Delhi deserves to be a world-class city Leave aside Kejriwal

Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party was delivered a severe jolt in Delhi MCD elections last week, and most importantly, the party lost in the areas of its prominent leaders including Manish Sisodia and in the constituencies of other senior AAP ministers. Many AAP candidates lost their deposit at several seats. Other regional parties, which tried their luck in the national capital, like Nitish Kumar’s JD(U), Mayawati’s BSP, Udhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena  and Sharad Pawar’s NCP, also had to face a humiliating defeat. The grand old party Congress got its well-deserved third place in the election results, and thereby Ajay Maken submitted his resignation by taking the moral responsibility. Although the Congress increased its vote percentage this time, its number went down to 30 from the last time, which was 77, whereas the BJP increased its tally from 138 to 181. There was a time when the grand old Congress used to run a slogan: Indira is India and India is Indira. But now, the time has changed for the Congress. The principal Opposition party is literally shrinking with leaders deserting the party under the stewardship of Rahul Gandhi, which resulted in scattered leaders and massive internal squabbling both at the national and regional levels. The first family of the Congress party has failed to shape the grand old party. Now the time has come for the Congress to shed the dynastic politics and infuse in the party young bloods from outside the Nehru-Gandhi family to save itself. The nation needs a strong Opposition party to keep a check and guide the strong, capable and visionary Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Many a time, Rahul Gandhi behaves like a joker in front of Modi with no sense of political understanding, leadership quality and integrity. Even after crushing defeat in Uttar Pradesh, the Congress seems to have learnt no lesson, and thus, could not take any political measures. It appears time is not far when Narendra Modi’s slogan ‘Congress Mukt Bharat’ would be materialising into a reality in Indian politics. From Kashmir to Kanyakumari, wherever there is an election, the Congress is losing its ground; its workers are losing faith in the party, and most importantly, the Congress has failed to reorganise its mould and social fabric. Modi successfully made a paradigm shift in BJP’s strategy to attract the social base of India, which had earlier been adhered to Congress for years. And when the Congress slowly lost different states for not fulfilling the regional aspirations, then many regional parties like BJD, DMK, AIADMK, TMC, NCP, RJD, JD(U) and AAP came into being and managed to win the heart of the local people in different states. But now, Modi and Amit Shah, with their strong political strategy, have successfully replaced the Congress and are now demolishing the regional parties like the BJD in Odisha, DMK and AIADMK in Tamil Nadu, TMC in West Bengal and AAP in Delhi. Modi’s political outlook, popularity, vision and commitment to the nation and good governance have created havoc among the political parties in India. The Modi factor has become a major heart-burn for the political parties, and despite several attempts, the scattered Third Front leaders could not be united to chart out a course against the BJP.

In MCD, although the BJP had already been ruling it for last 10 years, it failed badly to act in accordance with the Modi-style of development initiatives, especially to fulfil the Swachh Bharat Mission. After assuming the office of Prime Ministership, Modi himself had started his Swachh Bharat Mission from Valmiki Temple, Delhi, with much pomp and ceremony, and announced to make Delhi a world-class city. The message was loud and clear to the Delhi BJP leaders and to the people of Delhi, but the fact remains that no initiative was taken by the MCD to realise this dream of Modi. Now the national capital does not fall in the category to be called even a decent city. There are many cities in India now like Nagpur, Bhubaneswar, Gandhi Nagar, Surat,  which are cleaner, greener and safer than Delhi. In the streets of Delhi, chain-snatching, car thefts, road accidents by SUV cars, mauling of school children by cars and buses and murders of old age people have become a normal thing. Last week, one of my friends’ 25-year old-son was looted by criminals at gunpoint with all his gold jewelleries he was wearing. In fact, Delhi has become really an unsafe place and the law and order situation needs a proper revamp, whoever may be responsible for this deteriorating condition. Now Delhiites have again reposed their faith in the BJP in the name of Narendra Modi. So, now flimsy excuses and blame-game exercises will not be acceptable to Delhi. For, Delhi deserves to be a world-class city and it would be to the credit of Modi again to showcase the national capital to the foreign dignitaries and to the investors of Make in India as a world-class city.

Deepak Kumar Rath