2014, Aug 7th.
The nation has given it's verdict in the grandest Dance of Democracy - the elections 2014. What a culmination has it been!!!!! A fitting tribute to the two year build up leading towards the largest electoral franchise in modern history!!!!
Around two years ago, around the same time - Anna Hazare called off his fast and his team members announced that they would provide a political alternative to the nation. This received a mixed reaction from the civic society. People were just used to seeing Anna sitting on fasts at the drop of his cap!!!! It made for good outings for Delhiites, the hawkers made a quick buck, the shikanji vendors made a breezy profit, foreign tourists used to buy a day pass and pay for fasting at Jantar Mantar....
Within days of this announcement, some drastic developments took place. A referendum was issued and an overwhelming percent came out in favour of Team Anna creating a political party and fight elections.
Anna himself, without any insinuation or hint suddenly decided that this party would have his blessings and nothing more. He would not be involved in elections and politics. As a parting gift to his colleagues - Anna agreed to give his name to the party. Thus was formed ANNA da DAL.
The party chose COCONUT WATER as its symbol reminding the masses of the umpteen fasts that this symbol broke!!!.
Arvind Kejriwal became the party president, Prashant Bhushan became the Executive President, Kiran Bedi became the Senior President and the Chief Whip. Other renowned civic society members who joined ANNA da DAL were -
- Sri Sri Ravishankar
- Baba Ramdev
- Anupam Kher
- Mahesh Bhatt
- Shobhaa De
- Suhel Seth
- Retired Army Chief V K Singh
- Om Puri
- Yedyurappa
- and other such stalwarts
There was an overwhelming support for this cause from the public in terms of both cash and kind. Within 7 months of formation- ANNA da DAL became India's richest political party leaving behind parties like Congress which has been in existence for many decades now.
The profits from the sales off the ANNA caps (earlier known as Gandhi topi) was touted to be in line with some of the big corporate turnovers. Ditto for the bandANNAs sporting MAIN ANNA HOON. The sentence MAIN ANNA HOON was patented by Arvind Kejriwal on behalf of the nation and it's royalties from around the world is well.... HUGE!!!!!
The party procured the Jantar Mantar premises and the Ram Leela maidan from the Delhi Government for a 99 year lease after paying an astronomical sum. Each day, Baba Ramdev conducts yoga sessions at the maidans. Tickets for this shibir are nominal (around 100 INR per session) and are channeled to party funds.
The party was seen breezing through the campaign trails. This election was a big affair for the Congress. There were plans to make Baba the Raja. The advent of ANNA da DAL was a big blow for the Congress.
It was a smooth sailing for the ADD party until the final countdown to the elections. The election results came out. There was absolutely no surprises for anyone. ANNA da DAL won across all the states with an overwhelming majority. The party had not announced it's Prime Ministerial candidate till that time. Now was the moment - who would get the chair!!!!
Nobody expected this but internal bickering started off in the now-erstwhile team Anna. Arvind Kejriwal faced off with Prashant Bhushan and both had to deal with Kiran Bedi, Baba Ramdev and others. Conflicting reports started emerging in the media with each camp within the camp claiming to be the true heir to the Anna legacy and thence the true leader of the nation. By now, the rifts were quite in the open. The President of India decided to give ANNA da DAL some more time to come to a consensus on its PM candidate.
Skeletons started tumbling out of the cupboards.
- Arvind Kejriwal's brother-in-law owned the company which held the patent for MAIN ANNA HOON. There was no plan to nationalize the patent.
- The company manufacturing the Anna caps turned out to be a private trust set up for religious purposes and was tax exempt owned by the Kejriwal family. There were reports of ANNA caps being sold in black for rates as high as 700 INR per piece during the peak of political rallies.
- Prashant Bhushan was dragged into a case where the Ram Leela ground was sub let to Baba Ramdev's Yoga Shibir Sanstha for a paltry sum of 99 INR per annum. The news channels possessed documents showing the deed with PB's signature. Prashant maintained that whatever was the earnings from the ground went as party funds - Rs 99 per annum.
- Baba Ramdev was dragged into this scandal. The Government of Delhi's video records of the Yoga Shibir held at Ram Leela grounds showed hordes of crowds each day but the books told a different story. Only 40 people per day on an average visited the shibir and the counterfoil/copy of the 100 INR receipt was produced for the same. One being questioned by the media about this, Baba had responded," Yeh sab maya hai".
- Not to be left out- Kiran Bedi came into the radar for siphoning off the party funds to the tune of many crores into a movie and television production company.
All these revelations did not make a dent enough to break the party's victory but just delayed their appointment with the President of India to stake claim to form the Government.
On the 15th day post the results of the elections when the media went ballistic about the enormity of the scandals and scams involving ANNA da DAL...
Anna Hazare starts a fast unto death demanding that the new victorious party be disqualified and derecognized. The fast is held at the Red Fort. Sitting with him in the fast are Sharad Pawar, L K Advani, Sushma Swaraj, Diggy Raja... you name it and they were there. Anna even offers to relinquish his name and asks the general public to choose another one for him.
The immense political pressue forced the election commission to review the stance and fresh elections were announced.
Cost to the Country - 25000 Crore INR
Time to schedule another election - 4 months
Quantum of fraud perpetrated by ADD - 20,000 Crore
Number of teachers put on election duties - 250,000
Peace of mind quotient for Anna - Mind less.
1 comment:
Babaji, It is over. It is all over. You are like Hero, japanese soldier who surrendered after 40 years in the Phillipines jungles, thinking that the war was still on and his sargent had asked him not to ever surrender. His uniform was torn but he tried to stich it at hundreds of places, body was mostly bit by the mosquitoes, he did not rust his gun. I bet your gun has never rusted as you have never used it, you do not have many clothes on, sorry about that salvaar the police took away from you here at the Ramlila grounds, and the mosquitoes you can handle them as long as they do not bite at the right spots of picking such as in the nose, under the arms, on the eyes, in the ears and a few places below the belt, that you know where?
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