Main hun Aam Aadmi

“Main hun Aam Aadmi”

I am the common man, the “Aam Aadmi” of India, the biggest democracy on this planet. Some people call me mango man. Some people call my country a banana republic.

I have a long history as old as the civilization, but today, let me focus my thoughts on the post independence era. As a common man, I ploughed the barren fields. I lifted goods and pulled rikshaw on broken roads. I labored in factory. I taught students in schools in open fields, I taught students in good schools in and colleges. I did whatever work I was asked to do. I earned my livelihood, looked after my family and remained practically aloof from the socio-political process. I remained mere spectator and acted only as a “vote” in the country’s political process.  Sometimes, my ignorance was exploited and I was thrown in fires of political rallies, yatras, disturbances and communal riots, may be for few coins or by exploiting my emotional and religious innocent beliefs. After 67 years of India’s independence, I am still the same common man and I accepted all the rights and wrongs without much courage to raise any questions?

As a common man, I watched a section of society growing their wealth exponentially adopting all legal/illegal means whereas, as a common man on the street, I am still struggling to survive. I am a mute witness to the extreme disparities between rich and poor. As a poor, I am living in unlivable, inhuman conditions; suffering from malnutrition, lack of medical aid, lack of proper sanitation facilities and even lack proper food for survival. Still, I astonishingly watch big people calling India a great democracy. I watch these people, even after sixty seven years of Independence, promising me to eradicate poverty, every now and then and uplift my livelihood.

I have been hearing of many small and big corruption cases in the country taking the toll on the nation’s developments, practically under all political regimes of the governance but could not dare to raise a finger, leave aside witnessing proper conviction.

Under such a scenario, I watched an agitation by Team Anna and Mr. Arvind Kejirwal in Delhi for Lokpal Bill. I watched with deep agony people coming on the street to protest against rape of a girl in the national capital. In the age of electronic media, these incidents had suddenly waked up my consciousness. After sudden waking up from deep the deep slumber, I realized that Anna and Kejiwal are speaking my voice. I watched them demanding passing of a strong Lokpal Bill in parliament to control cancerous growth of corruption. I too joined the chorus. They repeatedly proclaimed that most of the political parties have the same ideology on corruption and have tacit understanding of not exposing each other’s cases and continue with their money making and power sharing arrangements. All political parties challenged Anna and Kejriwal that the bills cannot be passed on the street and if they want to frame the laws, they should join politics and enter parliament.

And here comes Arvind Kejriwal accepting the challenge to join the politics and forming a political outfit “Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)”, offering an alternate political philosophy and system of governance. After building the party and asking people to donate for election funding, listing the donors names on the website, he rose to challenge the mighty Sheila Dixit in Delhi Assembly Elections. Arvind Kejriwal has started telling me that the time has gone for the Aam Aadmi of this country to keep mum and tolerate everything in the name of democracy. He started telling me that the time has really come for each one, like me to become an active and aware citizen and challenge the ills in society and governance.

The AAP promised me a clean alternative to present day’s politics where least concern is shown to the common man whose role in governance is considered over after his casting of vote once in five years. This promise appeared to offer a historical opportunity to right minded patriotic citizen and common man like me to ponder over what Kejriwal is saying. Kejriwal appeared sincere and honest to me. For the first time, common man like me got a voice and was receiving attention. I was asked to come forward and be a part of cleansing process. Kejriwal asked me to join the party, asked me to donate for election, asked my views on various issues and was easily approachable. He looked like me and he could touch my heart with full sincerity. I started feeling empowered and decided to give my trust to him.

Then came the Delhi state elections. Overwhelming majority voted for Aam Aadmi Party but still it fell short of majority. AAP members again came to common man like me to ask my opinion on minority government formation. I advised AAP to go ahead and form government and prove that how honestly, the system can be used to serve the common man. Today, AAP is heading the Delhi government and Kejriwal has become the national hero, receiving praise for good actions as well as brickbats for mistakes all over. But, certainly he has become a role model for many and specially for a common man, like me.

Today, as an empowered common man, I am witnessing that AAP could give a direction to the strong desire of masses to offer a substitute to the forces of status quo. Where it will lead, the future will tell, but certainly, it has given new direction and hope for the political discourse in the country. If the team remains sincere, honest and patriotic in its efforts, come what may, they will succeed and the Indian history will remember them forever. If they fall prey to greedy politics, the same Indian history will remember them as traitors to deceive people’s faith and as a consequence, the AAP will be consigned in the dirty water of Yamuna.

