AAP – Theatre of the absurd: a congregation of NGOs, Activists & Bored CEOs

“Road to Hell is paved with Good intentions”

AAP: Theatre of the absurd

This post is not about Arvind Kejriwal (AK) - the person, the activist. He is way above those who would malign him on grounds of personal integrity, honesty, a genuine desire and intention to do something real good for the Nation. Of this, I am absolutely convinced. I also respect him for taking the plunge into active politics. By doing so, he showed the Sibals and Diggis that when push comes to shove, a common man like AK can pack them into the oblivion.

In short, AK is a revolutionary and an activist for public good par excellence.

The excitement is palpable

The problem started when AK the activist, turns into a willing CM; on flimsy and compromised support of the same whom he was fighting against all these years. He would have done wonders leading the opposition with 28 AAP MLAs on his side, using Activism to his full strength. Even if it called for an outside support to BJP. This weakness & the rush for Power with a poorly crafted decision to form a feeble and compromised government was the starting point of my disconnect with AK. The next steps that followed after AK took over Delhi pushed me totally against AK & his NGO-Activist-political outfit AAP. Their poll manifesto, public policy blueprint (if there is any) and their actions subsequent to taking over reigns of Delhi; are extremely regressive for India & its future. An AAP member who happens to be the former Chief Secretary rank IAS officer, busy drafting the Swaraj Bill for AAP opines: Globalization main cause of corruption: AAP official. A brilliant AAP idea is their bid for 90% reservation in Delhi colleges for Delhites. Reversal of policy on FDI in multi-brand retail. Who else but the communists would love all of this to say AAP did what CPM wanted to do: Prakash Karat

Dark Days ahead!

AK and his stellar team were fully aware that most of the poll-promises made by them would not be possible without the constitutional amendments. Barely a week into the office, AK & his team of AAP ministers delivered on their poll promise of water and power subsidies, only to put Delhites through the obvious:
Dark days ahead? Delhi discoms warn of payment crisis if rates aren't hiked.

I always thought AK would make a good administrator, given his IRS background. But was shocked and amused to see the way he conducted his very first public meeting, where Too much janata, Kejriwal's first darbar ends in near-stampede:

Click to enlarge

This report would pass the “Laughter Challenge” and it makes for a truly amusing read - I quote:

Later he reappeared on the roof inside the secretariat complex to appeal for calm, as the darbar timings of 9.30 to 11 am were officially over. "Go back home now," he told the estimated crowd of about 20,000 people who refused to disperse, angered by the mismanagement. "We will make better arrangements next time," he said.

On a more serious note, please do read the full report to get a sense of his administration capabilities.

Finally, I thought AK had worked on the ground for 15 long years and hence would be familiar with the various models and practices already in place, as far as the local governance and grievance redressal is concerned. But I was wrong! I am surprised that he preferred to re-invent the wheel all over again when there is an excellent tried and tested mechanism already in place for grievance handling.

I had promised myself not to mention NaMo in this post at all but I changed my mind now. Everyone who got super excited about the first ever Public Grievances Meeting conducted by AAP surely were not aware and had never heard of SWAGAT:

State Wide Attention on Grievances by Application of Technology 

This scheme has been running in Gujarat for the last ten years with a brilliant track record of 92.45% of complaints resolved. United Nations recognised this fine work in June 2010 and awarded United Nations Public Service Award 2^nd Place for:

"Improving Transparency, Accountability and Responsiveness in the Public Service Category" 

United Nations Public Service Award

Snapshot of SWAGAT session in progress

Obviously, the paid media that we read and watch every day will never talk about this as this comes from NaMo's Gujarat. Those interested may like to further study SWAGAT that puts technology at the forefront in solving problems of the common man. Then compare it with the dated “1863” model of AK's Durbar to conclude that the poor people of Delhi deserved better!

Digging deeper into the last 10-15 years of AK's history, one would notice that someone somewhere has been nurturing & funding a silent civil society revolution in India, pushing and backing AK all the way. Serious questions are raised on AK's association with the NGO Kabir, liberally funded by Ford Foundation, HIVOS, PRIA, POS and Dutch Embassy; the Magsaysay Award, which incidentally is also funded by the Ford Foundation; his staying posted at Delhi virtually all of his IRS Career while other honest officers like Khemka are shunted around twice every year.

This post surely would upset many but I write this with a sense of responsibility based on my knowledge of events and facts. It is not a sheer co-incident or a TRP-chasing media that AK & AAP are visible all over the electronic and print media. TRP can be chased by various other means as well and the Mainstream Media knows how to get there. This is a classic master-stroke of Congress and the Paid Media is once again doing what it does best, once paid well, serve the Dynasty. Congress already knows where it stands today as far as 2014 Lok Sabha elections are concerned. Congress has exhausted all their tricks to keep NaMo away from contesting 2014 Lok Sabha polls. So this is the last and final attempt of Congress, pitching AAP against NaMo. They support AAP at Delhi, bring AAP into the drawing rooms of urban India through “paid media” such that even the “loose-motions” of AK are discussed at length on prime time. Educated and informed voters from the urban India, closely following this “nautanki” on media, have already started writing off NaMo. In the meanwhile, expectations from AK & AAP will be pushed to the skies and then they will start falling flat on their poll promises in the absence of a clear mandate to carry out constitutional reforms, one after the other. Congress will then finally pull the rug, withdraw support and take high moral ground. 

Wow! See the bigger picture now?

Addendum: The adjective "Bored" in the title of this post is picked up from a nice article of Chetan Bhagat: Get the priorities right: India first, AAP second