Open letter to Arvind Kejriwal Dear Arvind I am a fellow IITian almost two decades senior to you. In all of my 65 years of existence my family has not contributed a single farthing to any political party , AAP being the only exception. Hence this letter seeking answers to certain questions that perplex me.. I really don’t think you will ever see this letter but hope that out of many of my friends who are your ardent supporters at least one will be able to forward the letter to you. Things were really bleak couple of years ago as newspapers and TV channels regularly brought out one scandal after another. The astronomical figures alleged by CAG made jaws drop in wonder. Almost everybody in the government seemed to be looting the country. The damage was not limited to few lacs of crores of rupees which our politicians apparently made. The exposes emboldened the bureaucracy to such an extent that those demanding Rs. 1000/- as “facilitation fees “ increased the charges to Rs. 5,000/- almost overnight. I was one of the 1.2 billion people who watched with bated breath as the special session of Parliament to enact the Lokpal bill sat overtime . A simple man like Anna supported by dedicated people like you had brought the mighty government to its knees or so it appeared. Euphoria soon turned into frustration as we realised the government had reneged on its promise. Anna’s movement was losing steam. You rightly picked up the gauntlet thrown by scornful Congress spokespersons like Manish Tiwari and decided to form the political party. You trusted people to vote for you and in turn people of Delhi reposed their trust in you by putting you in CM’s chair albeit with help of arch rivals Congress. Predictably, you were not interested in taking their support. But we were sure that unlike UPA where every tail like DMK , TMC, NCP,SP,BSP,CPM waggeed the proverbial dog , you will keep the Congress tail in its place and not allow it to wag you. You could not have asked for a better deal. An ally who swallows his pride and supports you even though you slap him every morning ,evening and night. Despite my antipathy towards Congress because of their recent misdeeds , I pitied their plight. Congress which was once led by Global icons like Mahatma Gandhi , Nehru , Patel, Subhash Chandra Bose etc.had come to such a pitiable state. We had pinned high hopes on you. Fighting corruption was the central theme of your campaign. Despite being aware that putting you in CM’s office was fraught with danger ,as you would have unhindered access to all the records specially related to CWG scam, Congress chose to give you outside support in the hope that you will fail. Though LG was creating hurdles in passing the Jan Lokpal bill , you could have approached High Court or Supreme Court , got the LG overruled and passed the Janlokpal bill which was so dear to you. What was the need to resign in such a tearing hurry? Instead of filing FIR’s against Union Cabinet ministers and leaving Chief Ministership the very next day , you would have been better off holding on to CM’s office and filing charges against Delhi Government ministers and officials responsible for CWG scam and seen to it that they are sent behind bars. You have achieved nothing. Nothing will happen to the Union ministers. Guilty of CWG scam have gone scot free. Delhi Jan lokpal bill has not been passed. Are you really interested in ending corruption ? Are you really different from other politicians? Any Chief Minister worth his salt can bring his state to a grinding halt. India is a federal country and States will have issues with Centre. Does that mean that everytime you disagree with the Central Government, the state Chief Minister should hold people of his own state to ransom. Your predecessors ran the state with same set of handicaps. You expected the Central Government change the constitution overnight ? Instead of being grateful to the people of Delhi for giving you an opportunity to serve them, it appeared that you were doing a great favour to Delhi by becoming a CM. Didn’t you have any commitment towards the people of Delhi ? On assuming power , the first thing you did was to reduce power tariff by 50%. If any business manager in private sector had reduced price before reducing the cost , he would get a firm kick in the pants from the management. But you have worked for the Government , that too Income tax department !. You probably believe that taxpayer has endless capacity to pay taxes. But what if you put your hand too deep in the pocket and the pocket tears ! That is precisely what happened during Indira Gandhi’s time. Too high taxes led to parallel economy and black money. You decided to reduce power tariff only for those who had not paid the electricity bills heeding to your call. They were obviously AAP supporters. Effectively you have taken money from Delhi’s exchequer and benefitted your supporters. Is this not corruption ? To be