On 2nd April 2011, when India defeated Sri Lanka
in the cricket world cup, I was just outside the Wankhede Stadium with a couple of
friends as I experienced a deluge of patriotic emotions within me and in the sea of
people in front of me. Being a die-hard Sachin fan, this win was extremely precious
because this was his the last chance to win a world cup for India. I remember hugging
random people on the street. Couldn’t stop shedding a tear or two. Today, as we
are just a couple of days before another cricket world cup, I feel a déjà vu. Just a couple of days ago
I was again hugging unknown people, and shed a few tears. But that has nothing to
do with cricket.
Let me take you several steps back through my journey between the two world cups. It was just a couple of days after the last world cup when I was still in the hangover of the win. I was randomly surfing the TV channels. They were mostly covering the world cup victory celebrations. But I stopped at one channel showing one old man sitting on a “fast unto death”. The name Anna Hazare sounded familiar, but I wasn’t able to recollect when I had heard it before. I stayed on that channel for a few minutes. I noticed a young man with a moustache explaining to the crowd why this old man was sitting on a fast, “We are all sick of scams after scam by this government. There was CWG scam and then there was 2G and what not. Can we do anything as citizens of this country? Yes, we can! We have drafted a bill called Jan Lokpal bill. When we have a Jan lokpal in the country, any of us can go to him and complain. Janlokpal will send anyone who indulges in corruption to Jail. Anna Hazare has sent copies of this bill to the Prime Minister, the President and Sonia Gandhi. When they did not even bother to reply for months, he decided to do sit on a fast. Will you all join Anna Hazare in the demanding this bill against corruption from our country?”
Media stopped covering AAP after this bravado, but I kept getting updates about them through AAP’s Facebook page. The Bijlee – Paani andolan of mid 2013 was a huge movement in Delhi. Arvind exposed corruption in Delhi electricity distribution companies and demanded their audit by CAG. He also exposed water tanker mafia being run by people connected with both Congress and the BJP. But media was completely gagged. AAP volunteers went to door-to-door educating people of Delhi about this corruption that affects them directly. They obtained signatures of ten lakh (1 million) people in Delhi. This is no mean feat. Where did they get such a ground strength to reach out to a whole city one by one?
Let me take you several steps back through my journey between the two world cups. It was just a couple of days after the last world cup when I was still in the hangover of the win. I was randomly surfing the TV channels. They were mostly covering the world cup victory celebrations. But I stopped at one channel showing one old man sitting on a “fast unto death”. The name Anna Hazare sounded familiar, but I wasn’t able to recollect when I had heard it before. I stayed on that channel for a few minutes. I noticed a young man with a moustache explaining to the crowd why this old man was sitting on a fast, “We are all sick of scams after scam by this government. There was CWG scam and then there was 2G and what not. Can we do anything as citizens of this country? Yes, we can! We have drafted a bill called Jan Lokpal bill. When we have a Jan lokpal in the country, any of us can go to him and complain. Janlokpal will send anyone who indulges in corruption to Jail. Anna Hazare has sent copies of this bill to the Prime Minister, the President and Sonia Gandhi. When they did not even bother to reply for months, he decided to do sit on a fast. Will you all join Anna Hazare in the demanding this bill against corruption from our country?”
As the days passed by, this fast became the talking point on
all TV channels. I was glued to it. I found this man with moustache explaining
everything in very lucid words. “We are not simply agitating for the sake of
it. We are offering a solution. This bill that we have drafted is based on the
original Lokpal bill pending for last 42 years. Why is government not passing
it?” His name was Arvind Kejriwal. I googled about him and found him to be an
IIT alumnus and a Magsaysay awardee. Frankly, discovering that someone is from
IIT makes me feel “Arre, ye to apna hi hai.” :)
It is well known what happened after the fast. The
government promised to make a joint committee to discuss and amend the bill,
and then promised to pass it. But several months passed and it did not. Anna Hazare did another
fast in Aug 2011. This time, somehow, the crowd that gathered on the Ramleela
ground was even bigger. I really got drawn into it. My friends who were
skeptics would tell me “Don’t be a fool. Corruption is ingrained in all of us.
It can’t simply be wished away by a legislation.”
On one evening, when it was raining in Mumbai, I decided to
go to the rooftop and get drenched in rain. As I was aimlessly doing rounds in
the rain, words started coming to me. I had never written any kind of poetry in
any language. But words just didn’t stop:
वो कहते हैं, कुछ हुआ नहीं, कुछ बना नहीं, कुछ मिटा नहीं।
सौ साल पुरानी
आदत से, एक कागज़ बिलकुल बड़ा नहीं।
इस काली भारी धरती को, क्या टाँगे पतला धागा है?
पर जाने कयूँ ये
लगता है, कि शायद भारत जागा है।
पहले भी आँधी आई है, पहले भी तू्फाँ आया है।
किसे याद रहा,
क्या हुआ कहीं? किस ओर उजाला छाया है।
एक अरब जगाने को मूरख, क्या खेल समझ तू भागा है?
