Dear Arvind,
It was really surprising, if not shocking, to see you
shouting angry slurs at the BJP and Mr. Modi on national TV and Twitter. I
really thought that you learned your lesson from your horrible outburst against
Mr. Prashant Bhushan and Mr. Yogendra Yadav, which was revealed immediately
after your party's spectacular victory in the Delhi assembly elections. We all can
disagree with others or even can have serious differences of opinion on various
matters or criticize each other very strongly without being abusive towards
each other. I was under the impression that maybe finally after that mistake you
learned to control your anger, at least in public. But it seems that lesson is
long forgotten and you are back with your "angry young man" avatar that has
very little regard for choice of words while expressing his anger. I agree that you have complete freedom to say whatever you want, after
all, the right of freedom of expression comes with the right to offend, but I never
imagined that you would take it to the extent that it would sound like abuse.
Frankly speaking, my love affair with AAP ended long back, immediately
after you decided to resign after 45 days of your brief tenure as Delhi CM. I
should accept that I was attracted to your political party because of the presence
of a wide variety of people from different backgrounds who don't necessarily
subscribe to a single ideology. It was an interesting mix and generated some hope in
people like me that maybe people with different sets of ideas can also come
together and create something unique that can challenge traditional norms of
Indian politics. I must also accept that you guys managed to do that, but that phenomenon was
very short-lived. I still agree that your party is somewhat different than
all other political parties in India, but that difference is very minute and the
gap is narrowing day by day. It still is somewhat different, and I hope it remains like that.
Now, coming back to this particular incident, I agree that
Mr. Modi or the central NDA government misused power in their hand. I also agree
that CBI was in the past and still today is used as a tool to settle political
scores or strike political deals, but didn't you already know all this? Didn't
you voluntarily sign up for this job and willingly enter the murky arena of
Indian politics after knowing all these facts about predatory and dirty tactics used by central governments to intimidate their opposition? Or somehow you believed that these things won't happen with you and your
government? Assuming that even if Mr. Modi or the BJP showed their cowardliness
and vengeance, why you didn't show your bravery and sensible nature by facing
that inquiry or raid like any common citizen of India? Why do you think that your
office is so special that CBI needs to get your permission to raid it? DO they do this if they want to raid any common person's home or office? If according to you, Mr. Modi is a coward or a
psychopath then who are you? A brave CM who is crying foul just for a single
raid conducted on his office? Or is it the case
that as a CM of Delhi, you expect to be treated differently than any other
citizen of India? I still remember that you and your party as well as most
leaders of other political parties saying on multiple occasions that you all
are servants of the common people of India. Especially, you and your party claim to be against the VIP
culture. But it seems this rhetoric is only true until you guys win the
election and get the power, once you are in government then you all become
those VIPs, expect some special treatment, and start behaving like a privileged
entity who is above the law. I think you know this, but in case you forgot let me remind you that
many common people in India go through these ordeals of search, raids, and arrests every day and there is no one to help them. Many of them go through this as
a consequence of their criminal acts but believe me, many are put through this
for no fault of theirs, but they all go through this, and hope that the system
will do justice to them. They believe in the same system of which you are also a
part now, even though the system fails them most of the time. They don't ask for any special treatment. What do you have to say now
about the VIP culture and everyone should be treated in the same way? I know, that
now you or your supporters will argue that then why any other CM's office was not
raided or why some other scam was not investigated. I agree that there are often
selective investigations and political vendettas in many cases, but I am sure you expected this. People are
raising questions about these things and these things should be questioned, but not the way you are doing now. Also, if there are some allegations against one of the officers in your
office, then why not investigate him? Why put conditions that first
investigate X and Y, and then come to me or my staff? What happened to the claim
that we will not tolerate any corruption or shelter any corrupt officer? Was it just a chunavi jumla, a gimmick to win the election,
just like your esteemed opponents do in every election? If
it was, then at least let people know about it, so they stop thinking that you and your party are any different than others.
If you expected that nothing of this sort would happen to
you or that your political opponents wouldn't play any dirty games with you or they
would deal with you using kid gloves or that politics would change overnight, then I
must say that I am amazed by your naiveness. Similar things have happened in the past and I am sure they will happen in the future also, but it is you who promised
to bring the change of culture, but it seems that now you are trying really hard
to fit right into that same culture which you opposed as an activist. Your
choice of words was not only wrong, but I am sure it was disheartening for many
of your supporters to hear these things coming from you. It puts
you in the same line of people who called you a traitor, Pakistani agent, bhagoda, naxal, and whatnot. I am sure you must be
enjoying their company as you really tried very hard to be part of that group.
Those people also used abusive language and displayed a very low level of
personal vendetta and what you did is no different. I would not have bothered
to write this mail a few months back, but recently I thought your government was
back on track as you guys were really doing some good work, initiating
discussions about relevant topics like pollution and air quality of Indian
cities, but then this happened. It is like going 5 steps forward and 10 steps
backward.
I don't want to make my letter too long and too preachy. I
am also not here to tell you what to do and what not to do, I am sure you know
this better than me. I just raised a few questions and I hope you bother to think
about them and introspect a little. Let me end by citing a very relevant
example for you, I am sure you know the name of Sachin Tendulkar. This man is
considered a great cricketer not just for the number of records he broke or runs
he scored but also for his temperament, consistency, sincerity, and on-field
behavior. There are equally great players as far as statistics or records are
concerned from his era or eras before and after him, many of them are very
aggressive not only while playing cricket but also while dealing with other players
on the field, and some of them are even known to be extremely abusive during their
on-field behavior. Sachin is different from all those because he never engaged
in on-field verbal spats, it is not that he was not abused or people never
tried to intimidate him or he was not targeted, opponents from all teams tried
all sorts of tactics but Sachin answered all that not with his mouth, but with
his bat by scoring runs. His performance answered those insults thrown at him,
no doubt that he needed to produce very high-quality performance consistently
to deal with on-ground sledding, and this is one of the reasons he is considered a great cricketer. I hope this example inspires you to do something
different from now onward. Because it is of no use just to claim that you are
different, you also need to show that by your behavior.
All the very best and take care.
Thanks for reading and please share your views on this
topic.
[Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for
re-posting or publishing]
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