fair to all, you should have reduced tariff for all. In fact those who had paid bills on time should have been paid interest for the extra amount they had paid earlier.But you only wanted to reward your supporters Your law minister , himself a lawyer, wanted to call meeting of Delhi High Court judges. Did he think the High Court judges report to him ? One High Court judge called JML Sinha had unseated the all powerfull Indira Gandhi in 1975. That is the power of judiciary. Was your law minister not aware of this? What kind of jokers you appoint as ministers.? Has just one partial victory gone to AAP’s head? Indira Gandhi blamed CIA hand for everything that went wrong. Later it was the ISI and to top it all Manmohan singh blamed hand of his own allies!! Now you see hand of Mukesh Ambani and other industrialist in everything that is wrong. Ambani’s hold during Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi period is too wellknown.. For months Arun Shourie and Gurumurthy wrote articles in Indian Express highlighting the misdeeds.. Mani Ratnam made a hit movie called Guru on Dhirubhai Ambani. Please tell us something new. Reliance stock sky rocketed during the period making Reliance biggest private sector company. Few years ago, I too bought shares of Reliance and other blue chip companies out of my retirement benefits. While my investment in MNC’s like HUL and Colgate has appreciated many fold , I have lost money in Reliance. With both Congress and BJP in his pocket as claimed by you , Reliance should have performed much better than the MNC’s. Either Ambani’s don’t enjoy the same clout anymore or Mukesh Ambani is a very incompetent CEO. You make out that giving concessions to industry amounts to corruption. Every entrepreneur starts his industry to make profits. As he prospers he also creates jobs. Every state government from Himachal to Tamilnadu gives such concessions to industry. You can not have a poor Industrialist. Obviously concession to Industry will also mean concession to the rich Industrialist. Isn’t it strange that an IITian should have problem with industry ?. Today is International Women’s Day. It is indeed shocking that you should justify the Khap Panchayats and the anti-women policies followed by these Kangaroo courts. Are you doing this just to garner votes in Haryana ?.Do you really want Indian women to remain confined to their homes behind veils forever as second class citizens? You were also hobnobbing with Raza Khan the cleric who issued Fatwa against Taslima Nasreen. Just to get Muslim votes? Is it too much to expect an IITian to have a modern outlook ?. I read that the no. of days Parliament was in session last year has come down to 72 days from earlier 122 days. Out of these almost 50% time was lost because the opposition protested about the various corruption issues. What will your MP’S do? Bring it down further by another 50% ? With no business being transacted in Parliament , Democracy will be meaning less. There will be total anarchy. But you are a self confessed anarchist. To a simpleton like me anarchy means absence of rule of law. We have our hands full with anarchy in Naxal infested areas as well as Kashmir. Do you want entire India to become like that? There is a clear North South divide in terms of development in the country. It is because of better law and order situation in the Southern states. Should every party in opposition encourage citizens not pay taxes or bills. How will the government fuction? Mahatma Gandhi used non cooperation to fight a foreign rule. How can the same weapon be used against our own government duly elected by people. It is like Army turning its guns inwards. India has survived with corruption for seven decades but can it survive anarchy ? Congress and BJP are both trying to woo voters with their Development record. You obviously have nothing to show. Your only aim is to paint others black so that you appear a better choice. You treat everyone else with disdain. In India coalition politics has come to stay. There is no chance of any single party forming a government on its own. You will neither support Congress nor BJP. Will you support Mulayam , Mayavati , Jayalalitha ? Do you want Loksabha to be dissolved within few weeks of election as happened in Delhi ?. You make out that you have made a great sacrifice by giving up your IRS job. What is so great about an IRS job. Every job is just a means of living. Almost every IITian changes job 3-4 times in his career to pursue what he wants. There is really no big deal in leaving or changing a job. Since when has giving up opportunity to take bribes become a sacrifice ?. Anna and you have been great advocates for people’s right to recall the elected representative. Can your party give us a RIGHT TO RECALL OUR DONATIONS ? Will you open up a site to facilitate the donors to seek refund of their donations? C D Agarwal
Posted on: Thu, 03 Apr 2014 04:05:35 +0000