Kejriwal – A Man Of Systems

By – Jayishnu Agarwal

The Punjab elections gave India its most successful political startup, making its supremo Arvind Kejriwal one of the most influential and powerful people in India, leaving behind its opponents, clearly becoming the only one to be at least on the same track on its march to the finish line of the 2024 elections.

Kejriwal, an ex-Italian and civil servant, is one of the most educated and learned IItians in the country. He has worked in every system that exists and aspires to change the lives of people in this country, from corporate jobs to NGOs to policymaking. Arvind had been a part of every system, but his constant drive was to change the system. From his days in Parivartan to joining India against corruption, he has blatantly rallied against every political party and ideology and has had a phenomenal role in bringing the importance of the right to information to the public light. 

Arvind’s movement against corruption brought the entire country together, from politicians to writers, actors, businessmen, and even high-profile civil servants, rallying behind him, eventually bringing the Sheila Dixit government in Delhi down. He formed his own party that represented the plight of the common people and called it the Aam Aadmi Party to fight the Delhi elections. He claimed that his party would follow a democratic process, not make individuals into cult figures, promising to be grounded and not include corrupt people in the party, the one thing against which he fought and found his name popular among people. He promised to use the Maruti Wagon, a symbol of the middle class refusing to even have security. Eventually, he even won the elections and formed a government in coalition with the Congress, vowing to pass the Jan Lokpal bill that would make government officials accountable for their work, failing which he even resigned on a record day. He was loved by people for his integrity and was again unanimously elected with a thumping majority in the coming Delhi elections.

He suffered a huge setback when his party members, namely Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav, left the party, which later only cemented his place in the party as the party supremo. He became very popular among young people. His image of a learned, secular, and welfare-oriented administrator screamed for a change in the system that the young had long awaited. He began well, with his policy affecting the lives of the poorest of the poor. He aspired to make new schools and change the existing ones, including the happiness subject, for which he was appreciated across party lines. He seemed a little different from the other politicians who cared for the people and not a career politician who had joined politics to just raise his ranks.

However, things started changing as Kejriwal’s aspirations grew. It began with the onset of the 2017 Punjab elections. Kejriwal started doing things that every ordinary politician did, cemented his position in the party, and removed the rule that limited the number of times a member could be elected president. Next, he started promising things that were neither feasible for the economy nor able to be delivered. With this, he was stuck in a web of lies from which he never came out. He openly lied about the number of jobs delivered, and the number of buses installed, and also lied about the water supply facilities for which he had sold the dream. Even his closest friends in politics left him and were on record accusing him of escalating a riot in Punjab to win an election. 

In an interview, he went so far as to question the integrity of the RTI act. His politics now seemed to be that of a football match where he was just passing the blame and moving forward, playing the victim card time and again to gain public sympathy. He went so deep into vote bank politics that his image of a secular leader now seemed like that of a tourist agent offering free religious travel to the people of his state. After gaining complete control of the police in the state of Punjab, he started using his powers to threaten his opponents in the state of Delhi, misusing the public services as a private entity to silence his critics. So much irony for a person who has made his way up to criticising every other politician that has existed in the country. His party members were found guilty of rioting while he was outright defending them. Both the big riots that happened in Delhi in the last few years had AAP leaders at the helm of affairs while the party was still defending them.

The major problem I have with him is that he seemed like a change, a strong force in the political system that would change it forever, but now he seems like every other politician that has ever existed in the country; the same old people that have rotted the public system; a person who could go to any lengths for his personal gains. His actions have not only damaged his reputation but have made sure that no politician is born of a revolt against the system because of the living testimonials that he has provided. He has also crushed the hopes of every little youngster that wanted to join politics because of the dream they were sold off, and the idea that you could change India still remains a distant dream. Nevertheless, it has cemented the one belief that stands the test of time: that in India, politics is not for the common man and that the name “Aam Aadmi Party” is the biggest irony that has ever been in the modern politics of India. 

