Wednesday, 22 January 2014

OPEN LETTER TO ARVIND KEJRIWAL By Aloke lal IPS Rtd.


Dear Mr Kejriwal,
Your meteoric rise to the position of Chief Minister, Delhi, has come about in such quick time that an average politician of this country will have nothing but envy for you. It takes years, sometimes decades, to be noticed as somebody in an arena where most of the seats are taken by previous appointment. Of the few seats that are left, someone who has already done a marathon of political mileage can hope to be considered. So, Mr CM, you are not merely a wild card entry into a hitherto reserved arena, you are also the hope for many who want a change in the existing political climate of the nation. As a TV presenter would say, ‘the nation wants to know’ why it so happened that you resorted to theatrics which quickly put you in such a tight spot that you were seen gasping for breath, and looking for the very first opportunity to dismantle the stage you became an exhibit of? One can see that the energy of a youngster who got a serendipitous lollipop is there in you and in the members of your team of activists after conquering the Delhi citadel which was so far held by two biggies. This is a historic development, and should be taken forward with much solemnity. To see you in a street protest was certainly not acceptable. To see that you were to proclaim that all the confusion your actions caused, all the disruption that the people of Delhi had to endure, were to lead to merely leave for a couple of police officials is a very painful realisation indeed. Please don’t malign the people by proclaiming that it is “a peoples’ victory”. My friend, Arvind, you have really let all those down whose expectations were for something much more meaningful to emerge from your ill-advised method of protest in the instant case.

It may be useful to remind you that investigating cases of rape and crime against women is not the only agenda of Delhi Police, though, admittedly, it is an important part of police work. However, to have come out in support of an agitation which ultimately looked like a misadventure leading to negligible, if any, gain for the aam aadmi, you have certainly missed the woods for the trees. If the case is that the police should be under the Delhi government and not the Government of India, by your immature and ill-advised actions you have actually raised serious doubts if this will be a prudent move. Delhi does not have full statehood yet. The bill which was drafted in 2003 for granting full statehood to Delhi also proposed to keep police and public order under the purview of the Centre. Mr Kejriwal, I am sure in your sane moments you will agree that Delhi Police shall have to be under the control of the MHA because Delhi Police faces some unique challenges not faced by other State police forces. It cannot be put under the whimsical command of over-charged champions of the Delhiite’s causes. I am confident that you are aware of the need of Delhi Police to coordinate with the Ministry of External Affairs on a week-to-week and, occasionally, on a day-to-day, basis. There is also a diplomatic community to look after and to take care of their professional requirements. After your recent road-show it can be seen that your team clearly lacks the gravitas essential for serious business like running the affairs of peoples’ security; especially in the light of the fact that your Law Minister himself shows in his deportment a poor appreciation of human rights and jurisprudence. Som Nath Bharti and his equally over-zealous friends displayed in public last week that they apparently had the license to do what they wished. Your reaction to the whole thing was, to say the least, most disappointing. Instead of reining in an errant colleague, you chose to make a laughing stock of yourself by joining him in his unacceptable vigilante activities.
Bhai Kejriwal, there are many who may have not joined the AAP bandwagon, but were optimistically curious about the emergence of a group of idealists, would now be worried about the anachronism that is AAP.

There are sections of the middle class who are not particularly enamoured of Narendra Modi and are apprehensive about the meaning of his message were hoping that AAP will somehow manage to check the Modi juggernaut. Now, in the backdrop of recent manifestations, will this ‘hope’ actually materialise or simply dissolve into thin air, is the question. 
Arvind, have you actually let a historic possibility vanish into thin air?
Yours etc.
 


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