I am sure today’s newspapers in India and parts of the world
have printed your name, praising you as a hero. I just want to understand more
about you. I have been a great fan of Rajnikant. For me, He is next to God. I
still believe he can challenge and outdo all laws of Newton. He is called Superstar,
in fact The Superstar. When I was in school, I wanted to be either Rajni
or APJ. I had neither the charm of Rajni nor the extraordinary vision like APJ.
I remained a common man.
Few years ago, the nation was shaken by a name called Anna
Hazare. The news channels said there is a man supporting him called Arvind
Kejriwal. That’s how I came to know about your name. I started to imagine you
as the ‘Robin’ of the ‘Batman’. I had (yea, its past tense) enormous confidence
in Annaji. The anti-corruption crusader, selfless, visionary, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri awardee, common man tried honestly to do good for the nation.
Those who were sleeping and had lost confidence in this nation started to see a
glimmering hope. Kisan Baburao Hazareji could not succeed. I will not
say that he failed but the system of dirty politics forced him to fail and
hence a great hope was extinguished.
Annaji was not ready to get into politics. But gone are the
Gandhian days of 19th century when there was a possibility (I
personally don’t believe this) of winning a battle via non-violence, peace,
dialogue etc. A system had to be formed to outdo the corrupt system. Arvind
Kejriwal, you split from Annaji’s company, started a political party. When I
heard this, I laughed. Digvijay Singh and Sheila Dixit would have literally laughed
out loud (LOL or LMAO or RFLO etc.) I had no confidence in you Arvind. You are
a common man, a small fish in the ocean full of giant whales.
You are (were) a civil service personnel, so, no doubt you
would be smart. You are young, especially in politics you are not even a
toddler may be an embryo or anything younger. You wanted to fight election?
With a party that is more than 100 years old and ruling (ruining) Delhi for 15
years without break? You must be crazy. When I get crazy ideas, my wife brings
me back to reality. She says, Sudheer, get real, be practical. I am sure your
wife told you this. How did you convince your wife? I don’t get it. If you start giving tuitions
on this topic, you can run world’s largest university. I will join too, I can
even pre-book seats.
Fine, you formed a party. What is your credibility? What is
your USP? Why should I vote for you? What is the guarantee that my vote is not
wasted? I was reading about you in the media every day. I started to get more
confidence in you as more and more people started to defeat you. I have read
somewhere that when you have lot of enemies, it’s an indicator that you are
excelling.
I don’t want to record here how you were ill-treated. I was
surprised that you were still alive. Do you have a Z security? Heck no. How
dare you go in public? I mean, how did you cheat death? A car hitting you when
you are going on road? Yaar Arvind, don’t you like your life? Are you not
scared to die like Santosh Koli? There was bomb planted even at Modi’s rally. How
did you even survive till election?
You were beaten up, bashed black and blue, yet you woke up
every single time. The ‘caged parrot’ was of no use to hold you back because
your whole ideology was on transparency and against corruption. Then the
defamation, image-tarnishing attempts were done. Fake CDs were circulated;
sting operation was done by paid media. Your workers were beaten up. You stood
up again, stronger than before. How did you manage this? Don’t you feel the pain?
Please tell me what you eat every day.
You asked for donation to run a movement. I knew from heart
that you were not asking money for Aam Aadmi Party but for the beginning to end
a system. I had no confidence in you to give you money. I felt why should donating
money to AAP is betting on a lame horse. I can buy myself a new mobile phone
than giving you money. Still, I took risk. I learned people were leaving jobs
to join this movement. I knew few such people personally. My friends, from top
B-schools are your activists. What do they get from you? They don’t get paid by
you. They can spend the same time for thinking about their career, their
start-ups, about a girl or at least drinking at home. But, the fire was
spreading fast. The belief of AAP supports were growing by the day. I still
fail to understand what held the ends so tight? Not even one person lost faith
in this movement. I summoned my courage and donated money to you. (Well, don’t think
I paid you in lacks). I decided not to touch liquor for two months and decided
to divert my ‘reserved fund’ to AAP. I paid just 4250 Rs.
Theek hai! -
Manmohan Singh, 2013.
(If I start writing more about you, I will not be able to
proof read for spelling errors. So, I want to stop almost here)
Now the election is over. Media says you are a hero and you
say you are a common man! That’s very contrary.
After election, you were seen as a king maker. But you have
turned out to be a king. Your efforts are appreciated by everyone, including
your rivals. In school I had read “Satyameva Jayate”. My mom used to say the ‘Kalki’ avatar of
Vishnu Bhagwan is due. He will come to slain evils. Am I too early to see a
Kalki in you? Today, you have given us a hope for a better future. Unfortunately,
during my youth, the corruption couldn't be tackled. I am hopeful our next
generation will not regret to be born in India. I hope they don’t hate to be
called an Indian. I believe, you and your team can make this possible.
I want to conclude my writing here. If you are wondering why
I mentioned about Rajnikant in the beginning, I want to disclose here. I see a
hero in you. I see a real hero in you. I couldn't be Rajnikant or APJ. But I want
my son or daughter to be one like you, a hero!
Today common man has become a Hero!
