Much has happened in Delhi's
political arena in the last few weeks. With the BJP (Bhartiya Janta Party) catching AAP (Aam Aadmi Party) from its collar this time, the latter hasn't left any stone unturned to
showcase themselves as the epitome of innocence. Delhi's New Excise Policy has become the bone of contention between the BJP, and AAP, and is turning
things extremely difficult for the AAP this time. AAP, the party that has put
immense efforts and handsome money to convey its image as an honest political party, away from all the corruption and malpractice. According to the
party, the Chief Minister of Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal, is the strongest opposition
contender to be India's next Prime Minister. The eight-year-old political
party has enjoyed two consecutive landslide victories in Delhi’s legislative
assembly polls. Also, the recent Punjab assembly elections win has caught everyone's
attention. Everything was going hunky dory for Arvind Kejriwal, and his party
was marching ahead to do wonders in the upcoming Gujarat assembly elections.
But this issue has put the party’s plans in sloppy waters to some extent. The party has already made populist promises for the people of
Gujarat (including some mind-boggling ones, i.e., to pay Rupees 3000/month to the
unemployed youth until they get a job). From getting praise for their
education model on the front page of the NY Times a day ago, to getting their
education minister Manish Sisodia under the scanner of CBI the very next day, AAP
has had a mixed bag of feelings.
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| Photo by Brian Wertheim on Unsplash |
We Indians are used to witness some kind of the best and the worst side of politics every single day. But, there remains no doubt that most people we come across daily look at politics with an evil eye. For them, politics is synonymous with false practices, crime, and corruption only. I won’t totally deny their opinion, however, won’t completely agree as well. We usually meet two types of people – one having die-heart loyalty towards the party they support, and the other scrapping the overall concept of politics. Most of the former ones are those who cherish their parties, not because they have some legitimate rationale behind it; but because they follow the political ideology and blindly follow the leaders of that political party. It becomes extremely difficult for anyone to make people following one ideology/party agree with the other’s (even if the other’s totally right). For those millions of people pathologically attached to their political parties, say in the above case with AAP or BJP, no one can make them understand or agree with the facts. Their loyalty is inextricably tied to their parties. No matter how frivolous or wrong, they will never say or listen against theirs. But there lies a small chunk of people who, instead of madly following an ideology/party/leader, make their decision based on policies, decisions, and developmental schemes of the party. These people abide by the facts and cast their votes with their minds open. For these people, I have got some advice. A piece of advice that will turn out to be a million-dollar for them.
Keeping the above BJP-AAP conundrum
in context, if one wants to decide whom to support between the two? He
will have to keep just one principle in mind – ‘no one’s absolutely white or
black in politics – everyone’s a different shade of grey.’ In pursuing good, a person must not
look for an absolute white, as he’ll never find one; rather, he should look for
the grey that is comparatively less dark than the other. And, to find the shades
of grey, the easiest way is to consider the entire past, not just
one recent incident/accident. This way, keeping the collective past of BJP and AAP in
mind, it won’t be difficult for anyone to decide whom to support after
this whole Excise Policy mayhem.
I hope, this advice will help you a lot in choosing, and making your opinion wisely next time onwards,
Best,
Anant
Follow me on Twitter @anantvyas05 for more interesting reads.