The Second Coming of Arvind Kejriwal
In a piece entitled “The Rise and Fall
of Team Anna” in G-files soon after the Lok Pal Bill was not passed by the
Rajya Sabha about two years back,, I had asked a rhetorical question: Will
there be a Second Coming for Team Anna? I noted that the Christians had been
waiting in vain for the second coming of Jesus Christ for the last two thousand
years. The Buddhists similarly believed that Gautama the Buddha will come again
as Lord Maitreya . The Theosophists led by Anne Besant even projected Jiddu
Krishnamurti as Lord Maitreya, but the anointed apostle threw off the yoke,
disbanded the Order of the Star and declared that he was not the Messiah.
Would there be a Second coming for
Team Anna, I asked. My answer was: “I doubt it. They had their chance and they
missed it.”
I was wrong. Kejriwal has bounced
back.
Today, Arvind Kejriwal is a
phenomenon. He has suddenly burst on the national scene like an unlikely comet,
leaving old stalwarts open mouthed in dismay. He pontificates on political
issues with the confidence of an old campaigner, and enunciates the elements of
a new utopia with messianic fervour.
Having
heard him define the New Polity in driblets, I wanted to see whether there was
a document which contained the detailed contours of his proposal. I discovered a slim 151 page
book called Swaraj published by Harper Collins in August 2012. It is priced at
a modest Rs. 150, as Arvind has forgone his royalty.
It is
curious that Arvind should have called his manifesto “Swaraj”, just like
Mahatma Gandhi. I have often felt that Gandhi is the unstated inspiration for
Arvind, with a broad similarity of perceptions with regard to the primacy of
the village, non-violent non-cooperation, peaceful agitation, fast unto death,
involvement of millions of common people, taking up issues with high emotive
appeal, hating the sin and not the sinner, simplicity in personal life and so
on. Like Gandhi, he has a soft exterior, but inside he is as tenacious as
steel. The list is virtually endless.
The book
has a Foreword by Anna Hazare, who calls it the manifesto of the India of
tomorrow. Those were happier days before the two stalwarts of the “India against
Corruption” movement drifted apart. The reasons for the split have now come out
into the open. Arvind wanted to launch a new political party. Anna felt that
politics was like mud; they would be sullied by the contact. Arvind argued that
if politics was mud, they would need to get into the mire and clean it up. This
conflict of perception is reminiscent of the differences that cropped up
between Gandhi and Nehru on many issues like the acceptance of partition, appeasement
of Mohammad Ali Jinnah and the disbandment of the Congress Party after the
achievement of freedom, to give only a few examples.
In his
Preface, Arvind says that we fought for independence from the British because we
wanted swaraj or self-rule. But this did not happen. The British went away but
their system remained in place. What Indians want is swaraj or self-rule. We do
not want leaders and officers sitting in Delhi to formulate development schemes
for the people.
Self-rule
means that Government should function according to the wishes of the people. Laws,
rules and regulations should be formulated with the consent and participation
of the people. The people should decide all momentous issues in a scientific ,
systematic manner, so that our resources like land, water, coal, iron ore etc.
are not taken away by foreign governments and investors, domestic business
houses, corrupt politicians and bureaucrats for a pittance.
In the
present system of governance, the people have only one right: the right to vote
for their representatives in the Parliament, vidhan sabha, and self-governing
institutions like Panchayati Raj bodies and municipal committees and
corporations. This power is exercised only once in five years. The politicians
woo the voters for a little while during the electoral process and promptly
forget them for the next five years.
The
people have no control over the Govt. employees who are supposed to serve them.
Even if the teacher does not attend the school, the doctor does not give
medicines or the constable does not record their FIR, they have no remedy
except to complain to their superiors with little effect. The Gram Sabha cannot
summon these employees for an explanation, stop their salaries or punish them.
The
people have no control over the govt. funds. Whenever the people demand
something to be done, they are told that there are no funds. On the other hand,
there are plenty of funds for schemes like old age pensions, widow pensions,
NREGA,ration etc. formulated on all India basis by planners sitting in Delhi
and state capitals.
