Why
The Indian Establishment Fears Kejriwal?
Saeed Naqvi
Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte admittedly
has an uncontrollable temper, otherwise he would not have used a common
Filipino term of abuse against President Obama: Putang ina, which means “son of
a whore”. Over 3,000 people have been killed in three months in extra judicial
killings as part of Duterte’s crackdown on drugs. His outburst was in response
to leaked reports that Obama would raise the issue of human rights abuses when
he met Duterte on the margins of the East Asia summit in Laos.
Let us put aside several issues the
outburst raises. Let’s focus on just one: however acid his tongue, would
Duterte have had the temerity to employ such floral language against the
President of the United States of America in its Sole Super Power moment after
the collapse of the Soviet Union right upto the 2008 financial crisis? Only
when the centre cannot hold, in Yeats’s framework, do things fall apart.
That the Chinese did not lay out the red
carpet for the Air Force One and now Duterte taking liberties are only the
latest pinpricks. Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu rapped Vice President Jo Biden on
the knuckles on the issue of Jewish settlements. He sailed above Obama’s head
to address the US Congress.
The challenge is not always to Obama but
to American supremacy. In other words, a new multipolar world order is
struggling to stabilize itself.
In this process, the “establishment”, which
spells status quo, has become a dirty word. Worldwide, people find themselves
increasingly pitted against Establishments, composed of multinationals,
powerful Corporates, Banks, Intelligence Agencies, Military-Industrial complex,
Media Empires, big and small and, ofcourse, crony capitalism.
Even the American Party System,
stonewalled the people. A movement of the Right, the Tea Party and one of the
Left, Occupy Wall Street, produced Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders as their respective
Presidential hopefuls. The popular surge for Bernie Sanders was unnerving. It was
checked by the Democratic Party Establishment citing 1962 rules about Super
delegates. The rule book was thrown at the surging Sanders to stop him in his
tracks. By this one act the establishment had pushed the electoral discourse to
the right of centre.
Never mind that Hillary Clinton herself
admits to a “trust deficit” with voters, that terms like “untrustworthy” and “unreliable”
have been used by her own party colleagues, but she has a priceless asset. She
is the Establishment.
Even though Donald Trump defeated 16
Republican rivals on the way to the nomination, he still suffers from a
handicap: he is anti establishment. When he had pummeled the very citadel of
Republican establishment, the Bush family’s great hope, Jeb Bush, the former
President’s wife, Laura Bush, quite spontaneously exclaimed: Lets support
Hillary. Little wonder, Hillary’s campaign aircraft has “Stronger Together” inscribed
in bold letters, which invites Republican and Democratic establishments to join
hands in supporting her. Such stalwarts of the exclusive Republican club as
James Baker, George Schultz, Henry Kissinger are counting their worry beads,
hoping that Hillary would win. For the first time in 75 years, Dallas News has
endorsed a Democratic candidate.
Whatever the outcome, the irony is that
come November 8, and Americans will have a President they can’t look upto.
Electoral democracies everywhere are
confronting the same dilemma: People versus Establishment.
In Britain, Blairites have joined hands
with the Conservatives against the left leaning Jeremy Corbyn who is likely to
win the Labour leadership again this month. Nicolas Sarkozy, right wing
Republican, and Francois Hollande, centre Socialists, joined hands to block
ultra right wing Marine Le Pen.
It is in this context that the spectacle
of AAP versus the Rest should be seen – even as the Indian political scene
unfolds and unravels at the same time.
The 24X7 media assault on Arvind
Kejriwal started a long time ago. It is now in the realm of reckless
propaganda. It is ofcourse terrible that out of the six AAP Ministers, three
have had to be sacked. The story deserves to be highlighted, placed before
panels for sober discussion.
That is not what is happening. The
material has been transformed into a chant, a continuous propaganda reel which
grows more shrill as elections in Punjab draw near.
Arvind Kejriwal’s AAP rules a mere Union
Territory. Why then is the BJP government, Congress, the left parties, media
having such convulsions at the prospect of AAP expanding into Punjab?
A wag, who is a known AAP sympathizer,
was heard humming this verse the other day:
“Logon ki mohabbat ko, patthar yeh
samajhtay hain
Kyon itne pareshaan hain sheeshe ke
makaan wale?”
“Why do they perceive people’s support
as stones to be pelted at them?
Why are occupants of glass houses so
nervous?”
Because in the Indian context the AAP
represents the people’s desire to break out of the establishment strait jacket.
The unending skirmishes between the Lt.
Governor and Kejriwal on appointments, postings, role of the police are all a
clear effort to demoralize the Delhi government. In this effort the media is in
cahoots with big business supporting Modi. The media’s pied piper after all is
Big Business. It is all building up to a crescendo, a loud clashing of the
cymbals in Punjab. Kejriwal will have to survive an ordeal by fire. Every day
the media, at the disposal of its czars, will predict his political demise. If
he comes through, body and soul intact, the Punjab electorate will judge the
David and Goliath contest in February. We all know who won that Biblical
battle.
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