Home 0 November 2019

November 2019

500.00

THEY were the ‘Great Upcoming Seven’. People perceived them to epitomise a sea change in good governance, anti-corruption and an administration that worked only for the welfare of the citizens. They promised true and clean democracy if they were voted to power. The people believed them. They enthusiastically gave them power, not once, but twice. But the unravelling of the seven-some began even before they grabbed Delhi in 2013 and 2015. In fact, now they are only two, actually one-and-a-half, left. The other five went their own ways–one successfully to a Governorship, one back to basics, one unsuccessfully floated a new party, one back to social work, and the last one continued with his lucrative practice.

More importantly, in the process, all their promises, visions, mission, noble ideas and pledges went down the drain. Arvind Kejriwal, the least known of the then Fearsome-Seven, emerged as the worst kind of dictatorial Chief Minister of Delhi. He possibly ran two governments that were as corrupt, if not more, as the worst ones we have seen in the past. Governance became a synonym for backslapping, backed by huge budgets for propaganda through the media. It became a substitute for regular verbal and physical duels with the Centre Prime Minister and home ministry, and the central bureaucracy such as the Police, municipal corporations, Lieutenant Governor and Chief Secretary, and DDA.

Kejriwal’s Man-Friday, his left-hand man, is more of the Chief Minister’s shadow, rather than a man with ideas and ideals. The CM proposes, Manish Sisodia, the deputy CM, disposes in a manner that reeks of the ugliest form of governance that one has witnessed in recent times. He too appears, obviously less than Kejriwal, on TV and radio, and in hundreds of outdoor and newspaper advertisements. Like his mentor and master, he takes semi-truthful and false credits for what has or has not happened in Delhi. In reality, Delhi has emerged as one of the most polluted cities, the city’s infrastructure is creaking, its healthcare is in shambles, and corruption is the same, if not higher, than before.