Reforms the Government can inculcate

-by Vishakh Garg

I hope my readers are aware of what a government is, how it is elected, what are the duties and functions of a government and why it is an integral part of the nation. Conventionally, a government consists of 2 or more politically very strong unifications called parties. The parties try to diplomatically win over the support of the citizens of the nation. The side earning the maximum votes forms the union government. The new government now allocates different portfolios to varied leaders and regulates policies.
According to me, the highlighted drawback to this present system of Indian politics is the fact that many strong, educated, and logical leaders from the opposition side are at a loss which not only affects their credibility but also results in the depreciation of the post and the duties they would have undertaken. Under the pretext of Anti-Defection Law, a legislator can be disqualified under the scenario of defamation against their party also if they voluntarily decide to opt-out from the party itself. One can also be charged under the circumstances of noncompliance with the methodology or intentions of a party. Therefore, many progressive and challenging politicians are devoid of having an opinion of their own.
The stature of the particular portfolio assigned minister is questioned if he/she is competent enough to be designated or not. As citizens, we are not aware of the ministers and the post they will hold post-victory. Hence, because you call it deceptiveness or corruption, a lot of angst and disappointment is unleashed intra-borders.
An alternative outlook to this problem that I cater to is that instead of giving the power of decision to the residing government, the ministers should contest for a particular position. The candidature of the fellow candidates is out in the open for the nation to see and judge. It provides a level playing field for both the applicants to win over their mettle. Going further ado with my theory, I certainly feel that the whole concept of battling two or more parties is rigorous and lacks integrity. To become a Member of the Parliament, a minister must join either party. It does not matter whether he/she gels with the ideas of that particular party.
Another flaw that we generally overlook is that when a party fills in the government, only a few political leaders, especially those from the winning side, cuts. The other leaders, especially the worthy ones from the opposite side, are left with a per-say on any public matter. To cite an example, Shashi Tharoor, a member of the Parliament from the opposition side, is a very knowledgeable and skilled leader. Apart from his knack for writing and passion for the English language, which is often both appreciated and trolled, he is a commendable diplomat and had formerly held that portfolio. If he is given an equal opportunity as the current external affairs minister, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, he would prove his worth and be an efficient diplomat.
If you see the current finance minister, Mrs Nirmala Sitharam, is from an economic background, with being appointed as Assistant Economists in the Agricultural Engineers Association in the UK. Although she is highly educated and experienced in the field, some fiscal policies pressed upon by her were ineffective and baseless, which also received a massive backlash from the citizens. It was during her reign the GDP of the country went down from 6 to 5. Once in the lower house of the Parliament, Lok Sabha, she claimed to come from a background where they do not prefer Onion and garlic in their food, hinting that the rising prices do not affect her much. Coming back to the point, had a contest been held between 2 specific politicians irrespective of whether they belong to a particular party or not, she might not have been elected provided that the public knew about the regulations she would bring about.
My next debate is that one does not need to be in opposition if he/she is competing against a body or a single candidate. The current governing system does not give the opportunity, or even if it provides, there is misconduct in communication between the proposition and opposition that hampers the administration overall. Looking at the system as a whole, the motive of the opposition by default becomes to suppress the governmental policies to a large extent. The scope of the government shifted from welfare to soothing their own party member’s egos. The winning side of the elections should always welcome the ideas of the losing side with open arms. Inculcating this method, both sides will work to their full potential with no one feeling dejected or suppressed.
I hope that soon a tide of fresh and youthful minds sweeps the Parliament off their feet to fill in with a revolution of ideas. Many such young leaders already have the support to come forward to give the nation a new trajectory of thought-process it deserves by the masses.
Apart from this, I firmly feel there is a dire need for integrity and honesty in the flag bearers of the nation. Most of them lack these qualities. It is the mundane task to look into the newspaper in the morning and read about a politician caught in a scandal.
Therefore, to conclude the article in a crisp manner, I feel that an individual cannot bring the best out of them when they move in packs. When a minister represents a party, there are an innumerate amount of considerations one has to look into before taking a step. A leader, whichever rank he/she holds, of any nation or party, should always put the need of others first before themselves.

The Alleged ‘Love Jihad’ Ordinance

Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religious Ordinance 2020 was recently passed by the state government in November. Before we delve deep into the provisions of this law, let us just take a moment and ponder upon the name of the ordinance. Does it mention any particular religion? No. Therefore, I strictly denounce the term ‘Love Jihad Ordinance’ that is being used frequently by various media houses and news channels. ‘Love Jihad’ is a theory which talks about how Muslim men abduct non-Muslim women and convert their religion forcefully. Since the alleged Love Jihad law scrutinizes forceful conversion to Hinduism as equally as Islam, I shall refrain from using this particular euphemism moving forward.

