Short answer: I do
Essay type answer: Less than a month since the Aam Aadmi Party came to power and they have already made a few enemies. Some call them socialist, some call them communist, some call them anarchist. The TV people amazingly manage to find 6 “panel members” everyday who either like or hate what the AAP has done in the 24 hours before. There are strong points of views everywhere on everything that is being done without people actually even bothering to connect with the actual people on the ground.
The latest example is the “racist attack on foreigners without a warrant” that everyone has taken off on. Amid the breast beating and the hand wringing and the allegations by the African nationals, no one has bothered to listen to the people who actually live in Khirki. Nancy George, the head of the residents welfare association there has gone on record stating that the area had become a den of drugs and prostitution over the last 5 years and repeated complaints to the police and authorities had made no difference. 60% of the African nationals deported from Delhi in the last two years due to crime were from this one area alone. Any local who protested was threatened and bullied by this gang who clearly enjoyed the patronage of the local police. In one night of ‘vigilantism’, the area has now been cleaned up (if only temporarily). And while the language used during the incident might have been indecorous and not worthy of national TV, I whole-heartedly support it. If someone cleans up the things that happen brazenly in our country, I am all for it. When the system is openly acknowledged to be broken, the solution cannot be found within the system.
There are people comparing this incident to the attacks on pub-goers in Mangalore by the Ram Sene. Take a deep breath and think about the situation and you will realise that the comparison is absurd. I do not even need to explain that one.
In the last 3 weeks, Arvind Kejriwal has probably tried more new things than had been tried in a decade prior. I think it is clear that he has no magic bullet and no magic mantra. What he does have however, is the conviction that the problem is solvable and that the solution will involve activating the people. And he is willing to try a whole bunch of different things and keep iterating till he finds the solution. Even if he appears like a fool in the interim. It is an admirable conviction and I support him.
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(This piece is also available here)
About Kenneth Serrao
Kenneth Serrao has been many things – an Indian army kid, an engineer from NITK,an MBA from IIM-A, a consultant in the United States,South Korea and Malaysia, a professional stock trader in Dubai, a senior marketing professional in India and finally an enterpreneur in India. Basically, Kenneth Serrao has no idea what to do with his life. However, to quote Baz Luhrmann ….Some of the most interesting 40 year olds I know still don’t know what they want to do with their lives….. Ken still has 3 years more to waste before he turns into an interesting 40 year old
He writes on kennethserrao.wordpress.com
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