Amit Sinha for BeyondHeadlines
“I had three chairs in my house; one for solitude, two for friendship, three for society”, said the great British author Henry David Thoreau. But our houses needed the required space for three chair to accommodate to live upto to Henry’s intelligent quote. Isn’t it true?
It was the first weekend of the new year, the walled city draped in dense fog with a lazy start. And an interesting phenomenon was brewing in the politics of the aam admi. Arvind Kejriwal twitted that he was not going to shift into the newly renovated duplex house the administration selected for him.
It is perhaps for the first time in the history that a CM has decided his personal life to respect the sentiments of the aam admi. Simultaneously it’s for the first time that Kejriwal yielded to pressure and criticism. But the flip-flop by Kejriwal is unwarranted giving the circumstances.
Before this the media criticize him and Arvind Kejriwal sought to put the record straight on what perks he and his six Delhi ministers will be accepting and what they shall eschew. Actually it’s Arvind himself who helped expectation swollen to this level.
Chief Minister Kejriwal, who has so far operated from his residence in suburban Ghaziabad, was to move to a 5-bedroom duplex house on Bhagwan Das Road in the heart of Delhi. It might not be like the every next quite aam Delhi home either, but this proposed accommodation is not as grand as his predecessor Sheila Dikshit’s bungalow, neither it was luxurious.
Luxury means different things in different prospect. In some cases, it’s exclusivity. For others it means something that is inessential. For a student who owes a bicycle, a simple bike would be a luxury. But once he gets his degree and finds a job in a MNC he needs to reach his office punctually ant that too in a well groomed manner. Undoubtedly he need a car and it is not a luxury for him now contrasting to circumstances where even the ‘bike’ deemed fit to be called ‘luxury’ for him. There is a thin line of difference to recognize but in the mad rat race of TRP, media trailed Kejriwal mindlessly.
Considering the position Kejriwal now holds, it is required that he gets a comfortable environment to execute his work. Kejriwal is already living in a 4-room apartment in Ghaziabad. As he promoted to the highest position of the government, won’t he require one extra room and few more square feet of open space? The wall sharing next to it was another similar 5-room duplex that was to be CM’s residential office. The large house that the Delhi administration had selected was neither his dream nor a whim. But it was a need instead. The media made it an issue to keep alive in the rat race of TRP.
Kejriwal is in such a job where he needs an environment that should allow him to work hard and rest harder. A Chief Minister is surrounded by party workers, officials and visitors all times of the day and night and his residence should be capable to house all such activities. To perform efficiently and comfortably Kejriwal needed that one. He must have outright rejected the lessons of ethics by the unethical media. Indian voters (except the media) never question the proper use of resources and facilities if a government delivers up to their expectation.
It is enough that Kejriwal already shun unnecessary expenses, removed the lal battis, serpentine carcade, security, honking VIP sirens and a lot but you AAP guys are not here to please the media. Do your best and concentrate for a better and faster delivery of good governance in Delhi. Get everything you needed and perform. Mr. Kejriwal, get yourself sufficient security, better house, a better car, better system and everything you genuinely needed, but for God’s sake you and your team perform upto the expectation of aam-admi. The aam-admi has no objection you getting yourself even the biggest car and the biggest bungalow in Delhi, if you stay clean and deliver even half of your agenda. Let media perform their job, you do outperform yours.
[author image=”https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui=2&ik=80501ded99&view=att&th=14362d6c86ae3af4&attid=0.0.1&disp=emb&realattid=ii_14362d069759fcea&zw&atsh=1 ” ]Amit Sinha is a bilingual investigative journalist who was working with The Indian Express till 2010. He is working independently now, writing for many prints and portals.He can be contacted at facebook.com/indianxpress or mail him to amitkumarsinha@sify.com[/author]
