On February 14, 2015, when Arvind Kejriwal took charge as Delhi CM and vowed to provide an unprecedented honest governance, few must have anticipated that his fellow AAP legislators would have so many skeletons to embarrass him. Already three ministers have been expelled: one for forgery, another one for bribery and the latest one, Sandeep Kumar (ironically, the Minister for Child & Women Development) for adultery and rape allegations! For Kejriwal`s growing legion of admirers and AAP supporters, this could indeed be a very painful disappointment. A painful disappointment because it is believed that a man like him with sincere bona fide intentions, intelligence, capability and more importantly the all consuming passion for public service, crops up only once in many decades. The lingering fear is that if Kejriwal fails in his avowed mission of cleaning our notoriously corrupt system, nobody will even dare to take on this disease in the near future.
What actually could be the reason for so many dubious characters sneaking into the fold of a Political Party whose USP is honesty and that too in Delhi; AAP`s home ground? For one, no Political Party (specially a new party like AAP) can afford to shut its door on anyone, but care should have been taken to ensure that shady characters don’t get to assume important position and corner Party tickets. Is Arvind Kejriwal a man in haste?
Never the less, Kejriwal`s admirers and supporters can draw strength from the fact that he does not seem to be the kind of man to persist with mistakes… in fact, Kejriwal has quickly turned mistakes into lessons in the past to emerge stronger – the hallmark of every great man! We need to also realise that cleaning the system is neither a one-man nor a one-time job, but a gradual continuous day to day process which can be accomplished only with the active participation of the people. The positive thing here is that AAP has been pretty pro-active in taking strong corrective measures to clean up its house every time dirt has surfaced and has shown enough character and resilience in such crisis.
The bitter Delhi experience is a perfect case study and holds a great lesson for Goa. Candidates chosen by AAP need to be of impeachable integrity. After short listing half a dozen candidates for each constituency, they should be put up for minute public scrutiny. Objections should be invited from the public a la marriage banns that are read out in the Church on Sundays before a church marriage is solemnised. Without doubt, zeroing down on creditable and worthy candidates is going to be a very tall order in a country where politics is still considered a dirty game and honest people are still reluctant to contest elections. AAP may have to dismount its moral high horse and have a good look at good people beyond AAP and even in other political dispensations.
The people of Goa will stand together with AAP only if the Party comes up with candidates good enough to match their high expectations. In fact, AAP would be better off contesting in fewer constituencies if enough worthy candidates don’t materialise rather than fielding opportunistic samples.