The proposed law defines punishment and fine under three major violations. Any activity leading to conversion by “misrepresentation, force, undue influence, coercion, allurement or by any fraudulent means” is penalised. Offenders can face a jail term of up to 5 years with a minimum fine of 15,000 rupees. Moreover, if the victim is a minor or a woman belonging to Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe, the punishment extends to 3-10 years in jail with a minimum fine of 25,000 rupees.

The second provision is that if forceful conversion takes place at a mass level, then the guilty would be charged with a jail term of 3-10 years with a minimum fine of 50,000 rupees. 

Lastly, the law says that a marriage will be declared null and void if the sole intention of marriage is to change the girl’s religion.

It is surprising that people are calling this law anti-muslim and discriminatory against inter-religion marriages. Neither does it target a specific community, nor does it criticise inter-religion marriages in general. Forceful religious conversion is a lived reality for many young girls, especially the poor. A report submitted to the state government last year stated many instances of forceful conversion in eastern and central UP. 

The law also requires couples to file 2 months prior notice to the District Magistrate before the change of religion. The only contention that I find with this law is that the burden of proof as to whether or not the conversion was effected through misrepresentation, force, undue influence, coercion, allurement, or by any other fraudulent means lies on the person who caused the conversion. This to an extent may cause a little nuisance and is thus ridiculous. We are yet to find out how difficult or easy it is to prove that forceful conversion did not take place. A recent marriage between a Muslim man and a Hindu woman was interrupted by officials. However, there was no arrest. The couple was asked to just postpone their marriage to 2 months from now and they obliged. Therefore, as far as the implementation of the new law is concerned, I am willing to give the UP government the benefit of doubt. 

REFERENCES:

https://www.livelaw.in/top-stories/breaking-up-governor-promulgates-uttar-pradesh-prohibition-of-unlawful-conversion-of-religion-ordinance-2020-166517

Placebo and Politics

I am Upasana, a psychologist turned journalist. Before I start with what I want to say, let me explain where I come from. Every individual in my family is a government servant. Through my school, I learned psychology, pursued it in college, and became a psychotherapist in a private hospital. But after working in this field for 5 years, I decided to be a journalist in TOI, where I got a chance to put my college education to maximum use. All of us hear about journalists, politicians, actors who have been accused of spreading fake news and propaganda. I am not defending them, but let me tell you how this works in politics since I have had more interactions with politicians. It’s called the Placebo Effect. For the people who don’t know what that is, A placebo is a fake or sham treatment designed explicitly without any active element. A placebo can be given in the form of a pill, injection, or even surgery. Placebo is usually given to convince patients to think they are getting the real treatment. For example, let’s take a sample of a case that shook the nation, Sushant Singh Rajput and the Mystery around his death.

Well, do you know that the word mystery is going to be the foundation for this effect! These words act like firewood on which we are actually going to light the bonfire of misinformation and bias. As the initial report suggests, he had severe mental health issues, on which we are not going to pass any comment as that could be true. But when the case gained diminishes, and we started to come to terms with the death and started celebrating the artist’s work, the seed for propaganda was sown. A lawsuit was filed in Bihar, saying that SSR was murdered and can’t commit suicide. Now the word ‘can’t’ comes into play. These are the small firewoods that we fail to see while arranging the firewoods and even after lighting it, but this little firewood can keep the fire last longer than it’s supposed to. After setting all these woods, we light the fire by finding the perfect story. And is there a better story than a murder mystery? The fire blew up so high to the public’s hearts. Seeing this colossal bonfire from a distance comes our beloved Journalists, for a story with the right spice and perfect to be sold for a hefty amount. Little did we know that this fire was not of justice but was of agenda, sympathy votes, and greed. Now all of you are convinced that something good will come out of this and the hashtags trend. Now, this is the onset of placebo where belief overthrows facts. Now that more of these facts are brought back to light by many organizations, they act like the wind that puts  out the fire. As the fire is put off, the ashes are visible. Now there would definitely be some woods that aren’t appropriately burnt, currently taking up the spotlight. Now that’s how the placebo vanishes and reality seeps in. Thank you TEDx for this wonderful opportunity, and thank you so much for listening to me. 

A parable on: Caste Based Reservation

The Constitution of India provides for equal educational opportunities all the citizens of India, without taking into regard their caste, sex, gender or race. But is that case? I don’t think so. As a male student with no reservation based on caste, I had to face a lot of mental stress and obstacles in my high school years.