The
people are not consulted while formulating laws, rules and schemes. Nobody asks
them when their land is acquired for the benefit of foreign and indigenous
companies. Natural resources are allotted to large business houses, charging
them a tiny fraction of what they earn from their disposal. The forests which
used to serve the needs of tribals living in or near them and were not interfered
with even by the mighty British were taken over by the Forest departments after
independence and massive deforestation took place.
In many cities,
water is being distributed by companies. Whole rivers are being gobbled up in
the wake of dam construction.
Kejriwal
poses the question of why India is up for sale and why the people are unable to
do anything to stave off the challenge.
His
answer: There is no democracy in India. The people have understood the game.
They do not find the politics of voting once in five years as acceptable. “We,
the people” want a direct participation in power. In Kejriwal’s utopia, the
people shall take decisions, and politicians and officials will have to
implement them.
It might
be argued that a decentralized democracy exists in India, but the Panchayati
Raj system suffers from several infirmities. The panchayats have very limited
powers. And whatever limited powers they have vest in the Sarpanch and not in
the Gram Sabha. The people have no power to take action against a corrupt
Sarpanch. All the powers vest in the district collector and the state
government. What is required is a shift of powers from the State govts,
district collectors and sarpanches to the gram sabhas.
Arvind has cited the examples from other
countries to demonstrate that he is not suggesting something unique or
eccentric. In the US, a small municipality in the state of Oregon disallowed a
proposal of Walmart to open a store in their town. Their decision was final. In
Brazil, a budget for slum areas was prepared on the streets in consultation
with the beneficiaries and even the World Bank had to concede that there was
consequently tremendous development. In Switzerland, if 50,000 persons sign a
petition and ask for a law, it has to be presented as an act in the parliament.
Thus
there is direct participation in governance in many countries of the world.
So what
actually needs to be done? Arvind says that the gram sabhas which consist of
all the residents of a village should be vested with all powers. They should
appoint the local officials and have the power to summon anyone to the meeting
of the sabha. They should have the power to punish and to stop the salary.
No
schematic funds should be spent in a village. It would be better to allot an
untied fund to the sabha, which they can spend as they wish. They could give a
house to a homeless family or support some indigent with food grains or grant a
loan to a person for starting a business or set up factories or grain banks.
Thus they could ensure that no one in the village died of hunger or was forced
to take a loan from a moneylender at an exorbitant rate of interest or committed
suicide due to frustration
Towards
the end, Kejriwal anticipates the various misgivings people have about the
proposed reforms package. He pooh-poohs the suggestion that vesting of powers
in the Gram Sabhas will inexorably lead to corruption, favouritism, groupism,
repression of Dalits, strengthening of outdated institutions like khap panchayats,
perpetuation of traditional social evils and so on.
He goes
on to suggest that there should be mohalla sabhas in towns too and all the
suggestions made for empowering gram sabhas should be applied to urban areas
too.
Swaraj:
A Critical Appraisal
There is no doubt in my mind that
Arvind Kejriwal has hit upon a fundamental truth about the system of governance
in this country. It is that we have over centralised the entire structure of economic
planning. On the one hand we wish to remove controls and empower the private
sector, but on the other hand we have not dismantled the planning apparatus, a reminder
of the balmy days of the socialistic pattern of society and the Mahalnobis
model and development of the commanding heights of the economy.
Many of
us have balked at the distinction made in the various budgets between plan and
non-plan expenditure, a distinction that has harmed the system of governance
more than any other factor. In our topsy turvey system we get unlimited amounts
of money to build new assets, schemes and projects, but we are starved to death
in respect of maintenance of assets and infrastructure already in existence.
The media
has been playing the usual games. After the AAP’s surprise win in December
2013, they raised Arvind to the skies and catapulted him to the pedestal of a
possible winner of the plum position of PM. The latest opinion polls have
predicted just 7 to 12 seats to AAP in the elections to the Lok Sabha . The
political parties and their supporters in big business and the media are
attacking Arvind and his chief lieutenants like sharks on non-issues like a
poem written six years ago, a dharna against police inaction and a foiled
attempt to persuade the police to raid a suspect premises.
They fail
to recognize a paradigm shift in the political dialogue of this country. It is
immaterial whether Arvind Kejriwal and the AAP survive. Politics in India will
never be the same again.
Arvind
Kejriwal has had his Second Coming. Whether he is the messiah we have all been
waiting for, only time will tell!
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