My journey from being AAPtard to being Bhakt

 

All those who are close to me and know personally, have been well aware about my political leanings, my thoughts about India, its political system and other ill-will surrounding us. They may disagree with me on various views but I am confident that they would agree on one point that I wish for a better India, a developed nation, a country which we all can be proud of.

Not so long ago, there was anti incumbency wave in India against corruption and political outfit which had been ruling India for several decades. People were fed of hearing about scams being  exposed on a daily basis during UPA regime. The people of this nation had literally given up their hopes that things could ever change. The anticorruption crusade started by Anna Hazare had taken the entire nation by surprise and a hope arose in the minds of people that even a common man has the potential to challenge and change this system. With huge frustration, sympathy wave and an indomitable will to fight & change the system, common man  hit the streets of the country. There were dharnas, demonstrations, peaceful protests , candle light march, hunger strikes and all of a sudden the air in the country was of more like the movie Rang de Basanti where a generation would awaken from their  deep slumber of ignorance.

Indians dreamt of  a nation which was corruption free, where there was no poor & hungry , where rules were followed, where there was no black money  and honesty prevailed , in other words   Ram Rajya would prevail. With these thoughts in mind, people moved out from the comforts of the home and hit the streets. It was termed as second freedom struggle. I too went to Jantar Mantar, India gate, Ramleela maidan, fighting for Janlokpal along with fellow Indians (read here )

But I never realized ,  how smartly this crusade was hijacked by Kejriwal &  team . Things took a different track when it was decided to form a political party to take on the ruling dispensation. Blinded by faith , I supported the party that was formed, even though some of the members were against this decision. I continued to support him and his party and even campaigned, donated and convinced most of my friends, colleague  &  people known to me to vote for AAP. I did all this with single hope in my mind that AAP would bring fresh lease of life in political system of this nation. They  would be the party with a difference and will show the idealism which we all had hoped for. The brute majority given to AAP in Delhi elections were a proof that people wanted to give chance and an opportunity for a welcome change, to try and experiment something new which might change the political landscape and future of this nation. There were huge promises made before election and the junta waited patiently  to see how those would  be fulfilled. But with the passage of time, the dream was shattered bit by bit and the reality dawned to us. Kejriwal & his ministers forgot they are in power and no more activists to do dharnas, instead need to  work as per the existing system using the state machinery to deliver the promises made to the people. After all , this is how the framework of the constitution has been defined and working since decades. What started as Modi bashing crossed all the limits. In politics you can fool a person once, even twice but not always. One can be anti-Modi but if you get so obsessed with hating him that you become anti-national then fingers will be raised and your intentions would be exposed. This is what exactly happened.

In 2015  when AAP was elected to power in Delhi I lacked trust in any of the existing parties; be it congress ,  BJP, SP, BSP , TMC etc. As a result when NDA won the elections in 2014 and Modi was elected as PM I did not have much faith in him too, in fact I was very skeptical about him. My opinion was mostly affected due to our biased Main Stream Media  which went overboard in doing biased  negative publicity of Modi for 2002 Godhra riots without giving him the  appreciation of  developing  Gujarat as the most prosperous state, which he deserved. I was politically immature to understand that it was only one riot under him whereas Congress had a history of riots under their reign but could influence the public perception since they had media in their pockets. People close to me tried to show me the true picture but as a  so called “AAPtard” I refused to buzz and at the most I would say “I will wait and watch how Modi performs as PM of this country”.

Since I have deep interest in the politics of the nation, I kept track of the work of both these leaders -Modi & Kejriwal. As time passed, I realized& understood  that Modi is a man of vision. He has grand plans for this nation; he is devoted to the core and extremely hard working. He is an able administrator and knows  perfectly how to utilize his  existing resources , people &  system to get the work done ( just like how we execute any project in IT with existing resources and team ). he has been working tirelessly to fix &  bring into shape the otherwise rotten & broken system.( I would not mention the various schemes, policies & its success here since its available in public domain ).

Whereas Kejriwal was always cribbing and playing blame game instead of focusing on work to be done. Initially I tried to defend and justify all the actions of Kejriwal, later I kept quiet with grim mood but finally when I saw his views for Modi’s for surgical strike & demonetization I lost the remaining sympathy for him. Agenda of Modi has been pro development and I am really impressed by the usage of technology, transparency & accountability in his governance model. He did not even shy away from taking tough decisions- be  it doing surgical strike on Pakistan or replying  to Supreme court on the issue of triple talak. Not only has  Modi improved the image of India across the globe , but he has awakened the feeling  of nationalism in Indians which was brutally punctured.

There comes  defining moments in the history  where  one decision by the government affects  generations to come by  and it came on 8^th Nov 2016, when  Demonetization was declared by none other than Narendara Modi. This move has stumped me and has won my heart. I have never seen or heard any politician so brave to take this kind of decision knowing very well that it has the potential to backfire politically if common people don’t understand the intent of this step. This bold act of him   has made it very clear that he can go to any extent for the bright future of this country.

All these actions of Modi in past 2 years have  impressed me from the core and I never realized how I became true nationalist, the term which is commonly used by opposition parties as “bhakt” . If being a nationalist , thinking about welfare of the country, working for upliftment of poor and downtrodden, reducing corruption is called as  being “Bhakt” then I am proud to be called so. I hope that people understand the long term impact of this decisive move of Modi and how the coming generations will benefit from this act.

Till that time I will continue to be a supporter for good actions of the government and a critic for the things it does wrong. Being labeled as “Bhakt” for such thought is not bad, isn’t it  ?