Now that is what we call sacrifice.
Now, that is what we call selfless love.
Now that is what we call an innocent, true devotion.
Now, that is what we call the politics of commitment.
Now, that is what some of us may call the political
altruism.
Now, that is what we call the ultimate exemplary
precedent.
India had not seen such a touchy,
emotional, ideologically notable and inspiringly laudable act by a politician
since it got its independence in 1947, since the days of Mahatma Gandhi,
Saradar Vallabhbhai Patel, Subhash Chandra Bose, Jawahar Lal Nehru and other
revolutionaries in the colonial India.
Until three days ago! Until October 26, 2013!
When, the ‘fine’ line separating the ‘tears from onions’
from ‘the tears from high onion prices’ got blurred!
When, our beloved Sheila Dikshit, the chief minister of Delhi, who is also
lovingly called aunty, a familiar motherly figure like the aunt-next-door,
revealed to us that she had had onions after weeks on October 26.
She could share with us the pain, her secret that she so
carefully kept away from us, so as to not to get us troubled, the pain of
having not been able to have onions on her kitchen menu, only after her
government in Delhi
could arrange for cheaper onions for Delhiites.
She so painfully observed abstinence on the skyrocketing onion
prices. This exemplary act by her was a true tribute, an act of solidarity, to
be there with the millions of Indians living in the National Capital of India, millions
who could not afford onions, to be with them in their tougher times.
See the commitment, the devotion! Had it been with any
other politician of the day, we could never have expected such a selfless act
and such an innocent revelation of it.
A chief-minister of three terms, having a son who is Member
of the Parliament, coming from a family having long political history of
prominence – even if onions reach to the price-threshold of Rs. 200 a Kg, she
and her family would have no problem affording the much hyped, most debated
vegetable, without a trace of onion ‘tears’.
Even then, she chose to observe the ‘onion abstinence’,
just because millions others (irrespective of who voted her in power) were not
able to afford it.
And she ended it (the onion abstinence) only when she
could provide the people of Delhi
with onions at reduced price, wiping ‘some’ of the tears from their crumbled
faces.
But, idiots will remain idiots! There are some idiots who
are raising petty issues like questioning the quality of onions being sold by
aunty’s government at subsidized rates.
They must see the quality of ‘these’ onions in context of
the ‘quality’ of Sheila aunty’s emotive quotient, its ‘picture-perfect’ appearance,
its ‘audience-connect’ brilliance.
We need to salute her and also the lady finger moment that
introduced us to this inspiring side of her. We need to get ‘emotively
attached’ to this “after weeks I ate onions today with 'bhindi' (lady
finger)” - (NDTV) statement to pay back our gratitude to her when we go out
to vote in the Delhi
assembly polls next month.
After all, it was another pleasant shot by her when she
put the meek, not-so-famous, very unkingly lady finger in the league of
almighty onion, making it overnight famous!