‘AAM AADMI’ IS ‘KHAAS’ FOR THREE MONTHS*
Pre-election sops: The mad rush has already begun
with the poll bonanza entering its final leg - It would be interesting to watch
the scramble, to lure the ‘Aam Aadmi’ in the narrow spectrum of time available
before the Lok Sabha polls are announced – to woo the voters
Out of the three most talked about prime-ministerial
candidates, Mr. Arvind Kejriwal, the stunningly new chief minister of Delhi,
the city state, the national capital of India, realized it the last, that how significant
a pro common man symbolism it could be.
(Mr.) Kejriwal was the last one in showing solidarity with
the cause of ensuring justice for Nido Taniam, the young student from Arunachal
Pradesh who lost his life to some racist elements of Delhi’s social weaving and to the inaction of
Delhi Police.
Nido Taniam, the 20-year old, was beaten fatally by some
shopkeepers in the Lajpat Nagar market area of Delhi after he reacted to the racist comments
by them. Later on, he succumbed to his injuries.
It took Mr. Kejriwal six days to react on an incident when
he should have reacted on the day the incident happened.
On February 4, when Mr. Kejriwal joined the protesters at
Jantar Mantar, he was the 2nd runner up. A day before, on February
3, Rahul Gandhi had made an unscheduled (but not unexpected) appearance to put
his thoughts further. Before that, on February 2, Narendra Modi had given voice
to his concern by expressing grief and anger during his rally in Meerut.
Who gets what - only time will tell?
But the common thread (threat, you can read as well) of
similarity here, in the ‘solidarity acts’ by these three prime-ministerial names,
is, they all acted in the typical, routine, political fashion of the day.
Mr. Kejriwal is emerging as yet another routine politician
and this incident was yet another qualifier to that ‘manifestation-in-process’.
He ordered probe and some steps that were nothing more than routine, that we
hear from every other politician after every such incident.
The crime that should have extracted the reactions from
these political leaders within hours, took at least four days to reach their conscious
so as to make them express their feelings.
And this was when it happened in Delhi,
the national capital city of India,
with its youngest chief minister in office. What to say of the rest of the
nation then?