The other political parties have got 67 years to rule and misrule, I, the aam aadmi, want to give  AAP some reasonable time for the promised “Swaraj”.

Satyagraha

“Satyagraha”……a film starring Amitabh Bachchan, a real image of Indian democratic system at work…a must watch for every Indian…

After a very long time, some time back, I ventured out to watch Praksh Jha’s movie “Satyagraha”. As the story unfolds, it progresses on expected lines, gathering the moments from idealistic conversation between a young aspiring young man, bubbling with energy and an old fading man, a law abiding school teacher, to cruel events, nexus between politicians and businessmen, manipulations, murders, political game fixing, compulsions of jod-tod ki rajneeti – the coalition politics, crushing the common man under the wheel of corruption and at the end, successfully awakening the consciousness of common man… “the aam aadmi”, turning into a  “Satyagraha”, “a mass movement”,  taking a bloody shape but simultaneously exposing the dirtiest and ugliest face of politics and governance. It draws many inspirations from real life national and international public events of anger against the corrupt systems, be it Egyptian up-rise or Anna – Kejriwal and Nirbhaya movements. The film has succeeded in exposing the real face of politics and governance, common man’s spirit of fight for justice and hope of light at the end of tunnel. It is a real image of Indian society at the cross road  and Prakash Jha’s work will certainly help it to understand the dirty tricks and electoral gimmicks of politicians at the time of election and judge a candidate more judiciously, avoiding the traps and pitfalls in the way while voting.

The movie also compliments and supports Kejriwal zeal for cleaning the system by jumping into the dirt.     

Why AAP should not form government in Delhi?

Since the day of declaration of results of Delhi Assembly on 8^th Dec. '2013, there has been a mad rush of forceful advices to AAP to form government in spite of the fact that they are no. 2 with 28 seats whereas BJP is no. 1 with 32 seats. Leave aside Congress; the irony is that no. 1 party is asking no. 2 party to form government.

In my view, there appears a hidden malice desire behind this coercive tactics to install a lame duck government headed by AAP and pull it down later on silliest ground and discredit it totally before 2014 parliament elections. The political mahapundits of both Congress and BJP are unrelentingly pursuing this unique trick to demolish the Kejri “Wall” created by AAP and immobilize them before parliament election. Their argument in the old traditional way is that government must be installed once the elections are over. Are they not trying to mislead the people with this logic? What is the use of installing a lame duck government to serve some political purpose of certain political class? A bad, inefficient and corrupt government is not a better alternative than not having a government at all. The day to day affairs can be run by beaurocratic machinery alone under Governor/LG till the fresh elections are held. Moreover, the additional cost of re-election is not a big issue in this country when the cost of corrupt governance is very high and lacs and lacs of Rupees have been lost in corruption with no sign of any efforts of recovery from the corrupts. In a country where, many prominent leaders do not hesitate to contest more than one seat without bothering for re-election and nation incurring its cost after their vacating a seat, the logic of cost of re-election is meaningless and hypocritical.

Therefore, AAP must continue to stick to its stand of not forming government in Delhi.

Manik Barmase

12.12.2013

Learnings from Geeta, the song divine, song of God...

Bhagwad Geeta, the “Song of God” is a divine guide for humanity of all ages and times. The truth is "I am", "I was" and "I will". The truth is “He was”, “ He is” and “He will”. “He” and “I” are the same, no different. The Christianity also reiterates this by proclaiming “I and the my father are one”. If the God is taken out from the universal system, nothing would be left. He is colourless, coloured in the shade of the world. He is/was in the Kauravas.. He is/was in the Pandavas. He is everywhere, in every atom always. He only creates, He only destroys and it is He, who only sustains.

To me, Geeta is a beautifully compiled collection of teachings based on moral ethics, virtues and duties, adhering to a principled life leading to harmony within and beyond, and not deviating from the path of duties and righteous actions at any cost. It is a dialogue between Shri Krishna and Arjuna in the battlefield of Mahabharata where Arjuna surrenders his weapons and becomes helpless and weak forgetting his “Rajdharma” simply because he sees his own relatives in the enemy camp. Shri Krishna awakens Arjuna from his false identity and motivates him to take up the arms to fight for the righteous cause. Shri Krishna also promises him ultimate success at the end and promises liberation by adhering to the path of duties and virtues.

