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.