Faith in Ram and firecrackers!

Our man AK has come to the conclusion that no amount of good governance, building health infrastructure or investing in education will cut much ice with the voters. So, after he returned from Ayodhya, the Delhi Government built a replica of Ram Mandir. A 30-foot-high and 80-foot-wide structure came up at the Thyagaraj Stadium Complex as part of Aam Aadmi Party’s ‘Dilli Ki Diwali’ celebrations. Now, if one were to put things in the sequential order of their occurrence will one see a pattern emerging – a dangerous pattern where religion is again being blatantly embedded into the political narrative. Sadly, it is a party that promised clean and principled play in this cesspool of politics when it emerged. What this would do to AAP is anybody’s guess but one thing is for sure that all this is making Delhi BJP very tense and wary.

It must be really painful for the BJP Bhakts to see their agenda being hijacked. Even Ravana did not breach the Lakhshman Rekha, so how is AAP entering this sanctum sanctorum of BJP is something that must be bothering the saffron party. Suddenly the Aam Aadmi Party is looking like a mirror image of the BJP!

Faith & firecrackers: Not ones to give in easily, one of the city MPs from the BJP made lot of noise over firecracker ban during Diwali celebrations in Delhi. He accused AAP of bulldozing matters of faith. Bulldozing – it’s turned out to be indeed except it’s with an agenda the BJP called its own.

Whether it was such a nudge or tacit approval of the local BJP leaders – some Dilliwalahs went about bursting crackers with aplomb. Ironically, a resident of Lutyens Delhi who tried to be a messiah at COP26 UN Climate Summit at Glasgow did not utter a word about the deteriorating air quality in Delhi as a result of cracker bursting.

But then scripted speeches at international forums enacted with pedestrian histrionics mean little back home. True to form, the air quality worsened in Delhi post-Diwali but this resident escaped it all by being in the Himalayas.

An evening in Goa: Dilliwallahs have been visiting Goa as a part of what some social scientists call ‘revenge tourism’. And no, one doesn’t need to have Pegasus spyware to guess this. All one needs is to scan Dilliwallahs’ social media posts and you will see them making merry right from Querim beach to the Palolem beach.

Not to be left behind, our man AK too took a trip to Goa. And guess what did he promise there? Free electricity is simply a given wherever he goes nurturing ambition to form a government in a state. That promise had already been made earlier.

This time he promised to arrange for free pilgrimage to Ayodhya for Hindus, to Velankanni for Christians and to Ajmer Sharif for Muslims. The followers of Sai Baba were promised a free trip to Shirdi too. Wonder why he left out Jains and the Sikhs? Maybe he plans to announce free trips to Amritsar and Ranakpur in his next trip to Goa, when he is accompanied by his MP from Sangrur and his minister of health in Delhi. Dilli-wallahs are only anxious that all these freebies do not lead to higher taxes on their spirits while in Goa.

Delhi Police & Sardar Patel: Delhi Police released an advertisement in some mainline dailies remembering Sardar Patel on the occasion of his birth anniversary. That’s a great gesture but then one is compelled to think as to why is the police force doing so now? When did this tradition of a police force celebrating birth anniversaries begin? Or is this a part of a larger design to appropriate the great Sardar by the masters of Delhi Police who currently occupy the North Block?

The police force will help its own cause if instead or releasing the ad it listens to the speech given by Sardar Patel at a Delhi Police function in 1948. It can take some inspiration from there on how the force needs to conduct itself to establish the right kind of image and not rely on advertisements.

The speech is in the archives of Prasar Bharti and can even be downloaded from YouTube. Such inspiration would not just be the right tribute to the great Sardar but would also bring a great deal of joy for Dilliwallahs.

Views are personal