Zaheer Zaidi for BeyondHeadlines
Who is Aam Aadmi? – A bewilderment of both BJP & Congress! I have my own opinion: “A person who does not behave/act as a Khas Aadmi is an Aam Aadmi.” Or a person not possessed by 3Ps (Pride, Power & Paisa) is an Aam Aadmi. I am quoting a famous couplet to explain my point of view.
“Ek he suf me khare ho gaye Mahmood o Ayaz,
Na koi bunda raha na koi banda nawaz.”
Even an emperor has to follow Pesh Imam (leader of the prayer) like others, five times a day for his prayers. He has to shed his “Superiority Complex”. Otherwise his prayers will not be accepted by Allah Almighty. Duty of an Aam Aadmi is to worship the creator and serve the creature. Superiority complex is zulm (crime) in Islam. My advice to the leaders of every political party is to make themselves Aam Aadmi and then expect to regain the confidence of Aam Aadmi.
Kejriwal did a Gandhi and won hands down through the hearts of common people. The victory of AAP is actually a victory of the ideology which Gandhi practiced and propagated selflessly, being always accessible to the common man. Playing the pawn in the political chess for over 60 years, Aam Aadmi was desperately looking for an alternative to the present political parties which only profess hollow manifesto to entice and allure the people but after having won, focus on filling their coffers and/or implementing their hidden agenda.
Congress has become a party of elites, inaccessible to common man and BJP smacks of communal hatred. Gandhiji opened doors for every Indian irrespective of caste creed and gender, to make his freedom movement an effective Jan Andolan. Congress shut these doors. Even Congress MLAs are not available to listen and redress grievances of Aam Aadmi. BJP is carrying on with the legacy of Savarkar, Hegdewar, Golwakar, Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, who supported partition to keep Muslim away from power and to render them class citizen. Advani used to crush Muslim under wheels of his Rath whereas as Modi is being supported because he issued OGL (Open General License) to eradicate the Muslims (not the poverty!). Common man, beset with spiraling prices of commodities and the penultimate victim of mega scams and high level corruption, is conspicuous by his absence in both covert and overt agenda of these two giants (Congress and BJP).
Time was ripe for Gandhi to be born again, now in the garb of Kejriwal. So long as he (Kejriwal) walks on the footsteps of Gandhiji , he would be supported by the Aam Aadmi but whenever he deviates from his path (the ideology), he would become another Rahul or Modi. Let me reiterate that Kejriwal has not won. It is the victory of an ideology which he borrowed from Gandhiji and defeated the stalwarts like Smt. Sheila Dixit and Prem Singh the only MLA who remained un-defeated for last 40 years; but this time by an unknown candidate. Let us see if success of AAP does not go into the heads of their leaders.
AAP is gaining popularity due to its issues, and not for the personality. While Modi brand ambassador of BJP is spending thousands of crores to project his image, organizing rallies in every nook and corner of the nation. Who is paying for it and why? It is a matter to be probed. Congress is over 100 year old party which is ruling the country for more than 50 years. AAP is a newly born baby. Mr. Kejriwal has hardly visited any other State; Yet, as per Times of India survey of 8 cities, vote share of AAP would be 44% in 2014 election, or may be more depending on the candidate.
Congress and BJP are leader based parties unlike CPM which is a issue-based party working on grass root (Aam Aadmi). But down fall of CPM in West Bengal was due to high level of corruption in party. If AAP learns a lesson from this and refrains from 3Ps (Pride, Power & Paisa), it would be embraced by the Aam Aadmi.
