Emperors or Kings of ancient and medieval India used
to have their ‘darbar’ or ‘courts’ to hear and address the subjects’ problems. These
autocratic monarchs had full authority to decide action or punishment on the
spot and nobody dared question the verdicts. However, modern Indian democracy
is much more different, and Arvind Kejriwal’s brand of ‘common man rule’ is the
extreme contrast with everybody having the right to ask, question or contest. Besides, Indian mob behavior is only too predictably well known. In an almost
unmanageably overpopulated country plagued by unemployment and inflation the
huge crowds at the employment exchanges, freebie events and public transport stations
are only to be seen to be believed. And then the ‘me first’ mentality has been
a constant witness to innumerable stampedes at religious places, fatal road
accidents and huge traffic snarls. Having a Chief Minister within a touching distance you can lucidly imagine how desperately the crowd would behave. Therefore, the common man’s Chief Minister
of Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal’s decision or promise to have ‘janta darbar’ or ‘people’s court’ to hear and redress problems on
the spot was fraught with dangers from the start. Yesterday on Saturday, the
utter chaos of his first attempt of ‘janta
darbar’ proved the point beyond doubt. He had to escape from the desperate ‘janta’ by canceling the hearing and had to
apologize later expressing his fear of ‘being crushed by the crowd otherwise’. However,
he stuck to his promise saying that next time suitable arrangements would be in
place. Alas!
As per his most important anti-corruption agenda-related
promise Arvind Kejriwal launched the Corruption Helpline in Delhi on Wednesday,
8th of January and in the first three days it received nearly 15,000
complaints. So far so very good. Normally, a Helpline is supposed to ‘help’ the
callers or complainants and not ask/solicit their help. But this Helpline
demands the complainants to execute a sting thus providing crucial ‘evidence’ against
the ‘guilty’ parties to the government. Now, how a complainant is supposed to
do a sting is left to the imagination of the unspecified. Cynics would say that
this compulsion of doing a sting is set to initiate another corruption racket
with complainants trying to hire ‘resourceful’ professionals for the job at
minimum cost implying a chain of bargaining or influence, not to say about how
the stressed police or the overburdened courts are going to view or review such
precious sting ‘evidence’ eventually. The inherent dangers involved in this
system are well imaginable. Fighting corruption in India is extremely difficult
and therefore the way to fight it must be foolproof. Sticking to his promise Kejriwal
on Friday replaced the normal number with a friendlier four-digit number, which
is 1031. Alas!
Considering the tremendous euphoria and hope all
over the country following Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) coming to power in Delhi with
big shots from almost all fields including industry, IT, electronic media and
the arts joining the AAP fold, Arvind Kejriwal must tread very carefully
controlling his populism and fulfillment of election agenda impulses, and not
to go overboard. He also must understand that the big and established political
parties are waiting patiently for a huge AAP mistake so as to expose the ‘common
man rule’. They would be too overjoyed if they get a chance to expose before the
General Elections in April-May, 2014.