               People often say hard work reaps good fruit. But with the caste-based reservation system in India which is in place even after 70+ years of independence, this isn’t the case for many Indians. The caste-based reservation was introduced to uplift the marginalized communities and backward sections of the society during the time of independence. The reservation system was intended to be in place for 6 to 10 years. Things didn’t go as planned for the reservation system. Politicians these days depend on giving quotas and reservations and count on vote banks rather than actually developing their district.

With the introduction of reservation for women in competitive exams like JEE and state level entrance exams, the terms are no longer equal for all. JEE Mains 2020 had 15% seats reserved for SC candidates, 7.5% for ST candidates, 27% for OBC candidates, 5% for women, 5% for physically challenged people and 10% for the economically weaker section. This leaves behind only 29.5% of the total vacancies in IITs, IIITs and NITs for general category students. And these vacancies can also be occupied by students with reservation. This leaves the general category students with a catastrophic downside.

               Not only does this method of ranking deprive the students of a levelled playing field, but it also brings down the morale of most students. This was true in my case. I appeared for JEE Mains Round 2 in March of 2019. Securing an AIR of 19,729, the only good universities I was eligible for were IIIT Guwahati and Lucknow. But my classmate, who had equal opportunities as me, who had equal financial resources, who worked equally as hard as me and secured a rank of 21k ended up getting a better university because of his caste-based reservation.

               After observing what was happening in the education sector after JEE Mains Round 2, I completely lost interest in preparing for JEE Advanced and gave up. I knew that however hard I worked, I would be deprived of my opportunity because of the caste-based reservation.

               I don’t see any point in having caste-based reservation 70 years after getting independence. Reservation based on income group is acceptable because students coming from lower-income group families may not have as good educational facilities as students from wealthy families. I hope the government takes steps to change this and make reservations in the educational sector only based on income groups and level the field for all groups of students.

2019 Elections: The Endgame Of Thrones

The world’s biggest poll battle has started. The results are eagerly awaited. Elections in India are full of controversies and fake claims, and a riddled procedure with white collar crimes, with an independent ECI, to overlook the happenings.

So what makes it interesting? Elections have always been the talk in the town. Election season is very much like an episode of the very beloved Game of Thrones, full of drama, suspense at every corner, and even the most unprecedented factors can cause the tables to turn. The campaigns are always held diligently to sway the masses to the party’s favor. And just like the immensely popular Avengers: Endgame; there are coalitions to defeat a common enemy. Ups and downs, traps at every step and debates on controversial decisions are to be always expected. So here’s a take on this exciting period, which is a celebration of opinions and corruption.

The last election brought about the end of the reign of the UPA.

Since 1952 to 2000 the ruling party has won elections with more than two-thirds of the votes. Making elections a monotonous affair, with little reason for the ruling party to go the extra mile. This changed in the last election, forcing the opposition and ruling party to actually put an effort. With changing times, the trends become unpredictable. Here are a few we think will be the X Factor in deciding the outcome of this election:

An anti-incumbent vote is one exercised against elected officials currently in power. This has become quite relevant considering last year’s election results. Pro-incumbent voting has been the trend since 1952-1977. Since 2000 we have seen anti-incumbency increasing at a steady rate.

Research shows more than 60% of MPs are above 50 years old. Whereas about 50% of voters are aged between 18-40 years. If policies targeting this age group can be implemented, then a gigantic surplus of votes can be acquired.

In recent years the participation of women in elections has been growing at an exponential rate, much faster than men’s participation. Which is why the government’s free gas cylinder policy, Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, was a perfect election campaign idea as it targeted, primarily rural, women voters.

As we can see due to the anti-incumbency trend, the role of coalitions to form governments has significantly increased. Opposition unity accounts for about 33% of the seats to 45% in the last 3 Lok Sabha Elections.

Apart from these trends, one of the most vital parts of elections is campaigning, where most of the party budget is consumed. It is done with great fervor and enthusiasm. Here’s a brief description of one of the most celebrated practices:

Whether Congress’ Ab Hoga Nyay will defeat the BJP’s Phir Ek Baar Modi Sarkar, is something one must wait and watch. However, a little more interesting from the campaign taglines are the methods political parties are using to reach out to masses. While radio has emerged as the preferred traditional media platform this year, all political parties have gone beyond the traditional media.

During the Gujarat Assembly elections, Congress came up with a campaign, Vikas Pagla Gaya Hai, which was a fun take on the government’s policies such as demonetization. It was a series of humorous videos, which went viral over the internet. Political parties have adopted various methods to ensure their win in the elections as if, this was that one outcome out of the millions of outcomes where they could win. Rather than the conventional way of choosing Bollywood celebrities and Sports stars as faces for their campaigns, parties are now going for popular comedians and poets.

