PAANCH SAAL KEJRIWAL
















Pic.: Pradeep Nanda


I don’t like to write about party politics in my blog, just as I don’t like to talk about sectarian religion. But, because our lives are impacted by both political and religious climate around us, whether we like it or not, we need to be alive to what is happening out here…

The latest is: the landslide victory of Arvind Kejriwal and his party AAP in Delhi elections.

I am amazed just the way so many, all over the nation and abroad, are!

Kejriwal is a resilient man. Very, very tough mentally. He wears an equally-thick skin which helps him negotiates through the merciless criticism and cynicism directed towards him and his party… And, because he lives with ‘little’ – doesn't care for his material needs, his family and his personal security - he is free to lead the way he does…

These kinds of individuals are difficult to be subdued in, both, victory or defeats. There is lot to learn from them…

So, though I don’t like party politics, and though I had never been a huge fan of Arvind Kejriwal, today, as I see the kind of Delhi landslide he has caused, I can’t help but admiring him with respect…

It has, most certainly, taken something steely to do that…

And, my respect is just for that…

Having said that, I must also say this: Right since my childhood days, I have seen many such electoral landslides… Just a few months ago, it was Modi and his BJP’s turn to cause it nationwide… Congress has done it several times in our nation’s history… The Communists, TDP, DMK, SP, Shiv Sena… yes, all have seen their days, their ‘Golden Moments’ in the elections…

But, then, but then!


Today, AAP is just an untested party in its preschool of politics. Kejriwal, too, is an untested leader at the helm of affairs… It was one thing to make tall promises, and it would be another thing to implement them… The issues like corruption, poverty and violence might need much, much more than what he or AAP seem to possess in their arsenal…. But, then, the leaders and their parties become great only when they are put to such tests of fire…

Hope, both, Kejriwal and AAP pass this test…

Well done Kejriwal… Let me sing - “Paanch Saal Kejriwal”!






GERALD D’CUNHA



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