ना जाने फिर
क्यूँ लगता है, कि शायद भारत जागा है।
वो कहते हैं कोई और नहीं हम में ही रावण रहता है।
कैसे ये फिर तू
सोच रहा, कानून के काबू आएगा ?
हर रावण में मुझे लगता है, कहीं राम भी बस कर रहता है।
वो उसके काबू आया
था, वो उसी के काबू आएगा।
चल कदम बढ़ा, कुछ ज़ोर लागा, अभी और बहुत कुछ बाकी है।
अब "चलता है" को
जाने दे, "कुछ हुआ नहीं" को ताने दे।
अरे मान अगर कुछ ना बदला, तू खुद को बदल के देख ज़रा।
न गवा हाथ से ये
मौका, कि शायद भारत जागा है।
माना ये रस्ता लंबा है, माना ये पूरा तोड़ नही।
पर क्यूँ ना अब
कुछ अलग करें, अब क्यूँ ना हम विष्वास करें।
कया पता कि ये इतिहास कहीं, कोई आज बदलने वाला है।
हो सकता है, जो
दिल कहता, कि शायद भारत जागा है।
शायद भारत जागा है... हाँ शायद भारत जागा है।
Basically I could feel that the nation has arisen. Whether
lokpal comes or not, or whether it sends anyone to jail or not it did not
matter now. When people in a democracy realize that they are being taken for a
ride, they rise up and chart their own destiny.
The Jan Lokpal movement was not successful in pressuring the
government to pass the bill. The core reason was that the current political
class was neck deep into corruption itself. With advice of several eminent
citizens and over 90% popular vote, it was decided to give India a new political
alternative.
I jumped with joy. Not because I loved politics but because
I hated it. I had never cast my vote until then, I was 32. I felt no one
deserved my vote. This idea of a new political party filled with idealism
reverberated deeply within me. I could finally cast my vote, I thought!
The party took shape and form in late 2012. It was named Aam
Aadmi Party. The name struck a chord immediately. Being Aam Aadmi was the new
cool. But most people were expecting nothing from this party, at
least in the short term. After all, it
had taken decades for every other political party to taste some semblance of
success.
But Arvind was in a hurry. Just as the party was launched
Arvind started a series of “exposes”. First one to be exposed was Robert Vadra.
Next week Nitin Gadkari. And the following week Mukesh Ambani. Every time he
came prepared with solid dossiers of proofs of acts of corruption. These are the most powerful people in India. In India,
everyone talks about them on their dining tables, but never in public. These
people own the “system”. This courage of Arvind to take on the acts of
corruption by the most powerful men, made me want to be like him. There was no
looking back from then. Media stopped covering AAP after this bravado, but I kept getting updates about them through AAP’s Facebook page. The Bijlee – Paani andolan of mid 2013 was a huge movement in Delhi. Arvind exposed corruption in Delhi electricity distribution companies and demanded their audit by CAG. He also exposed water tanker mafia being run by people connected with both Congress and the BJP. But media was completely gagged. AAP volunteers went to door-to-door educating people of Delhi about this corruption that affects them directly. They obtained signatures of ten lakh (1 million) people in Delhi. This is no mean feat. Where did they get such a ground strength to reach out to a whole city one by one?
This is the central point of what Arvind did. He inspired
thousands of idealists across the nation by his honesty and fearlessness. He
kept the single minded focus on systemic change which can be achieved only if
an honest government comes in power. All of us idealists became AAP volunteers.
There is a lot that happened since I started actively
volunteering for AAP, which will perhaps need multiple blogs to explain, but
let me cut across to last two weeks before the 2015 Delhi elections when I was
there campaigning on the ground.
I joined the team called play4change. We would go around the
streets of Delhi playing and singing patriotic songs like “Ma tujhe salaam,
Vande Mataram”, “Dil diya hai jaan bhi denge, ae watan tere liye”, “Raghupati
raghav raja raam”, “Saare jahan se achcha, hindosata hamara” and others. I was
either playing Harmonica (mouth organ) or singing. The atmosphere was
electrifying. We would make eye contact with every citizen as we walked, and
everyone would give back such a lovely smile. People came running, asked for
caps, hugged us and wished us well.
I kept wondering how is it possible that at ten different
locations of Delhi, every face shows a genuine smile and affection for us,
while TV channels call it a “tight fight” between AAP and BJP.
On 10th of Feb, it became clear that the tight
fight was between the Congress and the BJP for the bottom spot, while people
showered all their love on AAP. I was confident we would cross 50 seats, but 67
out of 70 was a pleasant shock. Thank you Delhi!
I didn't realize being completely engrossed in this movement that four years have passed and another Cricket World Cup has arrived. May Indian cricket team also give us a pleasant shock by winning the upcoming cricket World Cup :-)