However, political parties are far from being subtle. The last year has seen a lot of films and biopics being made on political leaders. From ‘The Accidental Prime Minister’ to ‘PM Narendra Modi’, biopics are no longer limited to stars and luminaries of yesteryear. In fact, Eros Now is currently playing a show on PM Modi. Even movies such as “Toilet Ek Prem Katha” and “Uri: The Surgical Strike”  are well-produced films, but they too touch upon key initiatives of the current government.

As is the human nature of predicting the outcomes, the 2019 elections were not a different case. A lot of predictions have been made on the ongoing elections by many people. While some results showed that BJP could lose 40 seats in Uttar Pradesh and almost 35 seats in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, and Himachal Pradesh if voting trends in the recent past were to be considered good predictors for current voting patterns. Some ardently believe that BJP will surely come into power due to the nationalist fervor shown by the party members. No predictions have been made as such for the opposition till now, as most of the people are interested in knowing the fact whether BJP will come into power or not. This is because, ultimately, the only thing that matters is the person in power, the person on the throne. Other than these facts, election-wise it is predicted that 2019 elections will have the highest number of voters and the highest contribution of women.

May will witness two fights coming to an end. Fight for the iron throne, as well as the fight for the Indian throne.

Now we just have to see who else is coming along with ‘winter’.

Here is a schedule to keep track of important dates:

Structural Corruption

We all can agree on one thing before we begin and that is, political corruption is a bad thing in a way that even in the most realistic approach, it should be at bare minimum levels for a country to progress.

Now, many politicians in the past have been punished due to corruption charges being proven against them and many probably will be in the coming future, the reason simply being that corruption in these cases is almost a black and white situation.

Now, the kind of corruption that occurs in the Indian scenario is mainly for personal gains, you can say it’s kind of a personal corruption; it corrupts that person’s identity because he took the ethical shortcuts for personal gain and one shouldn’t. And we as citizens don’t want that, so in this narrative, we easily can call ourselves the white side and the corrupt person the black side, this makes it easier to understand corruption generally for everyone. And we are used to seeing these kinds of things on television, film and media in general. But does it?

And this might sound a little controversial because our moral defences as the citizens of this country are fragile if personal corruption is the only kind we recognize and protect ourselves against, unfortunately, this is exactly the case in giant democracies like India, U.S.A, etc.

As citizens of a democracy, we are promised our rights, and it is considered the duty of the political parties to make sure that the common good or common interest are given a position above the personal interests. This basically means that, no matter what the government must always keep the good of the people above everything because in the end, a country is nothing but its people. Now, that is what we can call idealistic situations.

Take one example, a political party, which aspires to form government in the next elections starts campaigning, now for a giant country like India, campaigning is costly and it’s not like giant business tycoons like Ambani, Ajim premji or Narayan murthy are going into the elections who could afford the cost of campaigning alone, these are old Politician’s, new young party leaders, basically people who personally shouldn’t be able to afford the cost of campaigning, In a realistic scenario, common folk are not very big on donating campaign money to political parties. The money end’s upcoming from corporate funding, now, if that party forms the government, this is where the lines start getting a little hazy because now the party that owes interest to the corporate industries who funded them is also the government which in turn is responsible to give preference to the common good.

This constitutes a moral dilemma, now government is not a person so they do not sit and scratch their heads also because this situation is an imaginary situation; the real cases usually have multiple variables along with them discussing which is beyond the scope of this discussion,

The main point here is that these kinds of conditions cannot be assessed as personal corruption,

These can be categorized as structural corruption, now this happens in such situations when corporate interests weave into the decisions taken by a certain government, just because the political party is, in fact, indebted to the industrial powers which in turn creates a certain amount of unfairness in the system, which is reflected as the vast amount of inequality which goes on to get worsen and worsen with time,  Now as these kind of situations can be referred at least in part as structurally corrupt,

Now, this is a more alarming condition because of structural corruption more so than personal corruption, perpetuates the idea that individual people don’t have a voice in politics, that putting the needs of the commonwealth first is impossible and so it’s pointless to try.

But, the irony is that this kind of collective action is the only way the structural corruption can be stopped from plaguing the system and bring the balance of democracy back.

– Ishan Bajpai