New Delhi: The December 16 gangrape was a turning point for Delhi's polity. The anger and frustration of the common man, pent up for years, found a reason for outpour.
The street protests that took place across the country were a wake up call for the powers to be. They were jolted into reality, woken from their slumber and forced to act or at least amend and reform the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act 2013 but the incident also gave people a hope, a hope that they had the power to change.
And change they did. In the Delhi Assembly elections 2013 the citizens voted for change. Congress was decimated in its own turf losing all 10 assembly seats in the New Delhi Lok Sabha constituency. Seven of those were swept by the 'jhadoo' (Aam Aadmi Party's election symbol broom) and the political debutante Arvind Kejriwal got rechristened as the giant slayer.
The AAP came with a slew of promises but unfortunately their captain walked out of the Vidhan Sabha within 49 days. Many voters felt cheated.
Now its time to vote again, this time for Lok Sabha. I went back to New Delhi to gauge the mood of the voter. Not many know that government employees form a sizable chunk of the New Delhi voter. The numbers were more before the delimitation in 2008 but even now with areas like RK Puram, Delhi Cantt and New Delhi dominated by the quintessential sarkari babus, they have a significant vote share.
This is a community that is infamous for being corrupt. And yet they voted for a party that promised to clean the system of corruption. Now these beetle nut chewing, Bajaj Chetak riding men who still wear a sport shoe with a formal shirt and trouser were talking to me about the issues that concern them.
"Corruption has to go out and so does the VIP culture. We have been stereotyped (guilty) people walk into our offices and ask how much will you take? There is also pressure from top. Price rise is the biggest issue. How much is enough? Our salaries don't increase but everything else is becoming costlier, our standard of living has been deteriorating consistently and no one seems to care. We want a stable government, someone who has the might and will to stay. Someone who will not run away when political rivals play games. We want a strong man to govern the nation," they say. Have you made up your mind, I ask. Yes, We have!
But do the issues of the common man matter to the urban elite? I caught up with some young voters at Khan Market and found that the rich also wanted to be treated at par with the aam admi, at least when it comes to poll issues.
"Corruption, price rise are all issues that can be solved by good governance. We want a party that caters to all classes alike," they say. Which of these thought will echo on the 10th of April?
The battle in New Delhi is between Congress incumbent MP Ajay Maken, BJP's Meenakshi Lekhi and AAP's Ashish Khetan. Each one more confident of victory than the other. On their road shows and padyatras you get a feeling of blissful oblivion. But the sense I got was that if Congress has any chance to win even a single seat in New Delhi, Ajay Maken will be the front runner.
My next destination is South Delhi. Ramesh Kumar from Congress, BJP's Ramesh Bidhuri and AAP's Col Devender Sehrawat are fighting for this constituency which has a relatively unknown story. What comes to your mind when you think South Delhi? Posh? Well contrary to popular perception, the South Delhi Lok Sabha constituency has a majority of rural population. It consists of slums, resettlement colonies and villages dominated by farmers. Farmers whose lands were acquired by the government to carve out today's posh areas like Vasant Kunj and Saket.
I went to one such village named Fatehpur Beri and from the moment I lay step onto their soil I knew this is a Congress stronghold. The village elders while smoking their hookas told me how Sajjan Kumar had done a lot for them (his brother Ramesh Kumar is the Congress candidate and incumbent MP of South Delhi). "He built roads, helped save their lands from encroachment and understood the caste dynamics well." They said Kumar never shook hands with the upper caste Brahmins, "He always touched our feet." The fact that he was an accused in the anti-Sikh riots and that the Congress has been burdened with several corruption cases ranging from the 2G to the coal scam meant nothing to them. "We are uneducated farmers, we don't care about these riots of the past and what corruption? There is no corruption for us. Clearly the effects of social reform and modern liberalization were a rare sight here.
But that wasn't the case at my next destination. In fact it was quite the contrary. Vasant Kunj, is the place that the urban educated class in South Delhi chooses to call home. I met up with several families here to find a strong Modi wave. From the grand dad who wanted a strong PM, to the young professional who was impressed by the Gujarat he saw during his work tours, to the college going girls and boys who seemed to be convinced that Modi stood for development.
I did meet an AAP supporter. She was 14 years old and said she truly believed that Arvind Kejriwal was the right choice and she connected with AAP's ideology but if she could, she would press the NOTA button. No one is worth my vote she said.
I hope in the next 4 years she too has a choice and finds a party worth her while. Whatever the reasons may be and whether these people had a holistic view or not, a convinced voter is the trump card for any political outfit. Make up your mind. Don't waste your power.
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