Jan Lokpal - The Public Ombudsman

It has been quite a week for many in the country. The anti-graft bill or the Lokpal Bill was finally passed in both the houses of the Parliament. Although the bill is not the "originally proposed" Jan-Lokpal Bill but nonetheless, it is an achievement for the people involved in the social movement for getting the bill into play. 

This particular bill has been the root cause for many important events that has taken place in the past two years. The movement India Against Corruption was started two years ago by Anna Hazare with the main motive to pressurise the government into getting the bill into force. It has seen the highest amount of social involvement of the public of India for the first time in support of a bill and was largely against the government.
This finally led to the movement getting ruptured and divided by Arvind Kejriwal, then an aid of Anna Hazare, who had the guts and zeal to get the thing done in a different way. It was he who gave Aam Aadmi Party its name, the curriculum and its first victory. Arvind and Anna had the same vision but on different paths. 

Then came the latest fast by Anna Hazare for the Lokpal Bill. This has been seen as not that difficult for Anna Hazare and his fellow companions as this time it witnessed the things going very easily for them. It was an easy fast and did not involve any disputes. It started very smooth and got over in the same pace. The difference this time was the presence of an already convinced government. After having faced a shameful loss in the recent State Elections, it was time for the Congress Party to get its feet on the ground and start showing some energy. The party that had opposed the bill for the greater part of its fight had suddenly become its biggest supporter. This was definitely done to portray the people of India that they were against corruption and that they should be made victorious once again. 

The fate of the bill is a modified bill and this can take effect by the mid-2014 as a law. Anna Hazare claims that the law might reduce the corruption by 40%. Lets pray for the best of this country.

State-Elections 2013

The recent state elections concluded this fall with the counting of votes done on 8th of December(9th for Mizoram) proved meritorious for BJP. The states Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh have clearly voted BJP into power with Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh providing giant leaps to the RSS-backed party. The city-state Delhi, however, has a different story to tell. The anti-corruption activist launched party, Aam Aadmi Party, has proved to be the real victor in Delhi despite BJP having won the elections. Now the biggest question that barges on 'India Gate' is "Who will form the government?" with both BJP and AAP willing to sit in the opposition.

It all started with the IAC(India Against Corruption) movement when an anti-congress rift was invoked in the country. People were already pissed over Congress for their poor performance and the ever increasing corruption in the form of scams which got more frequent than Govinda's movies in the 1990s. The movement got a distributary named Aam Aadmi Party, headed by a leader of the movement Arvind Kejriwal. Soon after the split from IAC, Aam Aadmi Party came up to be an alternative for people who were pissed with Congress. In a couple of months, AAP challenged all the conventional methods of Politics and incorporated candidates with clean backgrounds. The rules set up were modest and were backed by the principle "Everyone is equal in front of the Law". It was amazing for people to actually find a person/leader fighting for the small fusses that the Delhiites have always thought to fight for but couldn't get the correct person to approach. The increasing electricity bill was one of the major problem that we had in Delhi and this caught the party's attention and they tried to bring about a change from outside. They went against the govt and hance, were viewed as angel. On the other hand, BJP had their 'Brahmastra' ripened from Gujarat and taking it's development model across India and soon his popularity knew no bounds. The more he grew on the global scale, the more was Congress belittled in the eyes of Indian youth. Modi's strong orator skills always had that magic which could inspire anyone from a pauper to a millionaire.

These two motions multiplied the anti-Congress sentiment in people's minds and hence we viewed the recent elections as Delhi losing seats in almost all the elections except Mizoram where BJP has no penetration.

I view the victory of BJP in Delhi as somewhat uncalled for. BJP virtually has no support from the youth and the educated Delhiites as compared to that of AAP. The sole reason for their victory is the lack of faith in the voter's mind as to whether their vote would go wasted. AAP followers are big-time Congress haters. The main motive of the 2013 Delhi elections was to show Congress that they are no more needed here. The AAP supporters thought that the number of people voting for AAP would be very less and hence their vote might go wasted. Moreover, their main motive would still be served if BJP is made to win. With an added benefit from Modi's popularity and the appointment of a clean person, Dr. Harshavardhan as Delhi BJP's CM candidate turned out to be a driving force for all the votes they bagged this Winter.

I would say that Congress would have got a fourth term and BJP would have lost again, had AAP not come to play in this elections. Now all depends on AAP as to whether they will form the government or is re-election unavoidable. But one thing is for sure. If re-election takes place in Delhi, no power can stop AAP from coming victorious this time.