Cleansing with a broom

And what a revolution! The voter matched his contempt against the corrupt with equal measure in favour of AAP. In a span of nine months, this party could unseat the three-time chief minister of the ruling party at Delhi with a majority of 25,000 votes and decimate it to a mere eight seats. The party virtually gained majority and stood head to head with yet another national party.

What does it mean? The voter is conditioned each time he enters the polling booth in not having an alternative other than the ‘most’ corrupt and ‘enough’ corrupt. The other two states, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, where the other party claims a wave and anti-incumbency must know that the voter there was not given a choice other than what was prescribed. These parties- being what they are-must have been shrewd enough to read the writing on the wall by now.

Truth and honesty were taken for a ride for more than six decades in this country and they lost their face value because of their misuse by the so-called politicians all these years. Lack of accountability, the bullying tactics of leaders in power, their brazenness in compromising the system, shameless shrewdness in getting away with anything they do, had led to cynicism among the masses.

The people were disgusted by all these factions, but they were left with no choice except to choose between devil and deep sea. They were depressed, disgruntled, angry, helpless and even miserable. They hated every alternative given in the ballot paper, frustrated and ending up with reconciling to the best of the bad choices. And then the ‘broom’ appeared on the horizon.

One should sense the emotion and the unequivocal voice of the voter and the vehemence with which he has expressed his contempt in the recent Delhi elections. The longest serving elected representative in Delhi, Chaudhury Prem Singh lost his Ambedkar Nagar seat after almost 60 years (He was in the Guinness Book of World Records for his coveted performance! He was winning the seat as a matter of habit).

He came third in his bastion which has been won by AAP's Ashok Kumar Chauhan. The positive anti-incumbency vote was hitherto cast-rather helplessly-to an inevitable alternative all the time, when the voter was not given a choice. Tamilnadu elections prove the point. They reflect the helplessness of the voter. In the last 46 years the voter never elected the same party second time. He always opted for the opposite party only to return to the other one, next time, helplessly so. Can there be any alternative? Yes, there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

There was no auction of party tickets before the election as is the case with several parties. It is gratifying to see the list of contestants representing the AAP. To name a few: Somdutta Sharma was a student leader who runs free medical camps and helps the poor financially for their education; Commando Surender Singh was one of those brave soldiers who participated in 26/11 military operations; Sanjiv Jha runs an organisation called ‘Navpallav’ which assists people coming from other States to Delhi in search of jobs; Satyendra Kumar Jain, an architect who left CPWD fed up with corruption there and works with ‘Sparsh’ which works for mentally-challenged children. In contrast we have goondas, murderers, rapists, leaders who keep Civil Servants in good humour to cheat a little, leaders who obstruct Lok Pal bill lest they may go to jails, male chauvinists who are against women’s reservation bill. There is a tweet from somebody in the internet. It says, “Dear politicians! The common man has arrived.”

Honesty is an individual trait that transcends ‘power’ when practiced by a community. That was taught to us by our leaders of yesteryear. Let us earnestly hope that these younger groups take their ‘broom’ around the country and prove this truth in the coming general elections. The country is sick of the present political class. Let the ‘broom’ do the talking.