This “Dialogue Immortal” goes uninterrupted within us. Within a saint and a sinner. At any point of time in life, every one has to make choices between the right and wrong. We may like to choose between the permanent inner happiness and joy or temporary pleasure in unending material acquisitions, greed and lust, but long term pain at the end. This dialogue one can watch within, at work place and anywhere in social life. The Geeta teaches us to listen to this inner dialogue, become aware and then use discriminative powers to choose between right and wrong and act accordingly. Until and unless one has the awareness of right and wrong, he cannot have discriminative power and be unaware of his actions and resultant consequences.

These teachings can be found any religion and are not limited to Hinduism. It is simply a Manav Dharma and is the essence of ultimate happiness and joy. It is relevant in all walks of life and in my opinion, one must cultivate habits of reading Geeta regularly and meditating on the true meaning to become a better person in the progression of life.

AAP surges from zero to 29 seats in Delhi, an infinite gain.

The past…the Anna-Kejriwal Movement, the up-rise of common citizens in Nirbhaya case and emergence of Aam Aadmi Party on Indian political horizon are of great historical significance. The AAP’s phenomenal march towards winning 27 seats in Delhi Assembly election with a slender difference of vote share with BJP which is nearing to get 33 seats is a grand positive development for the Indian democracy. The AAP has almost formed the Government and Arvind Kejriwal has almost become the Chief Minister of Delhi, the power centre of Indian democracy. It re-establishes the divine truth that at the end, what wins is truth… “Satyamev Jayate” the Truth Alone Triumphs. The rise of AAP is unparalleled in the history of independent India’s political arena and cannot be compared with likes of NTR’s party, BSP, AGP and other regional political parties. In the past, people of a particular region or community could identify themselves with the ideology of these parties but in case of AAP, the people are identifying and connecting themselves with it irrespective of the region, religion and community. The core, the subtle and inherent desire of human psychic to be identified and side with the “truth” has found a political outfit, an alliance to rely on in the form of AAP. The AAP could touch this core desire in the human sub-consciousness with their transparent & truthful anti-corruption drive and redefining the idea of governance of the people, by the people and for the people and could challenge the mighty and traditional BJP and Congress parties. (I remember Sheila Dixit uttering on TV a few days back about Kejriwal as “ Aie aadmi kaun hai? Gaziabad mein rahta hai aur Dilli mein aake jhadu chala raha hai?”,  demeaning not only Kejriwal but the aam aadmi of the country. The beauty of the democracy is that the same Sheila Dixit stands defeated today in the hands of the same aam aadmi, Arvind Kejriwal.  The other, Mr. Gadkari of BJP calling AAP a “chiilar party” and many others were calling AAP as vote cutters & vote wasters).

The AAP, right from it’s’ inception has been changing the Indian political canvas. AAP gained success even before it went into election huddle. It includes the effect on BJP forcing it to substitute its’ CM candidate from Vijay Goel to Dr. Harsh Vardhan. Even Rahul Gandhi is appreciating today the good work done by Kejriwal and appears to make him his role model. The AAP is now forcing the political parties to rethink about their old, so called politics of muscle and money power and politics of vote bank and “Note” bank.  The victory of AAP cannot be singularly attributed to AAP and Arvind Kejriwal alone but mainly to the people who were terribly upset with the arrogant, opportunistic and questionable corrupt practices of the traditional parties leave aside sky rocketing inflation, high onion and vegetable prices, unemployment, economic downturn etc. etc. India is today hovering at 94^th rank in the list of most corrupt nations as per Transparency International. Even after 67 years of India’s independence, India remains a poor, poorly developed and a corrupt nation. This has to change and change for the best in its’ right earnest. The rule of governance and the ways of nation’s development must change. If AAP, a party with a difference, could maintain the spirit of “Satyamev Jayate”, and value based politics, this will definitely lead to the ultimate change and the old Hindi film song “Aap Jaisa Koi Meri Jindagi Mein Aaye.. to Baat Ban Jaaye…”, “AAP” Jaisa Koi Bharat ki Jindagi Mein Aaye… to Baat Ban Jaaye…”will come true and the honor of India and Indian democracy will be restored back, no doubt.