Raising a toast to the : Broom The new buzz in the country
- Sangai Express Editorial :: December 13 , 2013 -

Interesting it is.

The buzz is not about the Congress getting a sound beating in three of the five States that went to polls or the NaMo wave creating ripples but is about the Broom, a symbolic symbol to sweep away the dirt and grime that has come to define politics in India.

Sure it is only Delhi Legislative Assembly at the moment, but in capturing 28 seats in the 70 member House, the Aam Aadmi Party has certainly given the people of the country a reason to rejoice.

After Bofors, perhaps this is the first time that a political party, that too a rookie, has been able to take the issue of corruption to the people and make it count and this augurs well for the country.

Impressive debut but there is the need to look beyond the figure of 28 and study how a one year old political party managed to steal the thunder from not only the Congress but also the BJP.

Sure the BJP is the single largest party in the Delhi Assembly with 32 seats, but it is not this figure which has impressed the people, but the spectacular debut of the Aam Aadmi Party.

Whether the AAP manages to capitalise on this and make some difference in the upcoming Lok Sabha election lies in the realm of speculation, at the moment, but a significant statement has already been delivered.

That is, the people are no longer ready to tolerate the shenanigans of the political parties, which have always reduced the issue of corruption to the level of charges and counter charges.

It may be NaMo versus Rahul Gandhi or the BJP versus the Congress but at the moment, the unseeming Arvind Kejriwal has managed to steal the thunder from them and there should be no argument over this.

Whether the AAP will be able to spread its wings beyond Delhi and make an impact in other States remains to be seen, but it is important for the leadership of the party not to get lost in the euphoria that has been kicked up.

Just how important it is to look beyond the figure of 28 has been demonstrated by the survey conducted by the ABP News-IPSOS, wherein over 60 percent of those interviewed wanted an AAP Government in Delhi.

To be sure this was a post poll survey, with the BJP already emerging as the single largest party, but the important point to note is that this finding has come amid the deadlock over the Government formation in Delhi, with both the AAP and the BJP making it clear that they want a a fresh poll to get a clear verdict from the people.

Delhiites have shown the way.

They have more than made it clear that corruption figures very high on their list of priorities and are sick of the vote bank politics, caste based politics, the debate over secularism and other issues which have been flogged to death by the other major political parties like the BJP and the Congress as well as regional political parties which have a presence in States like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Tamil Nadu etc.

Perhaps a lesson that ought to be learned by the people of Manipur, where everyone talks about corruption, curse it and damn it, yet have always failed to make it the central issue in any of the election held ever since Manipur attained Statehood in 1972.

As repeated earlier, no political party in Manipur has been voted to power on the issue of corruption and no political party has been voted out of power on this issue.

At the micro level, no candidate has been booted out on the issue of corruption either. The candid admission of Chief Secretary PC Lawmkunga during an exclusive interaction with The Sangai Express some days back, that there is widespread corruption amongst the bureaucrats should be an indicator of how corruption as a culture has received political patronage down the years.

The point is, whether the AAP manages to make inroads into Manipur or not, corruption as an issue should be taken up by the public.

It is also important to keep in mind that political parties can be given the boot, but not the bureaucrats, for they do not have to come to the people for their endorsement.

This is where the admission of the Chief Secretary becomes all that more chilling and frightening.