I am not alone, who has been anguished. My elder brother is equally hurt. His email to our personal group … he did give his permission to forward this…
Why Arvind Kejriwal gets slapped often?
Let us start with a small story that most of us read when we were in school-some people may still remember it,but for those who don’t,I will rephrase it as I remember it.
Baba Bharti was an ascetic who had renounced the world,and was spending his days in pursuit of other-worldly activities-whatever they maybe and certainly unspecified.
He, however had a weakness, and that weakness was his thoroughbred horse,that was surely the apple of his eye and the Baba was loathe to part with him,either for money or under coercion-even to the neighbourhood (James Bond)-Dakoo called Khadak Singh.
Khadak Singh finally steals the horse by impersonating as a poor beggar in need of help.Baba Bharti realising the trick that Khadak Singh has played on him, calls after him not to let anyone know of the trick as people would stop trusting the poor.
What Mr.Kejriwal(AK from now on) has done, is what Khadak Singh did when he asked for help in the garb of a poor beggar.
Here was a middle class icon(rising star),who had fulfilled most of the aspirations of middle class parents and neighbours (3 Idiots)-passed IIT,joined IRS,married into ?IRS,spent more than 20 years till he was pensionable,abused the system,never produced anything but cribbed,cribbed and cribbed and then very conveniently become a messiah for all of us-fed up with a weak government(a lot of us on this forum are govt),corruption(hope that most of us are not),rising prices and being impotent to do anything about it.
I,for one was actually envious of him(and I am sure – a lot of us were),for here was this upstart who was doing everything that I wanted to do and was not able to do as the Army wouldn’t leave me.
He was the new Mahatma-(intelligent,articulate,middle class,smart,humorous,soft spoken,small and a Bania to boot,and someone who believed in the Indian Constitution and equality for all-with the Mahatma’s ability of convincing people,changing stands and justifying the same.
For a long time ,we were the lotus eaters-in a state of euphoria,eulogizing the David who destroyed the Goliath (Ms.Sheila Dikshit representing the Congress)and tolerated the fools he surrounded himself with – Kumar Biswas,Prashant Bhushan,Sisodia,their law minister and Shazia Ilmi(at least better looking then the run of the mill politicians).
But then the bubble burst-he did not do anything in his 49 days,except moving goalposts(his contention being that if he kicks the ball -it has to be a goal-even if you have to change the rules or move the goal post) till he scored a self goal.He started going around attending functions with Muslim leaders and wearing the skull cap(at least on 2 occasions) and spouting that communalism is a bigger issue than either development of corruption!!!!!!!
There is a feeling a Deja vu- a gentleman called V P Singh had promised us the same things and then divided the country hopelessly by introducing the Mandal Commission-at a time when the caste system was dying- and managing to do something that even the British,the Mughals or even Mir Jafar could not do.
Today,when you want to fight corruption or bring changes-everyone turns around and asks that that AK (Arvind Kejriwal) can’t or couldn’t,how can you?In future,nobody is going to going to trust anyone who wants to fight corruption-We have been bitten twice.
He has not failed-it is our hopes,our aspirations and our beliefs that have failed.
So,to my mind the question is not why he gets slapped – but why not often enough?
Swapnil Garg's home on the WWW 