I have today finished reading the book
‘Swaraj’ written by Arvind Kejariwal who resigned from the Chief Ministership
of Delhi last evening. He remained the Chief Minster for just only 49 days.
This book was given to me by my Advocate friend Shri Radhakrishna Kumar, who is
very emotional person. Shri Kumar has been earlier an ardent supporter of
Narendra Modi and Baba Ramdev but these days he has become their bitter critic
and a passionate supporter of Arvind Kejariwal. The cover price of the Book is
although Rs. 150/- but Shri Kumar gave it to me in only Rs. 40/- He has given
this book to many other persons at the same price. This thin book of 150 and
odd page is in octavo size and printed in easy to read fonts.
Now let me come to the contents of the
book. Frankly speaking, except the passion of the writer to root out the
corruption from the society root and branch, this book has left me completely
unimpressed. I find that the ideas of the writer are the tangles of confusion.
Mahatma Gandhi was the greatest votary
of the Gram Swaraj. He wanted every village to be self-reliant. However, he was
also not able to impress upon the people about the economics of the villages.
By adopting the cottage industries you will certainly be able to provide
employment to every village, but you cannot make the viable in all manners.
Here in this book Mr. Kejarival wants to make Assemblies and Parliament
redundant by empowering and strengthening the villages and Mohalla Sabhas.
Kejariwal appears to have
disillusionment with the old form of Indian democracy. He says that the modern
democracy has not been imported from the West but it existed in ancient India,
which possibly every person would not agree. He gives the example of Vaishali
Republic of Buddha era but anybody having the rudimentary knowledge of the
history of ancient India would vouchsafe that it was absolutely different from
the present from of democracy, which is very coherent and representative one
than that of the chaotic democracy of Buddha era. Kejariwal wants to do away
with every symbolisn of the State like; the Rashtrapati Bhawan, which is spread
over in 340 acre as if the Rashtrapati Bhawan is one of the causes of the
poverty in India.
Mr. Kejariwal has suggested that untied
funds should be provided to all Gram Sabhas and Mohall Sabhas and they must
have the full freedom to spend the funds with the approval of 80% people of
that particular Sabha as to where the money should be spent? His hairbrained
idea is that local people are the better judge of the their own interests. They
know how the funds could be better utilised like; for making the arrangements
of water, schools or houses or hospitals. Nevertheless, he seems to be totally
clueless as from where the money would come or who will release the money and
how will it be generated by the Central or state governments? He does not have
even any hazy idea of the most important aspect of the economics, although he
has served as an officer of the Income Tax department.
Mr. Kejariwal lives in the utopia. He
perhaps does not know that Indian villages are steeped and divided on the lines
of castes and creeds. It is only those who belong to the dominant caste or
religion have the final say. He advocates that the Gram Sabhas should have the
blanket power and freedom to open schools, hospitals and other offices. So much
so, the appointments should be made by the Gram Sabhas. Nobody knows, wherefrom
these Gram Sabhas will get the deserving candidates for the jobs. He wants that
the judicial and police powers to be vested with the Gram Sabhas, which will be
a sure recipe for chaos and disaster. But then, you cannot help a person who
lives in the make believe world and considers that his ideas are the panacea of
for all malaises that are prevailing in the country.
He says that everybody of the village
will be told about the bad effects of the liquor and thus with the permission
of Gram Sabhas the liquor shops will be closed. He wants that equal powers
should be given to women and no doubt it is a lofty idea but how will they be
empowered, he has no solution to offer.
I have very high regards for the zeal of
Shri Kejariwal to wipe out the corruption but I am sorry to say that his tiny
book ‘Swaraj’, which is said to be the manifesto of ‘AAP’ does not provide any
solution. His book is silent on issues like; foreign relations, scientific and
technological development of the country, expansion of infra structures,
industrialisation, agricultural production, trade and commerce, military and
economics. If he thinks that only by crying hoarse and from house tops the
corruption can he eliminated, I can only wish him good luck but I do not agree
with him even a whit that such wishful ideas could be of any help.
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