab- Dr.Satish Chander Dhawan Government College Ludhiana Alumni Association in response to my this idea of restoring earlier Union Territory status for Delhi, taking a jib at BJP in a lighter vein asserted, this thought may get translated into actuality if BJP again fails to make it to the victory stand this time too. Delhi politics has lost its decency of the past, he says.
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Contributed by:
Prof PK Sharma Freelance Journalist
Associate Professor of English(Retired),
Pom Anm Nest, BARNALA(Punjab)