Delhi Musings: Kejriwal's new-found love for PUSA bio-decomposer

Come November and Dilliwalhas will be facing high pollution in AQI (Air Quality Index) due to stubble burning in states of Punjab and Haryana. But AK has started to sing a new tune already.

Suddenly farmers are not to be blamed for stubble burning but it is the state governments that are now responsible. The reader of this column is advised not to go overboard and speculate on the motives for the support the ongoing farmers agitation has received from Delhi government.

Delhi was gifted AK in the beginning of 2015. And for the first time we had a Chief Minister who would threaten to sit on dharna in his own state. Soon AK realised that winning elections was one thing and governance was a completely different ball game - something that even a more accomplished campaigner on Lok Kalyan Marg is still struggling with.

It also dawned on AK that he had to unlearn a lot and shed a lot of his old possessions to be successful in public life. So off went his muffler, his Wagon R, the Yogendras, the Bhushans, the Ashutoshs and the Kumars. The new, rehashed AK went on to win yet another election in Delhi in 2020.

AK’s and his party’s ambitions have now grown to an extent that they feel they can capture power in smaller states such as Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa and Himachal Pradesh. Punjab goes to polls in February of 2022 and AAP is pinning its hopes on the border state to increase its footprint beyond Delhi.

The national convenor of the Aam Aadmi Party is now in love with the PUSA bio-decomposer which, as per him, when sprayed on the farms decomposes the stubble. Thus, it is not that you learn electoral manoeuvring in Entire Political Science alone but you can also master such tricks while training to be a mechanical engineer. IIT-JEE qualifiers – you have another career opportunity that’s opened up.

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While on shamelessness, Delhi has nothing to beat the ill-conceived Central Vista Project. The project’s chief architect, Bimal Patel, recently made a statement that most people won’t even notice the change to the Central Vista. The question, therefore, one wants to ask is why then did the government go ahead and pull down so many trees and demolished some pretty buildings? Why is it sinking Rs 20,000 crores in this project?

One reason could be that the PM’s residence and office will come closer. But if that happens will Lok Kalyan Marg go back to be called as Race Course Road? At least Race Course was more appropriate a name since horse-trading was the hall-mark of all that happened there till the Bengal politicians started their ghar vapsi (returning home)!

No other city administration loves its filth as much as Delhi does. How else does one explain the hike in charges for giving permission to film units shooting at Ghzaipur landfill?

While a film unit has to shell out Rs 75,000 per day to shoot anywhere in Delhi, for this mountain of filth at Ghazipur - the East Delhi Municipal Corporation is now demanding Rs two lakhs per day. And that’s because of the large number of requests coming in from film folks to shoot there. Trust our municipalities to exploit a situation for which they need to be ashamed of. Yeh Dilli hai mere yaar!