Saturday, December 14, 2013

Lessons for politicians from comic books

This is as joyous a time as any for people around the globe. The new year's celebrations are nigh, so is Christmas and India's drubbing at the hands of the South African cricket team. In this festive spirit, might I say that there is one family that is not having a joy ride right now, especially not after what transpired on the morning of Dec 8. I cannot even imagine anything they are going through! 

Now that Mrs. Gandhi's dream of seeing her innocent pubescent son as the Prime Minister of India is fading faster than Manchester United's hope of retaining their title this season, let's move on to the new developments of our political landscape. The Aam Aadmi Party made a astonishing debut in the quasi-state elections of Delhi, with the rout of the Congress being accentuated by the thrashing Mrs. Sheila Dikshit received at the hands of Arvind Kejriwal (and almost drew with the BJP guy who also ran). Now Delhi is stuck in an impasse. The BJP lacks the majority (and perhaps the will to buy some legislators), and the AAP is hard-pressed to believe that its dreams of capturing power might come true. The only comparable situation I can think of is when Uday Chopra realized that his brother won't stop making Dhoom movies, so the only way for him to quit acting was to admit this was his last!

"With great power comes great responsibility"
Beaten to death, this quote from Uncle Ben becomes the beacon that guides Peter Parker to his web-slinging, world-saving ways. Unfortunately, Peter Parker was not a little short of full spider powers, else we would've known what Kejriwal and Harsh Vardhan could do in their situation. However, it would be a shame is Delhi heads to another election in 6 months, not just because of the deemed expenditure (unless the elections are held along with the Lok Sabha elections, a scenario even AAP would not like to invite), but also because the two national parties are for the first time willing to let a newcomer form the government. We can all speculate the reasons as to why the BJP is willing to be a bystander, but at least to this aam aadmi, the AAP is slowly devolving into one of those idiotic debating teams that shout hoarse every evening on prime time news. We all know that the AAP stands by the slogan "Sab chor hain", but to also believe that "Hum jo chahte hair, wahi aam aadmi chahta hai" would be too dangerous of a ploy. The AAP needs to realize that it received a large number of votes from the traditional Congress and BJP vote banks, votes that will desert them in the Lok Sabha elections unless the voters feel that they'll not be wasting their franchise. One look at the letter Kejriwal wrote to the leaders of the two parties makes it seem like a ransom note Sadashiv Amrapurkar would write in the 90's to Anil Kapoor. The AAP should form a government and try and get the doable things done on priority, and by doable, I mean regularization of illegal colonies and improvements in public health and education. Delhi's demand of statehood needs to be recognized by the union government, and Jan Lokpal is a national institution, not a state one. Also, this infatuation with the Ram Leela ground is pretty cute, but assembly session are better conducted in the premises of the assembly. If Kejriwal manages to accomplish a fraction of his promises, it will only better the AAP's chances in Delhi in the coming years.

A united team of heroes is better than one mighty villain
As we learnt from the Avengers movie, ego can be a big problem as far as winning a battle goes. The BJP needs to realize that this is a golden opportunity for them to regain power in New Delhi after being in the doldrums for 10 years now. The effect of Narendra Modi and his mass appeal are something only the Congress party would not acknowledge, but it seems like Sushma Swaraj and L.K. Advani would like to give company to their old foes. It is one thing to not like the way somebody conducts their campaign, but it is trite to destabilize that same branch that gives you shelter. Mrs. Swaraj should introspect upon her own mass appeal (or the lack of it), since the Vidisha constituency she represents as an MP almost shifted out of the BJP's hands but for the CM himself to contest from this seat along with his traditional seat. And this election was not a fair fight ala Chattisgarh, it was a landslide in BJP's favor! The mood of the country is asking for a change, and it would be a crime to not give it to them by acting like a power center when evidence points to the contrary.

PS: Dhoom movies used to have kick-ass title songs. What happened to Dhoom 3?

2 comments:

mri said...

Nice one! writing part is really amazing :)

Maybe you are right (it is quite possible). But I think that BJP and congress are really preparing a trap hole for APP and if they move ahead with making a minority government, they will not be able to really bring much change (which Delhi needs desparately) and they will lose the trust of the voters.
Just saying.

Sid said...

That's possible, and as I wrote, it is hard to speculate as to why the BJP is not moving ahead with the formation of a minority government, since AAP has offered to sit in the opposition. I guess we'll come to know in 10 days time.

PS: Thanks! :)