An Open Invitation for the country: Let us criticize Mr. Kejriwal
Let me ask a very basic question before I begin. Are you someone who has never committed mistakes? Are you someone who thinks of himself as a Perfectionist? If I have to answer this, I can genuinely say that I do not belong to the above category. And believe it or not, even you aren’t a perfectionist breed, in fact no one is! Then what is this mystical power that makes everyone literally ‘abuse’ Mr. Kejriwal just for committing few mistakes? Did he ‘snatch’ anything from us? Obviously nothing, as compared to what other national parties have done in India. If he has done any harm to someone, then he has done it to himself and not you, not even me!
I am proud of being an Indian, a country that proudly shouts against the world of being the largest democracy. But ironically, I find this democracy flexible enough that can easily be played with, all it needs is someone who can attack it emotionally! In the first place, it was Mr. Kejriwal himself who touched the emotional chord of Indian middle class, and today the same man is standing alone against the rest! Interestingly, the only thing that stays the same is the Indian common man sandwiched between hopes & reality.
I do not write this piece to enlighten Mr. Kejriwal’s figure, I am rather writing this to understand as to what exactly is the mindset of a typical Indian. Funny part is, an auto-wala who tapes his mouth against all the evils that he was facing for last 20 years suddenly gets courageous enough to slap the Ex CM of Delhi? Ironic is the fact that, a man who rebuilt our faith in democracy & generated fearlessness against injustice, even in an auto driver, gets slapped by the same auto driver!
It gets difficult to find a pragmatic reason as to why Mr. Kejriwal has to face this humiliation! Is it for showing guts to fight against Mr. Narender Modi? Is it for being a politician who stands with a common man? Is it for being a politician who faced water cannons and ‘lathi charges’ with you while fighting against the corrupt? Amidst this era of non-stop corruption, I have never seen any politician dependent on fair cashless politics. Believe it or not, the ugly truth is that we Indians actually fall for the politics of caste, religion and division.
We are in a country where ‘Doordarshan’, the so-called mother of media & journalism is found to be mired in corrupt acts with the government at the centre. The situation gets worsened when we blindly believe private media houses when they declare Mr. Kejriwal, a dramatised figure. I am eager to know how come they are not able to find the real drama of Indian democracy. “I am not here to fight election by myself, river ‘Ganga’ herself has invited me to come & fight”, it shows our failure when we find these words of a very senior leader, fascinating rather than merely dramatic! On the other hand, when Mr. Kejriwal rejects to pay an amount of 10 thousand rupees as bail, we call him dramatic! Gentlemen, it’s time to rethink our beliefs & vision for this democracy, isn’t it?
